Legend (TV series)

This article is about the 1995 American science fiction drama. For the Korean TV series, see The Legend (TV series). For the 2014 American series, see Legends (TV series).
Legend

Intertitle
Created by Michael Piller
Bill Dial
Starring Richard Dean Anderson
John de Lancie
Mark Adair Rios
Jarrad Paul
Composer(s) Ken Harrison
Country of origin USA
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 12
Production
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) Gekko Film Corporation
Mike and Bill Productions
Paramount Television
Release
Original network UPN
Original release April 18 – August 22, 1995 (1995-08-22)

Legend is a science fiction Western television show that ran on UPN from April 18, 1995 until August 22, 1995, with one final re-airing of the pilot on July 3, 1996. It starred Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie.

Plot

Ernest Pratt, a gambling, womanizing, cowardly, hard-drinking writer has created a dashing literary hero, Nicodemus Legend, the main character in a series of wildly imaginative dime novels set in the untamed West. Because Pratt writes the novels in the first person and has posed as Legend for their cover art, many readers believe that Pratt is Nicodemus Legend.

In the pilot episode, when Pratt learns that Nicodemus Legend has been impersonated and a warrant issued for his arrest, he travels to the scene of the incident to clear the name of his protagonist.

Pratt meets up with the impersonator, a great admirer of his tales, the eccentric European scientist Janos Bartok  a Nikola Tesla analogue who had been Thomas Edison's research partner  and his brilliant assistant Huitzilopochtli Ramos, who has taken every single course Harvard University had to offer. Bartok "borrowed" the Legend persona in order to help the townspeople of Sheridan, Colorado.

They enlist the reluctant Pratt to their cause, and show him how their scientific expertise and outlandish inventions (frequently based on ideas from Pratt's books) can bolster the impression that Pratt really is Nicodemus Legend. Bartok says:

Your celebrity has the power to give our enemies pause. My science can increase that reputation. And together, we will create the real Legend.

Suffering from writer's block, under pressure from his publishers, and inspired, in spite of himself, at the thought of doing real good, Pratt reluctantly agrees to assume the persona of his literary creation and to live as the image he created of an adventurous and heroic man. Together, they adventure throughout the West solving mysteries, capturing wrong-doers, and making scientific discoveries.

Cast

Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie as Ernest Pratt and Janos Bartok

Main characters

Recurring characters

Episode list

Ep# Title Broadcast Date Written by Directed by
1 "Birth of a Legend" April 18, 1995 Michael Piller & Bill Dial Charles Correll
2 "Mr. Pratt Goes to Sheridan" April 25, 1995 Michael Piller & Bill Dial William Gereghty
3 "Legend on his President's Secret Service" May 2, 1995 Bob Wilcox Michael Vejar
4 "Custer's Next to Last Stand" May 9, 1995 Bill Dial William Gereghty
5 "The Life, Death, and Life of Wild Bill Hickok" May 16, 1995 Peter Allan Fields Michael Caffey
6 "Knee-High Noon" May 23, 1995 Steve Stolier & Frederick Rappaport James L. Conway
7 "The Gospel According to Legend" June 12, 1995 John Considine Michael Vejar
8 "Bone of Contention" June 20, 1995 George Geiger Charles Correll
9 "Revenge of the Herd" July 4, 1995 Tim Burns Bob Balaban
10 "Fall of a Legend" July 18, 1995 Bob Shane & Ron Friedman Michael Vejar
11 "Clueless in San Francisco" July 25, 1995 Carol Caldwell & Marianne Clarkson Charles Correll
12 "Skeletons in the Closet" August 8, 1995 David Rich Steve Shaw

DVD release

On January 5, 2016, Mill Creek Entertainment released Legend- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.[2]

Legend novels

Novel[3] Plot[3]
Solitary Knight of the High Plains The character of Legend is introduced to the reading public.
Land of the Orange Sky Legend helps a school teacher lady in Colorado.
Legend and Cherokee Joe Legend takes a bad fall.
Blood on the Texas Sands Includes the quadrovelocipede.
The Chase Through the Booby-Trapped Arroyos Also includes the quadrovelocipede.
Legend and the Ghost of the Chiricahuas A novel that would worry a gunfighter.
Legend and the Massacre at Mesquite Flat Disarmed and disabled five Apaches in this book.
Double Shadows Legend helps out the Payson twins, who were accused of a crime they didn't commit. Set in Amarillo, Texas.
The Mystery of the Feathercreek Murder Legend uses forensic science to solve a murder.
When Legend Came Marching Home Legend is a Yankee cavalry hero, who was with the 5th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, coming home after the American Civil War.
Blood on the Moonlit Prairie Used a night vision device.
Legend and the Guns of Brothers Legend versus the James-Younger Gang.
Wheels Across Montana Stage Robbers rob a coach by coming up from behind.
Dry Gulch Crossing the desert.
Borderline Takes place in El Paso del Norte and features the colorful Mexican street Camino Real.
Legend's Lost Love About Clementine, Legend's first love, whom the angels took from him.
Legend Meets Frontier Laddie Legend teams up with a Collie dog.

Production

Conception and development

Legend was originally conceived as a TV movie before it was picked up as a series.[4]

Production design and filming

It was shot on location in Mescal and Tucson, Arizona from January to June, 1995.

Production staff

Broadcast history

The series was a Gekko Film Corp production in association with Bill & Mike Productions for Paramount Television, broadcast on UPN.

Twelve episodes were aired, including the 2-hour pilot episode. Despite critical praise, this program aired during UPN's first year of existence and after a change in network management, along with lower than expected ratings, the show was canceled along with almost every other program aired on the UPN lineup. TV Land aired reruns of all episodes around 1999.

Reception

Jeff Jarvis of TV Guide appreciated the show's attempt to follow up The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as another western with wry humor, but he ultimately didn't recommend it. Jarvis said that while the show is "cute" and that Anderson and de Lancie "click together", he called the show "dull" when it should be "exciting".[5] David Bianculli of the Daily News received Legend more positively. He liked the two starring actors, and said the western science-fiction format of the show "provides far more fun, and sly intelligence, than viewers might initially suspect."[6] Writing in the New York Post, John Podhoretz called Legend "a gorgeous amalgam of science fiction and old-fashioned Western," noting it was "eerily similar" to The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. He said the pilot episode was "an engaging piece of work" which was "photographed with stunning care and taste."[7]

See also

References

  1. Starlog Interview with Richard Dean Anderson. July, 1995 by Ian Spelling
  2. "Legend DVD news: Announcement for Legend - The Complete Series - TVShowsOnDVD.com".
  3. 1 2 "Legend: The Nicodemus Legend Novels".
  4. Slewinski, Christy (1995-04-18). "Anderson takes horse opera for quite a ride". NY Daily News. p. 61.
  5. Jarvis, Jeff (1995-05-20). "The Couch Critic: Legend". TV Guide: 10. It's cute, very cute. Anderson brings to Legend his relaxed charm and de Lancie his taut energy; they click together. But frankly, Legend's a bit dull-for westerns weren't meant to be cute; they were meant to be exciting.
  6. Bianculli, David (1995-04-18). "The fact is, WB's 'Legend' is inventive fun". NY Daily News. p. 61.
  7. Podhoretz, John (1995-04-18). "New network's 'Legend'-ary ambition". The New York Post. p. 86.

External links

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