The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County, is an American weird western television series created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse. It ran for 27 episodes on Fox from August 27, 1993, to May 20, 1994. Set in the American West of 1893, the series follows its title character, a Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-bounty hunter hired by a group of wealthy industrialists to track and capture outlaw John Bly and his gang. Bruce Campbell plays Brisco, who is joined by a colorful group of supporting characters, including Julius Carry as fellow bounty hunter Lord Bowler and Christian Clemenson as stick-in-the-mud lawyer Socrates Poole.
While ostensibly a Western, the series routinely includes elements of the science fiction and steampunk genres. Humor is a large part of the show; the writers attempted to keep the jokes and situations "just under over-the-top". A large number of episodes involve the Orb, a powerful device from the future. John Astin plays Professor Wickwire, an inventor who assists Brisco with anachronistic technology including diving suits, motorcycles, rockets, and airships. The search for new technology and progressive ideas, what the writers of the show called "The Coming Thing", is a central theme throughout the series.
Brisco was developed by Boam and Cuse at the request of Fox executive Bob Greenblatt. Impressed by the duo's work on the script for the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Greenblatt suggested they develop a series that bore the tone and style of vintage movie serials. The initial ideas and proposals from the show's writers were more often suited for film than television and had to be scaled down. Brisco was one of the last television shows to be filmed on the Warner Bros. Western backlot. Randy Edelman composed the distinctive theme music, which has been reused by NBC during its coverage of the 1997 World Series and the Olympic Games.
During its broadcast run, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. garnered a small but dedicated following and was well received by critics. The series earned high ratings at the beginning of its season, but later episodes failed to attract a substantial number of viewers. Fox canceled the show at the end of its first and only season. In 2006, Warner Home Video released a DVD set containing all 27 episodes. The series has been remembered fondly by critics, who praise its humor and unique blend of genres.
Plot
Background
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., is set in a fictional American Old West of 1893. Robber barons control the financial and industrial interests of the West from the boardrooms of San Francisco's Westerfield Club. The famous U.S. Marshal Brisco County, Sr. has apprehended a gang of outlaws and its leader, the notorious John Bly. While transporting them to stand trial, County is murdered and the gang escapes. Meanwhile, in a nearby mine, a group of shackled Chinese workers unearths "The Orb", a large golden globe studded with rods. A worker draws one of the rods from out of the Orb, then touches several of his co-workers with it. As each worker is touched with the rod he is imbued with superhuman strength which they use to break the iron chains binding them, thus freeing themselves. The murder of Brisco County, Sr., and the discovery of the Orb set into motion the major plots of the series.Synopsis
Members of the Westerfield Club hire Brisco County, Jr., the son of the slain U.S. Marshal, to track and re-capture Bly and his gang. The Westerfield Club's timid lawyer, Socrates Poole relays instructions and financial support to Brisco. Another bounty hunter, Lord Bowler, who is known for his expert tracking skills, also hopes to capture Bly. Bitter over the elder County's fame, Bowler treats Brisco as a rival. The two men often find themselves reluctantly joining forces to achieve a common goal. Later in the series, Brisco and Bowler work together as partners and friends.In the pilot episode, Brisco tracks John Bly's second-in-command, Big Smith. In a battle on a train car, Brisco knocks Smith off the train and into a river; he is assumed dead until he reappears later in the series. Brisco, Bowler and Socrates hunt the rest of Bly's gang in subsequent episodes. All ten of the gang members are captured or killed, and Brisco's pursuit of Bly, who is seeking the Orb for its supernatural power, frequently puts him into contact with the object. Each encounter with the Orb reveals a fantastic effect on people who use it. In the episode "The Orb Scholar", Bly shoots Brisco and leaves him to die. Professor Ogden Coles, a scientist who studies the Orb, heals Brisco with the device. In the episode "Bye Bly", it is revealed that Bly is a fugitive from the distant future who has traveled to 1893 to steal the Orb. Bly plans to use the Orb to travel back to his time and rule the world. Instead, Brisco uses the Orb to travel through time to save Bowler's life. Brisco eventually kills Bly by stabbing him with a rod from the Orb, causing Bly to disintegrate into a pile of ashes. Series creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse said that the Orb represents faith and that depending on the intentions of those who use it, the object rewards or punishes them accordingly.
The pilot episode introduces several characters who make recurring appearances throughout the series. Big Smith's moll Dixie Cousins is a saloon singer and con artist who has a brief romantic encounter with Brisco. In later episodes, Dixie becomes Brisco's primary love interest. In his first mission, Brisco also meets Professor Albert Wickwire, an eccentric scientist who returns to help many times during the series. Wickwire's ideas and inventions play into Brisco's interest in technology and the future, something Brisco calls "The Coming Thing". Pete Hutter is a hapless mercenary working for Bly. He has a compulsive attachment to his "piece", and given any opportunity will pontificate about topics such as art and philosophy. Pete appears throughout the series as a comic foil to trade barbs with the heroes. He appears to be killed three times during the series, but returns each time with a comic excuse for why he didn't die. The second half of the series includes many episodes with Whip Morgan, a young cardsharp whose attempts to assist Brisco and Bowler often end up causing trouble.
Signature show elements
The show features classic Western motifs such as train robberies and gunfighter showdowns, in combination with atypical elements. Much of the series is devoted to the science fiction plot surrounding the Orb, and it is this mix of the Western genre with fantasy that has helped Brisco maintain its cult status. In almost every episode, the characters discover or are confronted by what is, for the time, fantastic technology. In the pilot episode, Brisco and Professor Wickwire modify a rocket to run on train tracks. In the episode "Brisco For the Defense", Brisco uses a slide projector to show a trial jury fingerprint evidence. Professor Wickwire returns many times in the series to assist with technology, including tinkering with motorcycles and rescuing the heroes with a helium-filled zeppelin. Campbell told Starlog magazine, "It's kind of Jules Verne meets The Wild Wild West." The presence of futuristic technology in a Victorian era Western places the series in the steampunk genre; it is one of the few such shows to have aired on prime-time television. At least one-third of the show's episodes contain steampunk or Weird West elements. Though "technology-out-of-time" frequently intrudes into the plots of Brisco, the fantastic machines or methods rarely appear again. Some of these out-of-time technologies were archaic renderings of those prevalent in the 20th century, and two film researchers, Cynthia Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper, suggest that followers of the show may be puzzled that such inventions, so useful in their own lives, are not exploited further.According to Cuse, the show was purposely set in 1893, exactly 100 years before the series premiered in 1993. Brisco is meant to be aware of the imminent changes in society and technology and actively looks for them. The writers of the show, and also the character of Brisco, refer to this concept as "The Coming Thing". Elaborating on this theme, Campbell said, "Basically this show is about the turn of the century, when the Old West met the Industrial Era. Cowboys still chew tobacco and ride the range and states are still territories, but over the horizon is the onset of electricity, the first autos and telephones. Brisco is in the middle of a transition from the past to the future." The collision of cowboy characters with puzzling technology and other anachronisms generates humor throughout the series. The writers made it a point to insert scenes mirroring the pop culture of the 20th century, from the apparent invention of the term "UFO" in the pilot episode to the appearance of a sheriff who looks and acts like Elvis Presley. Speaking about the humor of the show, Campbell said, "I would say 30 percent of each episode is being played for laughs. But it's not a winking at the camera, Airplane-type of humor. We're funny like Indiana Jones is funny; the laughs come primarily from the wide variety of ridiculous, colorful characters that come in and out of this series."
Cast
Main
- Brisco County, Jr., portrayed by Bruce Campbell, a Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-bounty hunter, hired by a group of robber barons to track down notorious outlaw John Bly, who killed County's father, famous lawman Brisco County, Sr.. Bruce Campbell went through five auditions for the role of Brisco before he was hired. In his first audition with the casting director, Campbell spontaneously did a standing flip. The stunt impressed the casting director so much that during each subsequent audition, Campbell was asked to do the flip again. In his final audition, Campbell assured the network executives that if hired for the role, he would work hard to make the show a success. In an interview, Campbell said, "It's every actor's dream to play a cowboy, so when this opportunity came up, I mean, yeah, where do I sign?" He added that working on Brisco provided him with acting opportunities he would not have otherwise had. Cuse said getting Campbell "was just one of those collisions between an actor and a script that was just perfect ... I can't imagine Brisco having ever existed without him."
- Socrates Poole, portrayed by Christian Clemenson, a lawyer in the employ of the robber barons who hired County, sent to supervise him. Clemenson went to Harvard with Cuse but still went through the normal audition channels to get the part of Poole. Clemenson was apprehensive about pursuing one of the lead roles in a television show because of the long time commitments involved. He later said, "The similarities between this show and The Wild Wild West, and my character to that show's Artemus Gordon, was an important hook for me. It was one of my favorite shows growing up, and as soon as I saw that Brisco County was based on the same kind of material and attitude as that show, I called my agent and said, 'I'll do anything I have to do to get this. Clemenson applied his experiences at Ivy League schools to play the uptight Poole. Praising Clemenson's work on Brisco, Cuse said, "You can't give him anything he's not capable of doing. He adds the voice of intelligence and caution to balance our cast".
- Lord Bowler, portrayed by Julius Carry, an ill-tempered bounty hunter who is a competitor and occasional collaborator with County. The creation was inspired by the Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Carry saw great potential in the character of Bowler. He had researched black cowboys for a project in college and used that knowledge in his portrayal of Bowler. Carry said that Bowler was similar to the real-life black deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, in that "Reeves always got his man and would often pull off incredible tricks to bring people in." Carry knew Clemenson from the time they worked together on the Western television pilot Independence. He had no knowledge of Campbell, but approved of the choice for the leading man after watching Army of Darkness. He later told Starlog, "I saw that he would be very good with the physical stuff and that he could deliver a one-liner. I knew the situation would be good." The original direction for Bowler was to have him constantly oppose Brisco, but as the series progressed the writers saw the good-natured chemistry between the actors and decided to make Brisco and Bowler a team. Bowler's race was never an issue in the show. According to Cary Darling, a television critic, this attitude is different from serious Westerns and "may hew more to the truth than one might think". He said historians have noted that black cowboys were common and that conflicts with white cowboys were rare.
- Dixie Cousins, portrayed by Kelly Rutherford, a sultry saloon singer and con artist who serves as County's love interest. Rutherford's portrayal of Dixie Cousins, with her emphasis on innuendo and subtext, has been described as "less Miss Kitty than Mae West". Rutherford said that playing Dixie allowed her to fulfill her "fantasy of being Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles".