Sam Elliott may not be the last of the great Hollywood cowboys, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone that can match that baritone voice, in that slow drawl of his, and the unmistakable mustache that is as much a part of his persona as the cowboy hat he’s worn across many of his 78 movies and 34 TV series. He’s so inextricably linked with the Western genre that it’s almost unbelievable that his first role was in the 1972 eco-horror movie Frogs. His most recent role as Shea Brennan in 1883 introduced the veteran actor to a whole new generation. Brennan is a gruff, tough-as-nails Union Civil War veteran (now Pinkerton Agent), with little time for nonsense. But back in 1983, Elliott was a suave ranch hand, a stranger with a past with an eye for Cybill Shepherd in the Western soap opera The Yellow Rose.

What Is ‘The Yellow Rose’ About?

The Yellow Rose, in a nutshell, is about what happens on a modern-day West Texas ranch called, strangely enough, The Yellow Rose. The ranch covers 200,000 acres, and was built by the late Wade Champion. Well, not so much built as won in a bet from Jeb Hollister (Chuck Connors). As the series begins, Wade’s two sons, Roy (David Soul, of Starsky and Hutch fame) and his half-brother Quisto (Edward Albert) and his 29-year-old widow, Colleen (Cybill Shepherd), are now running the ranch. How the ranch is run is a source of contention between the three, but they need to keep it together as Hollister has made it his life’s ambition to get his ranch back… or destroy everything the Champions do while they own it.

Hollister isn’t the only thing that Roy is fighting against. In true soap opera fashion, he’s fighting the growing feelings he has for his young stepmother. Colleen, however, has her eyes on someone else: Chance McKenzie (Sam Elliott). The mysterious stranger arrives in the first episode, and he has a past, which we learn includes having just been released from Texas State Prison for having killed a man. Chance also has a past with the voluptuous housemaid and Colleen’s friend, Grace (Susan Anspach), and is quick to resume their affair.

It turns out he also has a familial connection with the Yellow Rose, as he is the illegitimate son of Wade and a woman named Rose Hollister (Jane Russell). If the last name is familiar, it should be: Rose is Jeb’s sister. Chance was taken away from Rose by Wade to El Paso, as they feared Jeb would kill the boy as punishment for the romance with Wade that he strongly disapproved of (that’s some strong disapproval all right).

The cast of characters is rounded out by Colleen’s 12-year-old daughter and half-sister to Chance, Roy and Quinto, LC (Michelle Bennett), which stands for “Love Child”; Whit (Tom Schanley), Roy’s teenage son, who is sexually curious and has his eyes on Grace; ranch hands Dillard (Noah Beery Jr.) and Coryell (Ken Curtis); and Juliette (Deborah Shelton), Jeb’s daughter.

‘The Yellow Rose’ Was a Surprisingly Short-Lived Western

The Yellow Rose clearly takes inspiration from CBS’ powerhouse series Dallas, but if it was aiming to out-Dallas Dallas, it couldn’t quite do it. The web of romantic entanglements is engaging, especially the growing closeness between Colleen and Chance. The storylines, too, were interesting, with enough stories about treacherous hired hands, rogue mountain lions, drug smugglers, and oil rustlers to balance out the series with its relationship elements. However, with Hollywood already moving on to series like Magnum P.I. and Miami Vice, NBC cancelled the series after its first season of 22 episodes.

Yet the series does a lot of things right, and has over 500 five-star ratings on Amazon. The casting is exceptional, with Elliott getting plaudits for his work. The chemistry between the two leads is palpable. Jeb Hollister isn’t J.R. Ewing – who could be? – but he’s a pretty nasty fella in his own right (he kills his own sister for her looking to have him taken to court for the murder of their father, for one), and Connors revels in playing a character that deviates so drastically from his normal fare. And the theme song, a duet with Johnny Lee and Lane Brody, hit the top of Billboard’s country singles chart on April 21, 1984, a mere three weeks before the series’ final episode hit the air.

The Yellow Rose may not have been the series that made Cybill Shepherd a household name, but her 1985 follow-up series, Moonlighting, with co-star Bruce Willis, certainly did. As for Elliott, after seemingly having made a deal with the devil himself so he would have that same handsome, rugged look for all eternity, went on to hold his own against the one and only Cher in the award-winning 1985 film Mask. And Elliott will be putting on that cowboy hat yet again, joining Billy Bob Thornton in the second season of Landman, with Landman and 1883 creator Taylor Sheridan simply saying, “It’s so great to be back with him.” Fans of Elliott’s Westerns of recent years need to treat themselves to this short-lived series.

The Yellow Rose

Release Date

1983 – 1983

Directors

Lee H. Katzin, Harry Falk, Burt Kennedy, Bernard McEveety, Gary Griffin, Harvey Hart

Writers

Colley Cibber, Paul Savage

• 

  Edward Albert

  Quisto Champion

• 

  Noah Beery Jr.

  Luther Dillard

• 

•