“TAYLOR SHERIDAN, THE CREATIVE COWBOY BEHIND YELLOWSTONE…”

On June 12, 2022, Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan, talked with CBS Sunday Morning to discuss the most watched series ever, Yellowstone. Having just completed the fourth season and garnering the most watched viewership for a scripted television series ever, it’s safe to say viewers love the Dutton family. Paramount Network achieved this record breaking season moment, while Taylor Sheridan was also telling an origin story of the Dutton family simultaneously on the network’s streaming affiliate, Paramount+, titled 1883. While the Yellowstone, Season 4 premiere was breaking records, the prequel series was setting new ones, as the streamer’s most watched original series premiere, more than doubling any previous records of viewership across the platforms owned and operated by the service.

You can watch the Official Trailer for Yellowstone, Season 4 here:

TAYLOR SHERIDAN MADE PARAMOUNT AN OFFER THEY WOULDN’T REFUSE…

Correspondent Lee Cowan sat with Costner, by a fire pit, not far from Montana’s Bitterroot River, a postmark to the West at the edge of the valley campsite Kevin has called home for the last five years. It is the landscape backdrop for Taylor Sheridan’s modern-day Western that has taken off and far exceeded the Network or Sheridan’s expectations. Yellowstone is also produced by Paramount, CBS’ parent company. The series centers around the Dutton family and a Montana rancher named, John Dutton III, played by Costner. The main character though, the land that Dutton sees as his legacy. And the only thing more important to John than his land, is loyalty. You would think it’s his family, but the series has shown Dutton will not tolerate disloyalty, even from his own family. The series has often been compared to Bonanza with a bit of The Godfather. “We’re a little violent, we’re, like, a little bit ‘Murder, Inc.,’ our family – a little bit!” says Costner, of his TV family.

But the Dutton family serves as a reminder that our notion of the American West is romantic, versus the actual violent history.

“The ranchers that came here, they didn’t own this land, and they basically banded together and pushed out the Native population. It’s still beautiful. But it’s very easy to forget the drama, the things that we’ll never recover from.”

– Kevin Costner, John Dutton III on Yellowstone

THE COWBOY WAY…

And the reason the series is doing so well and resonating nationwide with viewers, is because of a cowboy named, Taylor Sheridan. He does it well because, you have to know the world you’re writing in; you have to have a sense of authority about the themes your portraying season after season. Few have been able to do that with Westerns, the way Sheridan has. His writing and directing rivals that of only John Ford, the legendary director of Westerns. Why does Sheridan do it? “I just make movies to support my horse habit,” he tells Cowan. Sheridan looks and sounds like a horseman out of Yellowstone, because he is. Not only does he play horse trainer, Travis Wheatley on the series, but he is also a horseman when he’s not filming the series. He doesn’t like talking about himself and would rather talk riding and roping all day long. He states that everything he wants to say, he says in his writing. Sheridan is as direct as they come and refrains from telling others how to do their job on the set. Taylor doesn’t want anyone telling him how to write, therefore he’s never telling the actors how to act.

SHERIDAN’S FORDIAN WAYS…

Sheridan is being called one of the most vital Western storytellers in decades. 1883, is the prequel that tells the story of the Dutton family pioneers and settlers, James and Margaret Dutton, played by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, who establish the land in Montana that John Dutton III fights so loyally for. The prequel is now getting a sequel due to its popularity and record breaking viewing. The upcoming 1932, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. To which Sheridan says, “It’s ludicrous that I’m working with these people, its fantastically insane.” It will look at a different period in the Dutton origin story, with the backdrop of Prohibition and the Great Depression, and how those two events effected the lives of the Dutton family in Montana. Just like the prequel, the title is the year in which the story will take place.

A CLICHÉ, SHERIDAN IS NOT…

It’s not easy to make a Western without having the cowboy clichés that go along with them, but that’s the gift of Sheridan and his writing. Because Taylor relates to what he’s writing about, because he lives it, it gives him an element to his writing that previous writers lacked in pulling off a good Western. Sheridan owns not one, but two ranches and also provides most of the horses for his productions himself. Due to horse’s often being unsafe and not broken in when it comes to Hollywood and acting, actor’s often don’t ride them, Sheridan thought it better to use his own. He then required the cast to take riding lessons and actually ride the horses in the scenes.

ACTING TO BE A WRITER…

Sheridan discusses how he fell into modeling before getting small acting parts in shows like Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy. But it was after decades of acting and never being the leading man that he had all but decided to pack it up and head back West to ride horses all day. But it was his stubbornness and listening to Hollywood when it was telling him what he should be doing that made him stay, and that thing he should be doing, was writing, and soon after directing. It was when a friend brought him a project, he was interested in getting Sheridan to write, that he knew it’s what he should have been doing all along. His first script, the pilot episode for Mayor of Kingstown, which he wrote in ten hours. Soon after the writing just flowed from his fingertips at a furious pace. He has written the scripts for films such as Sicario, Wind River and the Oscar nominated screenplay, for Hell or High Water, which was the second screenplay he wrote. Not a bad accolade, for the second time out of the writing barn.

You can watch the Official Trailer for Season 1 of Veronica Mars here:

You can watch the Official Trailer for Season 1 of Sons of Anarchy here:

You can watch the Official Trailer for Season 1 of Mayor of Kingstown here:

You can watch the 2015 Official Trailer for Sicario here:

You can watch the 2017 Official Trailer for Wind River here:

You can watch the 2016 Official Trailer for Hell or High Water here:

SHERIDAN IS MORE A BUSY BEE THAN COWBOY THESE DAYS….

Sheridan is as busy as it gets these days and won’t be slowing down anytime soon. He has no fewer than 10 projects for Paramount, either on air or in the works as series for the coming TV seasons. He also just became part owner of the famous 6666’s Ranch near Lubbock, and located in Guthrie, Texas, that consists of more than a quarter-of-a-million acres, where he filmed parts of 1883 on location. He will have to keep writing to pay the bills for such a Dutton quality piece of land.

You can watch the full interview with CBS Sunday Morning here:

All four season of Yellowstone are available to stream on Peacock TV, or you can buy each season or a boxed set on DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K UHD now. The fifth season of Yellowstone premieres November 13, 2022, on Paramount Network.

All ten episodes of 1883 are available to stream on Paramount+, or you can purchase your copy of the series on DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K UHD on August 31, 2022.