Lonesome Dove: The Series

Novelist Larry Mcmurty’s Western saga Lonesome Dove sprung to life in the 1989 miniseries of the same name. A sequel miniseries, Return to Lonesome Dave came soon after, followed by two spin-offs: Lonesome Dove: The Series and Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. The show focused on hero Newt Call (Scott Bairstow), and took a major dramatic turn mid-season with the tragic death of his beloved wife Hannah (Christianne Hirt). The series only lasted one year before returning in its final incarnation of Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years in the next season. As for the nudity cross-reference quotient, sadly all we have to offer up is Diahann Carroll, who played Ida Grayson. She made her first appearance beside Moses during the parting of the Red Sea. No, we don’t mean she starred in The Ten Commandments, we mean she was really there! Once known as one of the most beautiful black actresses in Hollywood, the septuagenarian was nominated for a best-actress Oscar for her 1975 role in Claudine--a film in which she nearly got naked but for some strategically placed soap bubbles. Carroll lost the Oscar bid, which means that it’s her fault that we had to listen to Halle Berry’s bloated and self-indulgent acceptance speech for “all the black women” twenty-five years later.