The Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr.

Brisco County was a genuinely odd Western comedy that ran from 1993-94.

It starred Bruce Campbell who was already something of a cult star based on his lead in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, although here he seems to be a less cynical James Garner. County was a Harvard-educated cowboy on the trail of the varmints that killed his pa. The show also featured John Astin of The Addams Family in a supporting role as a demented scientist, a bit of Christopher Lloyd’s Emmett Brown, while other curious people dropped in and out of the show, including Timothy Leary in a restaging of Stagecoach and a few football pros. The oddest thing about it, though, was how uncampy it was for a campy Western. It was amusing but seldom downright funny; it was sexy but hardly ribald; it was a series that pulled references from almost everything: Westerns, steampunk, time travel, cliffhangers, buddy movies. There’s no denying that it was ambitious. The eight-DVD set includes an entire disc of extras—writers gabbing, a Campbell reading, background material, the works. Maybe weirdest of all, though, is that at its heart, Brisco County is really a kid’s show, full of bluster but gentle and rarely brutal.