Pythe I wish I had seen The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. when it first aired on television. I was 6 at the time, and it would have been the perfect addition to the lineup of shows I watched from the greatest of all vantage points, my dad's lap: Bonanza, The Rifleman, Zorro, a one-season wonder called Bordertown, and Star Trek: The Next Generation (the western in space). Unfortunately I didn't discover it until its fortuitous DVD release a few years ago, but better late than never, I suppose.The pitch for Brisco County was probably something like "Indiana Jones in the Old West"--in fact, co-creator Jeffrey Boam penned the screenplay for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The show obviously took its inspiration from the same old serials George Lucas was so influenced by, where the hero was forever caught on a wagon about to go over a cliff or standing in the cross hairs of the vile villain. Like Indiana Jones, eponymous protagonist Brisco County is armed with an unconventional set of weapons and tools, a quick wit, a square jaw, and a smarmy sense of humor. The show was generally light-hearted in tone, getting a lot of comic mileage not only from the quirky banter between the denizens of Brisco's world, but also from a deliberately anachronistic and absurd sensibility. One episode, for example, features a sheriff who's a dead ringer for Elvis Presley, decades before the star was even born. The viewer is also treated to inaccurate origin stories for Dunkin Donuts, drive-through windows, and the phrase from which a certain Robert Plant-led rock band took its name.The strength of Brisco County lies in that miraculous intersection of great writing and the perfect cast. Bruce Campbell is perfect in the title role. Brisco County Jr. is a hero who relies mostly on strategy, intuition, a Harvard education, and a wise guy outlook to get him out of scrapes, but he can still throw a punch when he needs to. Because Brisco is generally a noble character, the writers tended to invent more clever solutions to problems than simply having him whip out his pistol and shoot someone, and for that reason the show is both more inventive and surprising than it might have been, and also family-friendly.The late Julius Carry is perfect as brash, pompous rival bounty hunter Lord Bowler, another testament to the writing. It would have been easy to make Lord Bowler a bumbling, incompetent fool who was never any real threat to Brisco. Instead, Bowler is actually a worthy adversary who simply fails to come out on top because he can't swallow his pride. Watching the relationship between Brisco and Bowler grow throughout the series, from rivals to grudging allies to, ultimately, friends, is one of the highlights of the show.Christian Clemenson is Socrates Poole. He's officially Brisco's lawyer, but as Brisco is a lawyer himself Poole is more often relegated to the role of babysitter, clean-up crew, and sidekick. Poole is essentially the straight man, reacting to and commenting on the endless absurdities that Brisco more or less takes in stride.Kelly Rutherford is Dixie Cousins, the obligatory on again/off again love interest who draws out Brisco's inability to settle down and commit to a relationship. Dixie is sexy and beguiling, the Bad Girl with a Past who ultimately possesses a heart of gold. John Astin is a charming riot as Professor Wickwire, a spacey but forward-thinking brilliant inventor who often shows up to provide Brisco with the "coming thing," usually in the form of futuristic gadgets such as rockets, diving suits, and blimps. John Pyper-Ferguson is hilarious as Pete Hutter, the strangely likable outlaw who just won't stay dead (a running gag of the show is that Hutter returns in a future episode with no explanation as to how he survived a seemingly fatal incident). Billy Drago is coldly menacing as John Bly, the villain with the viper smile who gunned down Brisco's father and who always seems to be just a step ahead of Brisco and justice. And R. Lee Ermey is great as Brisco County Sr., the father with whom Brisco Jr. had something of a troubled relationship (shades of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford in Last Crusade).In the "odds and ends" category, Brisco has the same brilliant scope as classic westerns of yore, having been shot on the Warner Brothers back lots that, as I understand it, simply don't exist anymore. Randy Edelman's theme music is brilliant, heroic, and moving, and was appropriated, after the show was canceled, for many NBC sports programs.Was the show perfect? No, and there's one big reason for that: the Orb. Apparently the writers didn't think Brisco's quest to track down the members of John Bly's gang was enough to keep the show going, so they introduced a vague, powerful, mysterious artifact, the Orb. It's clear that nobody on the writing team figured out exactly what this plot device did or meant, which resulted in its uncanny ability to do whatever was needed for a particular episode, including resurrecting the good guys, incinerating the bad guys, giving people superhuman strength, and enabling time travel. It was the failure to clearly define the Orb's mythology or purpose that makes it feel like a clunky, frustrating deus ex machina, and toward the end of the series its storyline starts to get both convoluted and pretty silly, resulting in a very unsatisfying exit for the character of John Bly.That aside, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. is a top notch western/sci fi/adventure/comedy/action/romance with great performances and a unique, fun flavor. I hate writing conclusions so I'm just going to stop writing...now.

catuus The pity of this series is that it was short-lived. Still, 27 episodes isn't a bad run.The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. is a western series with a lot of humor, bizarre characters, and several bits of science fiction. If this mix sounds familiar, think "Wild, Wild West". However, this isn't just an imitation.Brisco County Jr. is the son of Brisco County Sr., one of the great bounty hunters of the western territories toward the end of the 19th Century. Sr. is killed by the Bly Gang and Jr. (also an accomplished bounty hunter) swears revenge. (Sr. later shows up later, at least once, as a ghost.) Aside from the Bly gang, Brisco has a number of shoot-ups with the Swill brothers (Will, Phil, Bill, Gil, and Ed) – not to mention the Swill sister (Lil) – and of course the Swill mother (Ma). His companion through all this (first a rival bounty hunter and later a partner) is Lord Bowler. On occasion there are encounters with yet another bounty hunter, Dixie Cousins. There are also regular appearances by Briso's main contact with his employers (some western robber barons), Socrates Poole. Special mechanical needs in several episodes are met by Professor Albert Wickwire. And then of course there's Comet the Wonder Horse.One of the reasons this series works is its casting. Brisco is played by the veteran actor Bruce Campbell. Campbell, who is vastly underrated (perhaps because he doesn't get asked to do Shakespeare or Scorsese), has before the age of 50 appeared in 92 films and TV series, produced 16, directed 7, written 3, and done just about everything else in film except sell the tickets. He brings to his role here a professional and keenly calculated sense of timing and of humor – not to mention very athletic performances.Brisco's partner, Lord Bowler, is played by the accomplished Julius Carry. Barely over 50, Carry has appeared in 58 films and TV series (mostly the latter). His performance here is characterized by athleticism, bluster, humor, and authority. In addition to Carry's star turn, the producers of the series have regularly cast black actors in roles not tailored to nor requiring African-American actors. For a long time after black actors began to appear in mainstream films, they only got roles specifically race-oriented. It's Hollywood's great strength that they have done a lot toward moving away from that sort of pseudo Jim Crowism.Third in the series' trilogy of stars, playing Socrates Poole, is the delightful and talented Christian Clemenson. Not yet 50, Clemenson has appeared in 60 films and TV series. He's currently doing a bang-up job in "Boston Legal" as the socially handicapped Jerry Espenson. As Poole, he's an Eastern tinhorn who's not doing a bad job of adapting to the rough-and-tumble of the Old West.Other actors in smaller roles are talented and believable. As Professor Wickwire is the fabulous John Astin, whose 140 acting credits include various stints as Gomez Addams and Professor Gangreen (you know, the Killer Tomato movies). All of the people appearing here are a pleasure to watch; not a dud in the bunch. Billy Drago is outstanding as the crazed John Bly and manages to look every inch the psychopath Bly is. Drago is a well-represented film veteran, with 90 films (including some TV work) to his credit.The various episodes are well plotted, full of action and humor, witty lines, good character byplay, and the Orb. The Orb (of which there are 3, although 1 is destroyed early in the series and another vanishes into the future ... I suppose some oversensitive spoilsport might consider this a "spoiler") is an extraterrestrial spherical device consisting of a number of blue rods each with a gold end. The Orb has a number of interesting powers and can also confer powers and abilities. The attempts by Bly to get an Orb for himself and the efforts of Brisco to prevent this form the backdrop of many episodes.The production values of this series are very high. Scenery, sets, costumes, livestock … everything is exactly as it should be. Photography is clear and colorful. Most episodes are about 44 minutes; the pilot is 2 hours. The last 2 episodes constitute a 2-part series cap. The scripts display a good deal of originality, if one credits the amount the series owes to its predecessors. I'm not a big fan of westerns in general because of their predictability. "Wild, Wild West" (the series and the film) is of course an exception, and so is the Brisco County Jr. series. I highly, highly recommend you get this set. It's 22 ½ hours of pure entertainment.

skoyles This is one series you either get or you are far too enamored of reality. It was obviously made by a group of people who escaped from an institution featuring padded halls, probably on some other planet in a galaxy far, far away where the residents were tortured by watching too many old westerns spiced by the occasional grade "B" science fiction movie and bedroom farce. Billy Drago has never been better, utterly over the top and so far off the wall that he is in the next room; John Pyper-Ferguson gets to speak some of the most bizarre lines in television history; Bruce Campbell is simply perfect as the titular lead; and nobody lets down the side in acting. The music by Bunch, Edelman and Graziano is among the best ever composed for a television series, perfectly complimenting the Western theme of the series and the absurdity of the incidents chronicled. The writing of the first episodes is unsurpassed though it, as so many series, fails in some later ones. Still the most amazing writing: where else can one find a character criticize Impressionism, refer to Existentialism, and make references to "The Wizard of Oz"? And, by the way, Sergio Leone should sue over the gunfight in the pilot. I have been forced to wait far too long for the DVD, and purchased it on the day of release. I must say that "Brisco County Jr." is even funnier than I had remembered. I cannot recommend it highly enough, though not for children who would miss most of the jokes anyway. Simply great, if quite entertainingly bonkers with the most absurd one liners.

susis I loved this show! I spent more time laughing at this show than any other on tv with maybe the exception of I Love Lucy. Bruce Campbell plays Brisco County, Jr. who is a bounty hunter trying to find his father's killer, John Bly. Julius Carry is his friend Lord Bowler. While Brisco and Bowler travel around looking for John Bly, they run into Dixie Cousins, Brisco's sometime girlfriend and saloon girl, and a host of other characters that make up this show. My favorite episode is one I've always called The Elvis Episode because I can never remember the real name of the episode. In this episode, Brisco and Bowler are aided by Aaron, the sheriff, who happens to dress in leather, has his hair slicked back into a DA, and runs around acting like singer Elvis Presley. In one scene, with the gang in jail, while Brisco and company are given a meal of bread and water, Aaron gets a huge tray full of food. He then gives the delivery person a tip and then says to him "This don't feel like no pound and a half of bacon". When the delivery person hands over the bacon, Aaron takes his tip money back. What I love about this show is it is just plain hilarious from the get go. Brisco's horse, Comet, thinks he's human and not a horse. Socrates Poole is a friend of Brisco and the proverbial wet blanket. I'm just sorry this show had to be canceled so quickly because it was such a laugh.