Before Yellowstone, Timothy Olyphant’s series showed how gritty, prestige Westerns could thrive proving HBO knew the formula before Sheridan.

Before things went all crazy with bunkhouses and brutal ranch politics, there was a Western that quietly did what some of the newer hits are still trying to figure out. It starred a future cowboy icon and had all the chaos-fueled stuff you’d want in a show.

It’s one of those blink-and-you-miss-it classics that proves the Western genre had legs even before streaming wars.

Frankly speaking, if this had landed on the right network with a certain big-name creator at the helm, it might’ve rewritten TV history before anyone even said “Dutton.”

Timothy Olyphant’s old western Deadwood walked so Yellowstone could run

Wild Bill Hickok and Al Swearengen in a still from Deadwood | Credits: HBO

Before Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone turned ranch drama into a billion-dollar Western empire, HBO had already set the gold standard. Enter Deadwood, the foul-mouthed, character-packed Western that made Timothy Olyphant a cowboy icon long before he was chasing land disputes in Montana (via Screenrant).

Deadwood ran for three bloody-good seasons from 2004 to 2006 and came back swinging with Deadwood: The Movie in 2019. It never had Yellowstone‘s spinoffs or global reach, but what it lacked in franchise power, it made up for in sheer prestige.

Set in 1870s South Dakota, Deadwood leaned hard into realism. Grit, grime, and gut-punch dialogue, the kind Sheridan later mastered, were already alive and well here. With a loaded cast including Ian McShane, Molly Parker, and Jim Beaver, the series made Westerns cool on TV before it was trendy.

Deadwood paved the way for shows like Justified, Godless, and even Yellowstone owe their boots-on-the-ground storytelling to the path it carved. Taylor Sheridan may be the king of the genre today, but Deadwood proved that Western wasn’t dead, just waiting for the right showrunner to dig it up.

Had HBO backed Taylor Sheridan early on, Yellowstone could’ve had a completely different tone, maybe even better. But what we got instead is two genre giants: one that built the road, and one that drives it full speed.

If you call yourself a Western fan and haven’t watched Deadwood yet, well… watch it, please.

1923 name-drops Deadwood, but it’s more than just an HBO reference

Brandon Sklenar and Julia Schlaepfer as Spencer and Alex in 1923 | Credits: Paramount Network

1923 name-dropped Deadwood in Season 2, Episode 6. While Deadwood, the series made waves in 2004 with Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, the town it depicted is 100% real. Nestled in South Dakota, Deadwood was once an outlaw hotspot in the Wild West, famous for gold, lawlessness, and the murder of Wild Bill Hickok.

So why did 1923 bring it up? Spencer’s detour to Montana takes him right through Deadwood, about 400 miles east of the Yellowstone ranch. No TV meta-joke here, just geography.

Still, the mention feels like a subtle hat tip. Both shows are rich in period detail and full of power struggles. Different timelines, same wild frontier energy.