‘1883’: Sam Elliott Doesn’t Watch ‘Yellowstone’ — ‘Too Much Like F***in’ Dallas’
Taylor Sheridan took viewers into Dutton family history with his prequel to Yellowstone. 1883 stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James and Margaret Dutton. Isabel May plays their daughter Elsa and her brother, John (Audie Rick), would be John Dutton Jr. (Kevin Costner)’s father. Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) is guiding the Dutton family to Montana, but actor Elliott doesn’t even watch the series that spawned his.
Elliott was a guest on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast on Feb. 28. At the very end of the podcast, Elliott confessed to Maron that he doesn’t even watch Yellowstone.
You don’t need to watch ‘Yellowstone’ to watch ‘1883’
It was the popularity of Yellowstone that begat 1883, and other shows Sheridan is developing in the Yellowstone universe. But, since 1883 takes place over a century ago, it could be the first Yellowstone show you watch and you could still follow it. However, it appears the audience is mostly Yellowstone fans.
“This thing, when it went on the air, the first episode was the highest rated thing in f***ing I don’t know how long,” Elliott said on WTF, “10 years or some sh**. It is connected to it in that it’s a prequel.”
‘1883’s Sam Elliott: not a ‘Yellowstone’ fan
1883 is right in Elliott’s wheelhouse. He has become a staple of westerns from movies like Tombstone to TV’s Shadow Riders and Rough Riders. Shea is another western man of action with a tragic past. The modern day drama of Yellowstone doesn’t interest him.
“I’m not a Yellowstone fan, I don’t watch Yellowstone,” Elliott said. “I love Costner, there’s a lot of good people on the cast, a few of ‘em I’ve worked with before, nothing against any of them but it’s just too much like f***in’ Dallas or something.”
What the shows have in common
Elliott’s comparison between Dallas and Yellowstone is not as much of a reach as his criticism of The Power of the Dog may have been. Dallas was a family saga, only the Ewing family was in the oil business. Dallas ran for 14 seasons from 1978 – 1991. A revival ran for three seasons from 2012 – 2014 with original cast members Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray dealing with the new generation. Hagman died still playing J.R. Ewing in 2012.
Yellowstone has all that family drama on the ranch. John isn’t sure which of his children he can entrust, and they have their own agendas with each other. There’s romance and rivalries, and that’s not for Elliott.
“Too much of that for me,” he said.
But, he’s not much of a TV junkie anyway.
“I don’t watch much,” Elliott said. “[I] work in the yard a lot.”
