Cancelled Too Soon: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993)

The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. was a beloved western with sci fi trappings that was cut short all too soon by FOX.

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What Is It?

This western with hints of steam punk and sci fi delivered equal parts Wild Wild West and Indiana Jones as it followed bounty hunter Brisco County Jr. who travels through the old west seeking the outlaw John Bly (who killed his father) as well as answers to the mysterious and powerful “Orb” which Bly is also looking for. Helping Brisco out is fellow bounty hunter Lord Bowler as well as his sometimes girlfriend Dixie Cousins and his employer’s liaison Socrates Poole.

Aired: FOX, 1993-94, 1 Season 27 episodes

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, Kelly Rutherford, Christian Clemenson, John Astin

Created By: Jeffrey Boam, Carlton Cuse

Why Was It Cancelled?

This western with a twist was a ton of fun as it mixed tongue-in-cheek humor with action/adventure along with Bruce Campbell chewing up the scenery in one of his most beloved roles. Of course, the supporting cast made their mark as well which included the late Julius Carry providing spot on verbal sparring with Brisco as a rival bounty hunter, and Kelly Rutherford vamping it up as this show’s version of Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn’s character in Blazing Saddles).  Plus, the co-creator was none other than Carlton Cuse who was making his debut in television before going on to work on Lost, Colony, and more (and he had also co-written the script to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). So with the talent involved, it seemed like it should have had a long run.  But that was not to be.

Brisco County kicked off the 1993 season for FOX with impressive ratings, but its numbers quickly began to drop, blamed in part on its Friday night 8 PM EST timeslot. By the end of the year, it was one of the lowest rated shows on the broadcast networks and FOX decided to cancel it because it was rather expensive to produce.  Interestingly, Brisco County’s lead-out series during its run on FOX was The X-Files, also in its first year, which had low ratings as well but that one was cheaper to produce and had received much acclaim from fans and critics. It would eventually make Friday nights appointment television for many genre fans, though unfortunately Brisco County was out of the picture by that time.

When later speaking about the cancellation, Bruce Campbell had this to say in his autobiography If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor:

To explain why a TV show is canceled is almost impossible. Ironically Brisco, with its off-kilter humor, wouldn’t have been developed on any other network, yet the appeal of ‘Westerns’ was still rural – not the side Fox’s urban bread was buttered on.

Should It Be Rebooted or Revived?

Despite only lasting one season, the show had an extensive number of episodes released on VHS (which was rare for the time) and had a healthy syndication run on TNT through most of the 90’s.  Fans even lobbied that cable channel to produce new episodes, but it would have been too expensive for a cable network at that time, so nothing came of that. And sadly in 2008 Julius Carey passed away so there is no chance of bring the full original cast back together.

A full reboot of the show would be difficult because the charm of this show depends so much on the chemistry of the original actors.  But interestingly, Brisco County himself–Bruce Campbell–has an idea for a revival that he shared in a recent interview:

You would bring [Brisco] back following the death of Lord Bowler to find out who killed Lord Bowler, and you have potentially a Brisco son with Dixie that we don’t know about, and maybe a Bowler’s son that we don’t know about, and maybe those guys team up. With me being a successful San Francisco lawyer, maybe he’s got to saddle up again at some point. But you’d have to take a new spin on the whole thing, but I’d be all over that like a cheap suit.

This is not to suggest that anything is currently in the works, but apparently Campbell has a strong interest in returning to the character. If fans were make some noise and Carlton Cuse (who is now a well-known name in television) were to lobby for it, perhaps Brisco County could ride again.

Where Can You Watch It?

The entire series has been collected on DVD (but not Blu-ray) and it is also available to purchase VOD. It is not currently streaming on any of the major services, but you can find episodes on YouTube from time to time.

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