Welcome to Curtis Wells
Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (1996) was a continuation of the television series Lonesome Dove: The Series (1994). The show was based on characters created by Larry McMurtry in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Lonesome Dove. Set in 1880, LD:TOY follows the story of Newt Call, a bounty hunter. He lives in Curtis Wells, Montana Territory, a town owned by Virginian Clay Mosby. Each episode is action-packed and delves into character development, and it is a television show unlike any other western ever shown on television.
Newt Call is the main character of LD:TOY. He is a man of few words, emotionally distant, yet he has a dry sense of humor and can always be trusted when he gives his word. Call’s life dramatically changed when his wife, Hannah, died in an explosion in 1878. Clay Mosby, Call’s nemesis, is a charming gambler and a former Confederate officer. He was infatuated Hannah because she resembled his beloved deceased wife Mary. Mosby is a pragmatist, usually level-headed, and needs to maintain control even if it means his grip must tighten on Curtis Wells. Call and Mosby form a brotherly love/hate relationship that drives the action of the show.
There are many excellent actors on LD:TOY. Scott Bairstow (Newt Call) and Eric McCormack (Clay Mosby) are the two principle lead actors. Both played their characters with insight and intensity. Much can be expected from these two actors in the future.
As one might suspect about such an exciting western, fan page links are growing. Many people across the United States, Canada, and Europe have enjoyed LD:TOY. As of September 1997, the web links have been limited to the United States. Hopefully, more fan pages will be generated.
Even though the show was canceled, discussion is still generated. Fans discuss the show and create fan-fiction based on the characters from LD:TOY. More discussion and the number of fans will undoubtedly increase after the recent decision of Turner Network Television to reair this marvelous program.
These pages are updated frequently, so keep checking back.
During the winter 1878, a ruthless gang of criminals held hostage the town of Curtis Wells, Montana. It was also then that Newt Call lost his wife, Hannah, when she fell victim to a devastating explosion.
Emotionally shattered by Hannah’s death, Call left Curtis Wells, embarking on a dark odyssey across the West, becoming a bounty hunter. By bringing the guilty to justice, Call sought to soothe his own sense of remorse surrounding his wife’s tragic death. But his soul would not heal.
When fate leads Call back to Curtis Wells, he finds the town has undergone a dark transition of its own. It’s doubled in size, sporting more saloons and even a bordello. Clay Mosby is more powerful than ever before, controlling the town and shaping it to his own corrupt vision of the future. He owns the majority of the copper holdings and many of the town’s other businesses. Austin, Call’s former brother-in-law, has become Mosby’s puppet sheriff. Josiah Peale is now the mayor of the town. The quiet little town Call once called home has degenerated into a haven for outlaws; a magnet for fugitives.
In Mattie Shaw, Call finds a friend. As a single woman in a man’s world, Mattie has carved out her niche in Curtis Wells, running the combination Undertaking Parlor/Gun Shop, with the help of UnBob Finch, the slow-witted mascot of the town. Strong-willed and capable, Mattie wins the respect and support of Mosby, as well as everyone else.
Not long after Call has settled in, and explosive mixture of passion and danger arrives in the person of Amanda Carpenter. She single-handedly turns the Lonesome Dove Hotel into a boarding house and challenges Mosby’s exclusive grip on the community.
Call remains a stranger in his own town, keeping his distance and allowing few to get close. Though he’d never admit it, the lives of the folks who call Curtis Wells home are intertwined with his. With a tortured past behind him, and an uncertain future ahead, Call lives his life one day at a time.
The year is 1880. Curtis Wells is now a boomtown on the brink of the Montana frontier. The stories of its diverse and colorful inhabitants are the basis of Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. In a dark and exciting spin on the series' first season, the continuing characters return with a new perspective on their lives, forged by tragic events and new beginnings. Their interaction with our eccentric new brood of townspeople will draw us into tales of hard-edged and off-beat humor. The ensemble cast is at the heart of the new season, as they struggle to survive in an untamed world where anything is possible.
Fate and providence have led Curtis Wells to double in size. When Sweetwater was left in ashes by a prairie fire, its disenfranchised whores and desperadoes were driven to take up residence in our quiet town, changing its character forever. A short time later, the discovery of copper in the hills nearby drew a flood of workers and opportunists of all kinds into the area, bringing prosperity and avarice in their wake.
The sudden expansion has given the town an oddly off-kilter quality -- buildings are slapped together in a rough-hewn style; the streets alleyways twist at bizarre angles, reflective of the town's idiosyncratic personality. It's a war zone of sorts, where a sense of humor keeps you sane. There are many familiar faces in Curtis Wells, but the events of the past couple of years have shaped their personalities in a way that does not always guarantee a cohesive blend.
Newt Call has come back to Curtis Wells after living the past two years on the trail as a bounty hunter. Having left the town a few nights after the explosion which killed his beloved Hannah, Call went on a downward spiral, aimless and soulless, eventually hitting rock bottom. He turned to bounty hunting, finding that bringing others to justice eased his own guilt for failing to protect Hannah. Call is not the same idealistic man we saw last season; instead we see a man whose past has left its scars. Coming back to Curtis Wells has reopened some of those old wounds, not the least of which is the unresolved business with Clay Mosby -- the man who coveted his wife before the fire took her from them both. Moreover, he is a threat to Mosby's new order.
With the Ambrosia Club as the center of his financial empire, Clay Mosby has made Curtis Wells his personal dominion. Behind the charming, roguish facade, he is a ruthless businessman, swift and severe with those who cross him. This season, we will see him shape Curtis Wells into his dark vision while confronting the demons from his past. Several new characters are now calling Curtis Wells home:
Mattie Shaw was headed West from St. Louis with her father, a Cavalry ordinance officer, when he died unexpectedly on the outskirts of Curtis Wells. Instead of abandoning their dreams, Mattie swallowed her fears, and opened a gunsmith shop. In time, it merged with the undertaker's next door, and she finds herself the only female undertaker in the West. Like so many of the women of the time, she does what she must to survive.
The same could certainly be said for Amanda Carpenter, a former grifter who's an explosive mixture of passion and danger. Rumors abound of her past, and the path that led her to Curtis Wells. Only she knows, and only she will tell -- but the stories are there, never the same.
Austin Peale is Mosby’s token sheriff. As long as he serves Mosby’s requirements, he can abuse his power in any way he likes. Still, he’s a bit of his own man, bringing them into conflict. Austin is no longer the obedient, idealistic Austin of old. Publicly, Josiah and Austin clash on his authority as sheriff, but privately, Austin looks out for his father, worried about his private flights of fantasy. In the past two years, Austin has toughened up considerably, having lost himself in the sins of the now defunct Sweetwater. He was there when fire destroyed that town, and it was Mosby who found him and nurtured him back to a fuctioning level. He owes Mosby his life, and Mosby will never let him forget it.
The stunning loss of Hannah sent Josiah Peale into a state of shock from which he’s never quite recovered. Once the prosperous, enterprising publisher of the forward-thinking Montana Statesman newspaper, he now lives in the old Statesman office, where the press sits idle, covered in dust. Over the last two years, he has retreated more and more into his own sense of reality, where he envisions himself as the devine arbiter of justice. For his own purposes, Mosby has used his power in the community to have Josiah appointed mayor, and a kind of unofficial "hanging judge." Better to have a "mad man" you can control in power than a sane man you cannot. Josiah embraces his new role with zeal, running from the demons of his past. The townfolk accept his position as mayor out of respect for his devastating loss and the leadership he’s shown in the past. Josiah’s focus on reality is inconsistent and unpredictable.
UnBob, once a livery stable hand, now works with Mattie in the Gunsmith/Undertaker Shop. He's very protective of Mattie. He is slow, a bit dim-witted, but gentle, caring and wise as only a child can be. He brings an unjaded perspective to a town where cynicism is standard fare. His parents hadtwo kids, one of them was called Bob.
An Easterner, now established as the town doctor - for that matter the only doctor for miles around - Dr. Cleese has come to feel at home in Curtis Wells, especially since it has grown from the one-horse town that it once was. He keeps up the latest medical advances, which he incorporates into his grass-roots style practice.
Luther Root, the powerful trapper from the first season, turns up in Curtis Wells from time to time. His great strength and expertise with guns makes him an invaluable asset. During the last two years he has been spending more time in Curtis Wells than he used to, hiring out as a scout and guide. Like Call, he dislikes Mosby's rampant development of the town. His backwoods style has evolved into a more sophisticated take on life. Luther is as quick with a joke as he is with a gun - a good man to have on your side.
The people of this town are a combustible combination of good and bad -- the hungry and the hopeful, the diligent and the reckless, all of them toiling to scratch a fresh start out of an unforgiving land. But they all share a common goal, to lead a life that's better than the one they left behind -- no matter the risks.
Back to Darcie's Lonesome Dove Page
Thanks, Linda, for the grave pic!