As temperatures drop, and we spend more time indoors, there’s no better way to pine after the sprawling open spaces of the American West than by sinking your teeth into a Western. For those looking for an extended take on the genre that runs longer than a feature but not so long as a multi-season series, there’s one 1979 miniseries that may just be perfect for you. Especially if you’re a fan of Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott, this is one tale of adventure you won’t want to miss. Which miniseries are we talking about? Why, The Sacketts, of course.
The Western Miniseries ‘The Sacketts’ Adapted Louis L’Amour’s Series of Novels
Anyone who has spent any extended amount of time in the Western genre has likely heard the name “Sackett” before. The genre’s most notable and prolific author, Louis L’Amour, penned many mythic tales about the American West, often within the context of the fictional Sackett family. Though L’Amour wrote over 100 novels and countless short stories in his long career, his most recurring characters came from the Sackett series that began with The Daybreakers in 1960. These books were so popular that by 1979, the first two (The Daybreakers and Sackett) were adapted for the small screen in the aforementioned Western miniseries. Just before Selleck made it big time with his work on Magnum P.I. and soon after Lifeguard put Elliott on the map, NBC paired these future Hollywood giants up for a two-part Western adventure decades in the making.
Elliott played the reclusive mountain man Tell Sackett, the eldest of the Sackett brothers, while Selleck was cast as Orrin Sackett, a former lawman who suffered tragedy when his fiancée was shot and killed on their wedding day. Jeff Osterhage joins the duo as their younger brother, Tyrel Sackett, the handiest with a gun.
Over the course of the two-episode series, these three brothers travel west with the desire to make a new life after Tyrel killed the man who attacked his brother and his would-be sister-in-law. This takes them to Texas and eventually New Mexico as the trio settle in Sante Fe, with Orrin and Tyrel working cattle and Tell prospecting for gold. The two-hour affair is a classic horse opera in every respect, with a solid cast that also includes Glenn Fordand Ben Johnson helping to propel this Western epic — which is essentially just an extended TV movie if you watch both parts back-to-back — into the spotlight.
Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott Earn Their Cowboy Spurs in This Epic Western Miniseries
Even before he was known as the ’80s television heartthrob, Tom Selleck knew how to charm audiences in The Sacketts, and his work as Orrin Sackett is the furthest thing from grim you might find in a Western. His charisma, tough exterior, and single-mindedness make Orrin as effective a leading man as in The Daybreakers novel. His continued partnership with his younger brother Tyrel, which is occasionally strained by their competing alliances, makes for some memorable sibling drama, though it never goes too far. After all, if you can’t count on family in the Wild West, who can you trust? Selleck is smooth as ever here, proving himself more than capable of leading a Western. It almost makes us wish that The Sacketts, much like the novels it’s based on, was the beginning of a long-running series rather than a self-contained miniseries.
Likewise, Sam Elliott shines in his own, unique mountain man-type way. While perhaps not as charismatic as he would later appear in Road House or Tombstone, Elliott’s Tell Sackett is not a man to be trifled with. In many ways, he stands in archetypal opposition to his brothers, having retreated to the wilderness to make a life for himself, only to find himself on the run instead. Compared to his brothers, he’s a bit rougher around the edges, and he is mighty effective with a gun. If Orrin and Tyrel are more akin to the resistant lawmen archetypes, then Tell has a bit more in common with Clint Eastwood‘s “Man With No Name” character. Still, it’s fun to see Elliott in such a pivotal but removed role (which helped solidify him as part of the Western genre), one where he can wander in and out of the main narrative as he pleases.
‘The Sacketts’ Is Still Considered One of the Best Adaptations of L’Amour’s Work
Over the years, there have been countless film and television projects adapted from Louis L’Amour’s vast body of work, but The Sacketts remains a clear favorite for longtime Western fans. (Yes, even when compared to John Wayne‘s Hondo.) For one thing, it’s one of the only Sackett series adaptations out there, but for another, it masterfully combines two previously separate stories into one two-part narrative with a cast that perfectly resembles the heroes you read on the page. It’s no wonder that Elliott, Selleck, and Osterhage would return for another L’Amour Western several years later, The Shadow Riders, where they once again played brothers (although this time they were Travens rather than Sacketts). Elliott would star in two more L’Amour adaptations, The Quick and the Dead and Conagher, while Selleck returned to the author’s world once more for Crossfire Trail.
The only real criticism of The Sacketts is that we wish it went beyond this simple two-part story. The engaging production keeps the viewer glued to the screen until the credits roll, and though it’s not based on true events exactly, it feels (much like L’Amour’s novels) like watching history unfold before your eyes. Though admittedly not as grand a production as CBS’s Lonesome Dove a decade later, this NBC miniseries set a high bar for future Western television projects beyond just the standard TV horse opera fare. The Sacketts looked and felt like a feature film, even if the runtime extended beyond the usual movie expectations. It’s no wonder that, to this day, the production is often promoted as a TV movie rather than a miniseries. But whatever classification you give it, one thing is clear: The Sacketts is a wild adventure worth crossing the Old West for.
- Release Date
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1979 – 1978
- Directors
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Robert Totten
- Writers
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Jim Byrnes
