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Nearly two decades before Jeff Bridges starred in “True Grit,” his brother Beau Bridges led a very different sort of Western. The 1993 TV series “Harts of the West” was an innovative contemporary Western comedy that’s now available to stream for free on Tubi and Pluto TV.
Bridges plays Dave Hart, a Chicago lingerie salesman who decides to uproot his wife and three kids to follow his dream of Wild West living. He purchases a dude ranch in a Nevada town with a population of just 90 people, only to find it in total disrepair and his family not particularly pleased with the move. As the story progresses, however, they start to come around.
“Harts of the West” also marked one of the last regular roles that Lloyd Bridges — Beau and Jeff’s father, and a veteran actor himself — ever took. He played Jake, a ranch foreman who nearly shoots Dave when he first checks out his new property, but ends up being a big help to the city slicker-turned-cowboy. Another notable face in the cast was Stephen Root as the town sheriff, who was still early in his career at this point. The series premiered on CBS on September 25, 1993, airing between two other big Westerns: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
Harts of the West was canceled during Season 1 despite a promising start
Reviews for “Harts of the West” didn’t call it one of the best Western TV shows by any means, but they were promising, if nothing else. Variety made note of some problems, but suggested that the show had genuine long-running potential, while USA Today thought the premise could find itself creatively. TV Guide, meanwhile, cautioned that mixing the comedy and Western genres was going to be tricky.
When “Harts of the West” premiered, it and the two Westerns that flanked it all won their time slots. The series finished 20th in the ratings. After that first week, however, viewership for “Harts of the West” started to fall. CBS made the call to cancel the show in the middle of its first season and burned the final four episodes that had already been filmed in June 1994. Somewhat amusingly, four years after Beau Bridges’ time running a dude ranch on TV ended, his brother would become iconic for playing The Dude in “The Big Lebowski.”
Beau Bridges continued to have a prolific and successful TV career after riding off into the sunset, appearing in shows like “Stargate SG-1,” “My Name Is Earl,” and “Masters of Sex.” More recently, Bridges was on the “Matlock” reboot as Senior and “R.J. Decker” as the title character’s father.
