Legend (TV series)
Legend is a science fiction western television series that ran on UPN from April 18, 1995, until August 22, 1995, with one final re-airing of the pilot on July 3, 1996. It starred Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie. Plot. Ernest Pratt, a gambling, womanizing, cowardly, hard-drinking writer has created a dashing literary hero, Nicodemus Legend, the main character in a series of wildly imaginative dime novels set in the untamed West. Because Pratt writes the novels in the first person and has posed as Legend for their cover art, many readers believe that  Pratt is Nicodemus Legend. In the pilot episode, when Pratt learns that Nicodemus Legend has been impersonated and a warrant issued for his arrest, he travels to the scene of the incident to clear the name of his protagonist. Pratt meets up with the impersonator, a great admirer of his tales, the eccentric European scientist Janos Bartoka Nikola Tesla analogue who had been Thomas Edison's research partnerand his brilliant assistant Huitzilopochtli Ramos, who has taken every single course Harvard University had to offer. Bartok "borrowed" the Legend persona in order to help the townspeople of Sheridan, Colorado. They enlist  the reluctant Pratt to their cause, and show him how their scientific expertise and outlandish inventions (frequently based on ideas from Pratt's books) can bolster the impression that Pratt really is Nicodemus Legend. Bartok says: Your celebrity has the power to give our enemies pause. My science can increase that reputation. And together, we will create the real Legend. Suffering from writer's block, under pressure from his publishers, and inspired, in spite of himself, at the thought of doing real good, Pratt reluctantly agrees to assume the persona of his literary creation and to live as the image  he created of an adventurous and heroic man. Together, they adventure throughout the West solving mysteries, capturing wrong-doers, and making scientific discoveries. Production. Development. "Legend" was originally conceived as a TV movie before it was picked up as a series. Filming. It was shot on location in Mescal and Tucson, Arizona, from January to June 1995. Broadcast history. The series was a Gekko Film Corp production in association with Bill & Mike Productions for Paramount Network Television, broadcast on UPN. Twelve episodes were aired, including the 2-hour pilot episode. Despite critical praise, this program aired during UPN's first  year of existence and after a change in network management, along with lower than expected ratings, the show was canceled along with almost every other program aired on the UPN lineup. TV Land aired reruns of all episodes around 1999. Other media. DVD. On January 5, 2016, Mill Creek Entertainment released "Legend – The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. However, over ten hours of runtime is spread on just two discs, which means a sub-standard bitrate. Novels. While no actual "Legend" novels were produced, several titles were referenced in the series, in keeping  with the plot device of using gimmicks from Pratt's novels. Reception. Jeff Jarvis of "TV Guide" appreciated the show's attempt to follow up "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.", as another western with wry humor, but he ultimately didn't recommend it. Jarvis said that while the show is "cute" and that Anderson and de Lancie "click together", he called the show "dull" when it should be "exciting". David Bianculli of the Daily News received "Legend" more positively. He liked the two starring actors, and said the western science-fiction format of the show "provides far more fun , and sly intelligence, than viewers might initially suspect." Writing in the "New York Post", John Podhoretz called "Legend" "a gorgeous amalgam of science fiction and old-fashioned Western," noting it was "eerily similar" to "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." He said the pilot episode was "an engaging piece of work" which was "photographed with stunning care and taste."