Let’s Talk About Brisco

Of course, I mean the wonderful Weird Western Bruce Campbell show that ran for a single season on the Fox Broadcasting Co. back in 1993-1994: ‘The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.’

Go here for a fond, detailed retrospective.

My quarantine binge-watching led me back to this show and happy memories of its direct ancestor, ‘The Wild Wild West’ (the 60s Robert Conrad TV show, not the clumsy 1999 Will Smith movie). 

‘West’ was promoted originally as ‘James Bond on horseback’, and the show’s vivid costuming was seen as a way to advertise then-new color television technology. 

Both shows were *magic*: a mix of cowboy-drama tropes, espionage thrillers, tongue-in-cheek humor, scifi & fantasy touches, great characters, humanist & futurist ideals, and fairly high production values.

Plus, some very gorgeous, er, costumes…

Image courtesy of IMDB
Image courtesy of IMDB

Steampunk was already a Thing in the early 90s, though on the fringes of popular Fandom. ‘Brisco County’ and ‘Wild Wild West’ have indelible influences on modern steampunk & Weird West stories.

They both deserve boosting! ‘Brisco’ is currently available on Amazon Prime (probably a few other streaming services). I caught ‘Wild Wild West’ on the MeTv channel, but it might be on CBS now.