Taylor Sheridan’s TV Career Started On Walker, Texas Ranger: From Bit-Part to Neo-Western Dominance

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Taylor Sheridan is famous for creating the hit TV series Yellowstone, which revitalized Western dramas on television. However, before Yellowstone premiered in 2018, Sheridan had already spent 23 years working in television. In fact, he was a key figure in developing the modern Western TV genre with one of his earlier projects.

Taylor Sheridan is now best known for creating, writing, and producing Western TV shows, and sometimes even appearing in them himself. However, he began his career as an actor, making his first onscreen appearance in a 1995 series that helped popularize modern Westerns on television.

Although Walker, Texas Ranger isn’t typically ranked among the greatest neo-Western TV shows, its influence on hits like Yellowstone and Taylor Sheridan’s new series Landman is significant. It’s notable that the creator of many of today’s popular Westerns first gained experience working on that show.

Taylor Sheridan’s TV Debut Was A Role In Walker, Texas Ranger

While Walker, Texas Ranger is best known for its action and Chuck Norris’s fight skills, it also marked the beginning of Taylor Sheridan’s career in television. He appeared in a two-part episode, “War Zone,” in season 3, playing a drag racer named Vernon who is pursued by Norris’s character.

I remember seeing him in a small role here and there at the beginning of his career – lots of one-off appearances. It’s funny, looking back, because Walker, Texas Ranger actually seemed to really influence his 2016 film, Hell or High Water. That movie is about these incredibly determined Texas Rangers chasing down the people who robbed a bank, and you can definitely see echoes of the show in it.

Walker, Texas Ranger Was The First True Neo-Western TV Show

Image via CBS

Before the 1990s, you wouldn’t find TV shows about cowboys or lawmen trying to live in the present day. Shows like Justified, Longmire, and Fargo were still years away. While Walker, Texas Ranger isn’t as highly regarded as those later series, it was a groundbreaking show when it first aired and really changed the landscape for Westerns on television.

Cordell Walker, similar to characters like Gus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call from Lonesome Dove, is a lawman who carries a gun and works for a special investigations unit in Texas. He’s also a highly skilled fighter, much like Paladin from the classic TV show Have Gun – Will Travel, able to win in a fight against almost anyone.

Chuck Norris is best known for his role as Walker, a character so popular it’s been rebooted with a new lead, Jared Padalecki. However, many fans agree that no one embodies Cordell Walker quite like Chuck Norris himself. Interestingly, his version of Walker was groundbreaking for its time – only the second TV show to update the classic Western lawman for a modern audience.

The show Cade’s County, which aired briefly in the early 1970s, is a hidden treasure that deserves to be rediscovered, especially for its forward-thinking portrayal of Native American communities in contemporary America. While Cade’s County now feels like a show from the past, Walker, Texas Ranger marked the beginning of a new era for TV Westerns.

Taylor Sheridan Now Completely Dominates Neo-Western Television

It’s interesting that Taylor Sheridan became the leading figure in modern Western TV, considering he began with one of the very first shows to revive the genre. While Westerns were already making a comeback on television, Sheridan has undeniably become the most influential creator in the genre over the last ten years.

As a lifelong movie and TV fan, I have to say Taylor Sheridan has completely taken over the Western genre! His Yellowstone universe is massive, and Landman is another huge hit. It’s amazing to think he started with small roles, like when he was on Walker, Texas Ranger. He’s come a long way!

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2026-02-27 22:08