Lonesome Dove is a 1989 American epic Western adventure television miniseries directed by Simon Wincer.

The miniseries stars an ensemble cast headed by Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call.

The series was originally broadcast by CBS from February 5 to 8, 1989, drawing a huge viewing audience, earning numerous awards, and reviving both the television Western and the miniseries.

An estimated 26 million homes tuned in to watch Lonesome Dove, unusually high numbers at that time for both a Western and a miniseries.

He reveals that he is a fugitive after having accidentally shot the dentist and mayor of Fort Smith, Arkansas, in a bar-room gunfight.

Meanwhile, the men of Lonesome Dove make preparations for their adventure north, including stealing 2,500 horses and cattle from across the Rio Grande in Mexico, befriending two lost Irish immigrants, Allan and Sean O'Brien, and being joined by nearly all of the male citizens of the town.

Jake decides not to travel with the herd, mainly because he promises to take the town's only prostitute, Lorena "Lorie" Wood, to San Francisco via Denver.

Some time later the group survives a huge dust storm, but Sean, one of the Irishmen, is attacked by water moccasins while crossing the Nueces River.

While travelling through a forest in east Texas, Roscoe encounters Janey, a young girl fleeing from an old abusive "owner".

Meanwhile, Johnson's wife Elmira arrives by boat at Bent's Fort, Colorado, and sets off overland across the plains with two hunters interested in her following.

Gus, having killed his horse for cover on the flat plains, is pinned down by the bandits' gunfire until nightfall, when Sheriff Johnson's party arrives and scares them off.

Meanwhile, in a saloon in Fort Worth, oblivious of Lorie's ordeal, Jake Spoon falls in with a gang that is headed north to rob banks in Kansas.

Jake, with his head in the noose, then spurs his own horse which causes it to run from underneath him; effectively hanging himself, much to the shock and dismay of his former friends.

By chance, Elmira and the buffalo hunters arrive at the home of Gus' old sweetheart, Clara Allen, near the Platte River in Nebraska.

Elmira gives birth to a son, but abandons the child with Clara and goes to Ogallala in search of Dee Boot.

Some U.S. cavalry soldiers attempt to commandeer the group's horses, and things intensify when their scout both brutally beats top cowhand Dishwater "Dish" Boggett and viciously whips Newt when they resist, prompting an enraged Call to savagely beat the scout and nearly kill him before Gus restrains him with a lasso.

Leaving the main group to scout ahead with Pea Eye Parker, Gus decides to pursue some buffalo.

After a long journey, Call arrives at Santa Rosa, New Mexico Territory, where Blue Duck has finally been captured.

While being led to the gallows, Blue Duck grabs deputy Robert Hofer and throws himself out a window, choosing a murder-suicide rather than allow himself to be hanged.

Despite blizzards, a broken wagon, and the loss of the coffin, Call finally succeeds in burying Gus after a journey of some 3,000 miles (4,828 km).

Larry McMurtry's original novel was based upon a screenplay that he had co-written with Peter Bogdanovich for a movie that was intended to star John Wayne as Call, James Stewart as Gus, and Henry Fonda as Jake Spoon, but the project collapsed when John Ford advised Wayne to reject the script.

[citation needed] Most Hollywood studios were at first not interested in the rights to the novel, which ended up being bought by Motown Productions, headed by Suzanne de Passe.

Robert Halmi's company was being taken over at that time by Qintex whose head of American operations, David Evans, suggested Simon Wincer as director.

Bronson agreed to play Blue Duck but he was under contract to Cannon Films who said he was required to make a movie for them instead.

[4] The majority of the miniseries was filmed at the Moody Ranch, seven miles (11.3 km) south of Del Rio, Texas.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Headlined by Robert Duvall's sublimely rowdy performance, Lonesome Dove brings Larry McMurtry's beloved book to resounding life in an epic treatment that broadens the possibilities of what the silver screen is capable of.

[14] The series was also deemed Program of the Year by the National Television Critics Association, as well as Outstanding Dramatic Achievement.

In a 2003 TRIO Network Special, TRIO ranked Lonesome Dove third in a list of ten outstanding miniseries, beginning from the time the format was created[15] The score for Lonesome Dove was composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris, his first western and the first of his five scores for director Simon Wincer - Poledouris subsequently scored the director's next four theatrical films (Quigley Down Under, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Free Willy and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles).

In 1993 Cabin Fever Music released an album of selections from his score; Sonic Images issued an expansion in 1998.