I only saw one episode of this series when it first aired, due to the fact that I didn't have cable at the time, and I couldn't get the station very well. I bought this on DVD and watched it a couple of weeks ago. The feel of the first episode was quite up to the pilot, but then the series soon found its own way. Pity it was canceled so soon. Legend probably suffered from being behind its time, as westerns just weren't popular (note the cancellation of my favorite, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. the previous year). But it was also ahead of its time, with one episode featuring, get this, a version of a small flying spy drone! There were fun supporting characters, and guest stars, such as Robert Englund, William Russ, and John Pyper-Ferguson, fresh from the canceled Brisco County Jr. still looking & sounding much like Pete Hutter. I suggest everyone to get this one on DVD!!
13 Reviews
Wonderful character concept
VetteRanger12 February 2023
I've known about this show for a few years ... never knew about it in UPN's first season, where they ran it from April to August of 1995. In doing some research, it turns out that UPN's management changed after their first year, and the new management had their own ideas for programming. So despite Legend's quality cast and scripts, they didn't pick it back up.
The show has a dynamite premise ... an author of dime Western novels, who is also a womanizer and often drunk ... becomes involved in a series of real adventures. At first he's unwilling, but is prodded into it by the idea of more ideas for novels.
The show has been called a "science fiction Western", but I think that's a slight misnomer. It's more a steampunk Western, as most of the technology introduced into the show is ahead of its time rather than simply theorized. Even an electric zapper weapon is much like a Taser.
The show has a dynamite premise ... an author of dime Western novels, who is also a womanizer and often drunk ... becomes involved in a series of real adventures. At first he's unwilling, but is prodded into it by the idea of more ideas for novels.
The show has been called a "science fiction Western", but I think that's a slight misnomer. It's more a steampunk Western, as most of the technology introduced into the show is ahead of its time rather than simply theorized. Even an electric zapper weapon is much like a Taser.
Clever premise, great actors, good writing . . . lousy network
david.richmond20 April 2002
If there ever was a show that deserved a fair chance to find its audience, or for its audience to find it, it was Legend. It had everything going for it. Everything except network executives with the discernment to recognize what they had. Anderson and de Lancy were the perfect actors for the roles of Pratt/Legend and Bartok, and the chemistry between them was pure magic. I haven't enjoyed a show with such an outrageous premise and sly humor since The Wild Wild West.
I place Legend in the small and sad category of TV shows that truly died before their time.
I place Legend in the small and sad category of TV shows that truly died before their time.
I have been a fan since UPN went on the air, and this was part of the network
ripjarvis22 March 2007
If "The Wild, Wild West" and "Maverick" had a child, it would have been "Legend." How could anyone ask for a better issue? I watch my home burned DVD's often. The 11 episodes, plus the double length pilot film are smart, funny and exciting. While I don't think there will be a new series (Anderson, it seems, has left SG-1 because of the time it takes him away from his family), it would be a great thing should the occasionally TV film could be brought out. It would be wonderful to see what Bartok could use to bring Pratt out of retirement. Perhaps if a young impersonator calling himself Legend was involved in something illegal, that might be enough. Whatever it would take, I would be right there to watch. Here's hoping.
One of the best SCI-FI westerns
ronmccraw9 August 2006
I loved the show when it was on. I never missed an episode. Unfortunately, they canceled it. That seems to happen a lot to TV shows that are original and brilliant like this one.
I am something of an amateur history buff and the idea of a show set in the late 1800's Colorado that looked forward to the things we take for granted today was incredible. How many young men were attracted to travel west back then because of dime-store novels like those produced by Nicodemus Legend? Of course, the truth never quite lived up to the fiction.
Now that "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr" is out on DVD, will Paramount see the light and release this series on DVD?
I am something of an amateur history buff and the idea of a show set in the late 1800's Colorado that looked forward to the things we take for granted today was incredible. How many young men were attracted to travel west back then because of dime-store novels like those produced by Nicodemus Legend? Of course, the truth never quite lived up to the fiction.
Now that "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr" is out on DVD, will Paramount see the light and release this series on DVD?
Only One Wild Wild West is Necessary
aramis-112-8048804 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Richard Dean Anderson stars as western dime novelist Ernest Pratt (not dime-store novelist as one storyline writer has it, showing off more than he knows) who has created a larger-than-life literary character called Nicodemus Legend. Legend is the typical pure-hearted fighter for right. Pratt is a hard-drinking, whoring, cowardly anti-hero. Yet everyone believed the author Pratt and the Legend character are one. Funny: it's ignorant people who do it in the series but academics and grad students working on dissertations who make the same mistake today. Anyhow, Pratt is more interested in his royalties than in right.
He's befriended by a scientist working in isolation in Colorado (working strongly with electricity, sort of like Tesla). The scientist (played by John de Lancie) helps Pratt live up to his reputation as Legend. Though Pratt would rather be left out of any rough stuff.
The good: Anderson has a flair for comedy though he mugs too much. His MacGyver was always kind and courteous but his Pratt dien little to make himself likeable, though he is. Bob Balaban pops in from time to time as a representative from Pratt's publisher who is a burr under Pratt's saddle. And I like the sense of rollicking fun pervading the series.
Unfortunately, the show's shortcomings are legion.
First, the history is little better than F-Troop. The writers of the later Deadwood admitted that while there was lots of cussin' in the old west the words they scripted weren't accurate and they used them to shock. I wonder if the "Legend" writers ever so much as cracked open a book on the west.
I know, it's not a documentary series, but little things mount up. In the year he died, in the series, Wild Bill Hickok claims he never saw an ocean. Hickok actually traveled the east with Buffalo Bill and did plays in places like New York where he could easily have seen an ocean. In an episode where Custer shows up he's referred to as General and he's wearing stars. During the Civil War he was breveted to general but after the war reverted to a lesser rank. It's possible some people might've continued giving him the courtesy rank of general but he certainly would not have worn stars, especially at the time he was going up against . . .Not the War Department, as the series has it, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was incredibly corrupt. In another episode they suggest hiring Kit Carson as a tracker, though Carson died eight years earlier.
I could continue the list but I'll stop with John de Lancie's character, based loosely on Tesla, who despises Edison. In fact, the year this series was set Edison was setting up his invention factory in New Jersey. The inventor says Edison's working on moving pictures, though Edison wouldn't start work on that for more than a decade. If he hated Edison that's much it's probably because Edison had two hard-and-fast rules about his inventions: first, find the market; second, find the financing. It flies in the face of what we deluded modern people think inventors should be (though why should inventors be less interested in royalties than writers?) De Lancie's character is probably envious that Edison is not only a genius, he understands how to turn a buck.
De Lancie's Hungarian accent (Tesla was Serbian) is annoying. And he's always critical of his American hosts. It's one thing for "more sophisticated" Americans to criticize things, but how'd the Hungarians like a show with an American going over there and constantly pointing out how ignorant they all are? In all things, remember the Golden Rule. Treat others as if you were the others. I've like de Lancie since catching him on "Days of Our Lives" but here he's annoying. It was one thing for Ray Walston to point out shortcomings in "My Favorite Martian" but it rubs a people's fur the wrong way to be told week after week what numbskulls they are.
It's funny how the writers do a good job digging out archaic words and phrases but do such rotten history. But the historical inaccuracies didn't sink this ship. US citizens are particularly uninterested in their history. Which is why p.c. Charlatans so easily pull the wool over their eyes with lies and half-truths.
I have no axe to grind against revisionist or subversive westerns. Two of my favorite movies are James Garner's "Support" flicks. Both are hilarious, and definitely untraditional.
Nor am I against redress for failures of the past. But the way to redress a barn burning on one end isn't setting fire to the other end. It's everyone working together to douse the flames before the whole shebang burns down.
BTW, I also have no qualms about the steampunk elements, of inventions appearing before they were possible. I think that's grand. It's what encouraged me to try the series in 2023, twenty-five years later (it took me so long because I frankly never heard of the thing before happening up on it accidentally).
Also, unlike the shows I grew up with in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it's dark and unwelcome. That probably is a problem of my age. Young people starting in the 1990s seem to prefer the dark and gloomy and I don't. Perhaps they kept the color to a minimum to contrast against Anderson when he dons his Legend suits. But on a personal note, I don't like it.
It's a darn good premise: dime novelist concerned only with the bottom line but who is often mistaken for his caring character is befriended by steampunk inventor and together they right wrongs in the west. Works for me.
But westerns have been tricky since the 1960s and some good ideas, like "Nichols" and "Best of the West" bit the dust all too soon due to faulty carry-through. And by the 1990s it was nearly impossible.
The censors of the day killed "The Wild Wild West" as too violent. Too bad. It was wonderful. Comic westerns are problematic because if you present comic situations involving Indians or Mexicans the p.c. Inquisitors label it racist as if merely involving people in comic situations is making fun of them. That's because p.c.-erstwhile are self-righteous dimwits with no sense of humor. Humorless censors, especially ignorant ones like p.c. Censors, are always the people to fear.
Overall, while I loved the pilot, the series never lived up to its promise. And it had an inexplicable mean streak. And, in the long run, steampunk is really a subset of a subset. I admire it in the abstract but it's rarely done well. And it has a very minority appeal, and I don't mean minority in a good way. I mean unless it's done wonderfully and surpasses expectation it's audience will be small. And Legend was not that wonderfully done and didn't surpass my expectations.
He's befriended by a scientist working in isolation in Colorado (working strongly with electricity, sort of like Tesla). The scientist (played by John de Lancie) helps Pratt live up to his reputation as Legend. Though Pratt would rather be left out of any rough stuff.
The good: Anderson has a flair for comedy though he mugs too much. His MacGyver was always kind and courteous but his Pratt dien little to make himself likeable, though he is. Bob Balaban pops in from time to time as a representative from Pratt's publisher who is a burr under Pratt's saddle. And I like the sense of rollicking fun pervading the series.
Unfortunately, the show's shortcomings are legion.
First, the history is little better than F-Troop. The writers of the later Deadwood admitted that while there was lots of cussin' in the old west the words they scripted weren't accurate and they used them to shock. I wonder if the "Legend" writers ever so much as cracked open a book on the west.
I know, it's not a documentary series, but little things mount up. In the year he died, in the series, Wild Bill Hickok claims he never saw an ocean. Hickok actually traveled the east with Buffalo Bill and did plays in places like New York where he could easily have seen an ocean. In an episode where Custer shows up he's referred to as General and he's wearing stars. During the Civil War he was breveted to general but after the war reverted to a lesser rank. It's possible some people might've continued giving him the courtesy rank of general but he certainly would not have worn stars, especially at the time he was going up against . . .Not the War Department, as the series has it, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was incredibly corrupt. In another episode they suggest hiring Kit Carson as a tracker, though Carson died eight years earlier.
I could continue the list but I'll stop with John de Lancie's character, based loosely on Tesla, who despises Edison. In fact, the year this series was set Edison was setting up his invention factory in New Jersey. The inventor says Edison's working on moving pictures, though Edison wouldn't start work on that for more than a decade. If he hated Edison that's much it's probably because Edison had two hard-and-fast rules about his inventions: first, find the market; second, find the financing. It flies in the face of what we deluded modern people think inventors should be (though why should inventors be less interested in royalties than writers?) De Lancie's character is probably envious that Edison is not only a genius, he understands how to turn a buck.
De Lancie's Hungarian accent (Tesla was Serbian) is annoying. And he's always critical of his American hosts. It's one thing for "more sophisticated" Americans to criticize things, but how'd the Hungarians like a show with an American going over there and constantly pointing out how ignorant they all are? In all things, remember the Golden Rule. Treat others as if you were the others. I've like de Lancie since catching him on "Days of Our Lives" but here he's annoying. It was one thing for Ray Walston to point out shortcomings in "My Favorite Martian" but it rubs a people's fur the wrong way to be told week after week what numbskulls they are.
It's funny how the writers do a good job digging out archaic words and phrases but do such rotten history. But the historical inaccuracies didn't sink this ship. US citizens are particularly uninterested in their history. Which is why p.c. Charlatans so easily pull the wool over their eyes with lies and half-truths.
I have no axe to grind against revisionist or subversive westerns. Two of my favorite movies are James Garner's "Support" flicks. Both are hilarious, and definitely untraditional.
Nor am I against redress for failures of the past. But the way to redress a barn burning on one end isn't setting fire to the other end. It's everyone working together to douse the flames before the whole shebang burns down.
BTW, I also have no qualms about the steampunk elements, of inventions appearing before they were possible. I think that's grand. It's what encouraged me to try the series in 2023, twenty-five years later (it took me so long because I frankly never heard of the thing before happening up on it accidentally).
Also, unlike the shows I grew up with in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it's dark and unwelcome. That probably is a problem of my age. Young people starting in the 1990s seem to prefer the dark and gloomy and I don't. Perhaps they kept the color to a minimum to contrast against Anderson when he dons his Legend suits. But on a personal note, I don't like it.
It's a darn good premise: dime novelist concerned only with the bottom line but who is often mistaken for his caring character is befriended by steampunk inventor and together they right wrongs in the west. Works for me.
But westerns have been tricky since the 1960s and some good ideas, like "Nichols" and "Best of the West" bit the dust all too soon due to faulty carry-through. And by the 1990s it was nearly impossible.
The censors of the day killed "The Wild Wild West" as too violent. Too bad. It was wonderful. Comic westerns are problematic because if you present comic situations involving Indians or Mexicans the p.c. Inquisitors label it racist as if merely involving people in comic situations is making fun of them. That's because p.c.-erstwhile are self-righteous dimwits with no sense of humor. Humorless censors, especially ignorant ones like p.c. Censors, are always the people to fear.
Overall, while I loved the pilot, the series never lived up to its promise. And it had an inexplicable mean streak. And, in the long run, steampunk is really a subset of a subset. I admire it in the abstract but it's rarely done well. And it has a very minority appeal, and I don't mean minority in a good way. I mean unless it's done wonderfully and surpasses expectation it's audience will be small. And Legend was not that wonderfully done and didn't surpass my expectations.
One silver lining in the black cloud of "Legend"'s cancellation
cellogirl26 March 2005
Like everyone else who's posted here, I reveled in "Legend." It was one of the few TV shows on any network that I made an effort to see every week. I've also been kicking myself for ten years that I didn't record it when it aired! John de Lancie & Richard Dean Anderson had wonderful chemistry, & it was obvious how much fun RDA had, finally getting to flex his comedic muscles after seven years as straight-arrow MacGyver.
The bright side, if any, to "Legend"s cancellation is that it freed Richard Dean Anderson up to work on "Stargate SG-1" the following year. How drab would television be had he not gone down _that_ path? The first time de Lancie showed up on "Stargate SG-1," I giggled & thought "It's Bartok!"
The bright side, if any, to "Legend"s cancellation is that it freed Richard Dean Anderson up to work on "Stargate SG-1" the following year. How drab would television be had he not gone down _that_ path? The first time de Lancie showed up on "Stargate SG-1," I giggled & thought "It's Bartok!"
Awesome show
Rio-75 August 1999
And only one of the ones on UPN, besides Voyager, that I used to watch...USED to watch. I was heart-broken when UPN took it off. Seems like pretty much all of their shows fail. In my opinion, they never gave it a chance. I was in the process of writing a Legend novel when the show was trashed.
The show's plot was original and out of this world. I miss it.
The show's plot was original and out of this world. I miss it.
A great show
Lucian-31 April 1999
Funny, well written, decent characters. Bartok was a great character, especially in his scenes with the German hunters. Ramos, with his indeterminately long Harvard stay, really went beyond the stereotypical "Mexican sidekick".
Pity it never found an audience and joins the ranks of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Wild Wild West, sci-fi westerns that have gone too soon.
Pity it never found an audience and joins the ranks of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Wild Wild West, sci-fi westerns that have gone too soon.
Quirky, charming, fun
basimah23 March 2003
This ranks up there as one of my 3 all-time favorite series. They could not have picked a better cast, from the charming leads to the quirky minor characters. Anderson obviously had a ball playing Legend, and he is an absolute scream to watch. The writing was also delightful, with all sorts of goofy little touches. The bank robber episode gave me the biggest laugh I've ever had watching a tv show. Kudos to everyone involved with the series! It is truly one of television's greatest gems. And to UPN - since you saw fit to deprive us of this wonderful series, at least have a heart and bring it back for an occasional tv movie.
UPN lost one of the only good shows they ever had
lordpres9 December 2000
As webmaster of The Unofficial Nicodemus Legend Page (please use a search engine if you want to find it, as IMDB requests that URLs not be included), I've been in a position to learn much about "Legend" in the five years since its untimely demise. This was a show almost universally loved, yet killed when a station not yet available in most of the country couldn't get ratings. Richard Dean Anderson and John DeLancie both cite "Legend" as among their favorite projects of all time. It is my hope that Paramount (or whoever currently holds the rights to this program) will eventually release the episodes to videotape. Or better yet, maybe some company could get the rights to a new series. Given a chance to GET the audience (which UPN never gave it) this is a show that could be very successful.
One of the best
bdwoolf29 October 2001
Legend ranks up there as one of the best vehicles that Richard Dean Anderson has ever done. His character(s) of Ernest Pratt/Nicodemus Legend were unique to anything he had ever done before. RDA admits that this was the project that he loved the best patterning Ernest Pratt after his grandfather. It would be wonderful if Paramount, who still owns the rights to the show, would allow Mr. Anderson and Mr. de Lancie to reprise their roles in a made for TV movie. Both have said that they would be delighted to do so. For anyone who hasn't seen this delightful show, check with TVLand who has shown it at least once in the past.
Legend
frizbat-15 May 2006
God, I loved this series. Luckily, I taped them. Bartok was indeed a Tesla clone. What a wonderful, imaginative, wholesome show this was. I knew it was doomed because it was so good and so weird. The main character seemed to be base upon Ned Buntline, a 19th century writer who wrote stories and dime novel popularizations about Western heroes such as Wild Bill Cody. His own life was as colorful as the characters about whom he wrote. Richard Dean Anderson's next venture, Stargate SG-1, is one of the very best Sci-Fi shows ever, and is one of my very favorite all-time TV shows. Of course, it is a continuation of the "Stargate" movie starring Kurt Russel. What a great show. Intelligent, exciting and funny. Just love it.
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