Think NYPD Blue, but With Stetsons

By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

A Western set in 1876 with the downer title Deadwood may not sound like a promising addition to HBO's spring 2004 lineup. But it has gold diggers, prostitutes, gunslingers and criminals and is being created by David Milch of NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues. Plus, Milch deadpans, "it's in color!"

Deadwood was the epicenter of a gold rush in what is now South Dakota. Just one small problem: the land had previously been "given" to the Indians. "Custer was sent in to strong-arm the Indians, and we all know how that turned out," says Milch. The story begins two weeks after Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn and features fictional characters like a marshal turned merchant played by Timothy Olyphant (Gone in Sixty Seconds) as well as historical figures like "Wild Bill" Hickok (Keith Carradine).

To Milch, the times felt right for the story. "In the aftermath of 9/11, people are so guarded emotionally, savaged by what they experienced through TV," he says. When fiction can't possibly trump the headlines, taking viewers out of a contemporary setting can help them check their disbelief at the door. Don't expect chaste, old-fashioned behavior, though; there's already buzz about the skin, violence and language. "I'm just trying to get that world right," says Milch, who helped bring nudity to prime time in NYPD Blue. "When a man was killed in Deadwood, he was fed to the pigs." Even the Sopranos haven't tried that. --By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen