Have you ever dared to dream big and shoot for the moon, only to land among the stars? Roll up your sleeves, saddle up your horses, and hold onto your cowboy hats, because we’ve got to embark on the trailblazing journey of Taylor Sheridan, a once under-the-radar actor who played his cards with a high-stakes gamble and rode into success with the blockbuster TV series, Yellowstone.
Well, that’s precisely the riveting tale of Sheridan, who, after his stint as Deputy David Hale on Sons of Anarchy, bid adieu to acting in pursuit of a new frontier—scriptwriting and producing. With no roadmap but a mightier pen, Sheridan galloped into Hollywood’s exclusive circle, armed with nothing but raw talent and a sheer determination that would even make John Wayne tip his hat.
His audacious pitch for his acclaimed series proved to be a full house that not only won him a seat at the high-stakes table but reshaped the landscapes of neo-western dramas. He claimed that he was unwilling to make any compromises and that he insisted on having the series produced precisely as he saw fit.
Taylor Sheridan’s Fearless Approach: The Pitch That Made Yellowstone a Cultural Phenomenon
Now, if you don’t count the NFL, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone is ruling the cable waves like a lion in pride. Advertisers are flocking to the show like bees to honey, using actors from the series in their commercials to reel in viewers like fish on a line.
In a deep-dive article by Sridhar Pappu for The Atlantic, we learned that Sheridan’s initial demands were so sky-high that he almost shot himself in the foot before the show even galloped out of the gate. It could have been a pipe dream, or he could have turned it into a Larry McMurtry novel—who knows?
But Viacom saw something in Sheridan’s vision—something bold and audacious. They agreed to give him almost complete creative control, letting him write and direct every episode of the first season.
According to the outlet, Sheridan was not afraid to play hardball in those initial meetings. He told Viacom that they would only be “footing the bill” for the show and that no writers’ room would be tolerated. No studio notes, no story outlines—just Sheridan and his cowboy hat calling the shots. Sheridan reportedly told them:
It’s going to cost $90–$100 million. You’re going to be writing a check for horses that’s $50–$75,000 a week.
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And, with a plot involving scheming billionaires and elite ski resorts, Yellowstone needed to look like a million bucks—or, in this case, $90-100 million.
Why HBO Dubbed Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone Concept ‘So Middle America’
Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind Yellowstone, revealed in a comprehensive cover story for The Hollywood Reporter that HBO botched the mega-hit series’ first deal before it ended up at Paramount Network. Though the screenplay was originally intended to be a movie, Sheridan proposed Yellowstone as “The Godfather in Montana”.
Also, the network “did not see it” when Sheridan proposed that Kevin Costner play patriarch John Dutton; instead, they wanted Robert Redford. The former recalled:
They said, ‘If you can get us Robert Redford, we’ll greenlight the pilot’. I drive to Sundance and spend the day with [Redford] and he agrees to play John Dutton. I call the senior vice president in charge of production and say, ‘I got him!’ ‘You got who?’ ‘Robert Redford.’ ‘What?!‘ ‘You said if I got Robert Redford, you’d greenlight the show.’ And he says — and you can’t make this sh*t up—’We meant a Robert Redford type.’
Not long after, Sheridan and Yellowstone co-creator John Linson received an invitation to a meeting to talk about the next steps from an HBO network vice president, whose name the former remembered, “but I am just not saying it”. Sheridan continued:
We go to lunch in some snazzy place in West L.A. And John Linson finally asks, ‘Why don’t you want to make it?’ And the VP goes, ‘Look, it just feels so Middle America. We’re HBO, we’re avant-garde, and we’re trendsetters. This feels like a step backward.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, Yellowstone’s first season was over budget by more than $20 million by the time it was finished, mostly because of script and production delays.
Nevertheless, Sheridan’s involvement with Paramount produced several spinoffs from Yellowstone, and he is also responsible for the success of other Paramount-backed shows like Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and Special Ops: Lioness. After five seasons and the departure of lead actor Kevin Costner, the original series Yellowstone will wrap up later this year (November 10, 2024).