Walker, Texas Ranger is an American action crime television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film Lone Wolf McQuade, with both the film and the series starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show was produced by Cannon Television (1993), Top Kick Productions (seasons 1–5), Norris Brothers Entertainment (seasons 6–9), The Ruddy/Greif Company, Columbia Pictures Television and CBS Productions and premiered on CBS on April 21, 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full seasons followed with new episodes airing from September 25, 1993, to May 19, 2001, and reruns continuing on CBS until July 28, 2001. It has been broadcast in over 100 countries and spawned a 2005 television film entitled Trial by Fire. The film ended on a cliffhanger, which was never resolved. DVD sets of all seasons have been released (with the three pilots packaged with the first regular season). At various times since 1997, reruns of the show have aired, in syndication, on the USA Network and Action in Canada. Reruns are currently seen on Legend, INSP, getTV, Pluto TV, Heroes & Icons, 10 Bold, Peacock, Up TV and Hulu.
The series was noted for its moralistic style. The main characters refrained from the use of drugs and participated in community service. Martial arts were displayed prominently as the primary tool of law enforcement and occasionally as a tool for Walker and company to reach out to the community.
A reboot entitled Walker, starring Jared Padalecki, debuted on The CW in 2021, where it ran for four seasons.
Contents
Premise
The show was initially developed by executive producer Allison Moore and supervising producer J. Michael Straczynski when the series was still being produced by Cannon Television. While Straczynski had to depart to get his new series Babylon 5 on the air, executive producer David Moessinger remained to finish developing the series. The show is centered on Sergeant Cordell Walker (Norris), a Dallas–Fort Worth-based member of the Texas Rangers, a state-level bureau of investigation. Walker was raised by his paternal uncle, an American Indian named Ray Firewalker (Floyd Red Crow Westerman, pilot episode, season 1; Apesanahkwat, season 2). The surname is, possibly, a nod to the 1986 Norris film, Firewalker. Cordell, prior to joining the Rangers, served in the Marines' elite Recon unit during the Vietnam War. Both Cordell and Uncle Ray share the values characteristic of Wild West sheriffs.
His partner and best friend is James "Jimmy" Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), a former Dallas Cowboys player, "Go Long Trivette", who takes a more modern approach. Walker's young partner grew up in Baltimore and used football as his ticket to college education. He was dropped from the team after he tore up his shoulder in a major game, which led to his career in the Rangers (often making references to watching the Lone Ranger and how C.D. Parker mentored him as a rookie officer). Trivette also works inside the office using computers and cellular phones to collate information of the people who have been taken into custody.
Walker also works closely with (and shares a mutual attraction to) Alexandra "Alex" Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson), a Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney, who on occasion puts up a frown if Walker does not obtain results in time. He also gets advice on cases from C.D. Parker (Gailard Sartain, pilot season; Noble Willingham, seasons 1–7), a veteran Ranger (later inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame) who worked with Walker (and is the only character on the show to address Walker by his first name Cordell on a regular basis) until retiring to operate a small restaurant and bar called "CD's Bar and Grill", a restaurant widely known in the series for its chili. In season 7, two rookie Texas Rangers, Sydney Cooke (Nia Peeples) and Francis Gage (Judson Mills), are assigned under Walker and Trivette's command.
The series was well known during its run for its product placement deal with Chrysler, especially its Dodge division. After Walker used a GMC Sierra during the first season, he switched to the Dodge Ram (which at the start of the second season was completely redesigned for 1994), which would be advertised during commercial breaks. Other members of the cast often used other Chrysler vehicles, while villains would drive vehicles from General Motors or Ford Motor Company. This was not unlike The Andy Griffith Show, which exclusively used Ford vehicles due to a sponsorship deal with Andy Griffith. Coincidentally, the show ended just as Dodge was getting ready to redesign the Ram again for the 2002 model year, but the 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10 was used later in the movie Trial by Fire, driven by Walker.
Cast and characters
Main
Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger Sergeant Cordell Walker, a former Marine and a modern-day Ranger who believes in the Code of the Old West. He is a decorated Vietnam vet and a martial arts expert, who also runs a martial arts program called 'Kick Drugs Out of America'. He is half-Cherokee and half-Irish. As a child in Oklahoma, his parents were murdered by White supremacists. He wound up living on the Cherokee Reservation with his Uncle Ray, where he was trained to use his instincts and learned to hunt game and catch rattlesnakes. He is the show's main protagonist. Norris also portrays Hayes Cooper, a 19th-century lawman whom Walker admired, who went from a career bounty hunter to Texas Ranger with connections to various Indian tribes in the West.
Clarence Gilyard as Texas Ranger Sergeant James "Jimmy" Trivette, Walker's partner and best friend. He is a former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys where he was a wide receiver and a trained boxer. After suffering an injury in the NFL, he joined the Dallas PD. His first encounter with Walker was when he saved him from a group of rioters. He made the Rangers with his impressive arrest record.
Sheree J. Wilson as Tarrant County Assistant D.A. Alexandra "Alex" Cahill, whom Walker later dates for a few seasons and finally marries. Aside from her work as a lawyer, she also runs a non-profit organization to assist troublesome teens called the H.O.P.E. (Help Our People Excel) Foundation.
Gailard Sartain (pilot) and Noble Willingham (seasons 1–8) as retired Texas Ranger Captain C.D. Parker, Walker's buddy and ex-partner who owns a bar-restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, and is the only one to address Walker by his first name Cordell regularly. Despite being retired, he regularly assists Walker and Trivette. At the end of season 4, he was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. C.D. was written out midway the eighth season (due to Willingham leaving the show to run for Congress), with it said that he is on a cruise around the world, which leaves him unable to attend Walker and Alex's wedding. He later unexpectedly dies off-screen early in the final season while on a fishing trip, presumably of a heart attack, but the series finale ultimately reveals that C.D. was murdered by ricin poisoning by Emile Lavocat, as the start of a revenge plot against the Company B Texas Rangers.
Floyd Westerman (pilot season & season 1) and Apesanahkwat (guest season 2) as Walker's paternal uncle Ray Firewalker, also known as Uncle Ray. He raised Cordell after his parents—John and Elizabeth Firewalker—were murdered. Ray disappears at the end of the second season and is later revealed to have died during the sixth-season episode "Lucas".
Recurring
John Amos ("Sons of Thunder") and Paul Winfield ("The Soul of Winter") as Roscoe Jones, the father of Adam Jones and the minister who replaced Trent Malloy's late father, Thunder Malloy, as pastor of the First Christian Church of Dallas. His son, Adam, is the best friend of Trent's younger brother, Tommy. He'd been honorably discharged a year after Thunder was, but they'd also had a brush with a white supremacist by the name of Stan Gorman, who went on to become the leader of a neo-Nazi organization known as the Sons of the Reich.
Michael Beck as Adam McGuire, a former IRA terrorist who now seeks peace for Northern Ireland. He is under constant threat by his former comrades and has a daughter, Jennifer, who is suffering from leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant.
Tobin Bell as Karl Storm, a dangerous arms dealer who plotted revenge against Alex, another attorney, and two police detectives, for taking him down five years prior, by hitting them at a wedding. He shot Alex and put her in a coma, when the bullet was intended for Walker, just before Walker was going to propose to her. Walker later killed Storm in a fight, in which Storm fell onto his own knife.
Eloy Casados as Sheriff Sam Coyote, the sheriff of the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma and a childhood friend of Walkers.
Julio Cesar Cedillo as Ernesto Lopez, a former gangbanger who turned his life around and joined the Marines. He was almost killed by his former gang in order to provoke his younger brother, Tommy, in joining to provoke a gangland war. After he was accused of rape and exonerated, he was murdered by rogue Brookdale PD cops who assumed he beat the system unfairly only to discover he was innocent.
Tony Denison as Michael Westmoreland, an ex-CIA operative working as a contract killer along with his girlfriend, Dierdre Harris, who is ex-CIA as well. He disguises his target hits as a string of serial killings, in which eleven unaffiliated targets are killed as well, and his weapon of choice are knives made from dry ice, so that no murder weapon would be recovered. He was hired by Johnson Carter to kill Alex as her wedding was approaching in order to escape prosecution. He failed to kill her and almost killed her father Gordon in the process. Carter, who was threatened by Walker, attempted to call off the hit, but Westmoreland refused to cancel the contract; however, he agreed to an extension if Walker was killed first. When Dierdre was killed attempting to kill Walker, he plotted revenge. After Carter was prosecuted and Walker and Alex was wedded, he killed a flight attendant and stole a uniform in which he was plotted to kill them both on the flight to Paris. He was killed with his own gun by Walker, but not before killing the pilots, leaving Walker to land the plane.
Reception
Nielsen ratings
The show was quite successful in the ratings throughout its run, ranking among the top 25 shows from 1995 until 1999, and ranking in the Top 20 in both the 1995–1996 and 1998–1999 seasons.
(1993–1994) 11.7 rating, No. 41
(1994–1995) 11.2 rating, No. 41
(1995–1996) 12.3 rating, No. 18
(1996–1997) 11.0 rating, No. 24
(1997–1998) 14.4 million viewers, No. 21
(1998–1999) 14.4 million viewers, No. 15
(1999–2000) 12.2 million viewers, No. 34
(2000–2001) 10.3 million viewers, No. 62
Critical reception
In October 1993, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a C+.
Critic "Average Joe" Queenan thoroughly roasted the series, particularly over targeting a wider audience than suited for its late-night timeslot. He called the show "...so corny and predictable that it appears to be in slow-motion even when it's not...With plotlines that were old when George Burns was young, acting that makes William Shatner seem like Marlon Brando, and dialogue that could stop The Dukes of Hazzard dead in its tracks...Most episodes of the series are completely unwatchable—although, to the producers' credit, many are scripted so that Chuck Norris doesn't need to talk much...While Norris indeed has a number of successful and well-received screen projects under his belt, here is the first and only time I recall that he was trusted with performing his own theme music. He is no Roy Orbison...I'm not sure they're even using a DP on this show; it seems that they just mount a camera on a tripod and tell Chuck to start kicking people's faces in for a solid hour, which he seems more than willing to do."
Recognition
On December 2, 2010, Chuck Norris and his brother and series co-producer Aaron Norris were named Honorary Texas Ranger Captains by Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, who said that "together, they helped elevate our Texas Rangers to truly mythical status."
Home media
Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS Home Entertainment have both released all seasons on DVD in Region 1. The Complete 1st Season contains the three pilot episodes and the first full season being labeled as just the first season. This has confused some fans, as the episodes are wrongly numbered. Seasons 1–6 have been released in regions 2–4.
On May 12, 2015, CBS DVD released Walker, Texas Ranger – The Complete Collection on DVD in Region 1.
As of December 2023, the entire series is available digitally in the United States, available on both iTunes and Vudu, either as separate seasons or in a complete series set., as well as Google TV (and by extension YouTube TV) which are only sold as separate seasons. Unlike the DVD releases the seasons in the digital releases are correctly numbered.
As of 2023, Walker, Texas Ranger was remastered in high definition.
Spin-offs and merchandise
Television films
CBS broadcast the television film Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire, produced by Paramount Network Television (now CBS Studios), on October 16, 2005. Chuck Norris, Sheree J. Wilson and Judson Mills reprised their roles, and Clarence Gilyard shot a cameo for the film but was not featured due to the filming's conflict with a long-planned family vacation. To fill the void, Judson Mills, who was not in the original script, returned to reprise the role of Francis Gage. Nia Peeples, who played the role of Sydney Cooke for seasons 7 and 8, was also not featured in Walker's return to prime-time television. The explanation given was that producers decided not to follow much of the original Walker, Texas Ranger series, as to give the film a fresh look. Even the show's original opening credits with the theme "Eyes of a Ranger" performed by Chuck Norris, was absent from the TV movie.
Although the return of Walker, Texas Ranger did not garner the ratings CBS had hoped for, indications were that CBS was green-lighting future Walker, Texas Ranger "movie of the week" projects. Trial by Fire ended with Sheree J. Wilson's character the victim of a courthouse shooting, leading many viewers to believe that there would be a follow-up movie. However, when CBS announced their fall 2006 prime-time schedule, they said that they would no longer be producing "Sunday Night Movie of the Week" projects, which severely impaired any hopes of Walker's return to television in the foreseeable future. On May 15, 2007, CBS announced its fall line-up, but this did not include the return of the "Sunday Night Movie of the Week". In June 2018, cast members Clarence Gilyard and Sheree J. Wilson expressed interest in reprising their roles in a potential revival of the series, particularly to address the cliffhanger at the end of the post-series film.
Spin-off
Most episodes were based on true stories. A short-lived series, Sons of Thunder, featured recurring character Carlos Sandoval, who resigns from his post with the Dallas police and teams up with childhood friend Trent Malloy (a protégé of Walker's), to start a private investigation firm.
Reboot
In September 2019, it was announced that a reboot of the series titled Walker was in development at CBS Television Studios from writer Anna Fricke, with Texas native Jared Padalecki attached to star. Fricke and Padalecki are also set to executive produce the project alongside Dan Lin and Lindsey Libertore from their production company Rideback, as well as Dan Spilo of Industry Entertainment. The CW, home of Padalecki's long-running series Supernatural, emerged as a leading contender to air the series in addition to CBS, which aired the original series. Like the original, the reboot, in which Walker would get a female partner, will explore morality, family, and rediscovering our lost common ground. The logline reads:
"At the center of the series is Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a man finding his way back to his family while investigating crime in the state's most elite unit. Our broken widower and father of two returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years for a high profile case—only to discover that there's even more work to be done at home. In a nod to the original series, Walker and his new partner—one of the only women in Texas Rangers' history—are the modern day heroes our world needs, following their own moral code to fight for what's right, regardless of the rules."
In October, it was announced that Walker would air on The CW. On January 14, 2020, it was announced that The CW had issued the reboot with a series order.
In February 2020, it was announced that Lindsey Morgan, Keegan Allen, Mitch Pileggi, Molly Hagan and Coby Bell were cast as Micki, Walker's female partner, Liam Walker, Walker's younger brother, Bonham Walker, Walker's father, Abeline Walker, Walker's mother and Captain Larry James, a Texas Ranger Captain. In March 2020, Jeff Pierre, Violet Brinson and Kale Culley were cast as Trey Barnett, an Army medic and Micki's boyfriend and Stella and August, Walker's teenage kids.
It premiered on January 21, 2021, and concluded on June 26, 2024, after four seasons.
A prequel series titled Walker: Independence premiered on October 6, 2022.
Novels
Three Walker, Texas Ranger books, written by James Reasoner, were published by Berkley Publishing Group in 1999. The books are now out of print.
Walker, Texas Ranger (1998, ISBN 0-425-16815-8)
Hell's Half Acre (1999, ISBN 0-425-16972-3)
Siege on the Belle (1999, ISBN 0-425-17112-4)
In other media
The show has garnered a particular cult appreciation among Conan O'Brien fans, from one of his most popular segments called the "Walker Texas Ranger Lever". He explained since NBC had recently purchased Universal, he could now show clips from Walker, Texas Ranger without having to pay any money. The joke was that he would pull a giant red lever, causing a random and comically awkward scene to play. Random scenes included Walker jumping out of a plane and punching a woman in the face, or being shot in the back while proposing, or Haley Joel Osment playing a boy who is first meeting the rest of Walker's friends, and suddenly interjects "Walker told me I have AIDS". Conan would go on to riff at the bizarre nature of the scene out of context. He did this primarily on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which prompted the show's star, Chuck Norris in character as Walker, to make a surprise guest appearance by acting out a skit in parody of the action scenes from Walker, Texas Ranger.
Companies
The series began with Cannon Television, but after Cannon folded, CBS assumed production responsibilities and is currently the full owner for this series. Other companies as listed below have also been involved with the series production and/or distribution.
