David Milch's Deadwood , which premiered on HBO in , earned critical praise, launched careers, and won a devoted fan following over its three seasons. While admirers of the dark Western crime drama have long lamented its too-short run on television, the series is about to get its long-awaited follow-up with Deadwood: The Movie , which will premiere on May 31st. Just ahead of the film's premiere, we're celebrating this stellar series with these behind-the-scenes details that will deepen your appreciation of all things Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.
Established in , this location has been the backdrop to a long legacy of Westerns. In the s, Deadwood, South Dakota was a place full of criminals and entrepreneurs. Series creator David Milch rigorously researched the real Deadwood by reading its newspapers, the diaries of its residents, and formal historical accounts like Black Hills expert Watson Parker's Deadwood: The Golden Years. Farnum, A. Merrick, Charlie Utter, and George Hearst were all real people with noted moments in history, too.
However, characters like Trixie, Whitney Ellsworth, and Alma Garret were largely fictional, based more on archetypes of people who would've had a place in Deadwood.
He invested in the community, headed health care boards, and became the town's first sheriff. That last vocation earned him the aforementioned reputation, which endeared him to Theodore Roosevelt, whom Bullock later successfully helped campaign for the presidency of the United States.
The Chicago Tribune later ran a delightful description of Bullock: "Bullock attracted general attention around the White House today. He has a fierce looking melodrama-villain's mustache and wears a sombrero. In Deadwood , Ian McShane's Al Swearengen is a pimp, crook, and murderer, but he is also the protector of the "crippled" Jewel and grimly civic-minded. The real Swearengen was much less admirable. He was a sex trafficker, tricking women into coming to Deadwood to work in his various business venturesβlike a theaterβbut then forcing them into prostitution.
