Sam Elliot stars as Sam Houston, the visionary who nearly single-handedly forged the state of Texas into a powerful entity in its own right. Refusing to forget the Alamo (as if anyone could), Houston led the military in Texas' rebellion against Mexico. G.D. Spradlin co-stars as President Andrew Jackson, with Michael Beck appearing as Jim Bowie, James Stephens as Stephen Austin, and Richard Yniguez as Mexican General Santa Anna. Lensed on location in the Lone Star state, this sweeping made-for-TV film originally occupied three hours' screen time on November 22, 1986. Its title at that time was Houston: The Legend of Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A mysterious Civil War veteran courts a Missouri farmer's daughter amid postwar unrest.
A deputy sheriff defies local ranchers to investigate a Mexican's murder.
Soon after a newlywed learns that her husband had her father shot down, she flees from the Callahan ranch in fear. She's rescued by a gunman who safeguards her at a remote outpost as he staves off her husband's attempts to reclaim his bride.
In 1893, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson and her children struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian landscape after her husband left to go droving sheep in the high country. One day, she finds a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yakada wounded on her property. As an unlikely bond begins to form between them he reveals secrets about her true identity. Realizing Molly’s husband is actually missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff starts being suspicious and sends his constable to investigate.
A cowhand becomes involved in a war between a road construction crew and the greedy toll-owner hoping to thwart the new project.
Foxes are disappearing from fox farms.
In 1889 pioneers race ahead of the law to claim free land in Oklahoma, forming wide-open towns. In one such, citizens elect Milt Dawson to challenge the self-appointed rule of gambler Ace Holmes, only to have him shot in the back. But leading the next batch of settlers is Milt's quick-on-the-draw son John, who gets help from friendly outlaws.
An outlaw saved by a Mexican girl hunts the holdup partner who shot him in the back.
Upon her release from prison for a murder she didn't commit, a woman finds that her younger sister has been placed in an orphanage. Determined to do whatever it takes to get her out, she eventually becomes the proprietor of a notorious gambling establishment.
The story of Frank Cassilis and Northmour as both seemingly try to protect the Huddlestone family against mexican separatists while each has their own purposes and agenda.
Cowboy Jerry Alton is content with life on the Bar Z Ranch until Mrs. Randall hires pretty Marian Faer to assist in cooking. Marian explains that she is looking for a redheaded husband. All the men are smitten with her, and several, including Jerry, try to dye their hair red.
Ned Raleigh, a cowboy on the Stone Ranch, is laughed at by his pal Rawhide Barton for emulating his chivalrous namesake, Sir Walter Raleigh. Manning, an eastern capitalist, agrees to make Stone a loan to pay off his mortgage if he surrenders 200 head of cattle as security; Manning, after he discovers oil on the property, conspires with Blake, Stone's foreman, to hide the stock, and thus secure the land for himself.
Bud Harris, who is in love with Molly Vernon, leaves the Vernon ranch when there is an oil boom in the territory, then returns to find the property encumbered with debt. Bush, who holds the mortgage on the ranch, attempts to foreclose when he learns that there is oil on the land, and Bud enters a horserace to pay the debt.
The efforts of crooked rancher Stephen Laban to force his local bank into an unsecured loan are foiled by Fred Hunter and Jake Robbins, and Laban vows vengeance on the pair; but he is temporarily thwarted by the arrival from the East of society girl Millicent Delacey. Knowing her weakness for social prestige, Hunter arranges to masquerade as the Duke of Black Butte, a visiting nobleman on a hunting expedition; Millicent and her social-climbing mother completely succumb to the duke's charm.
Jack Howard, returning from the war, learns that his father, Sheriff Howard, has been killed by an unknown assailant, and he induces the mayor of Gold Strike to swear him in as sheriff.
"Side Show" Saunders gains the respect of shopowner Holly Farrell and the townsfolk when he gives up entertaining with his trick horse and dog and goes to work in the general store.
Marshal Landry captures outlaw Girard and bringing him in finds a woman and two children, the only survivors of an Indian attack. Later, transferring the prisoner his brothers free him. Then a stage is robbed of a silver shipment by Girard and his brothers. Examining telegrams gets Landry a confession from Girard's girlfriend. The telegraph line has been tapped and the telegrapher is the supposedly dead husband of the woman he brough in. Now knowing Girard's location he sets out after him.
A group of four outlaws led by Abel Dragna Fraserville decide to settle in a small, civilized and peaceful town of 1,200 inhabitants in which even the sheriff, does not carry weapons. Soon the gunmen begin to make all kinds of misdeeds against the impassive gaze of the sheriff whose attitude is misunderstood by their neighbors.