9 Greatest Western Shows That Are Worth Watching Over and Over, Ranked

Image via Paramount+ Published Oct 29, 2026, 5:52 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account A good Western can be hard to come by if you don't know the right place to look. When it comes to television horse operas, however, there are a few other hoops one must jump through. Do you prefer modern-day takes on the American West or more classic ones? Color or black-and-white? Multiple seasons or a miniseries? However you answer those questions, we believe that we've got something for you. When it comes to the most bingeable Westerns, that can fall into the realm of personal taste. Some prefer meditative takes on the genre that speak to harsh historical truths, while others prefer something a bit more mythic and inspirational. If Deadwood is what you're after here, you'll be sorely disappointed, but that doesn't mean there aren't some stellar Western television productions still worth binging from this list. So, let's hit the trail with some of the greatest TV horse operas that deserve some extra love. 9 '1883' (2021–2022) Image via Paramount+ If you're looking for something downright historical but also quick when it comes to binging hours, 1883 may be the series for you. Although a Yellowstone prequel, this 10-part adventure does not require you to revisit any of creator Taylor Sheridan's other material. Rather, this one-and-done wagon train voyage follows the first Duttons to migrate to Montana — and all the horrors they encounter. Some consider this gritty horse opera to be among the Western TV shows without a single flaw, but whether you fall into that camp or not, it's hard not to invest in this tough-as-nails take. It's equal parts romantic as Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) comes of age on the journey, action-packed as the pioneers encounter natural and human conflicts alike, and meditative as Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) and others reflect on their reasons for being there. As perhaps one of the most impressive entries on this list, 1883 feels like an epic novel put on screen. 8 'Maverick' (1957–1962) Image via ABC For a more comedic take on the genre that parodies the Western without becoming overly slapstick, look no further than Maverick. The five-season series initially starred James Garner as rambling gambler Bret Maverick before his brother, Bart (Jack Kelly), showed up. The show alternated its leading man for three seasons before Garner left, replaced by a rotating cast of Bart, Roger Moore's cousin Beau Maverick, and (briefly) Robert Colbert's "other brother" Brent. Still, nothing quite beats that initial pair. Maverick entertained ABC audiences across 124 episodes, including parodies of two of television's most famous Western programs (which also both feature on this list). However, many have cited "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" — a Bret and Bart team-up from the second season — as one of the greatest episodes of Western TV out there. The Maverick brothers sure knew how to have a good time, and that's part of what makes the show such an effective binge. 7 'Bonanza' (1959–1973) Image via NBC One of the programs parodied by the last entry, Bonanza is arguably one of the most popular Westerns ever put to the small screen. Running an impressive 14 seasons, the NBC series followed the misadventures of the Cartwright family, Nevada-based ranchers always getting involved with whatever new conflict brewed in Virginia City. Led by patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene), brothers Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker), and "Little Joe" (Michael Landon) typically found themselves in the darnedest of spots. An essential Western TV show, Bonanza (sometimes called Ponderosa in syndication after the Cartwright ranch of the same name) ran for 431 episodes, which will fly by when you start binging one after another. The Cartwrights are not only likable protagonists, but they have one of the catchiest theme tunes to hit the airwaves — one that Lorne Greene himself once put words to. Although Roberts left the series after a few seasons and Blocker sadly passed away a year before the program concluded, Bonanza was always a hit. 6 'Have Gun – Will Travel' (1957–1963) Image via CBS Richard Boone may have been known as a villain in several John Wayne Westerns, but on television, he was one of the coolest gun-toting heroes out there. For all six seasons on Have Gun – Will Travel, Boone played the "man in black" Paladin, a gunslinger with a heart of gold and a penchant for getting himself out of whatever trouble his new client gets him in. Unlike most shoot-'em-up protagonists, Paladin was as intelligent as he was quick with a gun, opting to find more creative ways to solve problems than shooting his enemies. Have Gun – Will Travel is a Western series that has aged like fine wine. With only half-hour installments, 225 episodes fly by with every new Paladin adventure. Always clever and willing to put his life on the line, Boone's most memorable on-screen role deserves more appreciation all these years later. Indeed, the CBS program was so popular at the time that it was one of the few to expand from TV to radio rather than the other way around. Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor SheridanShow Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you. AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me. NEXT QUESTION → 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall. NEXT QUESTION → 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it. REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to. You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land. You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Billy the Kid' (2022–2025) Image via MGM+ Although Billy the Kid flew almost entirely under the radar, it's one of the few modern programs set in the American West that actually travels back in time. Tom Blyth stars as the titular outlaw, whose Regulators stand against the nefarious Santa Fe Ring as they rule over the New Mexico Territory. Often at odds with his old friends Jesse Evans (Daniel Webber) and Pat Garrett (Alex Roe), Billy starts a wildfire that soon stretches beyond his control. Those looking for a history lesson here should be aware that Billy the Kid makes a lot of changes to Old West history. In that sense, it's far more "myth and legend" than "fact and reality," but since creator Michael Hirst told such a phenomenal tale, we'll let that slide. With only three seasons and 24 episodes total, you'll binge through this one quick. 4 'Little House on the Prairie' (1974–1983) Image via NBC When it comes to Western programs that hook you from start to finish, there are few better than Little House on the Prairie. We're talking about the original nine-season NBC series here, inspired loosely by the novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder (played by Melissa Gilbert on screen). As the Ingalls family journey west, they ultimately settle in Walnut Grove, making a life for themselves on the open frontier. Although Little House deviates considerably from the real-life Ingalls story, it's another example of a fan-favorite program that makes the heart glad. A "family-friendly" Western (or Midwestern, as some have deemed it) if there ever was one, Little House doesn't usually enter gunfight or train robbery territory, but it tells deeply human stories that will keep you glued to the screen for all 200 episodes (plus a few made-for-TV movies). In fact, Michael Landon, who played Charles "Pa" Ingalls, even recycled some Bonanza plots. 3 'Longmire' (2012–2017) The only neo-Western on this list, sometimes a show is so good that you have to break the rules. Based on the popular mystery novels by author Craig Johnson, Longmire may be set in contemporary Wyoming, but it feels quite old-fashioned in the way the titular hero operates. Robert Taylor stars as Sheriff Walt Longmire, a lawman who sticks to his guns and fights for "honesty and integrity" for six seasons. Longmire is a Western series perfect from start to finish. Even when the program moved from A&E to Netflix, the quality never declined as Walt, his deputies, and best friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) battle against whatever new trails envelop Absaroka County and the nearby Cheyenne Reservation. With 63 episodes that go from episodic mysteries to more serialized adventures as time goes on, you'll plow through this fan-favorite series. 2 'Gunsmoke' (1955–1975) Image via CBS No list of anything labeled the "greatest Western TV" would be complete without Gunsmoke. The famed horse opera began as a radio show initially before making the jump to television, where it ran on CBS for 20 seasons between 1955 and 1975. After a recommendation by John Wayne himself, the Dodge City adventures of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) took off with a bang, beginning with half-hour black-and-white installments before shifting with the times and transitioning to color-based hour-long episodes. As arguably the most iconic classic Western television series, Gunsmoke put Matt and his fellow Dodge residents into the middle of all the old-school Old West action you can dream of. From stellar hours like "The Gallows" and "The Cabin" to "Seven Hours to Dawn" and the very first tale "Matt Gets It," all 635 episodes deserve your attention, even if the show declines a little in quality in its later years. Afterward, don't sleep on the five made-for-TV follow-ups Arness starred in years later. 1 'Lonesome Dove' (1989) Image via CBS Based on arguably the best Western novel ever written by Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove has been considered an "epic Western film" by some (and maybe rightly so), but it's technically a television miniseries. In four parts, director Simon Wincer and screenwriter William D. Wittliff masterfully translate McMurtry's prose to the screen as ex-Texas Rangers Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones) and Augustus "Gus" McCrae (Robert Duvall) lead a cattle drive from the Mexico-Texas border to the paradise of Montana. And it's incredible. Lonesome Dove the miniseries, just like the novel, is a sweeping adventure full of love, loss, tragedy, triumph, and moral questions that are tough to answer. You know, just like the actual Old West. Duvall and Jones (but especially Duvall) offer some of the best material of their entire careers, proving that prestige television has existed long before the streaming era we live in today. Lonesome Dove Release Date 1989 - 1989-00-00 Network CBS Cast Danny Glover Joshua Deets Directors Simon Wincer Writers William D. Wittliff Main Genre Western Seasons 1 Producers Dyson Lovell, Michael Weisbarth, Robert Halmi Jr. Executive Producer(s) Suzanne de Passe, William D. Wittliff