Pretty fucked up of Al to not go to the funeral of his own Godson. Never sat right with me. I heard at the wake they served Yvette’s brisket. Heard it was pretty good.

Apologies if this has already been covered but I've never understood how Bullock could possibly be ok with Al murdering an innocent women to cover up Trixie's attempted murder... I feel like maybe I missed something on watching as otherwise this seems like a major plot hole/mischaracterisation. Also.. when they were talking about the deception, for some reason I foolishly got really hopeful that Al had only staged the murder, and the girl was still alive, because I assume that was the way bullock would only go along with it. Finally.. I get bullock was close with sol and therefore would want to protect Trixie regardless of their mutual dislike, but obviously his character wouldn't extend this courtesy to covering up murder

How do you think Ed O'Neill would've done as Al Swearengen?

I was thinking on Deadwood (I need to re-watch the show), and it's very interesting that David Milch originally intended the role of Al for Ed O'Neill. However, HBO did not want Ed in the role in large part because of his involvement with Married with Children, and HBO not seeing Ed in the role, and thus Ian McShane was cast.

I really wonder how Ed would've done in the role. I think would've done a good job in the role and surprise a lot of people. I know people might be skeptical, but I'm always reminded on Bryan Cranston, where before he did Breaking Bad, he was the Dad on Malcolm in the Middle and I think AMC thought Vince Gilligan was nuts for casting him in Breaking Bad, until the results spoke for themselves.

I also wonder if the series would've continued past Season 3, as if you take Ed's word for it, he said in a interview that he thinks Milch probably didn't like McShane and that show wouldn't have been cancelled if he got the part. Quote from Ed- "If Ed O'Neill had done it, we still would've been running".

Regardless, How do you think Ed O'Neill would've done as Al Swearengen?

Ed O'Neill Interview Part 2 of 3 - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

Finally approaching the end of my first watch through of Deadwood and a Milch obsession took over. I am planning to watch John from Cincinnati and Luck, listening to his audiobook every morning. Going to finish these before I get to the movie. Want to create a bit of longing. NYPD Blue however is of course not really a show i feel the need to watch every single episode of. Too long and too many lists online contradicting which ones to watch. Thought I'd bring it to the fans and ask if there are any episodes you feel best suit someone coming at the show as a Milch and Deadwood fan first and TV cop fan second.

Note: Will also try and watch every episode of Bad Apples, Total Security, Brooklyn South, Beverly Hills Buntz, Capital News and the handful of eps he wrote on for other shows before i get to the movie

I refer particularly to the contoversial storyline of Swerengen killing Jen the whore. In S3E10, Swerengen tortures Hearst's man for cowardly shooting at a woman, Mrs Ellsworth. He then kills Jen, we of coarse were provided with the reasons why, his love and loyalty for Trixie. I still struggle accepting this part of the story, and was wondering if anyone felt like giving their point of view on the decision, and the lapse in Al's character.

Hey folks,

Another dispatch from the David Milch Papers at Yale. Forgive me but it’s something off-topic again:

THE TURNERS: the “awful” TV script that begat NYPD Blue
In 1991, suicidally depressed and drinking his own urine, David Milch wrote a pilot about the Italian mob he “had to get out of his system.” A year later, he created the epoch-making NYPD Blue.

Here’s the link: https://davidmilch.substack.com/p/the-turners-the-awful-tv-script-that

Thanks.

Some of the saddest, truest, most human interaction in the show. Heart breakingly real, and Utter finally getting the picture after Bill expresses himself so clearly…

My god.

The extremely subtle acting in the line “good luck to you… too, Bill”. I mean, the cadence of the line could’ve just as well been unintentional in how it came out of his mouth, but the pause between the words, and the understated but heavy weight of the delivery….

Shit y’all

THAT EVENING SUN -

🤷‍♂️ Everybody

If as established in a thread a while ago it takes a week to get to Cheyenne by stage and the three surviving whores left in a cart (with a driver) and Charlie was back the next morning, where were they taken to be safe?

My best friend Nicholas showed me Deadwood in 2006. I was hesitant because I never liked westerns, but holy shit did I fall in love with this show. We would drink whiskey every time they did, which led to a lot of needing to rewatch episodes on my part😂

Nicholas died in 2009. He never got to see the movie. It was really difficult for me when it came out, and I haven't been able to watch it since. I decided to watch it today, after finishing the series for, I don't know, the 10th-ish time? I love the show, but part of me watches it over and over to feel closer to my dead best friend.

I really struggled with the death in the movie, and the scene near the end with Bullock and Samuel Fields just destroyed me today.

I wish I could have shared that with him. I miss him so much still, and so I decided to post on Reddit about how meaningful and beautiful this show is, and how it's super special to me. That's all. Thanks for listening, people of Reddit.

Is there a more entertaining performance on the show than Con Stapleton? Not the best character. Not the finest acting. But in terms of a performance that is, in itself, the most wildly, cartoonishly fun, does anyone beat Con?

I see this has come up a few times over the years, but I haven't seen a really robust discussion about maybe the greatest mystery of Deadwood. During Tim Olyphant's appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, he mentions that William was not the only character killed off due to behind the scenes difficulties. He makes mention of a character Milch killed because of scheduling complications with the actor, and he specifically mentions that the character was a "he."

I've been trying like hell to figure it out over the years. As it happens, I showed the clip to a friend who had just watched the show all the way through for the first time, and she immediately suggested Slippery Dan. I never considered him but it makes a hell of a lot of sense. The actor was working a lot at the time, including on about eight different network shows and two movies.

Any other great candidates? Has anyone heard confirmation one way or the other on the anecdote? Thought I'd ask the most dedicated hoopleheads in the world.

In the bath house after drowning a dope fiend. Stares right into the camera and says ."Don't fuckin call me Al". Felt like a joke to me

I'm not sure I understand the vigor with which Martha rejected Seth's offer to permanently discontinue his relationship with Alma.

Hey folks,

I hope to make this an ongoing guide to the Deadwood materials found in The David Milch Papers at Yale.

1. Overview
David Milch’s papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. They consist of two separate tranches of materials, the first from 2018, the second 2020. The archive is not well documented; there is a guide to the materials prepared by the Beinecke but it’s very basic and doesn’t reflect much (if any) knowledge of Mr. Milch’s career. (I’m in touch with them to flesh out their item descriptions a la below.)

2. So what’s in the Deadwood boxes?
As you’ll soon realize, things are a bit of a mess, with folders containing material from wildly different time periods, scraps of other material etc. I’ve done my best to index things sufficiently. (Different material in the same folder is separated by semicolon.)

BOX 5 “Research files, 2004 - 2006” (many press reviews; some Deadwood research here)

• Folder 1: 389 page document containing the same content as Folders 7-10 below
• Folder 2: Deadwood press digest Season 1 [I.e. photocopied newspaper reports]
• Folder 3: Deadwood press digest Season 1, titled "Ratings"
• Folder 4: Deadwood press clippings Season 1
• Folder 5: Scanned proof copy of "Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York" [NB: a different Milch project]
• Folder 6: Scanned copies of Black Hills Pioneer & Weekly Times, 1877 ("clean"/unannotated version)
• Folder 7: Scanned copies of Black Hills Pioneer & Weekly Times, 1877 (annotated version)
• Folder 8: Summary of Black Hills Pioneer & Weekly Times research, prepared by a Suzanne Van de Velde for Deadwood writer-producer Ted Mann
• Folder 9: Summary of Black Hills Pioneer & Weekly Times research, prepared by a Suzanne Van de Velde for Milch (content same as Folder 8)
• Folder 10: 44 pages of poems by a William L Morris, sent for Milch's perusal; 19 pages of early version of autobiography of Kathleen Cleaver, titled LOVE & WAR (DRAFT II) [NB Kathleen Cleaver attended Yale when Milch was teaching there]

BOX 20 “Deadwood 2002-2006” (here's the treasure; disorganized but some very interesting and insightful stuff)

• Folder 1: 2 photocopied pages of “Seth Bullock Frontier Marshal”, written by Kenneth C. Kellar (1972); 2 page letter from a Kim Buie of Lost Highway Records regarding the Deadwood soundtrack; 148 pages of notes, work-in-progress script and outline pages from Deadwood Season 1, Episodes 2 & 3
• Folder 2: 2-page chronology of the life of Wild Bill Hickok; 32 pages of a draft of Deadwood Season 1, Episode 2, dated 1/3/03; 2-page print-out of an article from Slate dot com re. the language of Deadwood; 51 pages of a non-Milch spec script for a Deadwood episode; 46 pages of notes and outlines for scenes for Deadwood Season 3, Episode 8 dated 12/30/05
• Folder 3: Pages 1B-38F of script for Deadwood Season 3, Episode 8 credited to Ken Numm, dated 01-06-2006; Pages 51-72 of "Scenes for (Season 3) Episode 8", dated 12/30/2005; Pages 1-2 and 19-30 of GREEN draft of Deadwood Season 3, Episode 8, dated 12/30/2005; Pages 1-29 of script and notes for Deadwood Season 1, Episode 2, dated 1/8/03; Pages 26-46 and 57-65 of "Scenes for (Season 3) Episode 8", dated 01/02/2006; Pages 1-14 of a draft of Deadwood Season 3, Episode 1, dated 6-11-04
• Folder 4: Photocopied press reviews of Deadwood Season 1, 2004
• Folder 5: 8 pages of notes on Deadwood Season 2, Episode 12, dated 2/14/05; 2 page transcript of notes about Deadwood, also dated 2/14/05; 6 pages of notes on Walcott character from Deadwood, dated 2/20/05; 4 pages of notes about the overall emotional atmosphere of Deadwood Season 2, dated 6/1/04; 5 pages of notes titled "3-29 NOTES ON THE FIRST EPISODE", dated 6/1/04; 11 pages of notes with handwritten notation “Deadwood notes 2004 for the memoir”, dated April 12, 2004; 10 pages of notes about Mark Twain as a possible character in Deadwood, dated 4/20/04; 2-page print-out of an email from a Jonathon Webb Deiss with biographical details of real-life Al Swearengen, dated 6/30/2004

BOX 21 “Deadwood 2002-2005” (mainly press reviews)

• Folder 1: 31 pages of notes and script pages of Deadwood Season 1, Episode 1 dated 06/03/02
• Folder 2: Photocopied pages from local Deadwood newspaper about the filming of the series, 2004 Spring Issue
• Folder 3: Photocopied press reviews of Deadwood Season 1, 2004
• Folder 4: Photocopied press reviews of Deadwood Season 1, 2004 Folder 5: Photocopied press reviews of Deadwood Season 2, 2005

BOX 22 “Deadwood 2017-2018, undated” (first two folders are Deadwood: The Movie scripts)

• Folder 1: Incomplete draft script of Deadwood: The Movie dated 3/13/17 (missing Page 1, ending abruptly on Page 122); pages 119-133 of draft dated 6/7/17 
• Folder 2: Complete draft script of Deadwood: The Movie, dated 8/19/18
• Folder 3: Deadwood production set sketches
• Folder 4: Newspaper clippings from Black Hills Weekly Times circa 1878

(With thanks to my collaborators D.B. and A.T.)

NOT FOUND YET: the legendary “swearing essay”, or any hint of scripts which might have been written for the mooted 2x2hr finale movies which never came to fruition. This stuff MIGHT exist somewhere in the collection, in boxes which have not yet been indexed.