HBO Returns To The Wild West With A Doc Holliday Show

The Deadwood fanbase is like the opposite of the Firefly fanbase; where the Firefly people spent years engaging in pie-eyed optimism about their failed show - pie-eyed optimism that against all odds paid off with a movie - the Deadwood fanbase has spent years with dead-eyed bitterness, grumbling about the way HBO killed their favorite TV show. 

Now they're going to get really mad, because HBO is looking into airing a different Western show, this one based on the novel Doc, by Mary Doria Russell. In Doc, Holliday is not the sidekick but the hero:

The HBO project aims to put Holliday front and center as the series protagonist, an educated Southern gentleman and dentist by trade, thrust into the cruel and violent world of the Old West in order to salvage his ailing health. The series will feature the never-before-explored love triangle between Holliday, his prostitute wife, Kate Elder and best friend, Wyatt Earp — all set against the lawlessness and desperation of a rapidly changing society.

Holliday's interesting because he was a smart, refined guy who got a death sentence in his early 20s when he came down with tuberculosis. But TB is slow, and it took 15 years to actually kill Holliday, during which time he became a legend of the American West. 

But it's no Deadwood! Will fans of that cancelled show be on board for another Western on HBO, or will they feel like Doc is an usurper to the throne? We'll see how far the show gets, I suppose. Akiva Goldsman is producing the show, and Ron Howard will probably direct the pilot, should it get that far, so I would guess Doc has a better chance at seeing air than some other shows.