TV Review: 'Legend' (1995 - 1995)

Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver gives a manful try at reinvigorating the TV Western in Legend, but the series' facile parody lets him down. Anderson plays Ernest Pratt, a hack writer of Western pulp fiction who writes under the name Nicodemus Legend — a persona whom Pratt would have his readers believe is also the dashing, brainy hero of his books. People keep mistaking the craven Pratt for the brave Legend, so our antihero keeps getting shot at, flirted with, and asked for help. In the premiere episode, Pratt met up with a wacky inventor played by John de Lancie — Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation — who helps Pratt pull off Legend-worthy stunts. In a subsequent edition, a bloodletting bank robber agrees to give up, but only if his idol, Legend, makes the arrest. Among the people who've cooked up Legend is executive producer Michael Piller, a central figure in the creation of the Trek TV sequels. Less a retread of last season's The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. than a nod to the old Robert Conrad shoot-'em-up, The Wild Wild West, Legend radiates a campy, semi-sci-fi atmosphere. Too bad Legend's dialogue isn't sharper, its plots more pulpy, or its action scenes, um, actionier. C+