Return to Lonesome Dove

Return to Lonesome Dove
1993 newspaper advertisement for the miniseries
Written by	John Wilder
Directed by	Mike Robe
Starring	Jon Voight Barbara Hershey Rick Schroder
Music by	Ken Thorne
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Dyson Lovell
Cinematography	Kees Van Oostrum
Editor(s)	Corky Ehlers
Running time	340 minutes
Distributor	Artisan Home Entertainment
Release
Original release	November 14, 1993
Chronology
Preceded by	Lonesome Dove
Followed by	Lonesome Dove: The Series

Return to Lonesome Dove is a 1993 four part television miniseries, written by John Wilder involving characters created in Larry McMurtry's western novel Lonesome Dove which first aired November 14–17, 1993. The story focuses on a retired Texas Ranger and his adventures driving mustangs from Texas to Montana. It was nominated for an Emmy Award, and followed by two TV series, Lonesome Dove: The Series and Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. Neither series lasted long.

It is a sequel to the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, but was not written by McMurtry, who instead wrote and published his own sequel novel Streets of Laredo in the same time frame. McMurtry followed Streets of Laredo with two prequels, which with Laredo were also subsequently made into TV miniseries. Many fans of the Lonesome Dove series and novels do not consider Return to Lonesome Dove nor the two derivative TV series to be canonical because of their divergence from McMurtry's storyline, and the apparent motivation of its production by the success of the original miniseries.

Captain Woodrow F. Call (Jon Voight), having just buried his friend Augustus McCrae near Lonesome Dove in Texas, plans to return to his ranch, signposted as "Hat Creek Cattle Company", in Montana. Call sends word to Newt Dobbs (Rick Schroder) that he intends to meet him in Ogallala, Nebraska at the home of Clara Allen (Barbara Hershey) with a herd of wild Mustangs that he hopes to drive north to interbreed.