HBO Belittled 'Yellowstone' as 'So Middle America' Before Paramount Network Saved It

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor Sheridan revealed how his hit show Yellowstone initially had a home at HBO — until the network got cold feet. At the time, the drama, pitched as "The Godfather in Montana," was in series development at HBO. While then-programming president Michael Lombardo was supportive of the project, the rest of his team was not. 

"I thought Taylor was the real deal," Lombardo told THR. "In a world of people who pose, he was writing what he knew, and he cared desperately about the show. The idea of doing a modern-classic Western was a great idea — we were always doing urban shows, and this felt fresh." There was no doubt in their minds that Yellowstone needed a big star to play the character of John Dutton, the family patriarch. Sheridan pitched Kevin Costner to HBO, but the executives weren't interested. "They said, 'We want Robert Redford,'" Sheridan recounted. "They said, 'If you can get us Robert Redford, we'll greenlight the pilot.'"

Undeterred, Sheridan went to convince Redford. "I drive to Sundance and spend the day with him, and he agrees to play John Dutton," Sheridan said. "I call the senior vice president in charge of production and say, 'I got him!' 'You got who?' 'Robert Redford.' 'What?! "You said if I got Robert Redford, you'd greenlight the show.'" "And he says — and you can't make this s— up — 'We meant a Robert Redford type.'" 

Afterward, a crisis meeting was scheduled with HBO's then-VP (whom Sheridan wouldn't name) to uncover the reasons for the company's reluctance. "We go to lunch in some snazzy place in West L.A.," Sheridan told THR. "And [Yellowstone co-creator] John Linson finally asks: 'Why don't you want to make it?' And the VP goes: 'Look, it just feels so Middle America. We're HBO, we're avant-garde, we're trendsetters. This feels like a step backward. And frankly, I've got to be honest, I don't think anyone should be living out there [in rural Montana]. It should be a park or something.'" Some of these lines were later used in Yellowstone's season two when a New York magazine reporter disses Montana to Wes Bentley's character, Jamie, before Jamie murders her.

Sheridan said the executive's regional dissonance convinced him HBO didn't appreciate the story he presented. In a notes call, he revealed that HBO executives reacted negatively to Dutton's fierce daughter, Beth (Kelly Reilly), who became one of the show's biggest stars. "'We think she's too abrasive,'" Sheridan quoted. "'We want to tone her down. Women won't like her.' They were wrong, because Beth says the quiet part out loud every time. When someone's rude to you in a restaurant, or cuts you off in the parking lot, Beth says the thing you wish you'd said." 

Sheridan explained, "So I said to them, 'OK, everybody done? Who on this call is responsible for a scripted show that you guys have on the air? Oh, you're not? Thanks.' And I hung up. They never called back." Most of the scripts HBO develops and rejects are retained by the network, partly to prevent what followed — a project they spent time and money on becoming a worldwide success for a competitor.

"When the regime changed, Lombardo called me," Sheridan said of the longtime HBO executive's departure in 2016. "To his credit, he said, 'I always believed in the show, but I could not get any support.' His last act before they fired him was to give me the script back." Having been turned down by HBO, Sheridan began shopping Yellowstone throughout town. He said that everyone turned it down, including both TNT and TBS. 

When Paramount finally agreed, Sheridan openly warned the executives that they would be spending a significant amount of money on production and that they would not be given creative control. A few years after Yellowstone debuted on Paramount Network, ratings skyrocketed. "People couldn't understand how a linear cable channel that no one can even find suddenly had the biggest show on television," Sheridan said. "Because it has cowboys and this is supposed to be a dead genre, right? Of course, that's not what the show is really about, that's just the sugar on the pill." According to Sheridan, the nameless vice president left HBO and landed a production deal. He emailed Sheridan after Yellowstone took off and pitched a family drama proposal. Sheridan told THR he wrote in reply: "Great idea. It sounds just like Yellowstone."