Good ‘Dove’ Experience Leads Huston To ‘Buffalo’

Calamity isn’t a word that suggests Anjelica Huston’s relationship with television. The Oscar winner (for “Prizzi’s Honor”) has nothing but fond memories of her work in “Lonesome Dove,” the acclaimed 1989 miniseries version of Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

So, despite doubts, Huston agreed to play Calamity Jane in the fourhour “Buffalo Girls,” which CBS will air at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. No, she wasn’t buffaloed into the part.

Huston was convinced by the pedigree shared by “Buffalo Girls” and “Lonesome Dove” - same author, same executive producer (Suzanne de Passe), same network.

Still, where did those doubts come from? Why was Huston concerned about a TV version of McMurtry’s 1990 novel about Calamity Jane and other Old West legends?

“I read the book the day it came out,” Huston told critics in Los Angeles, “because I’ve always loved Calamity Jane and I’m a big Larry McMurtry aficionado. I thought it was a wonderful book but, in cinematic terms, it didn’t really go anywhere.”

If you take your McMurtry straight, therefore, look out. You’ll notice some major alterations when “Buffalo Girls” airs.

Yet de Passe says nothing was changed without McMurtry’s “knowledge and permission.”

One of the biggest changes is the addition of a daughter for Calamity Jane. Another departure from the literary trail blazed by McMurtry is a happier, more hopeful Calamity Jane.

“The character was very morose, very alcoholic, very sad, very reflective in the book,” Huston said. “I think that Suzanne and everyone connected with building the script have actually done a fantastic job in taking it out of that retrospective area and making it much more immediate in terms of what we’re going to see.”

McMurtry’s story focuses on the friendship between Martha “Calamity” Jane Canary and Dora DuFran (Melanie Griffith), who runs the best little brothel in South Dakota. Drifting in and out of their lives are such colorful figures as Wild Bill Hickok (Sam Elliott), Buffalo Bill Cody (Peter Coyote), Sitting Bull (Russell Means), dashing rancher Teddy Blue (Gabriel Byrne), trapper Bartle Bone (Jack Palance) and sharpshooting Annie Oakley (Reba McEntire).

“What is at the heart of this piece,” de Passe said, “very much the way the friendship between Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae was in Lonesome Dove, is this relationship between two very strong women who are living their lives independent of a man’s permission and, if you will, a man’s largesse.”

What persuaded Griffith to try network television was something Huston realized many years ago. It’s the same lesson learned by Sissy Spacek, Sally Field, Kathleen Turner, Joanne Woodward and Glenn Close: Television is where the strong women’s roles can be found.

“Everybody feels television is getting better than films, especially for women,” Griffith said.

“Actually,” Huston added, “there are a lot more roles for people in general on television - much more human roles.”

Since de Passe’s “Buffalo Girls” strays from McMurtry’s novel, you can expect it also will stray from the history books.