Story and Script, 1986-1988

Suzanne de Passe, president of Motown Productions, enlisted Bill Wittliff to write the screenplay for Lonesome Dove. Wittliff, a native Texan, had been writing films since 1977, beginning with the CBS-TV movie Thaddeus Rose and Eddie and including credit for The Black Stallion (1979),Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Raggedy Man (1981), Barbarosa (1982), Country (1984) and Red Headed Stranger(1986). Wittliff's experience compelled him to seek some creative control to assure his ability to protect the integrity of his script. He was made executive producer as well as screenwriter, and he shared creative control with de Passe and CBS-TV. The collection of notes, drafts, polishes and final script provides an unusually clear-cut example of how to transform a lengthy, multi-peopled, much-beloved novel into a film while still retaining the substance of the original.

The series begins with a typescript of Lonesome Dove sent by Larry McMurtry's agent Irving Paul (Swifty) Lazar to Suzanne de Passe in 1985. This is followed by Wittliff's marked hardback and paperback copies of the novel; by the notes, rough drafts, and typescripts for each of the four parts of the miniseries; and by the final shooting script with blue and pink pages reflecting revisions made just before and during shooting. The title page of the shooting script was signed by every actor who had a speaking line in the miniseries.