.....because it was a good way to finish out the series which ran on CBS from 1993 to 2001. The name of this here episode was THE FINAL SHOW/DOWN and it was originally in a two-hour slot which made room for the requisite commercials. Chuck Norris (who played that lovable lawman of the modern West Cordell Walker) ended the show on his own terms rather than have the suits at the Tiffany Network do that for him. And this feature length episode was a lulu. There's a massive prison breakout at the Huntsville Penitentiary, and one of the convicts that's in the wind is that no-good nudnik Emile Lavocat (Marshall Teague) who's out for revenge against Walker for having him thrown into prison six years earlier. So for his revenge plan to work, Lavocat gathers some of the worst criminals that include Jonas Graves (Richard Norton), Ross Dollarhide (Randall "Tex" Cobb), Along the way, there are flashbacks to the old West where Chuck Norris stars as Texas Ranger Hayes Cooper, with Clarence Gilyard (as a piano player), Judson Mills (as a cowpuncher), Sheree J. Wilson (as Hayes Cooper's wife Althea), Marshall Teague (as an outlaw named Milos Lavocat), and Nia Peeples (as a dance hall singer) in those flashback scenes. In the contemporary scenes, C. D. Parker (once played by Noble Willingham) had been poisoned the behest of Lavocat. Veteran Texas Ranger Wade Harper (Robert Harper) and his way better half Betsy (Marla Adams) are shot and killed. Jimmy Trivette (Clarence Gilyard) pops the question to Erika Carter (Tammy Townsend) and she accepts, and that's after he survives an assassination attempt from Lavocat's goons. Back to the old West, Milos Lavocat and his outlaws assassinate the local sheriff and his deputies and manage to tree the town of Bovine, Texas, and that's after they slaughter Althea and their baby and set their cabin ablaze. Bovine sees a showdown that sees Milos Lavocat and the rest of the outlaws riddled with rounds. Oh, wait a minute: Althea was alive after all as she and their baby had been kidnapped. Milos Lavocat gets his ticket to the boneyard punched by Hayes Cooper. Cooper gets to be sheriff of Bovine, Texas. Being a cattleman was all well and good, but he is a lawman after all. Back to today, Cordell Walker, Francis Gage (Judson Mills), and Sydney Cooke (Nia Peeples) are in hot pursuit of Ross Dollarhide. And so is Walker. Those Texas Rangers engage in a shootout with Emile Lavocat and the mercenaries at the requisite abandoned building. Walker tosses some grenades from a passing helicopter. And the bad guys get their just desserts. I sure had a grand old time watching WALKER TEXAS RANGER during its entire run on CBS....well, except for a year spent in Iceland in 1994 and 1995. It was also during the show's run that a trio of paperback novels based on the series were issued by Berkley Books, and they were written by prolific bestselling author
James Reasoner; he's been an active author since the 1970s, and he's been so active as a writer that's he has had novels published under his own name and under a bunch of pseudonyms. I think he's even written some paperback novels that have been issued under the name of original author William W. Johnstone (1938-2004).
I don't think anybody else could have played Cordell Walker as well as Chuck Norris. By the by, Cordell, Alex Cahill-Walker, and their baby girl Angela come home from the hospital to their friends and neighbors. Followed by WALKER, TEXAS RANGER: TRIAL BY FIRE (2005), but don't go out of your way to watch it. Better skip WALKER on CW, too. My advice is to stick with the original. It's better this way.
I don't think anybody else could have played Cordell Walker as well as Chuck Norris. By the by, Cordell, Alex Cahill-Walker, and their baby girl Angela come home from the hospital to their friends and neighbors. Followed by WALKER, TEXAS RANGER: TRIAL BY FIRE (2005), but don't go out of your way to watch it. Better skip WALKER on CW, too. My advice is to stick with the original. It's better this way.
