We Wouldn’t Have ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Without This Chuck Norris Western

The Big Picture

• Chuck Norris’s film Lone Wolf McQuade served as the original inspiration for the long-running television series Walker, Texas Ranger.
• Norris initially had reservations about transitioning to television but believed Walker, Texas Ranger had the potential for a long run.
• There was a lawsuit between Lone Wolf McQuade director Steve Carver and the creators of Walker, Texas Ranger, but it was ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Over the past few decades, Chuck Norris has evolved into something of a pop culture icon. The former action star has headlined plenty of feature films, TV movies, and other television projects that, despite their cheesiness, have withstood the test of time. Or, at least that’s how we’d like to see them. But his feature filmography aside, Norris is arguably best known for starring alongside the late Clarence Gilyard in the long-running television series, Walker, Texas Ranger, which ran eight seasons from 1993 until 2001. The show became a cult classic, ushering in a made-for-TV follow-up movie and a recent reimagining, but the famed Texas Ranger owes it all to one ’80s Western: Lone Wolf McQuade.

‘Lone Wolf McQuade’ Was the Original Inspiration Behind ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’

Just like Walker, Texas Ranger afterward, Lone Wolf McQuade follows a Texas-based former United States Marine-turned-Texas Ranger with some unsurprisingly traditional Western leanings. The film centers entirely on Jim “J.J.” McQuade (Norris), the titular “Lone Wolf” who prefers to do things solo, especially when it comes to Texas Rangering. Of course, there’s some martial arts thrown in there too, but not as much as the usual Chuck Norris action fest. In fact, one could even credit Lone Wolf McQuade as helping him break out of that typecasting. Norris’ work as McQuade was a significant departure from his usual roles, and here he sported a scruffy, unkempt appearance and partook in activities his characters usually avoided on principle.

As the film progresses, McQuade ultimately learns the value of teamwork, especially when forced to save his daughter from some pretty nasty bad guys led by Rawley Wilkes (expertly played by David Carradine). Despite McQuade’s troubled lifestyle and lone wolf attitude (it isn’t called Lone Wolf McQuade for nothing, he even lives with a wolf), the growth he shows could easily be attributed to the darkness he encounters. Sure, it’s still a Chuck Norris action movie, so everything is pretty simulated, but there’s no denying that Lone Wolf McQuade is one of Norris’ best pictures, and it pushed the actor to his limits.

Chuck Norris Wasn’t Sure About ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ At First

“All I wanted to do in movies was be a positive image,” Norris told The New York Times a decade after Lone Wolf McQuade premiered in theaters. “I wanted to be likable, as I do in real life. I don’t like violence for violence’s sake. I hated the movie Blue Velvet, for example. I liked Aladdin, because it has a positive message. In my movies, I never attack anyone. I don’t cause trouble, but I end it.” No doubt, the roles Norris generally tackles are moral figures. That’s true in Lone Wolf McQuade, of course, but it’s an aspect of Norris’ personality that’s even further emphasized and infused into the original Walker, Texas Ranger series.

But Norris wasn’t quite sure that he was up to the challenge of moving onto television at first. Movies are one thing, they’re finite with an ending in sight, but TV is a tougher business. Yet, after some careful consideration, he thought it was time to give it a go. “I had to believe that it would be the kind of series that had longevity,” Norris told The Chicago Tribune ahead of Walker, Texas Ranger‘s premiere. “Looking at the scripts (only two have been completed) and looking at the character, I felt like Walker, Texas Ranger has a chance of having a long run.” To Norris, a long run meant around seven years, so starring in a series that ran for nearly a decade was likely a welcomed surprise.

‘Lone Wolf McQuade’ Director Steve Carver Sued ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ And Lost

As mentioned before, the Fort Worth-based Walker, Texas Ranger (the first primetime series to be filmed exclusively in the Lone Star State) was originally based on Lone Wolf McQuade. “It was always going to be shot in Texas. That was a very strong motivating factor for me to do the series, along with the subject matter, and the character,” the actor explained, emphasizing that the idea for Walker was based on the neo-Western he made a decade prior. But not everybody was happy about the connections between Norris’ film and television projects.

“I was part of it in the beginning, to direct some of them,” Lone Wolf director Steve Carver revealed in an exclusive interview with Flashback Files decades later. “There were some producers that I was involved with, who took the idea of the Texas Ranger and the image of the Texas Ranger with Chuck. And we, being Yoram Ben-Ami and I and our production company, we sued them.” Carver and Ben-Ami sued for $500 million, hoping to get in on the Walker, Texas Ranger craze that MGM and CBS had started. Given that they were the ones responsible for bringing Long Wolf McQuade to life, they figured that they should take home a cut themselves. But once the case reached the Supreme Court, the lawsuit was dismissed.

“We failed to convince the Supreme Court that there were similarities,” Carver continued. “Now, you and I and anybody else knows that there are similarities between Lone Wolf McQuade and Walker Texas Ranger. So, Chuck and I parted ways.” Because the feature film was owned by Orion Pictures, Walker co-creators Albert S. Ruddy, Leslie Greif, Paul Haggis, and Christopher Canaan were forced to work around the original neo-Western entirely, instead redeveloping J.J. McQuade into Cordell Walker. While there are similarities to be sure–the iconic Texas location, a Marine-turned-Ranger lead star, and Norris himself mostly–Walker, Texas Ranger is different enough from Lone Wolf McQuade, both in style and substance. The truth is, there was hardly a case at all.

Chuck Norris Has Suffered His Own ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Problems

But it turns out that even after all those years on the air, even Chuck Norris had his own legal troubles with Walker, Texas Ranger. Through his production company, Top Kick Productions, Norris filed a suit against CBS and Sony Pictures claiming that they kept a significant portion of the earnings from the television series from him. “The institutional system for exploiting Walker and follow-up reporting by CBS is designed to keep Top Kick in the dark,” the complaint noted, via The Hollywood Reporter. “[We are] unaware of the precise sources and amounts of revenue at issue, and to prevent Top Kick from knowing the various methods and contractual terms through which the 23 Percent Profit Clause has been diluted, reduced and materially breached.”

So far, the case hasn’t been settled, and Norris himself has remained silent concerning the whole affair. It’s clear that Walker, Texas Ranger, despite being so beloved by fans, has been a sore spot for many involved. But whether you prefer him in Lone Wolf McQuade or Walker, Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris is still one of those action staples that we’ll never be able to move past. Nobody can play these characters quite like him, and they’ll no doubt go down in history as some of his best. Now, if only we could get more from the cool-headed action star than just another Walker appearance on Late Night…

The ‘Walker’ Saga Continues With The CW’s Latest Version

Of course, just because Chuck Norris is no longer Cordell Walker, that doesn’t mean he’s left television entirely. Starting in 2021, the CW launched a new Walker series that re-imagines his character, world, and even his hometown. Rather than centering around Fort Worth, this Walker (played by Jared Padalecki) is based out of Austin, Texas, and has a large family, a dead wife (played by Padalecki’s real-life wife Genevieve Padalecki), and a huge chip on his shoulder after being deep undercover for over a year. Like the original Texas Ranger series, this Walker is assigned a new partner in the very first episode, and it changes his entire world. But in order to get the new Walker off the ground, Padalecki (who also serves as an executive producer) and creator Anna Fricke had to get Norris’ blessing on the project first.

“He did have to give his blessing. He helped create the original version, and so he still co-owns it,” Padalecki revealed on Good Morning America. “He didn’t have any problem with it, thank goodness, because I don’t want to mess with Chuck Norris. But I’ve seen all the GIFs and memes and stuff. So, he did have to give his blessing.” Admittedly, the CW’s Walker is an incredibly different show than the original. In many ways, it takes more cues from shows like Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone and Netflix’s Longmire than it does the original Texas Ranger, making it very much “Walker in name only.” Despite that, the show has been a relatively successful revamp for the network, and it even produced the Western prequel series Walker: Independence, which follows Walker’s ancestors in the 19th century.

While the original Walker, Texas Ranger never spun off, it did eventually produce a made-for-TV follow-up film titled Walker: Trial By Fire, which unfortunately left the series with an unresolved cliffhanger. While there’s no news of a crossover between the two Walker productions, maybe the CW should consider it moving into the new show’s fourth and final season. Or, maybe it’s time for Norris to return as J.J. McQuade…

Walker, Texas Ranger can be streamed exclusively on Peacock, while Lone Wolf McQuade can be streamed on Tubi with ads.

Watch on Peacock