Line #3 Series/Legend


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legend_5.jpg]]
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3	''Legend'' is a science fiction Western television show that ran on Creator/{{UPN}} from April 18, 1995 until August 22, 1995. It was Creator/RichardDeanAnderson's first major role after the successful ''Series/MacGyver1985'' series (like ''Legend'' a Creator/{{Paramount}} production), and also stars Creator/JohnDeLancie (who is known for playing Q on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', also a Paramount production).
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5	Ernest Pratt, a dime-store novelist in the old west, lives with his scientist friend Professor Janos Bartok in the small town of Sheridan, Colorado. The people of Sheridan mistakenly believe that Pratt--a drinker, gambler, and womanizer--is the audacious and pure hero of his novels, Nicodemus Legend. Bartok and his associate, Ramos, convince Pratt to assume the Legend persona while supplying him with Legend-like futuristic gadgets that they invent. Together, Bartok and the reluctant Pratt (as Legend), adventure throughout the west solving mysteries, capturing wrong-doers, and even making scientific discoveries.
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7	Nothing to do with [[Film/Legend2015 either of]] [[Film/Legend1985 the films]] of the same name.
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9	!!''Legend'' contains examples of:
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11	* ActorRoleConfusion: Or 'author-character confusion' in this case.
12	* TheAlcoholic: Pratt can usually be found in saloons whenever he's on his own.
13	* {{Antihero}}: Pratt is a cynical one, though still very much a hero due to Bartok's influence.
14	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Averted to a surprising degree as the majority of historical personages that appear on the show are fairly accurate to their real-life complexities.
15	** Ulysses S. Grant's Presidency is shown to be riddled with corruption but he, himself, is honest. He furthermore is shown to be struggling with alcoholism but fully functional while under its influence.
16	** George Armstrong Custer is shown to be a MilesGloriosus self-promoter but genuinely concerned about the corruption in the War Department as well as devoted to his wife. His racism against Native Americans is shown to be something that he pursues for the "glory" but he attempts to make friends with non-local ones (much to Ramos' disgust).
17	** Wild Bill Hickok is shown to be a man who more or less lives up to his legend but in declining health as well as ability by the time of his death. Many of the stranger elements of his character like never sitting with his back to a door are also TruthInTelevision. [[spoiler: Except for him surviving Deadwood.]]
18	* BecomingTheMask: Ernest Pratt is a writer in the Old West who creates a popular series of pulp novels featuring a dashing cowboy hero known as Nicodemus Legend. With the help of Bartok, a pesky, but clever, scientist, the author winds up taking on the role and identity of his fictional creation. And apparently, Pratt, who was pretty much a drunk and a jerk, finds that the selflessness and heroism are less and less of an act as time goes on.
19	* BribingYourWayToVictory: Pratt occasionally resorts to this with his publisher's money. In the pilot, when faced with a legendary gunslinger, he gets him a book deal for $2000. This notably is about 4 times as much as the gunslinger was being paid to kill him.
20	* CattlePunk: Pratt lives in a very oddball version of the Wild West with mad science, legendary outlaws, and bizarre adventures.
21	* DentedIron: Wild Bill Hickok is increasingly slow on the draw and his eyesight is failing him due to the advancing of his age as well as poor lifestyle choices he's made. He needs spectacles at the least and probably should retire before he's killed.
22	* DimeNovel: Pratt makes his living publishing these. Humorously, he's actually not a WildWest author exclusively but implied to write science fiction novels in a Wild West setting even before he becomes aligned with a CaptainErsatz of Tesla.
23	* ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe example. In "Knee High Noon", the wife of his "son" and the aforementioned son keep insisting on changes to Pratt's document to increase the latter's role. [[spoiler: This gets the kid fired and the entire idea of Nicodemus Legend Junior dropped by the publisher.]]
24	* {{Expy}}: Bartok is a version of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla. Honestly, he verges on a CaptainErsatz since he was driven out of the city by Thomas Edison.
25	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Wild Bill Hickok does this in the Legendverse using a bullet proof vest.]]
26	* FrothyMugsOfWater: Since everyone in Sheridan knows that Nicodemus Legend is a teetotaler, the only way Ernest Pratt can get his whisky is to drink it out of a teacup.
27	* GiverOfLameNames: Bartok gives overly long names for his inventions.
28	* GossipEvolution: A bank robber once nearly got caught because his horse balked in front of a woman crossing the street and wouldn't move until she'd passed. Witnesses thought that the robber had done it deliberately. Within a few weeks, the story had changed to the robber actively helping the lady across the street, and then to him giving her some of the loot to pay for her children's education. Eventually the robber decided that he liked being thought of as a GentlemanThief and started acting the role.
29	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: President UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant appears in an episode, and Oliver Wendell Holmes is mentioned in passing.
30	* IHaveYourWife: The plan of the rustles in "Knee High Noon" when Legend gets a unknown son. They kidnap the boy's mother as well, assuming that she's Legend's wife.
31	* InstantBookDeal: Pratt gets out of a gunfight by promising the man who wanted to duel the famous (and fictitious) Nicodemus Legend a deal with his publisher for a book series about his real-life exploits. This is notably a DownplayedTrope because Pratt ''is'' a famous author and his company publishes the lives of gunslingers. The man in question was also one of the most famous still alive.
32	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: A woman tells the protagonist Ernest Pratt her life story, which sounds remarkably similar to ''Literature/{{Gone with the Wind}}''. When Pratt's friend says it would make a good story for the dime novels he writes, Pratt replies that it would never sell.
33	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Pratt is a hard-drinking, womanizing, and generally unpleasant jerkass. He likes doing the right thing when he can be browbeaten into doing it, though.
34	* {{Safecracking}}: Janos tries to blow a safe using nitroglycerin. The safe goes through the roof of the bank and lands in the stable next door.
35	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: During the episode ''Revenge of the Herd'', Bartok creates a robotic analogue for the Arapho buffalo-goddess "Thunderhooves". After the machine briefly runs rampant, the local Arapaho chief muses, "I'd like to think the spirit of Thunderhooves took her form!" Come the end of the episode, the robot activates on it's own...
36	* MagicalNativeAmerican: Averted; Any depictions of Native Americans in the series shows them often making money off gullible tourists, and regularly mocking Pratt whenever he's trying to buy time.
37	* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Nicodemus Legend is TheParagon and a hero of the Old West in books. He doesn't drink, smoke, gamble, or womanize. Ernest Pratt, his writer, is a {{Jerkass}} who does all of those things.
38	* ThisIsReality:
39	** A in-universe one for the Legend book series. Pratt has to stop writing a manuscript because he realizes, mid-sentence, that his hang glider attack on the James Brothers would realistically end with them shooting him before he got close.
40	** In "Knee High Noon", Pratt has to deal with constant ExecutiveMeddling to incorporate a heretofore unmentioned son. Eventually, he gives in and submits the manuscript suggestions made by the boy as well as StageMom. Being as Pratt is a professional writer of no significant skill of an EscapistCharacter and they're amateurs looking for a payday, the result is dreadful and gets the idea of a LongLostRelative dropped.
41	* StageMom: Legend is forced to deal with one and her BrattyHalfPint son in "Knee High Noon."
42	* StealthPun: John [=DeLancie=] as the GadgeteerGenius who makes all the gizmos the hero uses. In other words, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q]] plays [[Film/JamesBond Q]].
43	* SteamPunk: Bartok creates a series of amazing comic book-esque inventions to help Pratt be the hero he pretends to be.
44	* TeethClenchedTeamwork:
45	** Pratt is fairly friendly to General Custer at first but their mutual animosity slowly grows from the fact that the former is a dime novelist while the latter is a vainglorious bigot. They briefly work together to uncover a conspiracy in the war department.
46	** Pratt is forced to work with an actor playing his son due to his showbiz mom.
47	* TheTeetotaler: Nicodemus Legend is a Teetotaler. However, Ernest Pratt, the writer who portrays him, is an alcoholic. Because everyone in Sheridan thinks of him as Legend, the only way Pratt can get his whiskey is to [[FrothyMugsOfWater drink it out of a teacup]].
48	* TelegraphGagStop: In the pilot, alcoholic dime novel hack Ernest Pratt is accosted by his agent about the publisher's demand he pretend to be the hero of his novels, Nicodemus Legend, to promote his flagging book series. At least the story takes place in the right period for telegrams (1876).
49	-->'''Harry Parver:''' ''(reading from copy of telegram)'' Imperative you meet public appearance obligations, stop. Last ''Legend'' novel barely recouped expenses, stop. If contract not complied with, advance on next book forfeit---
50	-->'''Ernest Pratt:''' STOP!
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Context Series / Legend