“Where the West Begins”: Taylor Sheridan and the Branding of a City
Kimberly A. Owczarski / Texas Christian University

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Figure 1: Film Fort Worth Twitter post highlighting 1883 having been shot in the city.

Fort Worth is currently the twelfth largest city in the United States, but it rarely receives the media attention that its neighbor to the east, Dallas, does. Until 2015, Fort Worth did not have its own film commission, and instead relied on Dallas’ film office to help draw productions to the area. Without an established identity, however, Fort Worth locations were often regarded as Dallas despite the very different nature of the two cities. See, for example, the labeling of season three of Netflix’s Love Is Blind as being set in Dallas, despite its many filming locations in Fort Worth and its surrounding area. Given its history, Fort Worth refers to itself as “Where the West Begins.” Until Taylor Sheridan brought multiple big productions to the city, however, very few people outside of Texas understood how that identity defined the area.

The Oscar-nominated Taylor Sheridan, a Fort Worth native, started in the industry as an actor with bit parts on multiple shows before landing a recurring role on FX’s Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014). After a salary dispute, he moved into writing and directing films including Sicario (2015), Hell or High Water (2016) and Wind River (2017) before co-creating the series which has defined his career, Yellowstone (Paramount Network, 2018-present). Based on that series’ success, he has produced a self-contained Yellowstone universe with spinoffs including 1883 (Paramount+, 2021-present) and 1923 (Paramount+, 2022-present); anthology series such as Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+, 2023) and Special Ops: Lionness (Paramount+, 2023-present); and stand-alone crime dramas Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+, 2021-present) and Tulsa King (Paramount+, 2022-present). Once Sheridan had enough clout, he re-located back to Fort Worth. Many of the series he produces have filmed or are filming in the city, including 1883, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, the upcoming Paramount+ series Landman, and the second season of Special Ops: Lionness with more spinoffs of Yellowstone also slated to film there in the future. In Sheridan’s own words: “I’m going to try to film everything in Fort Worth for two reasons: I think it’s great for the city, and I’m pretty lazy. I don’t want to go anywhere.” Fort Worth Film Commissioner Jessica Christopherson referred to Taylor Sheridan as “our Dallas TV series”[1] given the impact his productions have had on the city economically as well as in terms of marketability.

Though Sheridan obviously has close ties to Fort Worth, earlier in his career he was unable to bring his projects to the area. For example, Hell or High Water, despite being set in rural Texas, shot in New Mexico in order to take advantage of tax incentives offered by that state. Once he relocated to Fort Worth and starting bringing projects with him, Sheridan began to lobby government officials to increase tax incentives for media productions in Texas. Sheridan met individually with Republican government officials and the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to discuss the potential economic benefits of increased media production for areas like Fort Worth. After such a visit, Patrick voiced support for increased tax incentives and hoped Sheridan would then be able to “move all of his TV and movie production to Texas.” Working with the Fort Worth Film Commission and Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker, Sheridan hosted a special screening of 1883 episodes at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, attended by state lawmakers in February 2023.


Figure 2: Film Fort Worth Twitter post highlighting the exclusive 1883 screening at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, with Texas legislators, co-hosted by Taylor Sheridan.

A few months later, the Texas legislature passed an updated incentive program, quadrupling the benefits available for media production. While he certainly was not the only celebrity working to increase the state’s incentives, Sheridan’s involvement is credited with changing the minds of several Republican representatives who have historically opposed tax incentives as being “handouts” for ‘liberal’ Hollywood productions.


Figure 3: Video supporting an increase in Texas film incentives featuring several Texas-related celebrities. Note that they also address the ‘liberal’ Hollywood concern in the video.

There are multiple reasons why Sheridan’s involvement was so impactful on Republican state officials. Many of his shows are set in rural communities, similar to the areas some of these officials represent. His shows are popular in those same communities and with Conservative voters. While Sheridan’s projects in Texas so far have filmed in bigger cities like Austin and Fort Worth, they also involve many smaller, rural communities across the state and they have brought significant benefits to these areas. Dollars spent by cast and crew in restaurants, gas stations, and hotels, among other local businesses, were huge boons in these areas, while being labelled a location for one of Sheridan’s shows comes with potential tourism benefits in the future. After a few day shoot in Waxahacie for Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Amy Borders, the city’s director of communications and marketing, stressed the impact these shoots have on small communities: “They’re putting Texans to work, and they’re spending their money in Texas. . . .That’s so important.” This is true both in these smaller communities, and in the bigger cities like Fort Worth. For example, 20,000 room nights at local Fort Worth hotels were used in the making of Lawmen: Bass Reeves. As the above post from Film Fort Worth’s Twitter states, 1883 alone brought in over $550 million in economic impact to the area and 18,000 jobs. Many of these jobs were part-time and/or temporary, but the numbers indicate a substantial benefit to local businesses and crew from just that one show.


Figure 4: Fort Worth Film Commission video posted to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook showcasing the connection between 1883 and contemporary Fort Worth.

In addition to the economic benefits Fort Worth and its surrounding areas receive as part of Sheridan’s projects, the attention they have brought to the city is also important for marketability. In 2022, Moviemaker Magazine recognized Fort Worth for the first time as one of the “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker,” citing Sheridan’s productions among the key reasons, and did so again in 2023. “Filmmaking means big business for Fort Worth, but it also enhances our visibility nationally and beyond,” Mitch Whitten, the chief operating officer of Visit Fort Worth, stated. Visit Fort Worth, a city organization devoted to the growth of tourism, commissioned a study about the impact of film tourism on the area and found that over 20% of out-of-state leisure visitors in the prior three years were influenced by media portraying the city.[2 ] Indeed, in marketing surveys, unaided responses to top-of-mind descriptions of Fort Worth skewed heavily towards ideas of cowboys/cowgirls, cattle/stockyards, old west/old west history, and authentic Texas/west, suggesting a significant influence from Sheridan’s projects.[3]

Sheridan’s own image helps reinforce the notion of Fort Worth as authentic Texas. In part, this is because most of his shows have a Western setting. In 2022, Sheridan led a group in the acquisition of legendary Texas ranch 6666. It has been used as a location for several of his projects including 1883. The land has now become the site of Sheridan’s legendary “cowboy camps” to prepare cast and crew members for the rigors of filming Western-based shows. The ranch is the subject of an upcoming TV project. It is also featured as part of Texas’s proud cowboy history in a commercial for Fritos, directed by Sheridan. Sheridan himself often dresses in a cowboy hat, denim, and Western belt buckle—a sight I personally witnessed as an extra for segments of an episode of the upcoming series Landman that he directed.


Figure 5: Fritos commercial directed by Taylor Sheridan, highlighting the company’s partnership with the 6666 Ranch and Texas’ cowboy history.

In supporting the tax incentives that Sheridan championed, Dan Patrick highlighted that the filmmaker was “a Texan and gets Texas.” Perhaps that is why Sheridan’s projects have been so successful in attracting viewers—their fascination with the state’s Western culture and heritage. Nowhere is that more on display than in Fort Worth, one of the biggest cities in the U.S. that few people recognize. But that is starting to drastically change as Sheridan continues to make projects in the city and its surrounding area, reinforcing the notion of Fort Worth as “Where the West Begins.”

Author’s Note
As this is part of a larger project on Fort Worth filmmaking, I would like to thank collaborator Tricia Jenkins for her contributions to the research used here.

Image Credits:
  1. Film Fort Worth Twitter post highlighting 1883 having been shot in the city.
  2. Film Fort Worth Twitter post highlighting the exclusive 1883 screening at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, with Texas legislators, co-hosted by Taylor Sheridan.
  3. Video supporting an increase in Texas film incentives featuring several Texas-related celebrities. Note that they also address the ‘liberal’ Hollywood concern in the video.
  4. Fort Worth Film Commission video posted to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook showcasing the connection between 1883 and contemporary Fort Worth.
  5. Fritos commercial directed by Taylor Sheridan, highlighting the company’s partnership with the 6666 Ranch and Texas’ cowboy history.
References:
  1. Jessica Christopherson, personal interview, April 5, 2023. [↩]
  2. Visit Fort Worth, “Film Tourism,” unpublished study, 2023. [↩]
  3. Visit Fort Worth, “Marketing 2023 & Beyond,” unpublished presentation, 2023. [↩]
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