Reminiscing on Lonesome Dove

Left Suzanne de Passe at Lonesome Dove reunion, photo

by Stephanie Schulz, courtesy Texas State University Below Lonesome Dove set at Bonanza Creek Ranch, photo by Linda Carfagno

An Interview with

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SUZANNE DE PASSE

By Mar Wood

What do Santa Fe, Michael Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones have in common? The answer may astound you: it’s Berry Gordy. More specifically, it’s the person who ran Motown Records for Gordy, Suzanne de Passe. For all the producer and screenwriter’s accomplishments, one of de Passe’s favorite projects was the classic mini-series Lonesome Dove, which many deem the best Western ever made.

I caught up with de Passe in Beverly Hills to learn the story of how the project was fraught with about as much drama and subplots as the story of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call itself.

Fine Lifestyles: The story goes that you were in Tucson, Arizona at Canyon ranch and you ran into Gloria Steinem in the locker room.

Suzanne de Passe: Yes, Gloria said, “We’re going out to dinner tonight.” At dinner, we met Larry McMurtry [the author of Lonesome Dove], and I invited him to lunch when he was in Los Angeles. Once in L.A., I asked him, ‘So, do you have anything in an old trunk that hasn’t been produced yet?’ He said, “You probably wouldn’t be interested in it... it’s a Western.’”

FL: Had you been interested in Westerns previously?

SdP: Not per se; I was just interested in good stories.

McMurtry obliged me with an unpublished manuscript.

I started reading it, got hooked, and called his agent.

And Irving Lazar saw me coming and charged me an exorbitant amount. After I bought the rights with Berry Gordy’s money, one of the women I was working with

Above Lonesome Dove set, photo by Linda Carfagno Below Lonesome Dove reunion, photo by Stephanie Schulz, courtesy Texas State University

[the writer, William D. Wittliff] had written two hours, but it was obvious how much more needed to be done. It ended up being eight hours.

I assembled a good team. I reached out to Bill Wittliff and Dyson Lovell. There was a time during pre-production when I realized I had to back off and let people do what they do. As director, Simon Wincer turned out to be the best. He had more energy than anyone I had ever met in my life. We were facing a six-day schedule, and on the day off everyone was face down in their pillows. Simon, however, was off running a 6K. FL: When Tommy Lee Jones was up for the part, CBS said: “This is CBS, not PBS.” What did they mean by that?

SdP: They didn’t think he was a hot enough star at the time.

FL: Now you can’t imagine anyone else in the role.

SdP: Right.

Originally, we thought Robert Duvall would play Call. But he wanted to play Gus. I look back on it all now, and I think it was really a miracle.

FL: How long did it take to film Lonesome Dove?

SdP: 16 weeks, I think. said to me, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but this project has been passed by every studio and network.”

Yes, every studio and network at the time – and there were probably nine of them – had passed on it, because Lonesome Dove just wouldn’t fit into two hours. Finally, John Huston, at the time hooked up to an oxygen tank, said, “I think I could do a two-hour movie and then a miniseries for European distribution, that kind of thing.”

At the end of the day, McMurtry and I agreed it was actually going to be a multi-part television series. But before we even started, we were having a drink one day and he said, “Suzanne,

I am all wrote out on Lonesome Dove and I am moving on.”

So there I was at square one. But before the end of the month, Irving Lazar called me up and said, “Kid, I want you to know that today Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.”

FL: Had you been suffering from sleepless nights up until then?

SdP: No, I wasn’t sleepless, but I kept thinking: How could I be this wrong?

The book was doing well on the New York Times bestsellers list.

I was cautioned by my agent to ask for four hours. Then it became six. Bill

FL: And it all turned out okay in the end.

SdP: Not really, not financially. We went Chapter 11, so we never got paid. It’s not been heralded but it’s true.

FL: But it was one of the finest Westerns of all time!

SdP: The lesson is really this: There is more to value than dollars. There are a lot of millionaires and billionaires that could never buy what I got out of Lonesome Dove in terms of experience and visibility. I consider Lonesome Dove one of my favorite projects of all time.

FL: Perhaps Gus best sums up the Lonesome Dove phenomena when he addresses his friend, Woodrow Call, for the final time: “It’s been quite a party, ain’t it?”