It may shock you to learn that Taylor Sheridan almost walked away from Yellowstone thanks to production difficulties before the show even began.
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We all know that Yellowstone, and all its surrounding shows (colloquially known as the Yellowstone universe), are one of the biggest things on TV right now. It's raked hundreds of millions in profits, and fans are foaming at the mouth to get as much Taylor Sheridan shows as they can.
Although the ending of Yellowstone was a controversial one, the prequels, 1883 and 1923, and future spin-offs such as the much-anticipated Rip and Beth show, have fans wanting more and more. Considering how much of a success the show is, it's pretty hard to believe that Sheridan almost walked away.
Taylor Sheridan spoke to Lucas Shaw over at Bloomberg, where he told Shaw all about the early days of the production of Yellowstone.
Apparently, he struggled to get the show off the ground. Initially, he sold the show to HBO, but they sat on it. They had a goldmine of a show in the palm of their hands, and they squandered it. It's a tale as old as time.
The show got overlooked for a while, but soon ended up at Paramount's door. Although they decided to do something with Yellowstone, it didn't come without difficulty.
Taylor Sheridan's Clash With Executives Almost Pushed Him Away
Everyone knows that Sheridan's projects are pretty damn expensive to make. His unorthodox approaches to production caused many clashes with the execs of Viacom, who owned Paramount. He leaned on his indie filmmaking experience, which rubbed them the wrong way.
He ignored meetings and did what he wanted to do. Sheridan knew what he was doing and didn't want any suits to influence the production of his show. This caused him a lot of grief.
"I strongly considered walking away," he admitted to Shaw. "It was a very, very difficult process."
Thankfully, he stuck to his guns, and Yellowstone is now an outrageously successful franchise. He's raking it in for himself and the producers, and to think the grip they tried to squeeze him with could have killed the show, and all future shows, entirely.
These corporate bodies really need to stop treating everything solely like a product.
