The Yellow Rose was a sprawling saga of life, love and the pursuit of intrigue on a modern West Texas ranch – called The Yellow Rose.
The 200,000-acre spread had been built by the late Wade Champion, and now his offspring were fighting among themselves and against the world to keep it going. Wade’s sons Roy (David Soul) and Quisto (Edward Albert) and his 29-year-old widow, Colleen (Cybill Shepherd), ran the place.
Roy found himself fighting both family arch-enemy Jeb Hollister (Chuck Connors) – who thought the ranch should belong to him – and his own passion for his beautiful young stepmother.
Colleen, on the other hand, was drawn to Chance (Sam Elliott), a lanky, taciturn stranger who arrived in the first episode and was the man with a past. It turned out he had served time for murder and was Wade’s illegitimate son.
Other stories involved treacherous hired hands, mountain lions attacking their stallions, rabies, drug smugglers, oil rustlers, and the smuggling of illegal aliens across the nearby border.
LC (Michelle Bennett) – which stood for “Love Child” – was Colleen’s 12-year-old daughter, and Whit (Tom Schanley) was Roy’s sexually curious teenage son.
Also near the centre of things were Grace (Susan Anspach), the sensual housekeeper, ranch hands Dillard (Noah Beery Jr) and Coryell (Ken Curtis), and Jeb’s daughter Juliette (Deborah Shelton).
Midway through the season, it was announced that Jane Russell would join the cast as Chance’s long-lost mother, Rose Hollister, but she showed up for only a couple of episodes.
NBC aired reruns of The Yellow Rose during the summer of 1990.
Colleen Champion
Cybill Shepherd Roy Champion
David Soul Quisto Champion
Edward Albert Chance McKenzie
Sam Elliott Luther Dillard
Noah Beery Jr. Hoyt Coryell
Ken Curtis L.C. Champion
Michelle Bennett Whit Champion
Tom Schanley Grace McKenzie
Susan Anspach Jeb Hollister
Chuck Connors Juliette Hollister
Deborah Shelton Sheriff Lew Wallace
L.Q. Jones Lenny Hollister
Steve Sandor John Stronghart
Will Sampson
