How many Lonesome Dove episodes are there? The miniseries, the sequels, and the spin-offs, counted
Larry McMurtry's cattle-drive epic spawned a whole television universe — and depending on how much of it you count, the answer ranges from a single four-night event to 60 episodes of frontier drama. Let's count it all properly.
The short answer
The original 1989 Lonesome Dove miniseries has 4 episodes, totaling 384 minutes — about six and a half hours. Add the four follow-up miniseries and two seasons of the weekly spin-off, and the full franchise runs to 17 miniseries parts plus 43 series episodes: 60 in total.
The original miniseries
The one everyone means. It aired on CBS over four consecutive nights in February 1989, starring Robert Duvall as Gus McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call. Four parts — "Leaving," "On the Trail," "The Plains," and "Return" — each roughly 90 to 100 minutes. It was nominated for 19 Emmys and won seven.
The sequel and prequel miniseries
Four more miniseries followed, with wildly varying casts and quality:
- Return to Lonesome Dove (1993) — a roughly seven-hour sequel aired over three nights on CBS in November 1993, usually split into 4 parts on streaming. Jon Voight replaces Tommy Lee Jones as Call. Not based on a McMurtry novel.
- Streets of Laredo (1995) — 3 parts, adapted from McMurtry's own sequel novel, with James Garner as an aging Call.
- Dead Man's Walk (1996) — 3 parts, a prequel following young Gus and Call as green Texas Rangers.
- Comanche Moon (2008) — 3 parts, the final prequel, bridging the gap between Dead Man's Walk and the original.
That's 13 additional episodes — 17 across all five miniseries.
The weekly TV series
Yes, there was a regular show too. Lonesome Dove: The Series debuted in syndication on September 26, 1994, following Newt Call (Scott Bairstow) in the town of Curtis Wells, Montana — with a pre-Will & Grace Eric McCormack as the villainous Clay Mosby. It ran 21 episodes.
For the 1995–96 season it was retooled and renamed Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, going darker and heavier on action for another 22 episodes before cancellation in March 1996. That's 43 hour-long episodes across the two seasons.
What should you actually watch?
If you only watch one thing, watch the 1989 original — it stands completely on its own, no homework required. The McMurtry adaptations (Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk) are the strongest follow-ups. The weekly series is strictly for completists.
For the record: watching every single minute of the Lonesome Dove universe — all five miniseries and both seasons of the show — would take you roughly 60 hours.
The original cattle drive only took six and a half.