{"id":638335,"date":"2026-03-23T03:53:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638335\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:53:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:53:53","slug":"2003-fort-worth-in-chuck-norris-walker-texas-ranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638335\/","title":{"rendered":"2003: Fort Worth in Chuck Norris\u2019 \u2018Walker, Texas Ranger\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rey<\/p>\n

Rey Olivas created thousands of unique belt buckle designs, including the badges and buckles used in Walker Texas Ranger. Photo shot at his office in Fort Worth on Tuesday, February 19, 2002.<\/p>\n

M.L. Gray<\/p>\n

Star-Telegram archives<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH<\/p>\n

(First published April 24, 2003.)<\/p>\n

And now, for the electronically deprived, here is a summary of Chuck Norris\u2019 lines from this week\u2019s premiere episode of Fort Worth\u2019s first TV series, \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeer!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hurt me. Real bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re cooking, ma\u2019am, but it sure smells good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s the water?\u201d<\/p>\n

(While flattening a bad guy with a boot to the face) \u201cYou have the right to remain silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

(While comforting a rescued teen-ager) \u201cThe way you\u2019re feeling is thanks enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

(And preparing for the usual car-crash-and-explosion climax, set appropriately in explosion-prone downtown Fort Worth) \u201cPayback time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who were out Wednesday night, CBS\u2019s new series-turned-trilogy, \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d debuted for a TV audience of 15 million, depicting Fort Worth in our usual typecast role as a thrill-packed, crime-plagued cowboy town.<\/p>\n

Maybe you saw the Star-Telegram in our supporting role. We played a bank, and we got robbed.<\/p>\n

\"Rey Rey Olivas created thousands of unique belt buckle designs, including the badges and buckles used in Walker Texas Ranger. Photo shot at his office in Fort Worth on Tuesday, February 19, 2002. M.L. Gray Star-Telegram archives <\/p>\n

Had we only known, we could have loaned Walker some writers.<\/p>\n

Our TV guy Steven Cole Smith called it \u201creasonably entertaining drama . . . crippled by a slow-moving, stilted script.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight-Ridder Newspapers\u2019 Mike Duffy said simply: \u201cNot as gosh-awful as I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even former high school English teacher-turned-Mayor Kay Granger said: \u201cI love the Fort Worth scenes. . . . But it should be much tighter. It took a long time to get into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with Norris playing Tarrant County-based Texas Rangers lawman Cordell Walker, the show cleaned up in the ratings anyway.<\/p>\n

Now CBS and Cannon Television Inc. must decide whether to resuscitate Walker after the last two episodes tonight (8 o\u2019clock, KDFW\/Channel 4) and next Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely no one expected this,\u201d Channel 4 spokeswoman Karen Cage said yesterday, when the station looked at Wednesday\u2019s No. 1 local rating and juggled the schedule to work in tonight\u2019s show after all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a surprise,\u201d she said. \u201cA big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Film Film crew and cast members of the television series Walker Texas Ranger film a scene from the front of the historic Tarrant County Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth. Members of the cast Judson Mills, who plays Ranger Francis Gage, (l-r) Nia Peeples as Ranger Sydney and Michael Costello, as Texas Ranger Jensen. Filming was done Tuesday, March 27, 2001. Jeffery Washington Star-Telegram archives <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say, considering that the first episode was a solid one-hour drama.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it lasted two hours.<\/p>\n

The best hour started about 9 o\u2019clock, long after a Mexico barroom scene where bandits with wretched accents spat out every stereotype line except \u201cWe don\u2019t need no stinking badges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next farcical scene came when Walker\u2019s love interest, Tarrant County criminal prosecutor Alex Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson), urged him to protect a witness so \u201cthis case won\u2019t slip through the cracks of the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the real Tarrant County, of course, we nudge cases toward the cracks of the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

The traditional fat-Texas-lawman is \u201cHee Haw\u201d actor Gailard Sartain as retired Ranger C.D. Parker, owner of C.D.\u2019s Bar & Grill, which bears an awfully close resemblance to Exchange Avenue\u2019s White Elephant Saloon.<\/p>\n

Parker also writes an advice column for the Gazette under the name \u201cOl\u2019 Trail Buddy,\u201d helping \u201cthe lovelorn, lost, bewildered and lonely.\u201d<\/p>\n

It must be only coincidence that Fort Worth\u2019s real Stockyards Gazette prints an advice column by Cowtown Coliseum\u2019s Hub Baker, called \u201cDear Hub.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the lowdown on Walker.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah. I didn\u2019t tell you about the bad guy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say it\u2019s the writer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 3:09 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion columnist. In a 54-year Texas newspaper career, he has covered two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 Texas Legislature sessions..
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