Walker, Texas Ranger is an American action crime television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film Lone Wolf McQuade, with both the film and the series starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show was produced by Cannon Television (1993), Top Kick Productions (seasons 1–5), Norris Brothers Entertainment (seasons 6–9), The Ruddy/Greif Company, Columbia Pictures Television and CBS Productions and premiered on CBS on April 21, 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full seasons followed with new episodes airing from September 25, 1993, to May 19, 2001, and reruns continuing on CBS until July 28, 2001. It has been broadcast in over 100 countries and spawned a 2005 television film entitled Trial by Fire. The film ended on a cliffhanger, which was never resolved. DVD sets of all seasons have been released (with the three pilots packaged with the first regular season). At various times since 1997, reruns of the show have aired, in syndication, on the USA Network and Action in Canada. Reruns are currently seen on Legend, INSP, getTV, Pluto TV, Heroes & Icons, 10 Bold, Peacock, Up TV and Hulu.
The series was noted for its moralistic style. The main characters refrained from the use of drugs and participated in community service. Martial arts were displayed prominently as the primary tool of law enforcement and occasionally as a tool for Walker and company to reach out to the community.
A reboot entitled Walker, starring Jared Padalecki, debuted on The CW in 2021, where it ran for four seasons.
Premise The show was initially developed by executive producer Allison Moore and supervising producer J. Michael Straczynski when the series was still being produced by Cannon Television. While Straczynski had to depart to get his new series Babylon 5 on the air, executive producer David Moessinger remained to finish developing the series. The show is centered on Sergeant Cordell Walker (Norris), a Dallas–Fort Worth-based member of the Texas Rangers, a state-level bureau of investigation. Walker was raised by his paternal uncle, an American Indian named Ray Firewalker (Floyd Red Crow Westerman, pilot episode, season 1; Apesanahkwat, season 2). The surname is, possibly, a nod to the 1986 Norris film, Firewalker. Cordell, prior to joining the Rangers, served in the Marines' elite Recon unit during the Vietnam War. Both Cordell and Uncle Ray share the values characteristic of Wild West sheriffs.
His partner and best friend is James "Jimmy" Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), a former Dallas Cowboys player, "Go Long Trivette", who takes a more modern approach. Walker's young partner grew up in Baltimore and used football as his ticket to college education. He was dropped from the team after he tore up his shoulder in a major game, which led to his career in the Rangers (often making references to watching the Lone Ranger and how C.D. Parker mentored him as a rookie officer). Trivette also works inside the office using computers and cellular phones to collate information of the people who have been taken into custody.
Walker also works closely with (and shares a mutual attraction to) Alexandra "Alex" Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson), a Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney, who on occasion puts up a frown if Walker does not obtain results in time. He also gets advice on cases from C.D. Parker (Gailard Sartain, pilot season; Noble Willingham, seasons 1–7), a veteran Ranger (later inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame) who worked with Walker (and is the only character on the show to address Walker by his first name Cordell on a regular basis) until retiring to operate a small restaurant and bar called "CD's Bar and Grill", a restaurant widely known in the series for its chili. In season 7, two rookie Texas Rangers, Sydney Cooke (Nia Peeples) and Francis Gage (Judson Mills), are assigned under Walker and Trivette's command.
The series was well known during its run for its product placement deal with Chrysler, especially its Dodge division. After Walker used a GMC Sierra during the first season, he switched to the Dodge Ram (which at the start of the second season was completely redesigned for 1994), which would be advertised during commercial breaks. Other members of the cast often used other Chrysler vehicles, while villains would drive vehicles from General Motors or Ford Motor Company. This was not unlike The Andy Griffith Show, which exclusively used Ford vehicles due to a sponsorship deal with Andy Griffith. Coincidentally, the show ended just as Dodge was getting ready to redesign the Ram again for the 2002 model year, but the 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10 was used later in the movie Trial by Fire, driven by Walker.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Name Portrayed by Occupation SeasonsPilot1 2 3 4 56 7 8Cordell Walker Chuck Norris Former US MarineTexas RangerMartial Arts Instructor colspan="9" James Trivette Clarence Gilyard Former Football PlayerTexas Ranger colspan="9" Alexandra Cahill Sheree J. Wilson Assistant District AttorneyFounder of the HOPE Foundation colspan="9" CD Parker Gailard Sartain Former Texas RangerRanger Hall of FamerBar Owner colspan="1" colspan="8" Noble Willingham colspan="1" colspan="7" colspan="1" Raymond Firewalker Floyd Westerman Walker's Uncle colspan="2" colspan="7" Apesanahkwat colspan="2" colspan="6" Trent Malloy Jimmy Wlcek Army Drill InstructorKarate InstructorPrivate Investigator colspan="4" colspan="2" colsplan="1" colspan="2" Carlos Sandoval Marco Sanchez Police Detective colspan="4" colspan="2" colsplan="1" colspan="2" Francis Gage Judson Mills Texas Ranger colspan="7" colspan="2" Sydney Cooke Nia Peeples Texas Ranger colspan="7" colspan="2"
Main Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger Sergeant Cordell Walker, a former Marine and a modern-day Ranger who believes in the Code of the Old West. He is a decorated Vietnam vet and a martial arts expert, who also runs a martial arts program called 'Kick Drugs Out of America'. He is half-Cherokee and half-Irish. As a child in Oklahoma, his parents were murdered by White supremacists. He wound up living on the Cherokee Reservation with his Uncle Ray, where he was trained to use his instincts and learned to hunt game and catch rattlesnakes. He is the show's main protagonist. Norris also portrays Hayes Cooper, a 19th-century lawman whom Walker admired, who went from a career bounty hunter to Texas Ranger with connections to various Indian tribes in the West. Clarence Gilyard as Texas Ranger Sergeant James "Jimmy" Trivette, Walker's partner and best friend. He is a former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys where he was a wide receiver and a trained boxer. After suffering an injury in the NFL, he joined the Dallas PD. His first encounter with Walker was when he saved him from a group of rioters. He made the Rangers with his impressive arrest record. Sheree J. Wilson as Tarrant County Assistant D.A. Alexandra "Alex" Cahill, whom Walker later dates for a few seasons and finally marries. Aside from her work as a lawyer, she also runs a non-profit organization to assist troublesome teens called the H.O.P.E. (Help Our People Excel) Foundation. Gailard Sartain (pilot) and Noble Willingham (seasons 1–8) as retired Texas Ranger Captain C.D. Parker, Walker's buddy and ex-partner who owns a bar-restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, and is the only one to address Walker by his first name Cordell regularly. Despite being retired, he regularly assists Walker and Trivette. At the end of season 4, he was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. C.D. was written out midway the eighth season (due to Willingham leaving the show to run for Congress), with it said that he is on a cruise around the world, which leaves him unable to attend Walker and Alex's wedding. He later unexpectedly dies off-screen early in the final season while on a fishing trip, presumably of a heart attack, but the series finale ultimately reveals that C.D. was murdered by ricin poisoning by Emile Lavocat, as the start of a revenge plot against the Company B Texas Rangers. Floyd Westerman (pilot season & season 1) and Apesanahkwat (guest season 2) as Walker's paternal uncle Ray Firewalker, also known as Uncle Ray. He raised Cordell after his parents—John and Elizabeth Firewalker—were murdered. Ray disappears at the end of the second season and is later revealed to have died during the sixth-season episode "Lucas". Jimmy Wlcek as Trent Malloy (recurring seasons 5–6; main season 7), eldest son of late pastor Thunder Malloy and a former martial arts student of Walker. He is a black belt in Karate, in which during his time in the Army, trained recruits, and runs both his own Dojo and Protection Agency. He refuses to carry a gun after a childhood accident that got his kid brother killed. He also often teams up with Walker and Trivette on cases. Marco Sanchez as Detective Carlos Sandoval (recurring seasons 5–6; main season 7), a detective for Dallas PD, and the best friend of Trent Malloy. He often teams up with Walker and Trivette on cases. At first Carlos lacked in hand-to-hand training until Trent gave him some pointers in the sixth-season episode "Undercover". Judson Mills as Texas Ranger Francis Gage (seasons 8–9), a rookie Ranger who joins Walker in the series' eighth season who is partnered with Sydney. He is trained in hand-to-hand combat and shown to be somewhat of a womanizer. Nia Peeples as Texas Ranger Sydney Cooke (seasons 8–9), another rookie Ranger who joins Walker in the series' eighth season who is partnered with Gage. She is trained in hand-to-hand with excellent cardio and keeps a level head, unlike Gage.
Recurring John Amos ("Sons of Thunder") and Paul Winfield ("The Soul of Winter") as Roscoe Jones, the father of Adam Jones and the minister who replaced Trent Malloy's late father, Thunder Malloy, as pastor of the First Christian Church of Dallas. His son, Adam, is the best friend of Trent's younger brother, Tommy. He'd been honorably discharged a year after Thunder was, but they'd also had a brush with a white supremacist by the name of Stan Gorman, who went on to become the leader of a neo-Nazi organization known as the Sons of the Reich. Michael Beck as Adam McGuire, a former IRA terrorist who now seeks peace for Northern Ireland. He is under constant threat by his former comrades and has a daughter, Jennifer, who is suffering from leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Tobin Bell as Karl Storm, a dangerous arms dealer who plotted revenge against Alex, another attorney, and two police detectives, for taking him down five years prior, by hitting them at a wedding. He shot Alex and put her in a coma, when the bullet was intended for Walker, just before Walker was going to propose to her. Walker later killed Storm in a fight, in which Storm fell onto his own knife. Eloy Casados as Sheriff Sam Coyote, the sheriff of the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma and a childhood friend of Walkers. Julio Cesar Cedillo as Ernesto Lopez, a former gangbanger who turned his life around and joined the Marines. He was almost killed by his former gang in order to provoke his younger brother, Tommy, in joining to provoke a gangland war. After he was accused of rape and exonerated, he was murdered by rogue Brookdale PD cops who assumed he beat the system unfairly only to discover he was innocent.