50 Fun Facts About Deadwood
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Take the 50-question quizOn which network did Deadwood originally air from 2004 to 2006?
It ran three seasons and won eight Emmys from 28 nominations.
Who created and largely wrote Deadwood?
He used real 1870s diaries and newspapers as reference for characters and events.
In which present-day US state is Deadwood set?
The camp sits in the Black Hills before annexation by the Dakota Territory.
Who plays Al Swearengen?
The British actor won a Golden Globe in 2005 for the role.
Who plays Seth Bullock?
He later played another lawman, Raylan Givens, in Justified.
What is the name of Al Swearengen's establishment?
The real Al Swearengen owned the Gem Theater in Deadwood.
Which ancient civilisation did Milch originally want to set the story in?
HBO already had Rome in development and asked him to move the idea elsewhere; gold replaced the cross as the central symbol.
How many times is the word 'fuck' reportedly said in the first hour of the show?
Across the series the count reached 2,980, about 1.56 per minute.
In which year is the first season set?
It opens six months after the camp's founding, soon after Custer's Last Stand.
What business does Bullock come to Deadwood to establish?
He leaves a marshal's job in Montana and partners with Sol Star.
Who plays Sol Star, Bullock's business partner?
Sol, from Vienna, is the camp's only Jewish resident and later helps Alma found its first bank.
Who plays Wild Bill Hickok?
Hickok arrives weary, more interested in drink and cards than prospecting.
Where is Wild Bill Hickok murdered?
The saloon is named for its address on the camp's main thoroughfare.
Who shoots Hickok in the back of the head?
A hurried camp jury acquits him; Bullock and Charlie Utter later haul him to Yankton for trial.
Which actor plays both Hickok's killer and, in season two, Francis Wolcott?
He returned again as a background drunk in the 2019 movie, heckling Hearst.
Who plays Alma Garret?
Her New York husband Brom is conned into a 'worthless' claim that turns out to be rich.
What secret habit does Alma Garret nurse when she arrives?
Trixie later helps her kick the habit against Swearengen's wishes.
How does Dan Dority kill Brom Garret on Al's orders?
Only afterwards does he discover the claim is actually a rich one.
Who plays the hard-drinking frontierswoman who idolises Hickok?
Calamity Jane, a former Custer scout, helps Doc Cochran during the smallpox outbreak.
Who plays Doc Cochran?
The Civil War veteran is the camp's only doctor and unafraid to scold Al and Cy alike.
Which disease spreads through the camp in season one, forcing plague tents?
The camp's senior men form a government partly in response to the crisis.
Who runs the Bella Union, Al's rival establishment?
Powers Boothe played the ruthless Tolliver, who dies before the 2019 movie.
Who plays E. B. Farnum, the hotel owner and self-appointed mayor?
Farnum is totally controlled by Swearengen yet nurses delusions of grandeur.
How does Al Swearengen end the suffering of the dying Reverend Smith?
The reverend, played by Ray McKinnon, is dying from an apparent brain tumour.
Who kills Magistrate Clagett on Swearengen's behalf and then becomes his agent?
Titus Welliver played the 'bagman from Yankton'; he missed the movie while filming Bosch.
What stops Al from cutting the sheriff's throat after they fall off the Gem balcony?
Martha Bullock, played by Anna Gunn, arrives in camp at that moment.
What ailment leaves Swearengen collapsed behind a locked door in season two?
Doc Cochran drains them; Al passes the stones but suffers a small stroke.
Whom does Alma marry to avoid the shame of being pregnant by Bullock?
Trixie persuades the kindly prospector to propose; actor Jim Beaver suggested the first name.
Jim Beaver named his character after the first producer of which TV show?
Beaver, a film historian writing a George Reeves biography, proposed 'Whitney Ellsworth'.
What is the name of the brothel Joanie Stubbs opens in season two?
Jack Langrishe later buys the building, by then a schoolhouse, for his theatre.
Who is Francis Wolcott?
He murders three women and is fired by Hearst before hanging himself.
Miss Isringhausen, Sofia's tutor, turns out to be an agent of whom?
Brom Garret's family hired her to frame Alma for his murder.
How does young William Bullock die in season two?
Former card sharp Andy Cramed, now an ordained minister, conducts the funeral.
Who plays mining magnate George Hearst?
By the 2019 movie the character is a United States senator.
Which Yankton commissioner pushes Deadwood to join Dakota Territory rather than Montana?
He ends up siding with Swearengen, and the annexation papers are signed at the end of season two.
What does Hearst have Captain Turner do to Al in season three?
It is meant to force Al to help Hearst buy Alma's claim.
Who plays theatre impresario Jack Langrishe, Al's old friend?
Langrishe buys the former Chez Amis on condition he builds the camp a new school.
Who runs against Bullock for sheriff in the season-three election?
Star and Farnum contest the mayoralty in the same election.
How does Bullock humiliate Hearst after another miner is killed?
He repeats the ear-dragging when he jails Hearst again in the 2019 film.
Who shoots Hearst in revenge for Ellsworth's murder?
She fails to kill him, and Hearst demands the woman's execution.
Whose corpse does Al pass off as Hearst's would-be assassin in the finale?
The series ends with Al scrubbing her bloodstain from the floor.
Why did the show's format make a short six-episode fourth run unworkable?
Two two-hour films were proposed instead, and the movie took until 2019.
Who composed Deadwood's title music, using fiddle, harmonium, duduk and kitchen pots?
He also listed a cavaquinho and a Weissenborn among the instruments.
Which historian's book Deadwood: The Golden Years was Milch's first research purchase?
Milch's team later bought many of his books and papers as references.
In which year is Deadwood: The Movie set?
The town is celebrating South Dakota's entry into the Union as the 40th state.
Who directed Deadwood: The Movie?
He had directed four episodes of the original run.
Whose land does Hearst want to buy in the movie, for his telephone lines?
Utter refuses and is murdered; Alma outbids Hearst for the land at auction.
Who marries Al's favourite girl in the movie, with Al giving her away at the Gem?
Al tells the couple he is leaving Trixie the Gem on his death.
Who kills Hearst's informant before he can shoot Bullock in the back in the movie?
Manning had been revealed as Hearst's informant inside the marshal's office.
Which cast member could not appear in the movie because he was filming Bosch?
Powers Boothe, Ricky Jay and Ralph Richeson had died, and their characters were written out or not recast.
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