Hanks on Horseback

Next on Tom Hanks' to-do list: Boone's Lick, his very first Western. Co-scripted by Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain scribes Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana -- and based, like Lonesome Dove, on a novel by McMurtry -- the film will co-star Julianne Moore as "a headstrong woman...who drags her family on a rickety wagon from Boone's Lick, Mo., to the Wyoming fort where her husband lives. Her brother-in-law (Hanks) escorts her on the dangerous journey and along the way falls in love with her." Guess that will complicate things, you think?

Outlaws ain't what they used to be

The Texas Observer takes a peek at an archived collection of "crooks, knaves, sickos, and just plain idiots" who have been swooped up by the U.S. Attorney's office, according to the press office for the Western District of Texas. Be forewarned: You won't find a Jesse James among "the baddest and dumbest that Texas and the West have to offer."

Friday viewing tip: James Garner in 'Support Your Local Sheriff!'

Director Burt Kennedy (The War Wagon, Welcome to Hard Times) playfully tweaks the cliches and conventions of classic Westerns in Support Your Local Sheriff! (7 pm CST, Encore Western), a funny yet affectionate 1969 spoof that's suitable for family viewing. James Garner brings a sly hint of Bret Maverick to his tongue-in-cheeky performance as a risk-averse drifter who reluctantly agrees to temporarily enforce the law in a lawless Wild West town. Co-stars Jack Elam (as a crusty deputy who needs on-the-job training) and Walter Brennan (as the cantankerous leader of an outlaw clan) do a bang-up job of wink-wink, nudge-nudge self-parody, and the late Joan Hackett is sweetly dippy as the lovely lady who develops quite a hankering for Garner's easygoing sheriff.