Starring Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock, first lawman in the 1876 gold rush camp, the new television western drama Deadwood debuts on HBO Sunday, March 21.

The action begins in early July 1876 as gold hungry prospectors and purveyors flock into Deadwood Gulch, an illegal settlement in Black Hills Indian Territory. Miners, attempting to bring law and order to the wild gold camp, appointed Bullock as sheriff.

Executive producer and head writer David Milch (NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues) combines fictional and historical characters in the hour-long episodes.

Keith Carradine straps on ivory-handled Colt revolvers to portray the legendary James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok. Wild Bill, shot in the back by Jack McCall (Garret Dillahunt), was killed August 2 while playing poker in a Deadwood saloon. "I’m gone by the fourth episode," Carradine said.

Emerging from the pages of Deadwood history books are rough and tough Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert); Hickok’s "pard" Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie); Bullock’s business partner Sol Star (John Hawkes); vicious saloon and brothel owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), and Swearengen’s "box herder" Johnny Burns (Sean Bridgers).

Historic figures reenact their roles with fictional characters personifying the type of people attracted to the wide-open gold camp -- Alma Garrett, a New York society woman looking for adventure (Molly Parker); Doc Cochran (Brad Dourif); rival saloon and brothel proprietor Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe); Trixie (Paula Malcomson); Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens).

Born in Hawaii, Olyphant, a competitive swimmer while attending the University of Southern California, chalked up screen credits in Paramount’s 1996 movie First Wives Club with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keeton, HBO’s When the Trumpets Fade, Sex and the City and Scream 2.

Deadwood isn’t Carradine’s first rodeo. He appeared with Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash in A Gunfight and portrayed a young cowpoke in McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Director Walter Hill cast him as Jim Younger in The Long Riders (1980) and as Buffalo Bill Cody in Wild Bill, a 1995 movie about Hickok’s last days.

It isn’t Deadwood’s first television rodeo either.

Guy Madison played the larger-than-life gunfighter in the 1950s series Wild Bill Hickok. And Seth Bullock’s ghost walked the halls of the Bullock Hotel in a 1992 Unsolved Mysteries segment.

Broadway actress Weigart (Calamity Jane) appeared with Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock in Two Weeks Notice. English-born "Sexy Beast" McShane (Swearengen), a London and Broadway stage veteran, has narrated several television documentaries.

Early reviews of Deadwood say the series could be one of the hottest shows on television this year, imparting much of the bleak, hard-wrought feel of Pete Dexter’s 1986 novel of the same name. As a graphic depiction of the wide-open mining camp, language is salty and brothel scenes leave little to the imagination.

"We are very excited about the new HBO series," said George Milos, executive director of the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce. "Deadwood is rich with history, both famous and infamous, and all our sources say this will be a very gritty yet realistic depiction of life in our old West." DM

Deadwood’s longtime reputation as a party place will be enhanced March 20 when the stars come out. Actors from the HBO cable TV series Deadwood will be in town for a Saturday night premiere screening at the Deadwood Pavilion.

Among the 600 to 900 guests expected to attend, in addition to the Deadwood series stars, will be HBO and Time Warner corporate executives, regional and national media people.

Details of the premiere, an invitation-only event hosted by HBO, had not been announced when Deadwood Magazine went to press in early February.

The Deadwood Chamber of Commerce is lending the facility to HBO and has no control over decisions about the screening, according to George Milos, Deadwood Chamber executive director. "We have no control over who will be invited or how many seats, if any, will be provided to us," he said.