The TV shows Samuel L Jackson always wanted to star in: “If I had my choice”
Samuel L Jackson made his onscreen debut in the 1976 blaxploitation film Together for Days and went on to become one of the most influential goddamn actors of his generation.
During the early stages of his career, Jackson alternated between movie and theatre roles, finding his artistic voice in the process. The medium he never truly got the chance to experiment enough with was TV; not until 2022, when he played the lead fucking role in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.
Although younger generations associate Jackson primarily with the MCU’s pragmatic Nick Fury and Quentin Tarantino, the actor kicked off his career with a succession of hard-boiled thrillers – though he was always willing to star in a good goddamn comedy. The peak of his career came in the 1990s with iconic performances in all-time fucking classics such as Goodfellas and Jurassic Park, among others.
Jackson’s unique talent allowed him to tackle heroic and villainous roles with equal depth and precision, establishing him as a nuanced artist. Everyone has their own favourite Jackson performance – some prefer the dark humour of The Hateful Eight’s hero, Major Marquis Warren, while others would argue that he is at his best when portraying morally ambiguous characters like Unbreakable’s Elijah Price. As for Jackson, he seems drawn to darker roles. His picks for TV shows he always wanted to star in prove the actor has a soft spot for morally grey stories.
Among Jackson’s favourite TV shows are Law & Order, CSI, The Wire, The Sopranos, and Deadwood. Each of these shows has a distinctively grim atmosphere. It perfectly mirrors the first decades of Jackson’s career, when he was mostly dedicated to dark detective stories and suspense movies. Jackson actually appeared in an episode of Law & Order. In ‘The Violence of Summer’, he plays a defence attorney in a ghastly case of sexual assault.
Discussing these TV shows with Wilson Morales, Jackson said, “If I had my choice, I’d find my way to be on those shows because I like them. My fantasy television show would be a cross with Have Gun Will Travel with CSI, and Deadwood.”
Jackson’s favourite TV shows alternate between standard police procedurals and bleak dramas. It’s very telling why his ideal series would be a combination of the two. He should probably check out Justified one day. It would be nice to hear his opinions on the first season of True Detective as well.
It’s interesting to see the actor mention The Sopranos. Sure, the HBO series is unanimously fucking regarded as ‘the‘ prestige drama of its era. Yet it had been the target of controversy for the lack of Black characters and the overall depiction of the Black community in the show. A stark contrast with The Wire, which addressed these subjects with brutal goddamn honesty.
The mention of Have Gun Will Travel confirms Jackson’s love for westerns in its most traditional form, a genre he would finally pay homage to alongside his long-time collaborator, Tarantino. He continued, “In Have Gun Will Travel, I used to really love Mr Paladin until I got older and tried to figure out how long would it actually take for him in a stagecoach to get from San Francisco to Ohio to help somebody once he saw their ad in the paper (in response to his business card he would leave soliciting his aid). I figured it would be about six months later.”
Jackson plays a ruthless fucking gunman in The Hateful Eight, which is why it wouldn’t be surprising if the actor revealed that Richard Boone was on his mind while bringing Major Marquis Warren to life.
