I can’t remember the first Texas movie I ever watched as a kid, but that’s because we didn’t think about “Texas” movies when I was growing up in Plano. It’s possible I saw The Searchers or Red River on KTVT Channel 11 on a Saturday afternoon, but I am certain about one thing: the Sunday evening in May 1983 when Urban Cowboy made its network television debut. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I came for John Travolta, the music, and the mechanical bull.
Urban Cowboy had premiered in Houston in June 1980, so by the time I saw it in my living room, the entire nation had been enthralled by the country craze for years. My sister drove a GMC pickup with a Mesquite Championship Rodeo bumper sticker, we listened to KSCS country radio, and I received a silver buckle and Western belt with “BRIAN” stamped on the back for a birthday present. Remember, this is Plano in the early ’80s.
Of course, that influence spoke to the wild popularity of the film. It didn’t matter where you lived. Everyone in America knew Urban Cowboy and Gilley’s. And everyone loved Bud and Sissy…