Walker: Texas Ranger Premiered 28 Years Ago Today

On April 21, 1993, CBS premiered Walker, Texas Ranger, a series so inspired by the Chuck Norris film Lone Wolf McQuade that it borrowed its star for the title role of Cordell Walker, a lawman who uses martial arts to beat up criminals.

This TV-movie served as the pilot episode, which opens with Walker crossing the border into Mexico to beat up some bank robbers and haul them back stateside in his pickup. After another set of bank robbers kills his partner, Walker is out for justice, and eventually crosses paths with the nefarious former CIA agent named Orson Wade (Marshall Teague, Road House). At the same time, he must protect a teenage circus acrobat from the three creeps who gang-raped her and are now trying to keep her from testifying against them. Yikes.

Walker, Texas Ranger ran from 1993 until 2001, with a TV-movie in 2005 called Trial By Fire. The series has just been rebooted by Being Human creator Anna Fricke on the CW as Walker, starring Jared Padalecki in the title role. 

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.