I read online last week that there is some talk of a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger. Apparently, Jared Padalecki from Gilmore Girls is supposed to play Ranger Cordell Walker in Walker, a series scheduled for broadcast in January 2021. I’m a bit skeptical of this particular reboot. If it’s too far off course from the original, it’ll definitely be doomed. In any event, I suppose that brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: the Walker, Texas Ranger TV series.
How I first came across this moment? I came across the series back when I was in the 5th grade…so it had to be in 1995-96. I remember sitting with my mother and seeing “the guy from Sidekicks” alongside his black partner with the cowboy hat. It was an episode about Walker being on an oil rig.
What it meant to me then? I liked the fight scenes. Chuck Norris’ Cordell Walker pretty much put everybody down with a series of martial arts moves. In fact, at 9:53pm, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Walker was about to put somebody’s lights out with a roundhouse kick to the face. As I grew older and watched the series more, I liked the storyline. I loved the way that Walker and Trivette worked together. In a manner of speaking, it was the Texas version of New York Undercover…except it wasn’t as gritty and the criminals were more corrupt. In a weird way, I felt like it was bit of a moral compass for my life…especially the episodes that featured troubled kids. The best part of the series was that intro theme song though.
What it means to me now? I still watch Walker, Texas Ranger from time-to-time on WGN. It’s still as great now as it was then. Whenever I am able to catch an episode, the benefit of age often kicks in and I see the episodes and the Walker character a bit differently than I did as a younger version of myself.
