How Taylor Sheridan’s Conflict With A ‘Jerk Business Affairs Attorney’ Led Him Away From ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ And Towards ‘Yellowstone’

The Yellowstone stable of shows sits in an unusual, somewhat ambiguous place at the moment, even as Peacock and CBS reap the benefits of reruns. Granted, Taylor Sheridan has many other shows on his current roster, and 1923 will be going strong for a second season, at least. That’s great news for those who love Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren together, but what else will happen for Dutton soap-opera addicts 6666 is in the works and will bring us the stories of the cowboys who work at the 6666 Ranch in Texas. Obviously, these will be fictionalized and soap-opera-esque stories, although Sheridan does now own the legendary real-life ranch in question. As well, the back end of Yellowstone Season 5 will (eventually) conclude the flagship series while spinoff-mode continues.

The future is bright for Sheridan-land, but it’s also worth looking back on how he got here. The prolific writer and former actor previously told us how he “became fascinated with the development of story” during his time on Sons Of Anarchy, in which he “was friends with a number of the writers on that show.” Sheridan, of course, portrayed Deputy Hale, who was the more straight-nosed cop of the department, although he was found to have that nose in certain ATF-related places (under a desk) at times. Still, this was a gig that was not destined to last for the show’s full run.

Deputy Hale ended up unequivocally dead in Season 3 during Half Sack’s wake (RIP) when he got trounced by a van (RIP) during what was essentially a funeral shootout. This, as Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter over the summer, was a “f*ck-you car crash.” He made this point in relation to how Kevin Costner’s John Dutton would be leaving the show, but it’s also worth digging a bit further into that SOA conflict. As part of Deadline’s “Disruptors” series, Mike Fleming once reported how Sheridan realized that he needed to leave Sons Of Anarchy after an attorney allegedly belittled him and said that being “11 on the call sheet” is “all he’s ever going to be.” Oh boy:

“When my attorney said, ‘Look, there are kids on the Cartoon Network making more than you’re offering this guy,’ this jerk business affairs attorney goes, ‘He probably deserves to make more, but we’re not going to pay him more, because guess what He’s not worth more. There are 50 of him. He is 11 on the call sheet. That’s what that guy is and that’s all he’s ever going to be,’” Sheridan recalls. “That’s really when I quit [because] that’s how the business saw me: ‘Let’s replace him with someone cheaper.’ And I decided that I didn’t want to be 11 on the call sheet for the rest of my life.”

Well, Taylor Sheridan certainly managed to prove that he’s no longer low on a call sheet. In fact, he went on to pen Sicario and Hell Or High Water, which put him on the path he’s on now — in league with Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy in terms of TV empires and being able to gleefully create whatever he wants at will and get it greenlit. And hey, there was obviously a vacancy in the cowboy-content market that Sheridan was particularly well-suited to fill.

At the time of his SOA departure, Sheridan did stay diplomatic on Deputy Hale’s death. The now TV king then declared to the LA Times, “As far as deaths on that show go, it was about as merciful as I can remember.” He also added, “It was fitting to Hale that he went out in battle without any regard or awareness.”

And the rest was glorious, horse-wrangling history for Taylor Sheridan.