The prolific TV creator actually has a long history with the A River Runs Through It director.
Barbra Streisand isn’t the only Hollywood legend paying tribute to Robert Redford this week. Before the Oscars on Sunday’s night, Taylor Sheridan dedicated the first episode of his new series, The Madison, to the late actor and filmmaker. Redford died at age 89 on September 16, 2025, leaving behind a legacy as a celebrated American filmmaker and a champion of independent films.
So, when Sheridan decided to write a new drama for Paramount that featured Montana’s fishing waters, Redford’s similarly themed A River Runs Through It (1992) immediately came to mind. But for Sheridan, the connection was no accident.
Much like Redford’s film, The Madison stars two brothers—played by Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox—who spend their days fly-fishing for tuna in Montana’s Madison River Valley. Where the two projects differ, however, is that Russell and Fox’s characters die in a horrible plane crash. The incident leaves the surviving members of the Clyburn family to pick up the pieces, including the widowed matriarch Stacy (Michelle Pfeiffer).
She reveals later that A River Runs Through It was her late husband’s favorite movie, so the family watch it together for the first time at the end of episode 1. “A river may run through it, but I’ve never actually gotten through it.” Stacy tells her grandchildren. “It’s about fishing. How sad could it be?” Naturally, they all bawl their eyes out. Then, when the episode ends, the message “In loving memory of Robert Redford” appears on screen.
Ironically, Sheridan first pitched Yellowstone to HBO with Robert Redford attached to play John Dutton. As the story goes, an executive at HBO allegedly told him the show would only work if he had someone like Redford on board to star. But when Sheridan hustled and convinced Redford to come out of retirement for Yellowstone, the HBO executive changed their tune like one of Yellowstone’s villains.
According to Sheridan, they told him that the series “felt like a step backward,” when he recounted the event during his 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And frankly, I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think anyone should be living out there [in rural Montana],” the HBO executive continued. “It should be a park or something.’”
Eventually, Yellowstone landed at the Paramount Network with Kevin Costner. He left the series early and now the Yellowstone franchise is in spin-off hell. But thanks to The Madison’s tribute, we’ll never forget just how important Redford’s contribution was to the genre. Plus, it’s always fun to imagine the alternate history of Redford starring as John Dutton on HBO’s Yellowstone. If I know Sheridan, he’s never forgotten that it almost happened either.
