If you live in North Texas, you may have recently stumbled across a peculiar road closure. Perhaps you saw a clue in the form of a sign that read “SET.” The commotion most likely traced back to Taylor Sheridan, the Fort Worth-raised show creator who has churned out TV hits at a dizzying pace.
At a time when filming in Los Angeles is at a low, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sheridan is propelling North Texas to become a force for film and TV in a way that it perhaps never has before. It’s a development that coincides with the state’s recent largest investment in film incentives funding — an effort that Sheridan lobbied for and for which he is now reaping the rewards.
Sheridan has forged a TV empire by channeling the rugged mythology of the Western frontier into ratings juggernaut Yellowstone, which spawned several spinoffs. He has maintained the momentum with a slew of unrelated dramas. Last fall alone, three shows he wrote — Landman, Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown — streamed new episodes on Paramount+.
Sheridan’s ascent has been well-chronicled, but less known is the integral role North Texas has played as a filming backdrop.
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Over the last year or so, the visibility of Sheridan’s productions in the region has skyrocketed. One day, his espionage thriller Lioness could be shooting a racy scene in Dallas with scantily clad cocktail servers; another day, extras could be attending a high-end party shoot in Ferris alongside veteran actress Annette Bening, who stars in Dutton Ranch, a Yellowstone spinoff set to premiere in May. A spinoff of crime drama Tulsa King was expected to film in New Orleans before recently changing its fictional setting to Frisco. The show is now called Frisco King and is filming in the D-FW.
The Dallas Morning News contacted Sheridan’s publicist for an interview, but Sheridan was on vacation and unable to be reached. Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 he ramped up his TV output to help pay for his sprawling Four Sixes ranch in Guthrie, about four hours northwest of Dallas.
For whatever personal reasons fuel him, Sheridan has benefited from seemingly uninhibited access to the area’s urban cores and rural outskirts — which serve not just as film sites, but in some instances as plot devices. Area officials are emphatic about the boon from Sheridan’s work, saying the region has profited from the creation of jobs and economic activity. The fanfare around Sheridan’s star-studded productions has also fueled hopes of tourism.
Sam Elliott, left, and Billy Bob Thornton chat during a red carpet event for the Season 2 premiere of “Landman” at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on Nov. 6, 2025.
Jason Janik / Special Contributor
Land and logistics
In 2021, the Fort Worth City Council approved road closures in the Stockyards so the Yellowstone prequel 1883 could film for two weeks. To match the 19th-century setting of the show, streetlights were removed and roads covered with dirt. A hamburger joint, Hooker’s Grill, closed and its outdoor deck was transformed into a rustic saloon.
The Fort Worth Film Commission, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, had laid the logistical groundwork for approving film permits and executing road closures, according to former commissioner Jessica Hill. Previous projects included Irving-raised David Lowery’s 2018 movie The Old Man & the Gun and Ty Roberts’ 2021 12 Mighty Orphans.
Still, the scale of 1883’s Stockyards revamp was unprecedented. The moment would telegraph the future ubiquity of Sheridan’s productions in North Texas.
Hill credited Fort Worth’s willingness to green-light the Stockyards takeover to the potential economic opportunities for businesses and hotels. “I can’t really think of an instance where we got a hard no from anyone,” she said of Sheridan’s growing presence. “It was more like, ‘Let’s figure this out.’”
Some Fort Worth residents have grumbled about the inconvenience of street closures, but local businesses don’t seem to be complaining.
61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant in downtown Fort Worth, has been featured in Lioness and Sheridan’s oil drama, Landman. The restaurant team was initially “standoffish” when approached for Lioness, according to executive chef Blaine Staniford. They were hesitant about having to close and potentially cancel reservations.
Andy Garcia stars as Gallino and Demi Moore as Cami Miller in “Landman.” In episode 4 of the show’s second season, the two meet at Fort Worth’s 61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant.
Emerson Miller / Paramount+
But Staniford said he was impressed by the TV crew’s professionalism. Plus, the restaurant was paid for closures, he said: “They cover what your estimated sales would be.” Recently, Staniford said, Sheridan has placed large to-go orders for crew and filming staff. “It could be easily a couple grand or more, which is a huge burst for us before we’ve even opened our door.”
Stephen Reich, a broker for the Fort Worth real estate firm Williams Trew, made a brief cameo in the latest season of Landman, showing Ali Larter’s character a property. The Sunday the episode dropped, he said, he received “without exaggeration” more than 300 phone calls and texts, many from previous clients wanting to work with him again. Sheridan “really plugged the whole company,” Reich said, noting the appearance has lent it further credibility.
With their huge audience, Sheridan’s shows have elevated Dallas’ national visibility, according to Katie Schuck, the city’s film commissioner. The city’s landscape has doubled as Baltimore and New York in shoots for Lioness and The Madison, respectively.
A New York Police Department vehicle drives off Ervay Street during filming for “The Madison” on Dec. 2, 2025, in downtown Dallas.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
The shows have generated significant economic activity, according to Schuck. “Having his work based in D-FW means consistent investment in our local crew base, small businesses, public services, and the broader film ecosystem,” she said via email.
Farther north, Frisco has become the latest entry to the Sheridan universe.
Some people might have wondered why the city was chosen as the setting for Sheridan’s Tulsa King spinoff when that news broke, Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said.
“There’s a lot of people outside of Texas that still have a certain perception — you know that we’re all on horses and cowboy hats and the tumbleweeds going across the highway,” he said, adding that Frisco is “a modern, urban city.”
Frisco is home to the headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys and the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. Country stars descended on the city for the last three Academy of Country Music Awards.
The infrastructure used to accommodate the high-profile sports and entertainment events will come in handy for Frisco King, according to Cheney. He said the show will shoot one or two days of B-roll in Frisco for each of its eight episodes.
The show, which does not yet have a release date, stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lee, a New Orleans-raised hitman. Cheney has described it as a “fish out of water” comedy and said Frisco will be portrayed as a modern Mayberry, the idyllic town in The Andy Griffith Show. It’s unclear why Lee is headed there, but Cheney said the character will be shocked by his shiny new community.
Samuel L. Jackson as Lee in a scene from “Tulsa King,” streaming on Paramount+. Jackson will star in a new spinoff called “Frisco King.”
Brian Douglas / Brian Douglas/Paramount+
A more profitable filming environment
Just as North Texas cities have helped Sheridan scale his TV ambition, the state’s recent expansion of its film subsidies program has secured his future here.
In 2023, as Sheridan sought to move his operation to Texas, he arranged for a dinner with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, according to Patrick spokesperson Steven Aranyi.
Sheridan and Patrick posed for a photograph in the Texas Senate afterward that was posted to the lieutenant governor’s Facebook page. “He’s a Texan and gets Texas,” Patrick wrote of the meeting. “My goal is for Taylor to move all of his TV and movie production to Texas. Working together, I think we can get it done.”
Aranyi said via email that Patrick was attracted to the “promise of thousands of high-paying Texas jobs for all the behind-the-scenes crew, and the sales tax revenues it would bring to rural communities and big cities for on-location productions.”
Later that year, Texas would boost its film incentives to a then-record $200 million.
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Two years later, in 2025, Patrick would up the ante, naming as a legislative priority a bill that proposed more funding for film incentives. Senate Bill 22, he suggested, would make Texas “America’s film capital.” It was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott later that year, establishing a $300 million biennial fund for state incentives to be allocated until 2035.
The massive investment was a far cry from past years, when funding was inconsistent. Sheridan cited the shaky record as an impediment to him filming in Texas when he advocated for incentives funding before legislators in October 2024.
“One of my great frustrations is that I wrote a movie called Hell or High Water, which was really my love poem to my state,” Sheridan said, “and they filmed the darn thing in New Mexico. They could not ignore the 30% rebate that New Mexico offered.”
Taylor Sheridan testified before a Texas Senate committee in support of the state’s film incentive program on Oct. 9, 2024.
Texas Senate livestream
His lobbying has paid off.
According to records obtained by The Dallas Morning News, four Sheridan shows approved for film incentives in the 2024-25 fiscal year — Lioness, 1923, The Madison and Landman — were expected to receive at least $67 million in cash rebates based on projected in-state spending of over $269 million.
“Tax rebates are really important to a show and to its profitability,” said David Glasser, CEO of 101 Studios, a production company that collaborates with Sheridan. The support of state and local brass plus the competitive subsidies, Glasser said, made the decision easier to continue filming in Texas.
The million-dollar question is if others can replicate Sheridan’s success.
Alisa Perren, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied media incentives, is unsure if that will happen. Sheridan built his TV empire from a strong foundation as the creator of Yellowstone and indie Western films. He had name recognition that others might not have.
Other states, meanwhile, are wooing productions with more competitive rebates and fewer strings attached, Perren said. Grant applications in Texas may be denied for “inappropriate content” or work that portrays the state in a “negative fashion.”
Sheridan’s productions, it seems, have not been held back by such issues. With his multiseason shows, he may remain an outsize presence in North Texas for years to come, especially now that he has planted firmer roots here by opening a production hub in Fort Worth.
In a news release announcing that hub last year, Sheridan said “Texas offers something rare: the space to dream big, the freedom to build fast, and a community that still believes storytelling matters.”
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