BLOOD & OIL: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this drama series about competing oil tycoons in North Dakota.
On a country road in North Dakota, young married couple Billy and Cody LeFever get into an automobile accident, sending their pickup truck careening off the road. Earlier they are the recipients of a going-away party held by their friends and family; they announce their plans to open a small laundromat chain and get their new lives started. Billy and Cody are largely unharmed, but their load of washers and dryers are damaged in the accident, thus ruining their business venture. They hitchhike to the town of Rock Springs, where they inquire in a local bar about a place to stay. Outside they witness an altercation between a pair of hunters and a woman of Native American descent about the killing of a white moose. A fight breaks out and the hunter’s rifle discharges shots, and the local sheriff is forced to intervene. He threatens the hunter, Wick, and arrests him, ending the altercation.
Billy and Cody are directed to the “Patchwork Hotel,” essentially a large campground. There they are stopped by a stranger who notices that Cody has a cut on her forehead, and offers to help treat it. The man introduces himself as Kess, and they have dinner with him and his wife Ada. They explain that they are saving up to open a restaurant and ask that they show similar kindness to the next person who needs help at Patchwork. Billy decides to get a temporary job on an oil rig in order to pay off the destroyed washing machines. In the morning, Wick is bailed out of jail by his father, wealthy oil tycoon Hap Briggs, and is taken to Hap’s large ranch. Hap is upset at Wick’s reckless behavior and at angering the local Natives, who own a considerable portion of land in the area and are thus important to his business. To teach Wick a lesson he orders him to get a job on an oil rig. Billy gets a job “pushing mud” (i.e. shoveling in order to create new rig sites), and Cody shops around for apartments.
Hap greets his much younger wife, Carla, who informs him that a new United States Geological Survey report indicates that a massive new oil deposit in the Bakken formation, the oil-rich area of North Dakota where they live, is about to be discovered. Billy and Wick are assigned to the same job and Billy discerns his identity; Billy knows Hap by reputation. Wick sees the job as a waste of time and soon abandons Billy. Billy unsuccessfully attempts to prevent an accident which ends up collapsing a rig. He gets into an argument and Wick sees that he is fired, but Hap suddenly appears and correctly blames Wick for causing the accident through his negligence. Hap pushes him to the ground and calls him a liar and a coward; Wick attempts to strike Hap but stumbles into the mud. Hap tells Wick that he is henceforth cut off from the family fortune and must make his own way, essentially disowning him.
Billy returns to find that Cody has found a job at the local pharmacy (despite only two years of schooling as a pharmacist) and has purchased a trailer for them to live in for the time being. She is upset to find that Billy got fired, but he promises to find some other work. Hap and Carla throw a party in honor of Hap’s birthday and invite the United States Oil and Gas Commissioner and manipulate him into giving them information on the upcoming Geologic Survey report. The report states that the richest deposits of the Bakken are beneath the Four Bears Indian Reservation; the area was drilled previously to little success, as the report states that the wells were not deep enough to extract anything. Estimates state that the area could be the largest oil discovery in history. Carla hopes to gain access to the oil via the nearby McCutching Ranch. Cody overhears a visitor at the pharmacist on the phone with Hap; he is his representative hoping to purchase the McCutching Ranch. Wick decides to stay with Jules Jackman, owner of the local bar “The Taproom” and his sometime financial and romantic partner. Wick is determined to prove Hap wrong and sets out to make a fortune without his help.
Cody tells Billy about the situation involving the McCutching Ranch. Soon he discovers that the only means of egress or ingress from the ranch are through a parcel of land owned by Clifton P. Lundegren. Meanwhile, Cody experiences some sickness and takes a pregnancy test. Billy visits Lundegren, an elderly man, and claims that he wishes to purchase his property. Lundegren offers to sell Billy an option on the land, and in order to pay him Billy gets a credit card, borrows the money, purchases a backhoe on credit, and then resells it far below its market value. He returns to Cody that night with stacks of cash in preparation for the land purchase. Cody informs Billy that she is pregnant with their child. Billy is overjoyed at this news, but the next day he and Cody go to Lundegren and discover that the Briggs representative offered him double the price for his land option. Lundegren has no intention of selling to the Briggs organization, as they have double-crossed him before, but takes the opportunity to raise the price for Billy and Cody, also asking for a percentage of the profits from any of Billy’s future endeavors with the land. They note that they cannot do what he asks, and he says that the Briggs representative will be back the next day.
Billy and Cody argue about their predicament; Cody proposes that they return home, but Billy refuses, noting that they used up the investments from their friends and family and are deep in debt. Billy tries to convince Cody to stay with him, but she says she is leaving in the morning. Wick devises a plan to siphon oil from his father’s rigs and sell it on his own for a massive profit. Billy wanders about until he gets to the Taproom, where he mentions his money problems to Jules and she recommends that he visit a loan shark, revealing that she is one in addition to running the bar. Cody looks on from outside as Billy attempts to negotiate with Jules. Jules refuses him until Cody offers up a valuable locket given to her by her mother as collateral; she notes that she has changed her mind and decided to stay with Billy no matter what. Billy drives up in haste to see Lundegren, gets into another automobile accident, and runs up to Lundegren’s ranch on foot as the Briggs representative arrives. He gets Lundegren to agree to his deal instead.
The next day Hap contacts Billy and Cody and receives them at his ranch. Billy offers him a lease on his parcel of land, and Hap and Carla refuse them; Carla deduces that Cody is pregnant and states that they will simply stall Billy out until he is forced to give them a better and more expedient offer before they start drilling for oil on the McCutching Ranch. However, Billy counters that the law states that drilling can only take sixty days after the signing of the lease, and after that the mineral rights will revert back to the state. Billy and Cody also ask for a percentage of the working interest from oil profits. They manage to negotiate a deal with Hap and secure a payment of $1.1 million from him. They repay Kess and Ada’s kindness by giving them a check for $50,000 to invest in their restaurant. Billy also gets them a better place to live, and reveals that he purchased Cody’s locket back from Jules. Hap and Carla suddenly pull up in his truck and drives Billy and Cody off to show him something. Meanwhile, Wick makes his first attempt to siphon oil from his father’s company. Hap, Carla, Billy, and Cody pull up to the oil fields and Wick hides from him; Hap notices the oil being stolen and finds Wick, disguised by a mask. They fight and Wick holds Hap at gunpoint, but is saved by Carla and Billy. Billy, Wick, and Hap fight in a large puddle of oil, and the episode ends as it is set ablaze by an errant spark from a broken light fixture. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:37
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 123947
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense; Oil industry; Business
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2015
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Don Johnson … Executive Producer
- Tony Krantz … Executive Producer
- Robert M. Sertner … Executive Producer
- Jonas Pate … Executive Producer, Director
- Josh Pate … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Rodes Fishburne … Created by, Writer
- Don Johnson … Cast, Hap Briggs
- Chace Crawford … Cast, Billy LeFever
- Rebecca Rittenhouse … Cast, Cody LeFever
- Amber Valletta … Cast, Carla Briggs
- Scott Michael Foster … Cast, Wick Briggs
- India de Beaufort … Cast, Jules Jackson
- Adan Canto … Cast, A.J. Menendez
- Miranda Rae Mayo … Cast, Lacey Briggs
- Delroy Lindo … Cast, Sheriff Tip Harrison
- Paul Rae … Cast, Garry Laframboise
- Yaani King … Cast, Ada Eze
- Keston John … Cast, Kess Eze
- Spencer Garrett … Cast, Myron Stipple
- Devin Chase Allen … Cast, Roughneck
- Marilee Crockett … Cast, Party Guest
- Gerry Garcia … Cast, Investor
- Austin R. Grant … Cast, Cousin Ernie
- Angella Joy … Cast, Party Guest
- Helene Lam … Cast, Lana
- Mike Law … Cast, Roughneck
- Walter Platz … Cast, Buffalo Zabinsky
- Richard Sharrah … Cast, Rick
- Victor Soto … Cast, Oil Man
- Shaun Toub … Cast, Fahda Al Saliba-Nader'