Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life

"Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life and Times" was a made for TV mini-series starring Brad Johnson. The series, filmed near Austin, Texas, was shown on four consecutive Wednesdays after its initial premiere in 1993.

The story is narrated by Ned, now a crusty old man who, fed up with the distortions of newspaper "scribblers" writing about the Southwest, decides to take pen to paper and tell "the true story of my life." Crossing the Great Plains in Texas with his father (Chris Cooper), young Ned (Sean Baca) is kidnapped by a brutal gang of comancheros and, fortuitously, placed in the care of a Mexican-Indian mystic named Crecencio (Luis Avalos). This wily sage teaches the boy how to survive—and how to lie and steal, so that he becomes known as the Texas boy bandit.

Young Ned will later find his father, being cared for by the equally young Jilly Blue (Taylor Fry), a barroom singer partial to ditties like "Beautiful Dreamer." Time passes and Ned grows up to the point at which he can be played by Daniel Baldwin. Ned is now the sheriff of Plum Creek. His father is the local music teacher.

All seems briefly peaceful until Jilly (Julia Campbell), who had been kidnapped by her piano player, returns as an international singing star. What promises to be romantic fulfillment ends in disaster, including a bloody massacre that leaves Ned swearing revenge.