Fans of ABC’s The Young Riders can expect major changes on the show, including the addition of the tennage Jesse James as a featured character. Scott Shepherd, who has taken over the reins as executive producer, says the Riders’ efforts to keep Jesse on the straight and narrow path will be hampered by the appearance of brother Frank James who “brings out Jesse’s dark side.”
Meanwhile the kids will be falling in and out of love. One romance will invlove Rachel falling in love with an alcoholic character. And there’ll be a love affair for free-born black rider, Noah, that winds up in a race riot when his desire to see his girlfriend leads to his being in the wrong place at the wrong time and results in his being accused of murdering an army recruiter.
In additon, the series setting is being switched from Sweetwater, Wyoming, to Rock Creek, a bigger town in the Nebraska territory. The new locale will make it easier to see “the gathering storm clouds of the Civil War,” he says. And that’s where the biggest change of all comes in. Scott reveals the plans are in the works to do a two-hour season finale, in which the war breaks out, dividing the riders.