What do real-life Fort Worth landmen think about ‘Landman’? Here is what they said
Jason Maloy’s son excitedly woke him up around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17, to open a gift of sorts.
No, the Maloy family wasn’t celebrating Christmas a month early, but there was cause for celebration. For the last few months, Maloy had eagerly anticipated the premiere of a new television series based on his profession.
By 7 a.m., he had purchased Paramount+ and hit play on “Landman.”
“I think Taylor Sheridan did a masterful job trying to understand what a landman is,” said Malloy, co-founder of Tall Cotton Energy and Rising Star Energy Partners.
Maloy was one of around 40 people who stopped by the American Association of Professional Landmen’s “Landman” watch party on Nov. 17.
The Fort Worth-based association invited its members to check out the first episode of the new Paramount+ series created by “Yellowstone” scribe Taylor Sheridan. “Landman” stars Billy Bob Thornton and is described as a “modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs.”
Association members snacked on food from Gepetto’s Pizza truck and sipped drinks from an in-house bar as they waited for the screening to begin at AAPL’s headquarters at 800 Fournier St. A few folks were seen taking photos with life-size cardboard cutouts of the cast, including Thornton, Demi Moore, Jon Hamm, Ali Larter and Michael Peña.
Around 7:45 p.m., Sunday, AAPL members took their seats in one of two screening rooms and soon the first episode of “Landman” began.
“I was very impressed, very happy with it,” Maloy said. “I thought [Sheridan] did a great job.”
How accurate is “Landman” to the real profession?
Landmen hold many hats, but they are typically defined as the public-facing side of the energy business, negotiating/acquiring land leases for exploration and development.
Whether it’s negotiations on land or mineral rights, landmen are ultimately master communicators, Maloy said. That part of the show has shined through thus far, including the scenes where Thornton’s character takes what seems like dozens of phone calls in the span of a few hours.
“That’s absolutely real,” Maloy said.
While called “Landman,” the series focuses on the entire oil business, from the roughnecks working the rigs to the billionaires running companies.
In the premiere episode, Jacob Lofland’s character joins a tight-knit drilling crew who crack jokes at his expense but also lend a helping hand when needed. The crew may make him check the rig for valves that don’t exist but still invite him into their home for a hot meal.
That sense of community in the oil field or “patch” is the real deal.
“It is a community,” Maloy said. “I think we benefit from that in Fort Worth.”
How the AAPL is helping inform “Landman” viewers
Partially why Maloy was looking forward to “Landman” is that he’s been chair of the AAPL’s media preparedness team since summertime.
Maloy said the AAPL knew that many people were likely to tune into the series, immediately open Google, and search, “What is a landman?” The AAPL wanted to be the first resource in the search field.
“We want to get our story out there,” Maloy said. “We want people to understand what AAPL is. We want people to understand what it means to be a landman.”
Ultimately, this led AAPL to create a companion podcast to “Landman” that will recap the show weekly.
After an episode airs on Sunday, the podcast will record Monday or Tuesday and publish on the AAPL’s website on Thursday, Maloy said. Each show will feature two to three landmen and at least one AAPL member as they dispel what’s fact or fiction.
The podcast provides context and gives AAPL a chance to explain its role in the industry. For almost 70 years, the association has been a resource for thousands of land professionals across the country.
“That’s ultimately part of what the task force did,” Maloy said. “We wanted to make sure we could respond to it, make sure we understand it, but ultimately, we want to be fans of the show.”
How a landman ended up in “Landman”
Robert Daws has been a certified professional landman for 43 years and can now say he’s played one on television.
Well, maybe not exactly, but he did work as a background actor in a few scenes on “Landman.” Daws had never been on a television set before and decided it would be a unique opportunity to work on the show that took aim at his long-held profession.
Daws worked as an extra for a few days in scenes featuring Jon Hamm’s character at Fort Worth locales such as the Petroleum Club and Hotel Drover. Given the nature of being an extra, Daws said he isn’t holding out hope for Hollywood’s call.
“I don’t even know what episode it might be,” Daws joked. “It’ll probably be one of these things where the scene will come up and I say, “Okay, everybody watch ... there I am’.”
Speaking of Hamm, Daws said the show contacted him about possibly being a double for the “Mad Men” actor.
However, it didn’t work out and Daws said he personally doesn’t see the resemblance but was flattered by the possibility. Even if he was offered the role, it would have been hard to split time between the show and his Weatherford-based company — Flint Creek Land and Resources.
Daws is excited for people to watch “Landman” and learn about the ins and outs of what a land manager does.
“I think that’s what you’re going to see in ‘Landman’,” Daws said. “A lot of negotiating, a lot of things that kind of happen behind the scenes in structuring deals for drilling wells.”
“Landman” airs new episodes weekly on Sundays on Paramount+.
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 5:32 PM.
