Walker, Texas Ranger/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Anvilicious: We get it. Criminals are scum. That's no excuse for thinking we won't know it unless they Kick the Dog at least every other scene.
    • "6 Hours": Don’t put blind trust in someone. McNeely is remarkably similar to Captain Kuro though. Even if he is a live-action character.
  • Awesome Music: The theme song. And yes, Chuck Norris himself is the one singing.
    • Not the first Theme Song the show had; the original was a rather forgettable steel guitar solo, which was replaced by a more rockish tune, which was replaced by "Eyes of the Ranger". This list might not be conclusive.
  • Cliche Storm: Detractors see the series this way. The characters can be considered realistic at times, however.
  • Complete Monster - Though the show doesn't give the villains subtlety, there are villains that manage to stand out.
    • The most notable example is Victor Larue, who appeared in three episodes, Cowboy, The Return of Larue, and Trial of Larue, and in each episode, he had an insane obsession with Alex Cahill and tried to rape and then kill her along with Walker. He also becomes more unhinged and insane with each appearance even going so far as to threaten to kill a little girl in his final appearance which disgusted even another criminal. By then he became so irredeemably evil that when Walker finally shows up, there is no epic final battle, Walker just straight up shoots the psycho dead. However even then Victor gets the last laugh, with his actions likely giving Alex PTSD hinted at when she has a vision of his dead body getting up and glaring at her. Prior to his first appearance, he had previously held other people for ransom and killed them even after being paid. CD Parker even said Larue needed to be killed and said although he never liked seeing a dead body being carted out on a gurney, he made an exception for Larue.
  • Damsel Scrappy: doesn't seem like not one episode can go by without Alex screaming "WALKER!" while being kidnapped?
    • One would expect that with all the time Alex spent with Walker she would take some self defense lessons or take a few levels of badass.
  • God Mode Sue: Though to be fair, Larue did cleverly weaken Walker using scorpions, regardless of whether he survived it or not. And it surprisingly makes Chuck Norris memorable.[context?]
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • An episode featured an Arab terrorist purchasing a sonic laser ... intending to destroy the Capitol building with it, and, he says, "maybe the White House too". This story also provided a brief example of Even Evil Has Standards when one of the henchmen displays outrage at this plan. The episode aired in the spring of 2000, a year and a half before the events of September 11.
    • The season five episode "Plague" has a group of Corrupt Corporate Executives distributing a vitamin supplement for the cows to eat on an Native American reserve. This is despite previous attempts at testing profit boosting drugs on live communities ended horribly in Uganda. The local shaman comes off as the Only Sane Man when he widely disapproves of the supplement being introduced into the reserve's farms until the milk got poisoned. Fast forward a decade later and many Americans are complaining about similar methods of vitamin and steroid boosted animals affecting our food supply to negative effect (though thankfully, not nearly as lethal as this episode).
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the episode with Haley Joel Osmont, when Walker talks to him about spirits, Haley replies "You mean like ghosts and stuff?" This episode aired two years before Haley saw dead people.
  • Lighter and Softer: Starting around Season 6. The Brainchild episode in particular seemed like it had been written for some '80s Disney flick.
    • If one looked at the earlier seasons of Walker it resembles close to a gritty cop show than the later seasons which are more toned down and cartoony in comparison.
      • However, the later seasons also have their share of dark moments. For example Halloween episode "The Children of Halloween" dealt with satanic cult kidnapping young children and planning to kill them. "Lucas" two-parter is also rather dark, dealing with young boy with AIDS and it ends with him and his mother dying.
  • Memetic Badass: see Chuck Norris Facts.
  • Memetic Mutation: Many clips popularized by Conan, but most of all... "Walker told me I have AIDS."
  • Moral Event Horizon: Lyle Eckert has been stealing jewels for years, but he crosses the line when he decides to bury a girl alive.
    • McNeely murdering his own minions to ensure his disappearance.
    • Victor LaRue crosses this in his first appearance when he plans to murder Alex along with several other hostages by crushing them to death. And he pretty much keeps on going.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Episode 173 - The Bachelor Party. Everything Is Worse With Bears
    • Victor LaRue is one of the most psychotic adversaries Walker has ever faced, and definitely one of his most personal foes. Every one of his three appearances have him trying to rape Alex. And aside from that, he's also responsible for a variety of murders on the show.
    • Ted McNeely, though a one-shot villain, managed to rival Victor LaRue in heinousness. After he finds out that his employer plans to dismiss him, he decides to kidnap his daughter and extort an exorbitant amount of money from him. And regardless of whether he pays the money, he decides he's going to kill her and make his employer watch the entire thing on the internet. Furthermore, he murders his own lackeys to complete his disappearance (and in one case, simply so that he doesn't have to pay him), except for one.
    • Lyle Eckert buries a girl alive.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • C. D. Parker's death
    • The ending of "Lucas" two-parter, in the first part Lucas mother dies and in the second part Lucas dies from AIDS. Two-parter is practically a Tear Jerker episode.
    • A lot of episodes involving children and teenagers are this.