Richard Dean Anderson starred as Ernest Pratt, an alcoholic gambler and dime novelist. Because he wrote his novels in the first person people mistake him for his pulp fiction hero, Nicodemus Legend, known as "The Knight of the Prairie" (a teatotaler). 

Other folks in the wild west adventure included:

• John de Lancie as Janos Bartok, an eccentric Hungarian scientist and creative genius, who convinces Pratt to use his "Legend" alter ego from his dime novels to aid the downtrodden. As he told Pratt, "Your celebrity has the power to give our enemies pause. My science can increase that reputation. And together, we will create the real Legend."
• Mark Adair Rios as Huitzilopochtli Ramos, Bartok's brilliant young associate scientist who is descended from Aztec kings.
• Bob Balaban as Harry Parver, the representative of Pratt's Eastern publishing company.
• Jarrad Paul as Skeeter, the bellboy at the local Hotel who enables Pratt's alcohol addiction by surreptitiously serving him whiskey in a tea cup.
• Robert Donner as Chamberlain Brown, Sheridan's mayor and undertaker who exploits the legend of Nicodemus Legend to profit the town and his own pockets.

Ernest Pratt and Janos Bartok

To help Pratt with the gadgets need to aid the downtrodden Janos creates all sorts of outlandish inventions, some of which come from his imagination and others are inspired by things in Pratt's novels.

The inventions included the first All-Terrain, a Steam-Powered Town and Country Quadrovelocipede (aka "Land Rover"), Electro-fulminators (lightning bolt-transmitters), a bullet proof vest, a miniature surveillance camera mounted on a remote-controlled balloon, and a fully functioning pair of wings that give Pratt/Legend the ability to fly.

Pratt first meets Janos when he travels to Sheridan, Colorado where Janos had been impersonating his literary creation, Nicodemus Legend to the point that warrants were issued for Legend's arrest on charges of malicious mischief, theft of water rights, and disturbing livestock.