Olyphant came to the attention of a wider audience when he was cast as Sheriff Seth Bullock in HBO's acclaimed western "Deadwood", which aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2006. While he had previously been typecast "as a talkative, Jack Nicholson–styled, funny bad boy," in the words of "Vulture"s Matt Zoller Seitz, "Deadwood" gave him the opportunity to play a righteous, brooding lawman. The show's creator, David Milch, said of the casting choice: "Bullock's uprightness is an alternative to going medieval on people. You can see that same fire and that possibility in Tim, even at his most genial ... I'm not sure which poet talked about 'thoughts too deep for words,' but he brings that idea alive ... Tim is a guy that doesn't let himself be known easily."