Question: What is the name of ...

Question: What is the name of the western TV series from about 10 years ago where the main character was after some kind of orb? The actress who played his girlfriend, Dixie, now plays the deceased wife of Dr. Kimble on the new Fugitive series.

Televisionary: That would be Fox's The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., which debuted in August 1993 and left the airwaves a year later. As you say, Kelly Rutherford (Get Real, Melrose Place), who portrays the late Helen Kimble on CBS's update of the classic Fugitive series, played Dixie Cousins, Brisco's partner in adventure and sporadic love.

The wonderful Bruce Campbell (rent Army of Darkness to check me on that) portrayed the titular hero, a Harvard lawyer who decided to head west and enter the bounty-hunting business. More often than not, Brisco took his marching orders from 'Frisco attorney Socrates Poole (Christian Clemenson) and many of his adventures involved tracking down the ruthless John Bly (Billy Drago), who killed Brisco's dad years before.

A running storyline revolved around Brisco's pursuit of a seemingly magic gold orb that, among other things, raised the dead. As it turned out, the orb was one of many sent by people in the future to help humankind along. (The evil Bly, who'd traveled back in time from the future himself, was after it.) Satisfyingly enough for a relatively short-lived series, that thread wrapped up before the show ended, with Brisco and company defeating the villain and winning the day.