The fictional TV western Rick Dalton stars in within Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Bounty Law.
In the film’s backstory, Dalton plays the lead in Bounty Law from 1959 to 1963. The series is presented as a popular Western that makes him a recognizable television star before his career begins to fade. His character is a bounty hunter, fitting the hard-edged Western roles Dalton is known for.
Bounty Law was invented for the film, but Tarantino designed it to resemble real 1950s and early-1960s Western programs. Its clearest inspiration is Wanted Dead or Alive, the series that starred Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. Dalton’s career also echoes the path of many television Western actors who struggled to become major movie stars.
A common mix-up is Lancer, another Western connected to the film. Dalton appears as a guest villain on the real fictionalized series Lancer, but Bounty Law is the show in which he originally starred. Tarantino later wrote several sample episodes for a possible Bounty Law spin-off.