Bounty Law is the fictional television series starring Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Dalton plays Jake Cahill, a bounty hunter in the Western program, which made him a television star before his career began to decline.
The film presents Bounty Law as a late-1950s and early-1960s Western series. Rick’s anxiety about being reduced to guest appearances reflects the changing television and film industries of the period.
The series is fictional, but its presentation draws on real Western television shows that were popular in Hollywood during that era. Tarantino later created a short film version of Bounty Law using material connected to the fictional show.
Bounty Law should not be confused with Lancer, the real television Western production on which Rick appears as a guest actor within the film. Lancer is an actual series title used in the movie’s Hollywood storyline, while Bounty Law is Rick’s own fictional program.