THE last time Oscar winner Kevin Costner took the leap from film to television, things turned out very well. The 2012 historical miniseries “Hatfields and McCoys” was a ratings smash and a Television Academy darling. It earned 16 Emmy nominations and won five, including two statuettes for Costner, as actor and as one of the miniseries’ producers.

So, little wonder Costner finally has returned to TV.

In “Yellowstone,” Costner portrays John Dutton, a rancher determined to keep his family’s sprawling holdings intact. While the show takes place in modern day, director Taylor Sheridan said the Dutton family saga could have set at almost any time in history.

“I mean, it ties into our current political climate as much as it would tie in 20 years ago, or 50 years ago or 100 years ago,” he explained. “(It deals with) greed and power and its use or misuse, and you have people trying to survive. That’s timeless. And so I don’t look at it as something that is political, I don’t look at it as something that’s necessarily current. I just think that the issues that we always struggle with are constant and haven’t been solved.”

The series, which debuted Wednesday (20 JUNE) on the Paramount Network (formerly Spike) is notable in that it boasts a sizeable Native American cast, and prominent Native American story lines.

Actor Gil Birmingham (“Twilight”) plays Thomas Rainwater, a tribal chief and casino owner who’s ready and able to oppose those whose interests conflict with those of his people.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty prominent theme, addressing greed,” said Birmingham. “And the greed is different for every character. There’s greed for land, there’s greed for power, there’s greed for money. I’d like to think, altruistically, my character’s greed is to have land, to keep it as an original state. In the native believe system, it’s trying to be stewards for the land so that it’s in the same condition seven generations later. And so that’s a very different moral point of view, to operate within the context of everybody trying to grab for resources or power or whatever it is their agenda is.”

Costner’s character is frequently in conflict with land developers, oil and lumber interests, the adjacent Indian reservation and Yellowstone National Park.

But perhaps Dutton’s biggest struggle is keeping his family, as well as himself, together.

“He’s lost his wife and so I like to think of that as the center,” Costner explained. “I think that’s why the story lines are so rich, because there’s drama that exists with these children that I don’t think would’ve been there as much, had my wife still been alive.”

The series was shot on location in eye-filling locations in Montana, and produced like a big-budget theatrical feature.

Noted Costner, “Taylor’s worked hard to make it look like a film. It could’ve looked like anything else, but all these other shows have all these bells and whistles.”

“But not ‘Yellowstone,'” Costner added. “What we have are what these people work with. So, there’s nothing invented there. There’s no fantasy. It’s trucks and horses and long days.”

Unlike “Hatfields,” which was a limited series, “Yellowstone” may continue on, should Paramount order more of the show, beyond this debut season’s 10 episodes. (AP)