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TV SERIES · 2025– · USA

The Lowdown

Episodes
16

10 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

The Lowdown's crusading journalist is drawn from Lee Roy Chapman, a self-taught Tulsa reporter who uncovered the city's buried history of racial violence.

10 Interesting Facts About The Lowdown

Interesting Facts (6)

  1. #001

    Chapman's research revealed that Tate Brady, once celebrated as a Tulsa founder with streets and buildings bearing his name, covertly helped lead the Knights of Liberty in abducting and torturing 17 union organizers on November 9, 1917.

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  2. #002

    A photo of The Gap Band hangs on the wall of Cyrus' office; the group hails from Tulsa, where the series is set.

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  3. #003

    Lee Raybon in The Lowdown is modeled on Lee Roy Chapman, a real journalist who worked with director Sterlin Harjo on the YouTube series "Tulsa Public Secrets" for This Land Press.

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  4. #004

    After Chapman reported on the 1917 event, a Tulsa Daily World headline acknowledged the birth of the "Modern Ku Klux Klan."

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  5. #005

    Chapman showed that Brady served as a volunteer night guard during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and was later appointed to the Tulsa Real Estate Exchange Commission, which relocated Black residents.

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  6. #006

    Chapman also discovered that Brady made substantial profits by buying property damaged in the 1921 attack.

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Behind the Scenes (2)

  1. #007

    The estate sale scenes were filmed at Hughes Ranch in Osage County, Oklahoma. The ranch, just south of Bartlesville, served as a shooting location for much of Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

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  2. #008

    Chapman never trained formally in journalism and took jobs that included screen printing and selling secondhand books; like Hawke's character, he ran a used and rare bookstore.

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Characters & Cast (2)

  1. #009

    Ethan Hawke, like his character Lee Raybon, is a writer himself and had published five novels as of 2021.

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  2. #010
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    The series opens with the suicide of Dale Washberg, played by Tim Blake Nelson. It is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Nelson's hometown.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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