The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson. It is based on a story by King that was inspired by the real-life Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas. Reynolds is the local sheriff who is more interested in keeping the town's most popular business open than carrying out the letter of the law.Parton is the whorehouse madame who also happens to hold the sheriff's interest.It is the late 1970s, a brothel that has been operating outside of fictional Gilbert, Texas for more than a century. It is under the proprietorship of Miss Mona Stangley, having been left to her by the original owner. While taking care of her girls, she is also on good terms with the local sheriff, Ed Earl Dodd. When crusading television reporter Melvin P. Thorpe (based on real-life Houston news personality Marvin Zindler) decides to make the illegal activity an issue, political ramifications cause the place to be closed down.