John T. Ryan
BEING THE "MIDDLE-PIECE" in the ABC TV Network's Sunday night line up of Westerns from Warner Brothers, LAWMAN offered perhaps the most serious and down to earth program. Of the three series, MAVERICK, LAWMAN and COLT.45, it occupied a central anchoring of reality between the hour of Brett & Bart Maverick's gambling and woman chasing and Christopher Colt's secret super sleuthing.FOR THE MOST part, the series did portray the job of frontier Peace Officer accurately. It was a thankless, low paying and potentially very dangerous line of work. The most successful men at this position were bad dudes themselves, both physically and with the six gun. As for their character as human beings; much like all walks of life, the personalities and moral convictions varied widely. Some were very Good, others very Bad. But most fell somewhere in between the two extremes of the graph.AS TO THE specifics of the story, Marshall Dan Troop (John Russell) was the law in the town of Laramie, Wyoming, circa 1870. He is assisted by young Deputy Johnny McKay (Peter Brown), who provides the sex appeal for the adolescent girl viewers.AND SPEAKING OF sex appeal, in the second season, Lilly Merrill (Peggy Castle) entered Laramie, opening up a saloon. Much like the relationship of Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty Russell on the flagship of the TV Western, GUNSMOKE, the Marshall and Lilly liked each other (by implication).WHEN WE THINK back about LAWMAN, we recall a briefly recurring character portrayed by Sig Ruman. In it he portrayed a German immigrant Chef, who opens up a restaurant in town. There were only two episodes featuring him, but it sure seemed like more.ADDITIONALLY, THIS SERIES boasted of an array of veteran players who made multiple appearances as the same characters. These included, but limited to people like: Grady Sutton, Emery Parnell, Roscoe Ates, William Fawcett, I. Stanford Jolley, Jack Elam, Lane Chandler, Nina Vaughn, Barbara Lang, Whit Bissell, Catherine McLeod, Dick Foran, Lee Van Cleef, Frank Ferguson, Fred Crane*, Don "Red" Barry, Robert J. Wilke, Ken Lynch, Richard Reeves, Roy Barcroft and many others.THE SERIES LASTED much longer than most, running fort a full four years. We don't recall its ever being rerun or being offered on video,or are we wrong about that?NOTE: * Hey, that's the same Fred Crane who portrayed one of the Tarleton twins opposite George Reeves in GONE WITH THE WIND.
bkoganbing
At the same time John Russell was playing ranch owner Nathan Burdette, trying to free his no good brother Claude Akins from sheriff John Wayne in Rio Bravo he was working the other side of the law on television. These years were probably the high point of Russell's career, his most noted screen role and his most famous television role, Marshal Dan Troop of Laramie in Lawman.Russell kept law and order in Laramie the same way that James Arness did it in Dodge City on Gunsmoke. Unlike Gunsmoke, Laramie never developed the all the minor characters that gave you the feel of Dodge City at the time. Instead it concentrated on Russell taking care of business and learning the business of law to his eager young deputy Peter Brown.Brown played deputy Johnny McKay who was a most respectful young man, constantly referring to his boss as Mr. Troop. He was pretty handy with a shooting iron, but was inclined to be impulsive. Good thing Marshal Troop was around.The other series regular was the Kitty Russell of Laramie, Lily played by Peggie Castle. This is where Lawman most resembled Gunsmoke. There was an unspoken understanding between Russell and Castle that even the smallest of children couldn't have missed. And I wasn't the smallest of children when Lawman was in first run.Sadly Peggie Castle developed substance abuse problems after Lawman's run ended. I remember a small obituary marked her passing in the first half of the Seventies. She was one beautiful woman.Lawman was good no nonsense western from that golden era of the adult television western. It was one of the best.
badgersdrift
The theme song often goes through my head after all these years. I was never much of a TV watcher, probably because I was just entering my busy teen years when my family bought our first set in 1948 and it never became part of my life. But from the first episode of Lawman I was hooked, and it is the only TV show I've ever scheduled my week around.Intelligent, believable, well-written and well-acted, and John Russell is still to me the most beautiful man I ever saw. (Peter Brown was no dog, either :o) I agree that it is one of the most underrated TV series of all time. I hope I can find some episodes for my grandchildren to watch.
gl.nan
I couldn't agree more, this 50s western series was superbly done and John Russell was perfect for the part, although he played Indians and also many other parts in western's especially, I feel the part of Dan Troop was tailor made for him and in my opinion was probably his best part, although I agree completely that it didn't run as long or received the accolades it should have done!
