Lawman (1958)
Synopsis
Lawman is an American western television series originally telecast on ABC from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during 1879 and the 1880s. Warner Bros. already had several western series on the air at the time, having launched Cheyenne with Clint Walker as early as 1955. The studio continued the trend in 1957 with the additions of Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly, Colt .45 with Wayde Preston, and Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins. One year later, Warner Bros. added Lawman and Bronco with Ty Hardin. Prior to the beginning of production, Russell and Brown and producer Jules Schermer made a pact to maintain the quality of the series so that it would not be seen as "just another western." At the start of season two, Russell and Brown were joined by Peggie Castle as Lily Merrill, the owner of the Birdcage Saloon, and a love interest for Dan.
First Air Date: 1958-10-05
Last Air Date: 1962-06-24
Number of Seasons: 4
Number of Episodes: 156
Networks: ABC
Top Cast
- John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop
- Peter Brown as Deputy Johnny McKay
- Peggie Castle as Lily Merrill
- Grady Sutton as Ben Toomey
- Emory Parnell as N/A
- Emile Avery as Barfly (uncredited)
- Jon Lormer as N/A
- Bek Nelson as Dru Lemp
- Jack Elam as N/A
- Roscoe Ates as N/A
Seasons
Season 1 (1958)
No overview available for this season.
Episodes:
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Ep. 1: The Deputy
In this pilot episode, Dan Troop takes over in Laramie after the previous marshal is killed. His first job is to bring in the marshal's killer, and in the process he gains a fine deputy in Johnny McKay. (This is also the first of several episodes where veteran actors Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef appeared.)
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Ep. 2: The Prisoner
In a tribute to High Noon, a man comes into town, looking for a fight. When he kills a man, he is arrested. Johnny gets lessons from Dan on how to handle a prisoner
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Ep. 3: The Joker
Dan and Johnny try to capture a prisoner, who tells Johnny that he is his father. Dan is shocked when Johnny turns in his badge, saying he has bad blood and won't make a good lawman. At the end, Dan and Johnny have a gunfight with the prisoner, and Johnny takes back his job.
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Ep. 4: The Oath
While Dan and Johnny are taking a killer to be hanged and a doctor to prison to serve a term, they come upon a stranded stagecoach with various passengers who need help. While helping the passengers, a conflict ensues, which ends with new light being brought out in the Doctor's case.
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Ep. 5: The Outcast
Bob Ford, who shot Jesse James in the back, comes to Laramie, where Dan and Johnny must protect him from mob mentality in some who feel Jesse James was a hero (although Dan seems to think he was a 'two-bit' killer). The citizens of Laramie join in until Dan talks them out of it.
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Ep. 6: The Jury
A new saloon is opened in Laramie by Kate Wilson, who has had several scrapes with the law, but is always acquitted by the all-male jurors due to serious flirting on her part. When the same thing happens in Laramie, Dan pulls out all the stops, bringing in an ex-beau of hers doing time for one of her former crimes, and an all-woman jury to de-rail her.
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Ep. 7: Wanted
Fallon, a ruthless bounty hunter, brings in a body of a wanted man and collects the reward from Dan, who knew him elsewhere and doesn't like him. After being told to leave town, Fallon shows Dan and Johnny a picture of the next man on his 'hit list'. Johnny knows him and tries to protect him from the killer, but is injured in the process. Finally, Dan must step in to stop another killing by Fallon.
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Ep. 8: The Badge
Johnny puts his badge on the line when he bets Dan that his life long friend, Bill Anderson, is a good guy - and the only one in his family. Bill has trouble through some misunderstandings, and his brother gets out of prison at just the right time to really stir things up, but Johnny remains loyal to him throughout.
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Ep. 9: Bloodline
Luke Saint is a old codger who has a fast draw for a son named Matt. Matt has a reputation, which Luke likes to feed. On the way into Laramie, Matt is ambushed, shot and told he will never shoot again. His pa continues to cause trouble, thinking Matt will avenge him. When he realizes he can't, he goes off and gets Matt's son, Mark, also a crack shot, to get retribution. But Mark is only after Matt.
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Ep. 10: The Intruders
A Chinese girl is the only one willing to testify after her husband is killed by a couple of men extorting money from the Chinese mine workers outside of town. Although the two men and their boss try to foment hatred and prejudice toward the Chinese who work so hard there, in the end, justice prevails.
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Ep. 11: Short Straw
Upset that Dan refuses to recind a 10 p.m. curfew he's put on all the saloons in town, the three saloon owners draw straws to see who gets the 'short straw'. That man is the one who is supposed to kill Marshall Troop. Instead, he hires a killer whom Dan knows and recognizes in the cafe. The rest of the show is spent trying to figure out who he's there to kill - and who paid him to do it.
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Ep. 12: Lady in Question
When Johnny McKay's old sweetheart comes to town, she is followed by her lover who goads Johnny into a gunfight. Johnny kills him, but the man's gun is missing when Johnny returns with Dan Troop. Troop must place Johnny under arrest for murder.
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Ep. 13: The Master
Dan's pleased to hear his old mentor is in town, but he and Johnny are disappointed to find out he's there to help the Cattleman's Association to run off homesteaders, a problem Dan had just been dealing with. Events lead to a show-down between the two old friends, with a predictable outcome.
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Ep. 14: The Outsider
Rene LeBeau is a half-breed Indian woman who lives on a ranch with her Sioux mother after her father dies, and the cattlemen in the area are trying to run her off. Intolerance causes a host of problems for the woman, but especially a group who keep running off her help. One of the cattlemen's employees, however, disagrees with the treatment, and is shot for it. Dan must fight the small group of hate mongerers as well as one who secretly lusts after Rene.
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Ep. 15: The Captives
Jack McCall, who murdered Wild Bill Hickok, ends up in Laramie, holed up in Johnny's ailing 'Uncle' Jess' cabin. When Johnny shows up with the doctor, they are held captive. Then Johnny is sent to town for provisions so the killer can make his escape, and a suspicious Dan Troop follows at a distance. In the end, everything is resolved.
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Ep. 16: The Encounter
While going to arrest two men for murder, Dan is mauled by a bear. A woman saves him and takes him to her cabin, but he doesn't know she's the sister of one of the wanted men. She nurses him, even though she knows he's a lawman because of his badge, which she saw and threw away. Then her brother and his partner come back, and emotions run high. In the end, the situation is resolved, though not as Dan would have liked.
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Ep. 17: The Brand Release
A wounded Ben Greene is accused of stealing cattle. He insists that he bought them legally, and his brand release is at his cabin. The men who accuse him are unsavory characters that both Johnny and Dan seem to distrust. Several of the players in this episode begin journeys in search of witnesses and proof, ending up, of course, with justice prevailing.
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Ep. 18: The Runaway
Ben Steed is a soldier who wants to be a writer. His father, an army colonel, wants him to stay in the army. The son leaves, but not with the intent to desert as much as to get away from the situation. Complicating matters is the fact that he and his girlfriend, whom his father dislikes, have secretly gotten married, and also a troublemaker trying to get revenge on the Colonel.
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Ep. 19: Warpath
The buffalo hunters, led by Tom Cardigan, are persecuting little Billy Bright in the saloon because he used to be married to a Shoshone Indian. The Shoshone are on the warpath because Cardigan killed the chief's brother. Troop stops them and then lets Bright go, but then he learns that the buffalo men hung Bright outside of town. He goes to try to stop a war, and the Indians attack him and the buffalo hunters.
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Ep. 20: The Gunman
Reformed gunfighter Kurt Monroe comes into Laramie to meet his fiancee, Lucy, on the stage. But when the stage comes in without her, his resolve to stay on the straight and narrow is put to the test.
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Ep. 21: The Big Hat
Big Hat Anderson and Lily Keats are married, and Frank Tate, the newspaper editor, is given the grooms 'big hat' to wear. As he leaves the saloon, he is shot and killed. Dan must find the killer, and starts with former loves of the bride. Frank Tate was a regular in the cast, as the editor who respected and worked with Dan and Johnny. His niece, Julie, comes in this episode to take over his job at the paper.
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Ep. 22: The Chef
Hans is a chef wanting to open up his own restaurant, but the Youngs keep him bound to a contract they have with him. Dan helps him get out of it in an unusual (but legal) way, in a show played for laughs, one of the lighter episodes.
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Ep. 23: The Posse
A posse is formed to find a suspected murderer, and a gunslinger is included in the posse. The other citizens object, but he turns out to be the only one willing to help Dan protect the suspect once they find him. The suspect's wife, meanwhile, makes a confession to Johnny that he must tell Dan Troop before it's too late.
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Ep. 24: The Visitor
Jamie was left with the Welches to raise after his father, Jack Rollins, went to prison. Jack is out, and back to reclaim his son.
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Ep. 25: Battle Scar
A military man has a breakdown and finally reveals the truth about a war battle: he let people believe he had been a hero, when instead he was court-martialed for deserting his men.
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Ep. 26: The Gang
The Hayes gang is riding into Laramie, and one of the riders, Clay, is coming in to warn Dan. In a rare show of Dan's background, we learn Clay is his brother, that they both loved the same girl who went off with Clay and then died, and that Clay is not exactly a law-abiding citizen. But he still wants his brother and Johnny to win this fight against the gang, so he gets out of a sickbed to help when no one in the town will.
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Ep. 27: The Souvenir
When Dan and Johnny both draw and fire on an escaped convicted killer's brother, Dan takes the credit for it in order to protect Johnny and draw out the other 2 brothers. But when Johnny learns that he was, in fact, the one who killed Davey, he turns in his badge.
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Ep. 28: The Young Toughs
Three young toughs cause trouble for Johnny while he's left in charge while Dan goes out of town. Finally, he's forced into a shoot out with all three of them, just as Dan gets back.
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Ep. 29: Riding Shotgun
Larry DeLong is a reformed criminal who is now employed as a shotgun rider on the stageline. When his former gang robs the stage on which he's riding, and the driver is killed, the towns people of Laramie feel Larry is about ready to rejoin the gang. Once again, Dan's faith in him turns the tide.
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Ep. 30: The Journey
Dan starts on a journey in response to a telegram asking for his help in another town. When he gets there, no one seems to know anything about why he was summoned. Dan must solve this mystery.
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Ep. 31: The Huntress
When stage robbers kill Loma Williams' brother, she becomes a one-woman vigilante force. After one of the men tells her where she can find the other one, she kills him. Then she heads for Laramie, the place where she was told she could find the other one. Dan tries to head off a bloodbath.
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Ep. 32: The Return
Dan helps a man released from prison to make the right decision between the girl that he loves and going back to his old gang.
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Ep. 33: The Senator
Dan and Johnny must stop an assassination attempt on the Senator, who is supposed to stop in Laramie on the midnight train.
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Ep. 34: The Ring
Dan sets a trap for a murderer after a young woman is found killed in Laramie.
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Ep. 35: The Bandits
After Ches Ryan's pay is docked, he retaliates by robbing the payroll. As he escapes, he passes through a town plagued with an illness. He comes across a young woman and her little brother who are both ill and have no one to look after them, so he stays to help. Dan catches up to him while there, and consequently gets the fever himself. Ryan then tends to Dan, also.
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Ep. 36: The Wayfarer
Doc Holliday is in Laramie, and Dan would like to see him go. He is hanging around, however, for a woman due on the stagecoach, and he won't go until she gets there.
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Ep. 37: The Conclave
One member of a gang planning to rob a stage gets drunk while in Laramie and subsequently is jailed. He offers to tell Dan the scheme for some whiskey. Then, Dan has to try to foil the plot.
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Ep. 38: Red Ransom
After Sioux Chief Red Horse's son is murdered, he holds Johnny hostage and tells Dan he will kill Johnny in the morning unless Dan can find the killer.
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Ep. 39: The Friend
While Dan is gone (again), Johnny runs across an old friend in town, not knowing he has joined a gang planning on robbing the bank of Laramie. When his friend, Buck Harmon, finds out he's the deputy in town, he first tries to talk him into going out of town with him for the evening, then ends up joining him in the fight against his gang.
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