Lawman (1958)
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.
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Episode 1 - The Deputy
Release Date: 1958-10-05In 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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Episode 2 - The Prisoner
Release Date: 1958-10-12In 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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Episode 3 - The Joker
Release Date: 1958-10-19Dan 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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Episode 4 - The Oath
Release Date: 1958-10-26While 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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Episode 5 - The Outcast
Release Date: 1958-11-02Bob 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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Episode 6 - The Jury
Release Date: 1958-11-09A 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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Episode 7 - Wanted
Release Date: 1958-11-16Fallon, 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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Episode 8 - The Badge
Release Date: 1958-11-23Johnny 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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Episode 9 - Bloodline
Release Date: 1958-11-30Luke 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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Episode 10 - The Intruders
Release Date: 1958-12-07A 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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Episode 11 - Short Straw
Release Date: 1958-12-14Upset 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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Episode 12 - Lady in Question
Release Date: 1958-12-21When 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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Episode 13 - The Master
Release Date: 1958-12-28Dan'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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Episode 14 - The Outsider
Release Date: 1959-01-04Rene 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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Episode 15 - The Captives
Release Date: 1959-01-11Jack 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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Episode 16 - The Encounter
Release Date: 1959-01-18While 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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Episode 17 - The Brand Release
Release Date: 1959-01-25A 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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Episode 18 - The Runaway
Release Date: 1959-02-01Ben 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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Episode 19 - Warpath
Release Date: 1959-02-08The 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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Episode 20 - The Gunman
Release Date: 1959-02-15Reformed 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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Episode 21 - The Big Hat
Release Date: 1959-02-22Big 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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Episode 22 - The Chef
Release Date: 1959-03-01Hans 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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Episode 23 - The Posse
Release Date: 1959-03-08A 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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Episode 24 - The Visitor
Release Date: 1959-03-15Jamie 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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Episode 25 - Battle Scar
Release Date: 1959-03-22A 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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Episode 26 - The Gang
Release Date: 1959-03-29The 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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Episode 27 - The Souvenir
Release Date: 1959-04-05When 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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Episode 28 - The Young Toughs
Release Date: 1959-04-12Three 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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Episode 29 - Riding Shotgun
Release Date: 1959-04-19Larry 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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Episode 30 - The Journey
Release Date: 1959-04-26Dan 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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Episode 31 - The Huntress
Release Date: 1959-05-03When 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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Episode 32 - The Return
Release Date: 1959-05-10Dan 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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Episode 33 - The Senator
Release Date: 1959-05-17Dan 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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Episode 34 - The Ring
Release Date: 1959-05-24Dan sets a trap for a murderer after a young woman is found killed in Laramie.
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Episode 35 - The Bandits
Release Date: 1959-05-31After 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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Episode 36 - The Wayfarer
Release Date: 1959-06-07Doc 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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Episode 37 - The Conclave
Release Date: 1959-06-14One 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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Episode 38 - Red Ransom
Release Date: 1959-06-21After 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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Episode 39 - The Friend
Release Date: 1959-06-28While 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.