''Laredo'' is an American Western television series that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from 1965–67, starring

Neville Brand Lawrence Neville Brand (August 13, 1920 – April 16, 1992) was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous or antagonistic character roles in Westerns, crime dramas, and ''films noir'', and was nominated for a BAFTA A ...

, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. It is set on the Mexican border around Laredo in Webb County in

South Texas South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...

. The program presented 56 episodes in

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

. It was produced by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

. The series has a comedic element, but like another NBC series that premiered in 1965, '' The Wackiest Ship in the Army'', it was an hour in length, had no

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is an audio recording consisting of laughter (and other audience reactions) usually used as a separate soundtrack for comedy productions. The laugh track may contain live audience reactions or artificial laught ...

, and characters were not infrequently killed in it, thus going against three unofficial rules for

sitcoms A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...

at the time. The

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

of ''Laredo'' aired in 1965 on NBC's '' The Virginian'' under the title "We've Lost a Train". In 1969, the pilot was released theatrically under the title ''Backtrack''. Three episodes from the series were edited into the 1968 feature film ''Three Guns for Texas''.

Synopsis

The series were about three members of the Texas Rangers and their commander Captain Parmalee, who didn't approve of the Rangers jokes and pranks. The time period was after the Civil War.Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946 – Present'' (first edition), pages 336-337, Ballantine, 1979 Reese Bennett was a former Union Army office in his forties when he joined the Texas Rangers. Joe Riley was an ex-gunfighter when he joined for both adventure and sanctuary from lawmen outside of Texas. Chad Cooper was from Boston, and had been a member of the Border Patrol during the Civil War. At the beginning of the second season Erik Hunter became a new Ranger. Peter Brown, who played Chad Cooper, recalled that the producers of the show wanted the three stars to have the same relationship and camaraderie as did the stars of '' Gunga Din'', and had Brand, Brown, and Smith watch the film three times.

Cast

Main cast

as Reese Bennett * Peter Brown as Chad Cooper * William Smith as Joe Riley * Philip Carey as Captain Edward Parmalee * Robert Wolders as Erik Hunter (26 episodes, 1966-1967) *

Claude Akins Claude Aubrey Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American character actor. He played Sonny Pruit in '' Movin' On'', a 1974–1976 American drama series about a trucking team; Sheriff Lobo on '' The Misadventures of Sheriff Lob ...

as Cotton Buckmeister (5 episodes, 1966-1967)

Guest cast

Episodes

Season 1 (1965–66)

Season 2 (1966–67)

Selected episodes

In "The Golden Trail",

Jeanette Nolan Jeanette Nolan (December 30, 1911 – June 5, 1998) was an American actress. Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series '' The Virginian'' (1962–1971) and '' Dirty Sally'' (1974) and in films such as ''Macbeth'' ...

is cast as Ma Burns, who investigates the progress of a gold shipment that Reese Bennett is supposedly transporting from

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

to Laredo. Jim Davis appears in this episode as a sheriff.Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", '' West Texas Historical Review'', Vol. 89 (2013), pp. 115-116 Nolan also appeared as Martha Tuforth in "It's the End of the Road, Stanley" (1966) and as Vita Rose in "Like One of the Family" (1967).

Lane Bradford Lane Bradford (born ''John Myrtland Le Varre, Jr.''; August 29, 1922 – June 6, 1973) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 250 films and television series between 1940 and 1973, specializing in supporting "tough-guy" roles predominan ...

was cast five times in different roles, as Three-finger Jake in "Rendezvous at Arillo" and as Amos Slaughter in "Which Way Did They Go?" (both 1965), as Ben Slick in "The Treasure of San Diablo" and as Charley Smith in "Road to San Remo" (both 1966), and as Lyle in "Walk Softly" (1967).

DVD releases

Timeless Media Group released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 on November 24, 2009. The 12-disc boxed set features all 56 episodes of the series, as well as bonus features.

Other media

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984. History Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its ...

published a single issue comic book tie-in in 1966.Laredo
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References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0058819, Laredo 1965 American television series debuts 1967 American television series endings NBC television dramas American English-language television shows 1960s Western (genre) television series Television series about the Texas Ranger Division Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Texas American television spinoffs Fictional characters of the Texas Ranger Division