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Lawman Again

T

therealjm12

Reposting because the older one has been deleted by the new server. I know you are as interested in my posts as I am:

I have been watching the classic Warner Bros. western Lawman on Encore. I have been impressed at what a quality show it was. I know it draws comparison to Gunsmoke (which I am a fan of too) but I think it has strong merits of its own. The cast, John Russell, Peter Brown, And Peggy Castle are excellent. The show is more realistic than Gunsmoke in that the role of the City Marshal would break up bar fights and family squabbles. A federal marshal wouldn't be involved in such activites. A lot of the Warner Brothers shows of that era have been written off as silly or low class. I think lawman stands up just fine. Yes, Maverick, and Cheyenne were fine programs too but I like the half hour format of Lawman .
 
Lawman was a nice program. Much like other Warner Brothers TV shows of that era, it had a distinctive theme song which I can still hear it in my mind these many years later. I think one thing going against the series was that it was on the ABC-TV Network at a time when many cities did not have an ABC-TV affiliate or, if they did, it was either on a UHF channel or on a channel that also showed programs from either NBC or CBS as well (and the other network's show may have been given priority).
 
Actually, "Lawman" didn't do that badly in the ratings. From 1958-61
it was on immediately after "Maverick" on Sunday nights. Their comparative
rankings:

1958-59 Maverick #6
Lawman #27

1959-60 Lawman #15
Maverick #19

1960-61 Lawman #26
Maverick was not in the top 30. That was the year James Garner
left the show.

In 1961 ABC moved "Maverick" from 7:30 to 6:30 (ET) on Sundays, replacing
it at 7:30 with a weak Warner Brothers-produced series about a couple of
globetrotting magazine writers, "Follow The Sun." Early in 1962 ABC put movies
in the 8:30-10:30 slot (to get a half-hour jump on "Bonanza") and moved "Lawman"
to 10:30...which was the end for Marshal Troop and company.
 
John Russell and Peter Brown's careers really went nowhere after the show was cancelled. I remember Russell played a bad guy in a Clint Eastwood movie. Brown showed up in a few TV shows but that’s about it.
Peggy Castle died of alcoholism at a very young age.
 
Running Lawman right after Maverick was a good move by ABC. Maverick did well ratings-wise in the early years of the series and it might be noted both shows were up against Ed Sullivan on CBS.

Interesting about Peter Brown. I think he was comparable in many ways to a young Michael Landon. Brown once appeared here on a local telethon and at one point in that show did a fast dance with Kathleen Nolan (Kate on The Real McCoys). I'm sure he had his share of female admirers.
 
Cincinnati Kid said:
Running Lawman right after Maverick was a good move by ABC. Maverick did well ratings-wise in the early years of the series and it might be noted both shows were up against Ed Sullivan on CBS.

Interesting about Peter Brown. I think he was comparable in many ways to a young Michael Landon. Brown once appeared here on a local telethon and at one point in that show did a fast dance with Kathleen Nolan (Kate on The Real McCoys). I'm sure he had his share of female admirers.
Click to expand...

Undoubtedly some male ones, too.

As noted, the show was much more realistic than Gunsmoke and edgier, too.

Encore Westerns is also running The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, another Western procedural, which also holds up very well. In fact, Earp was somewhat ahead of its time with story arcs, multiple plot lines and recurring characters. Hugh O'Brian didn't do much afterwards, either.
 
John Russell did seem to disappear after Lawman. He was in a few series and movies. Peter Brown went on to Laredo -a pretty good show and did a lot of soaps. He was in a few movies, too.
 
Hugh O'Brian was one of three revolving leads (Tony Franciosa
and Doug McClure were the others) on a 1972-73 NBC spy series,
"Search."

Pat Buttram once said that O'Brian would get married if he ever
found a woman who loved him as much as he loved himself. I
guess he did; he got married a few years ago--at age 81.
 
John Russell did appear from time to time in the '70s,
notably on a few episodes of "Alias Smith And Jones"
and as the Commander on the Saturday-morning kids'
show "Jason of Star Command." He died in 1991, about
two weeks after his 70th birthday.

Peggy Castle was only 46 when she died in 1973; I don't
know of any post-"Lawman" credits for her.

And as someone else pointed out Peter Brown went on
to "Laredo," then worked on several daytime soaps, including
"Days Of Our Lives," "The Young And The Restless," and "Loving."
 
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