Laredo

Watching the show as a teenager was fun! They were the Three Musketeers, plus D'artagnan. Nice to see the reruns on Get TV.

"Laredo" featured Peter Brown, William Smith, and Neville Brand as a male bonding trio of Texas Rangers portrayed tongue-in-cheek as a combination Dead End Kids go Western and AWOL members from Sergeant Bilko's platoon. As conditions warranted they could also become a trio of Dirty Harrys whom Philip Carey as Captain Parmalee would let loose to track down, catch, and sadistically interrogate the suspects of some crime of the wild west. It really was a fun show which could even be interpreted to be a kind of predecessor to and portrayal of the Texas Rangers Call and McCray of "Lonesome Dove" before they got old.

The Texas Rangers of "Laredo" were introduced in an episode of "The Virginian" where they proved enough of a hit to earn their own series that ran for two seasons on NBC. It was a fun, frequently rowdy hour that was a favorite in my youth. The fine cast was headed by Neville Brand as the older Reese Bennett whom the other Rangers often patronized and made the butt of their jokes. Peter Brown was the calm, compassionate but still deadly Chad Cooper, and William Smith was Joe Riley, a half-Indian as quick with a knife as he was with a gun. Philip Carey rounded out the cast as Captain Parmallee, who frequently found the actions of his charges less than commendable. In the final season, European Robert Wolders was added to the cast as the flamboyant Eric Hunter, whose wardrobe might have raised eyebrows in the Hollywood of the 1960s, and would have certainly gotten him killed in the Old West if he hadn't been so handy with a gun himself. Claude Akins also began to make frequent appearances at that time as a Ranger named Cotton, a character bearing many similarities to Reese Bennett, and it appears Akins was put on the payroll only to fill in for Brand whose drinking sometimes made him unavailable. All in all, a memorable show that also had a brief flirtation with the big screen. In 1968, a year after its cancellation, several episodes from the first season were stitched together to make "Three Guns for Texas" which was released to theaters with "The Counterfeit Killer," a Jack Lord starrer that originally appeared on NBC's Bob Hope's Chrysler Theater. A year later, the series's pilot also had a brief theatrical run under the title "Backtrack."

I am a big fan of many western films. My favorite series of all time is the "Laredo" series next to "The Virginian". Every episode has a great new story to it and you'll feel like your right there with them in their high risk shootouts! The four Texas rangers; Reese Bennet, Erik Hunter, Chad Cooper, and Joe Riley work upder Captain Edward Parmalee. They are not ones to be messed with and will spearhead into any chaotic gunfight that comes there way. Their wit and great acting contribute to the worth of these films. Reese Bennet is my favorite of the actors with his theatrical hand gestures and way of putting things that are so agreeable. Trying to pull one over on the captain is a regular occurrence.

I have recently found episodes of "Laredo", being aired on Retro TV. I have fond memories of watching this show in in its first run days when I was sitting the neighbours two sons. I had not much of a social life back then and needed the money. I enjoyed the byplay between all the main characters. My favourite would have been the Reese Bennett character played by Neville Brand. It was a good way to spend an hour watching a light hearted western show with a bunch of Texas Rangers that surely must have driven poor Captain Parmalee to distraction. Peter Brown and William Smith were excellent in their roles. I am not too sure about Robert Wolders or Claude Akins. I thought the Wolders character was a little bit too Jim West, from, "The Wild, Wild West" and I did not care for Cotton Buckmeister replacing Neville Brand's character.