Laramie: Season One

The essence of Laramie rested on the relationship between the two main characters...Slim and Jess! Season 1 began with how the two came together and how the friendship began. The story was never the main focus....the same themes reverberated throughout every existing western series. They were reworked and rewritten over and over again. The year is 1870....five years after the end of the Civil War. John Smith is Slim Sherman...basically confident, moral, hardworking, loyal, and a product of a seemingly loving family and stable home. He has ties to the community and deep roots already established. Into his life rides one Jess Harper (Robert Fuller)....a bone-weary gunfighter with no roots, a hair-trigger temper, and poor self image....who moves from place to place....and as he tells the younger brother, Andy, has gotten used to the lonliness of his life (though there is a certain sadness when he says that!) Thrown together because of a dangerous situation, Jess is offered a job on the Sherman Ranch. He accepts the offer....and therein lies the basis of the series. Jess moves in and out of life on the ranch...but always returns. Somehow we know he will always come back....just as we know he will find a reason to leave. It takes time for it to become a home for him. Still, his troubles (as Slim says) always remain a part of who he is. The casting of Smith and Fuller was perfect. Smith was first signed to play Jess....but someone realized he would be a better Slim Sherman. Fuller was cast as Jess Harper. The rapport between them was excellent...they were a wonderful fit...and when they shared the story and the screen, Laramie worked very well. And, then as happens with successful shows, someone decides to change things...first they let go of certain characters, then they change format (less of the two playing together) in Season 2. Then they add characters in Season 3. They add color in Season 3 (not a bad idea). But something was lost.....that wonderful relationship that made Laramie special. Jess begins to mature and calm down....but still shows the grittiness now and then. Some of the fun of the earlier episodes was their interaction...whether joking, or disagreeing, or caring for each other, or showing genuine concern....or punching each other around. When they shared the screen, there was a sense of enjoyment. Yes, they did well when not sharing screen or story...but we needed them to interact with each other....we missed how they played out the relationship between them. Laramie is one of the best western series ever made....due to the two actors who made it work for the most part. It is worth watching....I have one criticism, however! The first two seasons were in B&W....the quality was not the best. The color seasons were better....but restoration could have been, and should have been, much better!

This is a slow developing show that by the 3rd disk you really start to like. The two main characters (Robert Fuller and John Smith) basically run a stage relay station and deal with all sorts of unsavory characters. Hoagy Carmichael (I heard the name, but never knew who he was) is the old cook and general maintainance man with Robert Crawford (brother of the young son on "The Rifleman") as the kid brother of John Smith. These two characters seem to vanish in the second season with no reason and are not replaced. In the third season a grandmotherly actress and another kid move into the relay station and I still cannot figure out why, who or where they came from. The show had great casting all around with plenty of faces you will recognize if you grew up in the 1950's or 1960's and great scenery too. A gritty hard shoot em up type western. Someone gets shot in every single episode including the stars, who are always wounded. I guess the West was really dangerous. Bad problem with this show is the restoration. It does not appear to have been digitally restored in the slightest which is a letdown because it leaves the screenshots kind of dark with bad sound too on the first two season disks. The third season is extremely washed out, very much like the old Cisco Kid TV show. The actors seem to shake like the old movie projectors we had in elementary school too on the third disk. Another problem with the third season is the disks make a lot of noise in the DVD player. Can't figure out who would cancel this series in it's fourth year? Great show (even though I never saw it or heard of it till I ordered this set). I think had the product been restored I would be happier with the purchase, but overall I got to see a show I never saw before. I gave it 5 stars for the show....the quality of film is poor and if I rated that it would be maybe one star.

Ah, Laramie. Up until last year I hadn't seen this awesome TV Western since 1975. I was so excited to find it released on DVD and was not in the least bit disappointed when I purchased it. I am a Robert Fuller fan and he stars in this series as the drifter gunfighter turned ranchhand Jess Harper. John Smith stars as Slim Sherman the ranch owner who was willing to give Jess the opportunity to break away from his 'bad boy' gunslinger past. Slim makes a friend of Jess and we watch their friendship develop in a setting of gunfights, bar room brawls and a host of bad guys that bring along their own special form of drama to the show. Theres something for everyone in this Western. Plenty of action for the fellas and plenty of heart warming moments for the gals. Me, I love both so I couldn't lose. The picture and sound quality is very good, considering season one was in production in 1959. Be warned, though, it is in black and white and while we have been spoilt with perfect HD colour for the last few years, the storylines in Laramie are good enough that after a few minutes we forget that we have turned back the clock to the days of black and white TV. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is a fan of Westerns...and Robert Fuller.

This entire western series is really great for anyone that loves older classic western shows and movies.

白黒ですがJESSもSLIMも若々しくシーズン１の初々しさが感じられ、また二人の出会いも知れて嬉しかったです。せ 素敵な心を打つ話もたくさんあり60年前の正義感にも心動かされました。シーズン２と３も あったら買いたいです。扱ってください。出来れば日本語の字幕付きがいいです。

Excellent set of DVD's, Laramie-Robert Fuller fans-John Smith Fans have got to get it - masses of hours of a great series and is in the best quality possible. I've seen much worse copies than this.

Great show. Glad I ordered this

bonne serie aimerai l avoir en français

Décu par ce dvd. Aucun sous- titrage pour la série