Synopsis
The two Sherman brothers and a drifter, Jess Harper, come together to run a stagecoach stop for the Great Central Overland Mail Company after the Shermans' father was murdered by a greedy land seeker. Hoagy Carmichael's contract was non-renewed after the first season. His character was eliminated with the explanation that he had accompanied Andy to boarding school in St. Louis, Missouri. Andy, however, would return to appear in a couple of episodes during the second season.
To restore the chemistry of the original cast, as the third season began, Spring Byington and Dennis Holmes joined the series in the roles of Daisy Cooper, a matronly widow, and Mike Williams, a young orphan permitted to live at the Sherman Ranch pending location of any next of kin, which never happened. Laramie also made the transition from black-and-white to color at the beginning of its third season in September 1961. On January 1, 1962, a new version of the NBC peacock "living color" logo was introduced before that night's Laramie broadcast. This symbol, the "Laramie peacock", was used before every color program on the network until 1970. Because of declining ratings in its last season, Laramie was canceled.
The series premiere "Stage Stop" (September 15, 1959) explains how Slim Sherman and Jess Harper become partners in the Sherman Ranch and Relay Station. Jess arrives in Wyoming from Texas in search of an erstwhile "friend", Pete Morgan, played by John Mitchum, who had robbed Jess. Morgan is part of the gang of Bud Carlin, played by Dan Duryea. The gang captures Judge Thomas J. Wilkens, portrayed by Everett Sloane, to keep him from trying Morgan. Though Jess and Slim are at odds with each other in their first encounters, and friendship seems out of the question, Andy Sherman takes an instant liking to Jess. Andy even asks Jess to take him away from the ranch, where he lives with his older brother Slim. Their first housekeeper is Jonesy, the role filled by Carmichael. Slim and Jess must fight together when Carlin shows up at the relay station and proceeds to humiliate the judge.
In "The General Must Die" (November 17, 1959), Brian Keith appears as Whit Malone, an old friend of Slim Sherman's from the Union Army. Malone and a mentally troubled Colonel Brandon, played by John Hoyt, arrive at the relay station with a daring but foiled plan to assassinate General William Tecumseh Sherman, who passes through the station on a stagecoach. Gilman Rankin makes a cameo appearance as General Sherman. This episode reveals that Slim Sherman entered the Army as a private and advanced to second lieutenant and fought under Sherman (no relation) in the March to the Sea in Georgia.
Subsequent episodes focus on the close friendship that develops between Slim and Jess, as they become like brothers with occasionally strong differences of opinion but always finding reconciliation and common ground. Generally, Slim, who is taller than Jess and two years older, is depicted as the more level-headed and thoughtful, with Jess as more emotional, with righteous indignation and difficulty controlling his temper.
In the episode "Cactus Lady" (February 21, 1961), it is revealed that Jess Harper had been nearly hanged by mistake in the border city of Laredo, Texas, because of the McCanles gang, played by Arthur Hunnicutt, L.Q. Jones, Harry Dean Stanton, and Anita Sands. The gang arrives suddenly in Laramie.
The German title of Laramie is Am Fuß der blauen Berge.
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