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Q: Are we going to see "Laramie" return to TV?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

Other than on the high-numbered, western-themed cable channel Grit TV, "Laramie" doesn't show up on TV much anymore, and there's no indication that will change. You'll have to content yourself with the DVDs, which were released in the late 2000s.

It's somewhat surprising that we don't see it very often, considering how influential it was. It ran for four seasons, from 1959 to 1963, and was a big hit for NBC.

It's most notable for the number of film stars it helped to create. "Laramie" was the biggest role in the career of its two main actors: John Smith (who played Slim Sherman) and Robert Fuller (who played Jess Harper). However, it was a stepping stone in the careers of so many future stars you pretty much have to categorize them.

The show featured: three of "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) -- Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and Charles Bronson; three stars from "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) -- Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy and again Bronson; two crew members of the USS Enterprise -- DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy, who played McCoy and Spock, respectively, in the original "Star Trek" series; and one Batman (Adam West appeared in a couple of episodes).

Among the other film greats to pass through the "Laramie" set were Richard Farnsworth, Ben Johnson, Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton.

It wasn't only tough guys, either. Indeed, it wasn't only guys: it also featured turns by multiple Emmy-winning actress Gena Rowlands, TV great Cloris Leachman and Ellen Burstyn, who starred in 1971's "The Last Picture Show" (alongside the previously mentioned Leachman and Johnson).

"Laramie" is also memorialized in the form of a particular NBC logo known as "The Laramie Peacock." It was designed to show off the color capability that was taking over TV at the time -- it debuted during an episode in "Laramie's" third season, which was its first to be broadcast fully in color, and is still occasionally used today (mostly for retro purposes).

 

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