Series Description

The Laredo TV show was a 60 minute western action series on NBC about a group of men who were discharged from the Union Army at the end of the civil war and decided to join the Texas Rangers.

Laredo Cast

Peter Brown .... Chad Cooper
William Smith .... Joe Riley
Neville Brand .... Reese Bennett
Philip Carey .... Captain Parmalee
Robert Wolders .... Erik Hunter
Claude Akins .... Cotton Buckmeister

Laredo Trivia

Reese Bennett's horse's name was "Cactus".

Neville Brand played some tough characters on both the big and small screens. He played the infamous "Al Capone" in the films, "The Scarface Mob" and "The George Raft Story". He also portrayed Al Capone on TV during episodes of "The Untouchables".

Neville joined the Army in 1939 with the intention of staying in for a career. He ended out appearing in Army training films and liked it so much that he decided to switch his career goals to acting! Before he left the Army, however, he served his country well! He received a "Purple Heart" and a "Silver Star" for gallantry in combat among many other medals!

Laredo was not the first co-starring role on a TV show for Peter Brown. He played the part of "Deputy Johnny McKay" on the series, "Lawman" that ran for 156 episodes from 1958-1962.

While most people who wanted the join the Texas Rangers did so for the adventure, a couple of the guys on the Laredo TV show had more interesting reasons. Chad Cooper had watched many of his friends get killed while he fought Mexicans as a member of the U.S. border patrol. His new job as a Texas Ranger would allow him to hunt down the Americans who had sold guns to those Mexicans. Joe Riley was a former gunfighter who wanted to become a part of the law instead of against the law plus, as a Ranger, other lawmen who were still looking for him might back off when they heard he was now one of them.

Laredo didn't have the best of luck with timeslots. It started its first season on Thursday nights at 8:30PM. That's not a bad time but its competition was "O.K. Crackerby" and "Bewitched" on ABC and "My Three Sons" plus the first half of the "CBS Thursday Night Movie"! Then, in its second season it was moved to the TV dead zone slot on Friday night at 10PM against "12 O'Clock High" and the final hour of the "CBS Friday Night Movie!