the audience applauded

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

'Lawman' was shown on Australian television in the early 1960's, and I remember it as being one of the best of the genre, amongst others great western series, such as 'Trackdown', 'Cheyenne', 'Have Gun, Will Travel','Gunsmoke', and so many others from the golden years of television westerns. John Russell was most impressive as Marshall Dan Troop, reminding me of a long lean Clark Gable, and Peter Brown as the young deputy, who tried to live up to his boss's ideal! Above average scripts, and fine performances by Russell & Brown defined this series, and why Warner Bros. haven't seen fit to release it onto DVD, I have no idea? They'd be doing themselves, and western fans a great favour! It took a long while for 'Cheyenne' to appear, and 'Maverick' is still waiting, so perhaps there's also hope for the great 'Lawman'? Incidentally, Warners westerns had the greatest theme songs around!

I really want to thank the Encore Westerns Channel for bringing this series back to television. I am getting a chance to see this series for the first time, and so far I am loving it. I was somewhat familiar with John Russell and Peter Brown due to their guest spots on Maverick and Cheyenne. With a lot of the garbage shows that are on TV nowadays, it is nice to see a series that was built on telling good stories, and not how many uses of the F-Word you can squeeze into 30-60 minutes. Most of the westerns I've watched in the past were 60 minutes, but this is a rare one that is only 30 minutes. I think the shorter time actually works for them, because it allowed for them to film more episodes, and also the episodes themselves move at a faster, more exciting pace. It has been interesting to watch the series evolve. It seems like at first they weren't to confident in Peter Brown, so most of the early episodes they had John Russell as Dan Troop tell him to keep an eye on things and he did the action by himself. However, in the latter half of season one and now as I write this we are in season two, Johnny McKay has become more involved, and Peter Brown has been allowed to show more personality. They became kind of like the Batman and Robin of the Old West. I also like the addition of Peggie Castle as Lily. She and John Russell had some great chemistry, and to be honest, I'm a little more into them than Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell. I've also noticed since season two started showing on Encore Westerns, that they added more humor into their scripts, which is something I like. If you get a chance to check this series out, I definitely encourage you to do so. It is definitely worth a look. Now if they can find Sugarfoot in their vault, I'll be an even bigger happy camper.

It is a shame that this series hasn't been remastered and produced on video by Warner or some other professional movie house.Copies of most episodes are available, but are usually of poor quality, being copies of copies of copies.As I understand it, 92 episodes were produced during its run, but only 15 are noted here.Some of the series writers, such as Richard Matheson, went on to become noted authors.Excellent series, well written, well staged and well produced.Michael Weldon,Udon Thani, Thailand

Warner Bros. churned out a slew of western series in the late '50s and early '60s, some good, some not so good. "Lawman" was one of the best. John Russell, a veteran western character actor, was perfectly cast as tough Marshal Dan Troop. Russell's commanding presence, rich voice and no-nonsense demeanor fit the character perfectly. Peter Brown was well cast as Russell's eager young deputy, and beautiful Peggy Castle was a treat for the eyes as the owner of the local saloon and Russell's cat-and-mouse love interest. The show drew some good directors (Robert Altman, Burt Kennedy), had consistently interesting stories, and there was real chemistry between Russell and Brown. And, to top it off, it had what is probably the best theme song of any western series ("the lawman came from the sun, there was a job to be done . . ."). All in all, a memorable series that unfortunately didn't last as long as it should have.