episode 4: Rendezvous at Arillo
original airdate	director	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, October 7, 1965	Harvey Hart	Frederick Shorr
Sent to Arillo to catch the notorious Jameson gang, the Rangers encounter a lady and two children on a buckboard with a broken wheel. Detecting a southern accent, Chad turns up his own, but his charms fall short of Reese's when Reese gets on his hands and knees beneath the wagon and holds it up on his shoulders while Chad and Joe fix the wheel: the lady, a widow, needs a man to run her small farm, and a father for her two youngers. When she learns they're Rangers, the widow is thrilled--her letters to the governor have finally gotten a response! Ever since she brought the children west to live on the farm, a man in town has been trying to drive her off, claiming he bought her land for back taxes. The Rangers head into town and go into the saloon, where they promptly run into a major brawl. The widow comes into the saloon just as the Rangers are mopping the place up and boasts to the saloon owner--the very man trying to run her off her property--that the Rangers have come on her business. She then takes the Rangers home and feeds them a magnificent dinner before putting Chad and Joe up in her barn and Reese up in the spare room. Irked by his partners' teasing, Reese suggests he might just marry the widow--not a bad-looking woman, great cook, fine kids. The saloon owner, meanwhile, has ridden out to meet with the outlaws and tell them that there are Rangers in town, and they're staying in the widow's barn. Concluding (more or less correctly) that one of his men has turned informer, Jameson persuades the turncoat to confess, then sends him on an errand to take the Rangers off on a wild goose chase. The widow and her kids, meanwhile, have discovered a cache of silver buried in their barn--the outlaws have been turning their ill-gotten gains into silver and hiding the silver on the abandoned farm for years. When the outlaws come to dig up their silver, they find nothing, but they don't believe the widow's claims of ignorance. Frightening the truth out of the widow's little girl, they set about getting the silver back out of the well. Meantime, the Rangers have realized they're being led off, and force the truth out of their informant. They arrive just in time, as the outlaws are about to ride off with their wagonload of silver. In the course of the fight, Chad takes the opportunity of poisoning the widow's mind against Reese--who has pointed out the widow is now a wealthy woman--telling her she'll be a lucky woman if she marries Reese, because he's a good husband to all of his wives. Once all the outlaws are dealt with, Reese goes in to talk to the widow, but she throws him clear out of the house.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 5: Three's Company
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, October 14, 1965	Bernard McEveety	Frederick Shorr	John McGreevey	John McGreevey
In a plot borrowed from the movie version of Gunga Din, a former girlfriend of Chad's, the daughter of a railroad magnate, comes to town, his partners worry he may leave them. They have reason to be concerned, too: her father has offered Chad a job at $400 a month, ten times his salary as a Ranger, to become a manager in the railroad. Convinced that Chad isn't in love, they do their possible to break up the romance, pulling a series of dirty tricks that succeed only in driving Chad to propose. Chad resigns from the Rangers and prepares to leave town with his fiancee; Reese and Joe are sent off alone to bring in the Marshall wagon train--there've been rumors of Comanche raiding parties. Along the way, Reese and Joe get to talking about Chad, Joe maintaining that if they were were to find the wagon train attacked by Comanches and need his help, Chad wouldn't come, wouldn't even care. It's a bet, and Reese heads back to Laredo to tell Chad the Comanches are attacking. Chad, packing his bags, hears Reese out but doesn't believe him, and a dejected Reese heads back for the wagon train, which Joe has found--under attack by Comanches. Reese encounters a messenger from the train on his way, and sends him back to Laredo, then rides on to join Joe. Chad, about to get on the stage, sees every Ranger in town mounting up. When he learns that the wagon train really is under attack, he explains to his fiancee that he can't leave just yet, but that he will join her as soon as possible. She informs him that he is her fiancee, and he WILL get on that stage with her. Seeing her for the stubborn, selfish termagent she is (and which her father had tried to warn him she was), Chad calls off the engagement and rides to catch up with Company B and rescue his friends.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 6: Anybody Here Seen Billy?
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, October 21, 1965	Lawrence Dobkin	Frederick Shorr	John McGreevey	John McGreevey
Joe wakes up in the middle of the night when he hears someone sneaking into the barracks. Hearing him stir, Reese wakes up, too, and the two of them catch Chad sneaking home in nothing but his socks and underwear. He was taking outlaw Billy Harker to be hanged, but was waylaid on the road. Rangers aren't allowed to lose prisoners, so he borrows Reese's gun, puts on his spare clothes, takes a horse from the Ranger corral, and goes after his prisoner. The next morning, Reese and Joe are sent to catch the "stolen" horse. They find Chad just as he's caught the person who freed his prisoner--a beautiful young woman who's biting and scratching Chad in an effort to reach the gun he knocked out of her hand. She runs to Reese and Joe, accusing Chad of attacking her and pretending to be a Ranger. When she realizes they're all Rangers, she takes to acting sweet. Chad tries to force her to tell them Billy's whereabouts, but all she does is cry. Reese falls for the tears, and allows himself to be fooled into taking her off alone--because she trusts him--only to be hit over the head with a small log. He catches up with her only to have to fight off the knife she keeps in her boot. On their way to put her in jail, where Chad and Reese are both now unanimous in wanting to put her, Joe gives her an opportunity to escape, figuring it's the fastest way to Billy.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 7: A Question of Discipline
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, October 28, 1965	R.G. Springsteen	Frederick Shorr	Archie Lawrence	Archie Lawrence
Reese, Joe and Chad---sent on what should have been a milk run to escort some buffalo hides---take along a piano, some fancy-women, and, unwittingly, a shipment of rifles. And of course the Comanche find out about the rifles.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 8: The Golden Trail
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, November 4, 1965	Earl Bellamy	Frederick Shorr	Gene L. Coon and Bloise N. Coon	Gene L. Coon and Bloise N. Coon
Reese is sent to Red River to pick up a mysterious shipment for Cap'n Parmalee just as rumors are flying about a shipment of a $100,000 in gold; he thinks that's what he's being sent for, and on his way out of town he's so careful NOT to tell his partners that's what he's being sent for that an outlaw standing at the bar concludes that's exactly what the shipment is. The outlaw is a member of a gang led by an old friend of Reese's, a man he used to ride with him and who knew him when "...he could swipe an egg out from under a chicken without making her cackle." The gang discusses getting Reese to share it with him, planning to kill Reese and steal it if Reese won't share. Overhearing their plans are their landlady and her daughter, who've about had it with cooking and cleaning up after other people; they decide they might see if they can get their hands on the gold, too. On the road, Reese goes through a town with a crooked sheriff whose deputies are all family members: the sheriff and his men get their eyes on the reputed gold shipment, too: they got a wire from the Captain telling them Reese would be coming through with an important load. There's also an old prospector on the road who's heard about the shipment. Shifting alliances and treachery delay Reese again and again. The Captain, concerned about Reese's lateness, sends Chad and Joe after him, and they arrive just in time for a tremendous gunfight in which the strongbox everyone's been after gets shot full of holes. The box was actually a shipment of fine Tennessee sipping whiskey for the Captain, and there's only one bottle left intact--which Reese accidentally breaks in handing it to the Captain.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode. Jeanette Nolan appeared as Ma.

episode 9: A Matter of Policy
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, November 11, 1965	R.G. Springsteen	Frederick Shorr	Edward J. Lakso	Edward J. Lakso
A state senator comes to Laredo to investigate the rangers to see if the state should allocate further funds. The rangers, in an effort to help Captain Parmalee impress the senator, spend the day trying to win the money in a poker game to throw an impressive party; meanwhile, the captain and the senator get robbed en route--by a Texas state thief. The captain and the senator get to town to find the rangers in a barroom brawl over the poker game. To make up for the bad first impression, the rangers take the senator out for a very fancy breakfast--but the people with whom they were fighting the day before knock the breakfast all over the senator, convincing him to recommend disbanding the Rangers. Trying to regain the initiative, the rangers get up a scheme to hire men to kidnap the senator so they can rescue him--only Reese unknowingly tries to hire one of the real outlaws. When the leader of the gang hears the rangers' plot, he decides to take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of the Rangers, so they kidnap them instead. Joe and Chad, coming in to rescue them from "Reese", get their brains bashed in. Realizing too late there has been a real kidnapping when Reese turns up wanting to know what happened, Reese, Chad and Joe set out to rescue them for real.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 10: Which Way Did They Go?
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, November 18, 1965	Leon Benson	Frederick Shorr	Gerry Day	Gerry Day
The rangers bring in the Slaughter gang and their loot to San Saba. They stash the loot in the bank for safekeeping, making the acquaintance of a down-on-her-luck traveling authoress and lecturer who happens to also be the leader of a ring of bank robbers intending to rob the bank the next night. Setting her sights on the Slaughters' loot, she changes her plans so she can rob the bank that night with the loot still in it. Chad and Joe, seeing Reese struck by her ladylikeness and her supposed need, trick Reese into volunteering to sell tickets for one of her lectures. Once hooked, Reese succeeds beyond their expectations by persuading a beautiful flamenco dancer that she could be held in greater respect if she participated in something cultural, thus providing the gang a perfect cover for robbing the bank--just about everyone in town is at the lecture on Greece. Taking advantage of the Slaughters' presence in the jail, the gang breaks them out so they can take the blame for the robbery. The gang didn't count on Joe's ability to follow a trail, however: while the sheriff and his posse chase the Slaughters, the Rangers go after the real bank robbers. When the gang splits up, they do, too. Reese falls in with Miss Em once more, using her wagon to trail the gang when Cactus sprains a fetlock in a chuckhole. In order to lighten the load, Reese tries to unload Miss Em's books into the road, despite her telling him there's untold wealth in the volumes. When they catch up with the gang, Miss Em shoots one of her gang to save Reese's life--whether because she likes him or in order to get to keep all the money for itself it's hard to say. but one of the gang survives to implicate Miss Em. The money was hidden within her books--"I told you there was untold wealth hidden in those volumes."
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode. Eve Arden appeared as Miss Em.

episode 11: Jinx
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, December 2, 1965	Paul Stanley	Frederick Shorr	John D.F. Black	John D.F. Black
Reese persuades childhood friend Cletus Grogan (Reese and Cletus's fathers ran a still down by Potter's Creek), who believes himself a jinx, to join the Rangers, but trouble dogs their trail every step as he helps to track down Linda Little Trees and her gang. In trying to help Chad out of an overturned stagecoach, Cletus dislocates his shoulder. Then Cactus throws a shoe on the way to Smipkin, so Reese has to walk, slowing them down. That night, while the gang is robbing the Simpkin bank, Cletus trips and falls on Chad's arm, yanking it down and clear out of the socket. The rangers arrive in town the next morning and find the sheriff about to form a posse, but a rainstorm appears out of nowhere, despite the fact that "it never rains this time of year." While the others stay in Simpkin so Reese can get a new shoe for Cactus and Chad can get his shoulder un-dislocated, Joe rides ahead so they won't lose the trail. Once the storm has passed, Joe removes his soaked shirt and Linda Little Trees, who's watching, falls in love. She has him kidnapped with the intention of marrying him. In the Rangers' attack on the gang, Reese feigns injury and inspires Cletus to save the day. They capture the gang and rescue Joe, and Cletus comes to believe he's broken his jinx. In the heat of the fight, however, Linda escapes--with the bank haul and the teller's stool. With his jinx gone, Cletus decides to return to his girlfriend, Agnes, who's been waiting a long time.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode. Shelley Morrison reprised her role as Linda Littletrees.

episode 12: The Land Grabbers
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, December 9, 1965	R.G. Springsteen	Frederick Shorr	Ric Hardman	Ric Hardman
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 13: The Pride of the Rangers
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, December 16, 1965	Tony Leader	Frederick Shorr	John McGreevey	John McGreevey
The Cavalry boxing champion, Percy Flower, is appearing in the prize ring in Laredo on the 4th of July. Jess Moran, one of the Rangers, taking umbrage at the taunts of a loud-mouthed cavalry sergeant, offers to bet $10 that not only will a Ranger appear in the ring with Private Flower, but that said Ranger will win. Egged on by Chad and Joe, Jess ups the bet to a month's pay. Then, all Jess has to do is to find a Ranger to back up his bet: he has a notion Joe's the one, but Joe is of the opinion that he gets all the fighting he needs just doing his job, and standing up to "that big bucket of oats" would just be a waste of time and energy. In the end, Jess is stuck with the fight himself, and Chad offers to train him. Meanwhile, the captain, who is trying to solve a series of silver shipment robberies, cancels all leave for the Rangers on the 4th of July, planning to set a trap for the robbers. He transfers the silver from the Gloria Mine to the town's bank vault and sets up a small guard there, while he will take the rest of the Rangers to the mine, hoping to catch the gang. The insurance man for the mines (who is really the leader of the gang of robbers), gets wind of the proposed fight; he offers to help get Jess, Chad and Joe off of their guard duty at the bank so Jess can fight. Jess sprains his ankle on the way into the ring, so Joe ends up in the ring; while they're fighting, the insurance man and the gang rob the bank. Joe's doing pretty well when one of the Rangers from the bank staggers out with the news of the robbery. Chad and Joe set off in pursuit of the robbers. Jess, taunted one time too many by the sergeant, takes a wild swing at him, misses, and hits Private Flower, knocking him out---and wins the fight.
Neville Brand did not appear in this episode; it is my belief that George Kennedy's Jess Moran was created to cover Neville Brand's absence---Jess's lines were obviously written for Reese, who is supposedly out of town.

episode 14: The Heroes of San Gill
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, December 23, 1965	Paul Stanley	Frederick Shorr	Calvin Clements	Calvin Clements
The rangers are ordered to stick around Laredo while Cap'n Parmalee's out of town, but there's a fiesta in San Gill! By altering a telegram, Chad and Joe trick Reese into thinking outlaws have escaped jail so they can leave town in pursuit of them. When Reese learns that the outlaws escaped only to be killed, he realizes that they've just gone off to the fiesta. Chad and Joe, meanwhile, have discovered the captain's reason for wanting to keep them out of San Gill--he's there as one of numerous officials from both sides of the border, and he's to make a speech on Mexican-American friendship. Chad and Joe hurriedly don serapes and masks to avoid him, and proceed to have a good time, forgetting they told the girl at the mask and serape stand to keep the change. Arrested for not paying their bill, they have to leave their guns for security. When Reese arrives, he spots the captain, too, and quickly buys himself a serape and frog mask. Spotting Chad and Joe, he gives them money to redeem their guns, then heads off to get the horses. Meanwhile, criminals are in town to kill all the officials, and one of them recognizes Reese as a Texas Ranger. They kidnap Reese to find out the Rangers' plans, then Chad and Joe, too, when they find one of the criminals wearing Reese's mask and wonder where Reese is. Figuring out the criminals' plans, the rangers manage to set off some a firework rocket from the window of the store room in which they're being held prisoner at the gatling gun to be used for the assassination, thus saving the officials' lives. When the captain reappears in Laredo, he has medals frmo the Mexican government for the three Americans who saved the day, and gunbults belonging to two of those Americans. He charges Reese, Chad and Joe to get those to the men involved--then confines them all to the barracks.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

episode 15: A Medal for Reese
original airdate	directors	producer	story author(s)	scriptwriter(s)
Thursday, December 30, 1965	Lawrence Dobkin	Frederick Shorr	Edward J. Lakso	Edward J. Lakso and George Baxt
Joe and Chad lose a payroll wagon to what appears to be the French Army, then persuade Reese to infiltrate the raiders with promises of a medal. The robbers turn out to be former officers of Maximilian intending to overthrow the Mexican government.
All four first season regulars appeared in this episode.

[Laredo pilot] [season 1, part 2] [season 2] [Laredo movies]

[Laredo anachronisms and inconsistencies] [The Cactus Saloon]