Did You Know…Both ‘Cheyenne’ and ‘Laramie’ Were Once TV Shows?
As someone that is not originally from the West, I had no idea of the historical significance of both southeast Wyoming cities, 'Cheyenne' and 'Laramie' each were once their own TV shows!
Of course, this occurred well before my time as 'Cheyenne' and 'Laramie' were both Western television series that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. At one point, they both shared their own spot in network TV lineups during the same timeframe.
However, even though 'Cheyenne' was a Western series, the show was merely about a character that went by the name of Cheyenne, played by Clint Walker, but the series missed out on an opportunity for a sense of irony in not having the character reside in Cheyenne as well. Instead, Cheyenne (Brodie) wandered throughout the West as a cowboy with searching for 'frontier justice', set in the days following the Civil War.
The show aired on ABC, lasting 108 episodes from 1955 to 1962. It was a show of many firsts, including the first hour-long Western, as well as the first hour-long drama with reoccurring characters that lasted more than just one season.
'Laramie' on the other hand, was set in Laramie, WY. The show aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. It starred John Smith, Robert L. Crawford, and Robert Fuller. The story follows the Sherman brothers as they run a stagecoach shop for the Great Overland Mail Company following the murder of Matt Sherman, their father. The time set for the show, like 'Cheyenne', was also just after the Civil War. At the start of the third season of 'Laramie', the show became one of the first ever to make the transition from black-and-white to color.
Despite the fact that 'Cheyenne' wasn't actually set in the capitol city, the fact that southeast Wyoming has cities with the same names of two TV shows that were relatively popular during their time is a fascinating coincidence.
What if there were shows today with the same names that are actually about the corresponding cities? What would they be about? Voiceover: "On the next episode of Cheyenne, Karen gets frustrated with the self-checkout kiosk!" It probably would be a lot less entertaining than a cool Western.
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