Jess Harper - Tumblr Posts

s1:e13 - Bare Knuckles

The actual synopsis of this episode is unimportant, as I choose to sum it up as "Slim and Jess go on a date to see a boxing match."

Although, it's thanks to Jonesy going off to earn the mortgage money that we get to see Jess mending one of Andy's shirts, which is cute.

And Slim gets to do some boxing of his own later in the episode!

s1:e14 - The Lonesome Gun

This episode centers around Jonesy and Slim because a former friend of Slim's father intends on killing Slim as revenge, and Jonesy does his best (in his comically misguided ways) to prevent it. As a result, we get a lot of Jess present but mainly lounging around listening, and looking way too fine in the process. This includes watching Jess indulge his oral fixation via a matchstick, which is quite the scene-stealer.

Weird the way he just pushes his head down like that. I made this with Gif Brewery 3

Slim's got a little mean streak, hasn't he? 😂

s1:e15 - Night of the Quiet Man

This episode is woefully short on Slim/Jess moments, but it does have a few nice scenes of them together. Slim stays behind while Jess goes on a cattle drive, and it's apparent that they're not looking forward to the separation. I get the sense that they would've said more to each other if they had not been in mixed company.

SS - "Jess? Wish I was going with ya." JH - "Yeah, so do I. But, somebody's gotta stay here and take care of the dull routine!"

Later, Jess comes back through the relay station on his way to town with the earnings, and they're clearly excited to see each other, no matter how brief. Unfortunately, the team is ambushed and the money is stolen. Jess' horse comes home without him, blood on the pommel of his saddle, and Slim rides out to find Jess injured on the side of the road. Of course Jess is OK, but it's a very tense scene as Slim encounters him face-down, not knowing if Jess is alive or not.

s1:e16 - The Pass

Hey pards, it's been a minute! Hope you're all doing well. Anyway, jumping right into this episode:

Wyoming Territory is right in the middle of a Sioux-Cheyenne war in this one, so Jonesy and Andy are sent off to safety while Slim and Jess aid the Army. Jess falls quickly back into old military mannerisms in front of the Major, which Slim ribs him pretty ruthlessly for.

SS - "Say, you make a pretty good soldier boy. Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir!"

JH - "What did you want me to do, tell him to go find Custer himself?"

SS - "Now you're talking about my kind of Army! You know, it looks like they were holding off the war, just waiting for Jess Harper to get here."

JH - "Naturally! One thing worries me though, Slim. What's the Army gonna do with you now?"

SS - "Well there's one thing sure, they're not gonna make a cook out of me. The cavalry's got trouble enough."

Of course, this lighthearted exchange probably serves to hide Slim's concern for Jess as they are forced to part ways.

Later on, their units cross paths, and the two of them have eyes only for each other, even in the presence of Col. Custer. We get another fun exchange before they separate. (I know the screenshots are somewhat similar, but these two just would not stop staring at each other!)

And finally at the end of the episode, when everyone is back home, they're discussing the recent events of the battle, including a young woman who was killed during the mission. I detect a hint of jealousy in Jess' expression when he says, "I heard about the girl, Slim. What was she like?". However, the episode ends on a light note when the boys head outside to look at some stock Jonesy purchased. And for just a brief moment, Jess lands his hand on Slim's hip as they walk out the door. ❤️💙

s1:e17 - Trail Drive

There's not a lot for me to say about this episode...it centers around a trail drive that Slim, Jess, and Jonesy undertake when they fall on hard times during a drought. Of course, like in many episodes things aren't as straightforward as they seem, but you'll just have to watch to see what I mean.

Anyway, enjoy some shots of Slim and Jess looking cute together!

s1:e18 - Day of Vengeance

In this episode, Jess is a sheriff's deputy for a prisoner transport. When the stage Jess is riding doesn't show up in Laramie, Slim goes to find it/Jess (of course) and gets shot by a bandito (of course). I'm not a huge fan of this episode because it focuses more on the relationships of other characters, and Slim and Jess are barely together in it. However, honorable mention goes to the cutest calf on the ranch, and the guys standing closer to each other than necessary for the end scene.

Looking for all the Robert Fuller fans on tumblr <3 

s1:e19 - The Legend of Lily

Ok, so I had forgotten until I re-watched it just how fun this episode is. Buckle up, because this is going to be a deep dive!

Laramie is buzzing over the impending visit of entertainer Lily Langford, especially Jonesy, who met her years before and is obviously still smitten. Even Jess is literally leaning out of the saddle to look at the poster of her (check the expression on Slim's face at that!). Jess walks over to take another look, and we get an excellent bit of dialogue between him and Lily's promoter/husband Ben Carson after Jess turns down a ticket.

Carson - "'Scuse me, for a minute I thought I was talking to a man. I can see now you're just a buffalo, strayed from your herd." JH - "Mister, have you ever been stomped on by a buffalo?"

This won't be the first time that Jess butts heads with Carson (more on that in a minute). Jess "The Buffalo" Harper does in fact intend to see Lily perform, because he heads to the barber after Carson walks away. That's right folks, Jess willingly submits to a haircut!

Around the same time, outlaw Shanghai Pierce has also recently arrived in Laramie with his gang, and decides he needs to visit the barber as well. He literally throws Jess out of the barber's chair, which turns into a pretty great fight. Unfortunately, Shanghai's gang surrounds Jess, putting it to a quick end. But Jess isn't worried because Slim shows up on horseback to break things up and take him home. Advantages of having a big, strong boyfriend, right? ;)

Meanwhile, Ben Carson ends up tagging along with Jonesy to escape Shanghai. Once they're back at the ranch, Jonesy plays "Marry Me in Laramie" for Carson because he wants to see if Lily will sing it. I love watching Jess in this scene because he gives Slim just the biggest glowing grin across the table while they listen to Jonesy play. After dinner, Carson and Jess start playing poker, and Jess catches on to him cheating. Jess wastes no time in marching over to Slim to get him to kick Carson out of the house. There Jess goes taking advantage of his big, strong boyfriend again!

Before that can happen, Shanghai's gang arrives at the ranch, having followed Carson's trail. The impending altercation is interrupted by the arrival of Lily's stagecoach, and Shanghai of all people is totally taken with her. He abandons his vendetta against Carson to personally escort her into Laramie.

The next day, Jonesy finishes up Jess' haircut, with a bunch of whining and grumbling from you-know-who. Then the three of them are off to town to watch Lily's performance. Jonesy heads to Lily's room to tell her about Carson cheating at poker with Jess, and ends up telling Carson off as he insults Lily about her age and appearance.

Once Lily is up on stage, Shanghai starts heckling her, also focusing on her age. Encouraged by Jonesy's previous words to her, she turns the heckling back on Shanghai like a total badass.

Lily - "If that grizzled hide you're wearing for a face isn't old, you must be mighty sick with something."

Eventually the crowd gets riled up enough for a fight to start, but it's over pretty quickly and Shanghai's gang is jailed for the night. The next morning, as Lily leaves Shanghai comes up to her carriage and apologizes for his behavior. He offers to escort her on to the next town, which she gladly accepts. And on the way out, she blows a kiss to Jonesy, much to the amusement of Slim and Jess.

This analysis really got away from me, but as I thought more about this episode I started to really appreciate how good it is on multiple levels. It's a very fun, lighthearted episode. No one dies or gets seriously hurt, Slim and Jess don't get separated, and it's just downright funny throughout. And more seriously, it takes a good look at ageism, particularly towards women. It was refreshing to see a female character stand up for herself.

Of course my favorite thing about this episode, like every Laramie episode, is seeing Slim and Jess together. ❤️💙

s1:e20 - Death Wind

This is another episode that focuses on a bunch of tertiary characters from the stagecoach, because it ends up having to stay at the ranch when severe weather rolls in.

I can't get over the image of Jess brushing his thumb up against Slim's wrist. Also, this episode has a fun bit of dialogue as Slim and Jess are fixing the porch post-storm:

JH - "C'mon Slim, push!" SS - "What do you think I'm doing?" JH - "You're big enough to eat hay, push harder!"

I am SO excited to be able to show this off. I got to meet Robert Fuller, and his lovely wife Jennifer Savidge! Bob was pretty tickled to see our Slim & Jess outfits. This seriously made my year. ❤️💙

😳😳😳 my expectations have been met and exceeded, thank you @khazadspoon!!! ❤️💙

You did some really great fics a while back with Slim and Jess from Laramie, any chance you'd be interested in writing another?

Oh man I’ve not thought of them for ages!!!!!! Here, have this! I had to remember what to do for a while but hopefully this is still in character or at least up to scratch,

————

The heat wasn’t unbearable but it was close. Slim sat staring out at the yard, the long expanse of empty road stretching out into the hazy distance. There wouldn’t be any coaches today, if everyone had half the brains in their head he thought they had they’d all stay indoors.

Well. All except one.

Jess had been out in the sun for an hour with his shirt off, tanned skin glistening with sweat. There was an oversized hat on his head protecting him slightly but Slim was moments away from calling him in, dragging him by the elbow if necessary.

Still, it was a hell of a view.

He watched with quiet interest as Jess hammered a fence post, muscles moving under that golden skin, every so often standing straight and stretching his arms up to the sky. Slim had put his hands on almost every inch of that body and still felt the craving like an itch that he couldn’t scratch. Maybe one day that would change, but he couldn’t see that happening any time soon.

He smiled as Jess put the hammer down and sauntered over, wiping sweat from his brow and fanning the hat across his face.

“Sure is hot out here.”

“That’s why I’m in the shade, Jess; you should join me.”

Jess grinned and threw himself on the empty rocking chair. “Good idea… got anything to drink out here?”

He handed Jess the glass of lemonade he had idly sipped beforehand. Jess gulped it down, his throat working with each swallow, and Slim gave in to his hands. He reached out, traced a line down that long neck, missing the way Jess’ lips curved in a smile at the rim of the glass. The sweat-slick skin was hot to the touch and Slim wanted to lick it, to taste the salt there.

“What’s on your mind then, huh?” Jess murmured, head still tipped back as Slim’s fingers danced over his skin.

“Oh, nothing much…” He glanced up, caught the bright glint in Jess’ eyes and couldn’t help grinning. “The usual when I see you, is all.”

Jess tilted his head and took Slim’s hand, gently moved it down to his chest to where his heart lay beating beneath. “Guess that makes two of us.”

The sun continued to beat down on the land. Jess leaned over and placed a kiss on Slim’s cheek, his lips warm and soft, and the sun seemed to get trapped in Slim’s chest.

“C’mon, I need to wash up for dinner or your brothers going to give me a scolding,” Jess said with a quirk of his lips.

They wandered inside, the heat of the day leaving them at the door even if the temperature still stayed high between them.

Jess gives me weird rat bisexual boi vibes. Like he's more likely to get run out of town sporting a fat lip and black eye cause he kissed the wrong man

While Slim is the respected Gay in town like he's out but not out out you know (people in town are like..... yeah Slim kissed that new hand of his no shock there)

Does this make sense

Jess, is that a threat or a promise?

Jess walks up to Slim who is shelling peas on the porch (in remission after an injury). Jess steals a pea to eat and says "If you're not careful, someone's gonna up and marry you."

You're telling me a writer put that in their fucking typewriter and was like "yes, this is how straight men talk to one another in the wild west" ????????

s1:e21 - Company Man

Y'all, this is the episode for angsty Jess expressions. And Slim looks so beautiful in these shots, too. ❤️💙

Long story short, a new stage line superintendent, Jack Slade (excellent character name, btw) shows up to fire Jess due to his "history". Slim of course jumps in to defend him, which leads to this hilarious exchange:

JH - "Thanks, Slim." SS - "Don't thank me. The privilege of firing you belongs to me, and nobody else."

Unfortunately, Slade won't be deterred, and hangs around for the entire episode, assisting with getting back their stage line horses from thieves who struck the night before.

One of my favorite conversations between Slim and Jess happens in this episode. Jess is brooding in their bedroom and Slim comes in to see what's going on. Slim gets straight to the root of the issue: Jess isn't worried about being killed by Slade, despite Slade's reputation. He's worried about killing Slade and bringing the ire of the stage line down on Slim.

SS - "This place wouldn't be the same without you and your troubles." JH - "You really mean that?" SS - "Yes, I really mean that."

At the end of the episode, Slade endangers the entire household in a standoff with the horse thieves, but fortunately everyone is OK except for Slade. He thanks Jess for his service to the stage line before dying, so we get kind of a mini-redemption thing and almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost.

P.S.: It's worth noting that a fictionalized Samuel Clemens (yes, Mark Twain) is a stage passenger in this episode, and gets some fun snarky dialogue, especially with Slade.

s1:e23 - Duel at Alta Mesa

This is another episode that unfortunately does not have Slim and Jess interacting. However, when Jess heads to Mexico to track the thief who shot Mr. Patterson and stole the stage line's money, he sends a letter to the ranch. There's a cute sequence of Slim reading the letter to Andy.

AS - There's a P.S.! SS - [annoyed] I see it. SS reading from JH's letter - P.S.: Tell Andy and Jonesy I'll bring 'em back a hatful of scorpions if they let you hire anybody to take my place.

For Jess, I think that's basically the equivalent of "I miss you, hope you miss me too."

s1:e23 - Duel at Alta Mesa

Thank you, @sportstudfan, for this GIF! When Jess is chasing the thief in Mexico, he ends up jumping from the balcony onto his horse to catch up with him.

And for those curious, yes, Robert Fuller actually did this stunt! I have confirmation from the man himself. 🤠

Do you think by the time Jess and Slim had Mike they kinda gave up (or just didn’t feel the same reason to hide their relationship anymore?

Like they def tell Mike no one can know and everything but like they give each other a peck on the cheek in the morning etc

I think they'd probably keep it hidden from Mike for a while because he might be too young to understand the danger of revealing their relationship to others. But Daisy would definitely know, and I bet Andy and Jonesy would too.

In honor of Robert Fuller's 90th (!!!) birthday today (July 29, 2023), I'm posting about meeting him last month at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival. @sportstudfan put me up to this, lol. Hope y'all enjoy it!

The MidSouth Nostalgia Festival was held on June 8-10 in Olive Branch, Mississippi. That's just south of Memphis, Tennessee for anyone like me who had never heard of the place. The festival brought together a bunch of classic actors (and one or two contemporary), who mainly appeared in Westerns but from some other genres as well.

The first morning we were there, we got right in line to schedule a time to see Robert, or Bob as his fans call him. Most guests had tables that you could walk right up to, but such is his popularity that his fan club orchestrates time slots to make sure everyone who attends has time to speak with him and get autographs and photos. It was a pretty good system, I believe we waited less than 2 hours. We were able to get into his first group of the day. When Bob showed up, he walked right by the line and greeted everyone very enthusiastically and gave out hugs to some of the more eager fans. I could only smile as he went by because I was honestly starstruck by this point.

Once our turn came up, we probably got a good five minutes talking to him. I got the impression he would've allowed us to stay even longer, but we tried to be sensitive to the others waiting to see him. We discussed some of his stunts, such as jumping onto Hoot (his horse) in Duel at Alta Mesa. He confirmed that yes, that was actually him and not a stunt actor. He also told us about breaking his leg on Wagon Train. There was a stunt involving a breakaway chair and he wanted to re-shoot it, but he neglected to check the chair beforehand. It had been replaced with an actual chair! We also talked about his quick draw abilities, and he informed us he had been clocked at 28/100ths of a second. Talk about fast! Before we left his table, we got his autograph on a photo from his Emergency! days. If I ever get to meet Randy Mantooth, I plan to point out that Bob's signature went over his forehead, so he can give him Hell about it.

Something that really amused me watching Bob interact with his fans is how much attention he gives everyone. He was more than happy to hand out hugs and kissed many of the women in attendance. He even autographed a woman's chest (upper sternum, lol) so she could get it tattooed. Keep in mind most of the fans were middle-aged or elderly women, who had fallen in love with him during their youth. The guy's still got it!

We also attended a few panels. The photo below is from one of them; from left to right we have Tony Cameron (son of Rod Cameron, one of my favorite Laramie guest actors), Patrick Wayne (2nd son of John Wayne), the panel interviewer, and Bob. All of the guys were really enjoyable to listen to. Tony is dedicated to keeping his dad's legacy alive and is just a lovely person in his own right. Patrick was very funny and used his some of his time on the panel to advocate for the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.

There was also a panel with Bob and his wife Jennifer Savidge that I unfortunately did not take pictures of. Those two are great together, they had everyone laughing and you could really tell how much they love one another. Jennifer is also incredibly gracious about the attention Bob gets from his fans. She's a wonderful actress in her own right, having been on her own medical series St. Elsewhere, JAG, and much more.

The MSNF also had vendor tables where you could purchase comic books, memorabilia, or even original art. One woman rented a vendor table so she could share her miniature Sherman Ranch! She removed the roofs so we could see inside the ranch house and barn. She also told us she has swappable backgrounds for different times of year. We were really impressed with the detail and talent that went into her creation.

On the last day of the festival, we had a photo taken with Bob and Jennifer. We dressed up as Slim and Jess. The first thing Bob said to us was "Wow!", so I think he liked the outfits. ;) On the way out, a few other fans in line stopped us to tell us how much they liked our costumes, which felt really great.

And that was pretty much it! It was honestly one of the more laid-back conventions I've been to. I wasn't used to having a bunch of downtime between the things I wanted to do. It was also a little weird being one of the younger fans there, but everyone was pretty nice and we were all there for the same reason: to meet Bob!

Bonus pic: while in Memphis we visited the largest Bass Pro Shop I've ever seen, known as The Pyramid. The inside looks like outdoors (as is normal with every Bass Pro), but it was lit like nighttime with string lights and stuff. Along with the usual fish tanks, there was a pond with ducks. I unfortunately did not pay to ride the elevator to the observation deck.

s1:e24 - Street of Hate

Hey y'all, it's been a while! Life has gotten in the way of posting (of course) but I'm going to try to be more consistent, even if that means I just post once a week. Anyway, on to the episode!

This is a solid "pards" episode of Laramie, and has some really great scenes. A townsperson/old friend is paroled out to Slim after serving a manslaughter sentence. The victim's father is quite upset about this guy returning to town and tries to make all sorts of issues, which of course Slim and ultimately Jess get involved in. Charles Bronson plays parolee Frank Buckley; if you're into him, there's a good shirtless scene. I won't go too far into the plot synopsis because this is really one worth watching and I don't want to spoil it. However, I will definitely talk about these screenshots. :)

Early in the episode, Slim and Jess are playing cards in the saloon while waiting for Frank's stage to come in. It looks like Jess is playing solitaire with some input from Slim, which is ridiculously cute. I never paid much attention to this scene until one of my mutuals pointed it out (you know who you are, lol), and I see why it's one of their favorites.

Later on, Jess is breaking in a horse, which leads to a very strange scene of Andy sewing the torn seat of his pants while he's still wearing them. Andy accidentally pokes Jess with the needle, and both Jess' and Slim's reactions are priceless.

We also get a fantastic tandem fight scene that ends with washing up in a water trough after the boys have kicked some ass.

Finally, the episode closes with Slim and Jess sitting on their porch, tattered boots up on the railing...and touching, of course. ❤️💙