Sugarfoot

This article is about the television series. For other uses, see Sugarfoot (disambiguation).

Sugarfoot
Will Hutchins as Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster, 1958.
Also known as	Tenderfoot (UK name)
Genre	Western Legal drama
Created by	Michael Fessier
Directed by	Irving J. Moore
Starring	Will Hutchins Jack Elam
Theme music composer	Mack David and Jay Livingston
Composer(s)	Ray Heindorf Max Steiner
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	69
Production
Executive producer(s)	William T. Orr
Producer(s)	Harry Tatelman Caroll Case Burt Dunne Arthur W. Silver
Editor(s)	James Moore supervisor Carl Pingitore Leo H. Shreve James C. Moore Harold Minter Robert B. Warwick, Jr. Robert Watts
Location(s)	California
Running time	60 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	1.33:1 monochrome
Audio format	monaural
Original run	September 17, 1957 – April 17, 1961
Chronology
Preceded by	The Boy from Oklahoma
Related shows	Maverick Cheyenne Bronco

Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson. Brewster was a correspondence-school graduate whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the peculiar nickname "Sugarfoot".

The show had no relation to the 1951 Randolph Scott Western movie Sugarfoot aside from the studio owning the title, but its pilot episode was a remake of an offbeat 1954 Western called The Boy from Oklahoma, starring Will Rogers, Jr. as Tom Brewster. The pilot, titled "Brannigan's Boots," was so similar to the earlier film that Sheb Wooley and Slim Pickens reprised their roles from the movie.

As played by Rogers in the movie, Brewster never used firearms, preferring to vanquish villains with his roping skills (à la Will Rogers, Sr.) if friendly persuasion failed. Perhaps for practical reasons, the pilot altered the character slightly, making Brewster reluctant to use firearms, but able and willing to do so as a last resort. That was the way he remained throughout the series, and the title song even mentioned that he carried a rifle as well as law book.

Sugarfoot was one of the earliest products of the alliance between ABC and the fledgling Warner Brothers Television Department, chaired by William T. Orr. During the same period, other similar shows would appear, including Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly, Cheyenne with Clint Walker, Bronco with Ty Hardin, Lawman with John Russell, and Colt .45 with Wayde Preston. Hutchins appeared as Sugarfoot in crossover episodes of Cheyenne and Maverick, and in an installment of Bronco called "The Yankee Tornado" featuring Peter Breck as the young Theodore Roosevelt. Jack Kelly appeared as Bart Maverick in the Sugarfoot episode "A Price on His Head."

In popular culture

The TV series Sugarfoot is mentioned, and the theme song is sung, in an episode of Arrested Development titled "Spring Breakout". When shown in the United Kingdom, the show was entitled "Tenderfoot." This left British viewers somewhat confused, because the theme song still referred to the character as "Sugarfoot."

The animated TV series 'King of the Hill' featured a barbecue restaurant named Sugarfoot's.

Cast of "Brannigan's Boots" - pilot of Sugarfoot

Will Hutchins ... Tom 'Sugarfoot' Brewster
Merry Anders ... Katie Brannigan
Jack Elam ... Toothy Thompson
Louis Jean Heydt ... Paul Evans
Dennis Hopper ... Billy the Kid
Arthur Hunnicutt ... Pop Purty
Chubby Johnson ... Wally Higgins
Slim Pickens ... Shorty
Ainslie Pryor ... Mayor Barney Turlock
Kurt Russell ... Boy
Sheb Wooley ... Pete

Cast of The Boy from Oklahoma movie (1954)

Will Rogers, Jr. ... Sheriff Tom Brewster
Nancy Olson ... Katie Brannigan
Lon Chaney, Jr. ... Crazy Charlie
Anthony Caruso ... Mayor Barney Turlock
Wallace Ford ... Postmaster Wally Higgins
Clem Bevans ... Pop Pruty, Justice of the Peace
Merv Griffin ... Steve
Louis Jean Heydt ... Paul Evans
Sheb Wooley ... Pete Martin
Slim Pickens ... Shorty
Tyler MacDuff ... Billy the Kid
James Griffith ... Joe Downey

Guest stars

Notable guest stars include:

• Chris Alcaide played Clay Horton in "Trail's End" (1957).
• Roscoe Ates guest starred in the 1960 segment "The Man from Eudora".
• Russ Conway as a marshal in episode "The Giant Killer" (1959)
• Francis De Sales played Major Sterling in the segments "The Hunted" (1958) and "Outlaw Island" (1959).
• Dean Fredericks as Spotted Wolf in "Shadow Catcher" (1960)
• I. Stanford Jolley as The Nighthawk in "Reluctant Hero" (1957)
• Dayton Lummis as Silas Rigsby in "Trouble at Springs" (1961)
• Patrick McVey as Sheriff Dunbar in "Price on His Head" (1958)
• Tyler McVey as Slim Jackson in the "Bunch Quitter" (1957)
• James Millhollin as Gerold Manners in "Shadow Catcher" (1960)
• Jay North as Bobby in "The Giant Killer" (1959)
• Gregg Palmer as Captain McKinley in "Welcome Enemy" (1960)
• James Philbrook as Smokey in "A Wreath for Charity Lloyd" (1958)
• John M. Pickard in "Angel" (1961)
• Gary Vinson appeared twice in 1960: as Joey Grogan in "Fernando" and as Jack Guild" in "Return to Boot Hill".
• Suzanne Storrs in "Trouble at Sand Springs" (1961)
• Charles Bronson appeared twice in 1958 as Cliff Raven
• Slim Pickens appeared 3 times as Henry (1957-1960)

External links

• Sugarfoot at the Internet Movie Database
• Sugarfoot at TV.com
• Roy Huggins' Archive of American Television Interview