Sugarfoot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the television series. For other uses, see Sugarfoot (disambiguation).
Sugarfoot
Will Hutchins Sugarfoot 1958.JPG
Will Hutchins as Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster, 1958.
Also known as Tenderfoot (UK name)
Genre Western
Legal drama
Created by Michael Fessier[1]
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
Original 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
Carl Pingitore
Leo H. Shreve
James C. Moore
Harold Minter
Robert B. Warwick, Jr.
Robert Watts
Location(s) California
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 45 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Picture format 1.33:1 Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural
Original run September 17, 1957 (1957-09-17) – April 17, 1961 (1961-04-17)
Chronology
Preceded by The Boy from Oklahoma
Related shows Maverick
Cheyenne
Bronco

Sugarfoot is an American Western series that aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961. The series stars Will Hutchins as the fledgling frontier lawyer from Oklahoma Territory, Tom Brewster, and Jack Elam in occasional episodes as sidekick Toothy Thompson. Brewster was a correspondence-school graduate whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the nickname "Sugarfoot".

Contents

Background [edit]

The show had no relation to the 1951 Randolph Scott Western film 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 and premiere episode, "Brannigan's Boots," was so similar to The Boy from Oklahoma that Sheb Wooley and Slim Pickens reprised their roles from the movie.

As played by Rogers in the film, 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 and makes Brewster reluctant to use firearms but able and willing to do so as a last resort. That was his stance throughout the series, and the title song even mentioned that he carried a rifle as well as law book. Whenever he enters a saloon, Sugarfoot refuses alcohol and orders sarsparilla "with a dash of cherry", a drink similar to root beer.

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 programs would appear, including Maverick, Cheyenne, Bronco, Lawman, and Colt .45. Hutchins appeared as Sugarfoot in crossover episodes of Cheyenne and Maverick, and in an installment of Bronco called "The Yankee Tornado", with Peter Breck as the young Theodore Roosevelt. Jack Kelly appeared as Bart Maverick in the Sugarfoot episode "A Price on His Head."

Cast of "Brannigan's Boots" [edit]

The pilot and premiere episode of Sugarfoot aired on September 17, 1957.

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

Cast of The Boy from Oklahoma film (1954) [edit]

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

The early episodes [edit]

In "Brannigan's Boots" (September 17, 1957), Brewster is appointed the sheriff of the town of Bluerock, state or territory not given, by unscrupulous politicians who believe that his apparent lack of cowboy skills would render him unable to maintain order after the murder of fearless Sheriff Brannigan. Brewster takes the appointment seriously and symbolically puts on a pair of boots left behind in the sheriff's office. Brannigan's daughter, Katie, played by Merry Anders, sees Brewster with the boots, derisively calls him a "sugarfoot", and claims that young Brewster is unfit to fill her father's boots. "Sugarfoot" then successfully finds her father's killer but not without an incident with the notorious Billy the Kid, played by Dennis Hopper. He soon wins Katie's heart too. The opening episode reveals that Sugarfoot's guns, mailed to him by his mother, were those of his late father.[2]

In "Reluctant Hero", the second episode (October 1, 1957), Sugarfoot takes a ranch job from the aging Charlie Cade, played by Will Wright. He soon finds that Cade is involved in a range war with Ken and Linda Brazwell, brother-and-sister ranchers played by Michael Dante and Gloria Talbott. Sugarfoot clashes with Cade's foreman Curly Day, played by Steve Brodie, who burns down Cade's ranch house after Cade fires him. Cade dies in the fire, and Sugarfoot was shot in the attack. Linda takes it upon herself to nurse Sugarfoot back to health. I. Stanford Jolley plays The Nighthawk in this episode.[3]

In the third episode, "The Strange Land" (October 15, 1957), viewers learn that Sugarfoot's father was George Brewster, a highly-regarded law-enforcement officer. "The Strange Land", based on a story by Louis L'Amour, focuses upon an embittered rancher named Cash Billings, portrayed by Morris Ankrum, who is an old friend of George Brewster's and agrees to hire Sugarfoot to repair fence on Billings' Slash B Ranch. Meanwhile, Billings has allowed a hired gunman, Burr Fulton, played by Rhodes Reason, to take over his spread and harass the neighboring small ranchers, but Sugarfoot arrives to bring law and justice to the situation. Jan Chaney plays Billings' daughter, Anne, who takes a liking to Sugarfoot, the nickname that is the title of the series. Anne had accidentally killed her brother in a shooting, and her father was unforgiving.[4]

In the unusually titled "Bunch Quitter" (October 29, 1957), Sugarfoot is hired by Otto Jardine, played by Frank Ferguson, for a mysterious cattle drive to an unknown destination. Kathleen Case plays Gail Jardine, Otto's daughter, who is smitten by an outlaw, Blacky, played by Ray Danton. When Blacky fatally shoots Slim Jackson, the trail boss, played by Tyler McVey, Sugarfoot gathers the evidence to bring him to justice.[5]

In "Trail's End" (November 12, 1957), Sugarfoot comes upon a former childhood sweetheart, Kathy Larsen, portrayed by Venita Stevenson, who is managing a dance hall. Chris Alcaide plays the corrupt Clay Horton, who forces Kathy to marry him so that she cannot testify in court in regard to Horton's numerous crimes. Barbara Stuart portrays Muriel, Kathy's business partner. Gordon Jones plays Sugarfoot's lively friend, Wasco Wolters, who has an interest in Muriel. This episode reveals that Tom Brewster lived at least the latter part of his childhood in Vermont, rather than the Oklahoma Territory.[6]

In "Quicksilver" (November 26, 1957), Sugarfoot investigates the robbery of a silver mine which prevents the owner from meeting his payroll. The episode features Lane Bradford as the cutthroat Ellis; John Litel as Hank Tatum, the owner of the mine, and Fay Spain as Tatum's daughter, Susie, the girlfriend and eventual wife of the local sheriff. Frank Wilcox plays George Beaumont, an unscrupulous businessman who had been rejected years earlier by Hank Tatum's late wife.[7]

Joi Lansing guest stars as the unsavory but attractive "Peaches", who claims to be a belle from Georgia, in the episode "Bullet Proof" (January 21, 1958). Sugarfoot tricks a gang into believing that he knows the location of the loot from their last bank robbery. Gregory Walcott plays Peaches' presumed fiance, Duke McKlintock, and Don "Red" Barry is cast as Tanner.[8]

Wayde Preston, who played Christopher Colt on the ABC western Colt .45, appeared four times in that role on Sugarfoot in the episodes dealing with "The Canary Kid."[9]

Guest stars [edit]

Notable guest stars, excluding the aforementioned:

In popular culture [edit]

  • When aired by the BBC in the United Kingdom, Sugarfoot was entitled Tenderfoot. This left British viewers somewhat confused, because the theme song still referred to the character as Sugarfoot. The series later appeared on ITV under the name Sugarfoot.
  • The animated television series King of the Hill once featured a barbecue restaurant named Sugarfoot's.

References [edit]

  1. ^ Classic Television Archive entry for Sugarfoot.
  2. ^ "Brannigan's Boots". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  3. ^ "Reluctant Hero". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  4. ^ ""The Strange Land", October 15, 1957". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 24, 2012. 
  5. ^ "Bunch Quitter". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  6. ^ "Sugarfoot: "Trail's End", November 12, 1957". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  7. ^ "Sugarfoot: "Quicksilver", November 26, 1957". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 25, 2012. 
  8. ^ "Sugarfoot: "Bullegt Proof", January 21, 1958". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved October 16, 2012. 
  9. ^ "Wayde Preston". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sugarfoot&oldid=554227284"