The Deputy (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Deputy is a 1959-1961 half-hour NBC
western
series featuring Henry Fonda
as Chief Marshal
Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory
and Allen Case
as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.
later did while shooting the sitcom series My Three Sons
, Fonda performed all of his work on The Deputy in several lengthy sessions so as to leave himself free for other projects. The difference in quality between Fonda's episodes and Case's was often cited by both critics at the time and Fonda himself in later interviews. Fonda wore a growth of stubble on his face as Fry, decades before the Sonny Crockett character in Miami Vice
did the same and attracted so much attention that special razors were marketed to achieve that look.
Though based in Silver City, the sheriff's district also covered several nearby towns as well. Deputy McCord was a storekeeper who bore arms with great reluctance. Wallace Ford
starred as the elderly marshall, Herk Lamson, with Betty Lou Keim
as Clay's sister, Fran McCord, in the first season. Read Morgan
joined the show in the second season as Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, known as "Sarge", a one-eyed United States Army
cavalry
officer stationed in town.
The series was created by Norman Lear
, who would go on to develop some of the biggest TV comedy hits of the 1970s, like All in the Family
, Sanford and Son
and Maude
. The show was also produced by Revue Studios, and featured a high-tuned jazz
guitar
score by Jack Marshall
, who later composed The Munsters
theme.
Robert Redford
appeared in the episode "The Last Gunfight", which aired on April 30, 1960. Other guest stars appearing on The Deputy included Chris Alcaide
, Phyllis Avery
, Roxane Berard
, Walter Coy
, Dennis Cross
, Francis De Sales
, Dean Fredericks
, Billy Gray
, Tom Greenway
, Clu Gulager
, Wallace Ford
, Tod Griffin
, Ron Hayes
, Gregg Palmer
, Tyler McVey
, Denver Pyle
, Vito Scotti
, Quintin Sondergaard
, Kim Spalding
, and Gary Vinson
. Robert Redford
made his TV debut in the episode The Last Gunfight (April 30, 1960). The format of the half hour show with its older professional lawman and his young assistant was similar to Warner Brothers Television's Lawman
.
The Deputy aired at 9 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. In its first year, it followed NBC's short-lived adventure
series, The Man and the Challenge
, starring, among others, George Nader
and Jack Ging
. It faced competition from Mr. Lucky on CBS and from The Lawrence Welk Show
on ABC
. In the second season, CBS dropped Mr. Lucky, and The Deputy faced competition from the second half of Checkmate
, co-starring Anthony George
, Sebastian Cabot
, and Doug McClure
.
Four years after The Deputy, Case co-starred for a season as Frank James
with Christopher Jones
in the title role of ABC
's The Legend of Jesse James
.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series featuring Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
as Chief Marshal
Marshal
Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
and Allen Case
Allen Case
Allen Case was an American television actor most noted for the lead role of Deputy Clay McCord in NBC's The Deputy opposite series regular Henry Fonda...
as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.
Production
Fonda narrated most episodes and appeared briefly at the beginning and ending of most segments. He played the lead in only six episodes in the first season and thirteen in the second. Usually he would give his deputy the assignment then more or less thank him afterward at the conclusion of the episode. As Fred MacMurrayFred MacMurray
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....
later did while shooting the sitcom series My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
, Fonda performed all of his work on The Deputy in several lengthy sessions so as to leave himself free for other projects. The difference in quality between Fonda's episodes and Case's was often cited by both critics at the time and Fonda himself in later interviews. Fonda wore a growth of stubble on his face as Fry, decades before the Sonny Crockett character in Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
did the same and attracted so much attention that special razors were marketed to achieve that look.
Though based in Silver City, the sheriff's district also covered several nearby towns as well. Deputy McCord was a storekeeper who bore arms with great reluctance. Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-movies....
starred as the elderly marshall, Herk Lamson, with Betty Lou Keim
Betty Lou Keim
Betty Lou Keim was an actress with movie and television credits from 1949 to 1960.-Early life and career:...
as Clay's sister, Fran McCord, in the first season. Read Morgan
Read Morgan
Read Morgan is a former American actor whose longest-running role was as a United States Army cavalry officer in the 1960-1961 season of The Deputy, a western television series on NBC created by Norman Lear. Morgan appeared in thirty episodes as the one-eyed Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, recognized by...
joined the show in the second season as Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, known as "Sarge", a one-eyed United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
officer stationed in town.
The series was created by Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
, who would go on to develop some of the biggest TV comedy hits of the 1970s, like All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
and Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
. The show was also produced by Revue Studios, and featured a high-tuned jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
score by Jack Marshall
Jack Marshall (composer)
Jack Marshall was an American guitarist, conductor, and composer. He is the father of producer-director Frank Marshall and composer Phil Marshall....
, who later composed The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
theme.
Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
appeared in the episode "The Last Gunfight", which aired on April 30, 1960. Other guest stars appearing on The Deputy included Chris Alcaide
Chris Alcaide
Christopher "Chris" Alcaide was an American actor particularly known for his role in television westerns. He surfaced to national attention as Deputy Joshua Tate in the 1956 film Gunslinger, co-starring Beverly Garland as a woman marshal.In 2003, Alcaide was among recipients, including the Sons of...
, Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...
, Roxane Berard
Roxane Berard
Roxane Berard is a Belgian-born actress who was the leading lady in various episodes of 26 American television series between 1958 and 1967. Berard had a gamine quality similar to fellow Belgian Audrey Hepburn's, with whom she was inevitably and continuously compared, especially since they...
, Walter Coy
Walter Coy
Walter Darwin Coy was an American stage, radio, film, and, principally, television actor, originally from Great Falls, Montana. He was best known for narrating the NBC western anthology series, Frontier, which aired early Sunday evenings in the 1955-1956 season.-Career:Coy performed on Broadway...
, Dennis Cross
Dennis Cross
Dennis Cross was an American actor who was the lead star of the syndicated television series The Blue Angels, fictional stories of daredevil United States Navy pilots which aired from 1960-1961...
, Francis De Sales
Francis De Sales (actor)
Francis A. De Sales was an American actor. He was known for his roles on two early television series: as police Lieutenant Bill Weigand on the CBS and then NBC drama Mr. and Mrs. North and as Sheriff Maddox in the syndicated western Two Faces West...
, Dean Fredericks
Dean Fredericks
Dean Fredericks was an American actor best known for his portrayal of the comic strip character Steve Canyon in a 34-episode television series of the same name which aired from 1958-1959 on NBC. He was born Frederick Joseph Foote in Los Angeles, California...
, Billy Gray
Billy Gray (actor)
William Thomas "Billy" Gray , is a former American actor known primarily for his role as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in 193 episodes of the NBC and CBS situation comedy, Father Knows Best, which aired between 1954 and 1960. Gray's fellow cast members were Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue,...
, Tom Greenway
Tom Greenway
Tom Greenway was an American character actor of film and television, whose career, primarily in television westerns, extended from 1949 to 1965.-Early life:...
, Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
, Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-movies....
, Tod Griffin
Tod Griffin
Tod Griffin, born as Arthur Griffin , was an American actor of stage, film, and television, originally from Birmingham, Alabama.-Early years:...
, Ron Hayes
Ron Hayes
Ronald G. Hayes was an American television actor who, as an activist in the environmental movement, worked for the establishment of the first Earth Day, observed on April 22, 1970. He was a member of the Sierra Club and a founder of the ecological interest group Wilderness World...
, Gregg Palmer
Gregg Palmer
Gregg Palmer, originally Palmer Lee is an American actor, known primarily for his prolific work in television westerns...
, Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...
, Denver Pyle
Denver Pyle
Denver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
, Vito Scotti
Vito Scotti
Vito Scotti was a veteran character actor who played many roles, primarily from the late-1940s to the mid-1990s. He was known as a man of a thousand faces, for his ability to assume so many divergent roles in more than 200 screen roles, in a nearly 50 year career. He was known for his resourceful...
, Quintin Sondergaard
Quintin Sondergaard
Quentin Charles Sondergaard, known primarily as Quintin Sondergaard , was an American actor principally active on television westerns from 1957-1970...
, Kim Spalding
Kim Spalding
Kim Spalding was an American actor who appeared on television and in film between 1950 and 1961.Spalding's first role was as an uncredited clerk in the 1950 film The Gunfighter, starring Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo. From 1950-1953, Spalding appeared in different roles in the western television...
, and Gary Vinson
Gary Vinson
Gary Vinson was an American actor who appeared in significant roles in three television series of the 1960s: The Roaring 20s, McHale's Navy, and Pistols 'n' Petticoats.-Early life and career:...
. Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
made his TV debut in the episode The Last Gunfight (April 30, 1960). The format of the half hour show with its older professional lawman and his young assistant was similar to Warner Brothers Television's Lawman
Lawman (tv series)
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....
.
The Deputy aired at 9 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. In its first year, it followed NBC's short-lived adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
series, The Man and the Challenge
The Man and the Challenge
The Man and the Challenge is a 36-segment half-hour television adventure/science fiction series which ran new episodes on NBC from September 12, 1959, to June 11, 1960. It starred George Nader as Dr. Glenn Barton, a research scientist for the Institute of Human Factors, an agency that conducted...
, starring, among others, George Nader
George Nader
George Nader was an American film and television actor of Lebanese descent. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 through 1974, including Phone Call from a Stranger , Congo Crossing , and The Female Animal...
and Jack Ging
Jack Ging
Jack Lee Ging is an American actor best known for his role as General Harlan 'Bull' Fullbright in the NBC television series The A-Team.-Early life:...
. It faced competition from Mr. Lucky on CBS and from The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years , then nationally for another 27 years via the ABC network and first-run syndication .In the years since first-run syndication...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. In the second season, CBS dropped Mr. Lucky, and The Deputy faced competition from the second half of Checkmate
Checkmate (TV series)
Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue...
, co-starring Anthony George
Anthony George
Anthony George was an American actor mostly seen on television. He is best known for roles of Don Corley in Checkmate, Burke Devlin and Jeremiah Collins on Dark Shadows, and Dr. Will Vernon on One Life to Live....
, Sebastian Cabot
Sebastian Cabot (actor)
Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and television actor, best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman, "Giles French," opposite Brian Keith's character, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. He was also known for playing Dr...
, and Doug McClure
Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
.
Four years after The Deputy, Case co-starred for a season as Frank James
Frank James
Alexander Franklin "Frank" James was a famous American outlaw. He was the older brother of outlaw Jesse James.-Childhood:...
with Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones (actor)
William "Billy" Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones, is an American character actor, born August 18, 1941 in Jackson, Tennessee....
in the title role of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The Legend of Jesse James
The Legend of Jesse James (TV series)
The Legend of Jesse James is a 34-episode western television series starring Christopher Jones in the tile role of notorious outlaw Jesse James which aired on ABC from September 13, 1965, to May 9, 1966...
.