Sugarfoot

Sugarfoot is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with Cheyenne (first season); Cheyenne and Bronco (both second and fourth seasons); and Bronco (third season). The Warner Bros. production stars Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. Brewster was a correspondence-school student whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the nickname "Sugarfoot", a designation even below that of a tenderfoot. Sugarfoot was the first comedy western TV series, debuting five days before Maverick.

Hutchins was the only regular on the show. In four episodes, Hutchins also plays the dual role of Abram Thomas, "the Canary Kid", leader of an outlaw gang who is a dead ringer for Brewster. In each of these episodes, Brewster is joined in the fight against the Canary Kid's plans by Christopher Colt—i.e., Wayde Preston crossing over from his role in the simultaneously produced WB series Colt .45. Towards the end of the run, Jack Elam was cast in two of the final five episodes as Brewster's occasional sidekick Toothy Thompson, but the series was cancelled shortly thereafter.

Sugarfoot had no relation to the 1951 Randolph Scott Western film Sugarfoot aside from the studio owning the title (and the theme music), but its pilot episode was a remake of a 1954 Western film 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 film.

As played by Rogers in the film, Brewster carried no gun, disliked firearms in general, and vanquished villains with his roping skills (à la Will Rogers) if friendly persuasion failed. Perhaps for practical reasons, the pilot altered the character slightly and made Brewster more like the typical Western hero—reluctant to use guns (or any other kind of violence), but able and willing to do so if necessary. That remained his stance throughout the series, and the title song mentions that Sugarfoot carries a rifle and a law book.

Whenever he enters a saloon, Sugarfoot refuses liquor and orders sarsaparilla "with a dash of cherry". (Sarsaparilla is a drink similar to root beer, both of which are not alcohol-based.)

Sugarfoot was one of the earliest products of the alliance between ABC and the fledgling Warner Bros. Television Department, chaired by William T. Orr. During the same period, other similar programs appeared, 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 a young Theodore Roosevelt. Jack Kelly appeared as Bart Maverick in the Sugarfoot episode "A Price on His Head". James Garner made an appearance as Bret Maverick at the end of the episode "Misfire".

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

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

After several episodes aired in the second season, a disappointed Hutchins complained in a letter to executive director William T. Orr that the scripts were written so that the lead character Sugarfoot was not particularly needed in many of the episodes.

Wayde Preston, who played Christopher Colt on the ABC Western Colt .45, appeared four times in that same role on Sugarfoot in the episodes dealing with "The Canary Kid," a role also played by Will Hutchins.

Sugarfoot finished at #24 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1957-1958 season and #21 for 1958-1959.

Warner Bros. has released all four seasons on MOD (manufacture on demand) DVD-R's in Region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection.

• In an episode of Arrested Development titled "Spring Breakout", Sugarfoot is mentioned and the theme song is presented.
• The series debuted in 1958 in the United Kingdom but only in the Midlands area. In 1960, it was aired nationally in the UK by the BBC, at which point it was renamed Tenderfoot despite the fact that it kept the theme song which refers to the character as "Sugarfoot". After 1964, the series returned to ITV, this time not just restricted to the Midlands, where it was once again billed under its original name.

• Sugarfoot at IMDb
• Roy Huggins' Archive of American Television Interview Archived 2008-02-26 at the Wayback Machine