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"The Deputy" is another of those assembly-line half-hour Revue Studio westerns that were pretty popular during the late fifties and early sixties. This one stood out from the rest for several reasons: It was co-created by, of all people, the future Mr. Relevant Sitcom King himself, Norman Lear.

The sprightly jazz theme by Jack Marshall, of "The Munsters" fame.

And of course, the main drawing attraction of Academy Award winner Henry Fonda, who incidentally, despite being top billed, basically just makes a few cameos during some of the episodes, and not even showing up at all in a few of them. The "Deputy" of the show, the reluctant Clay McCord, is portrayed by the late stage actor Allen Case, with Read Morgan joining in later in the run as the eye-patch wearing Sarge Tasker.

Basically, the premise of the show is that Clay McCord, a storekeeper who's quiet by nature, is suckered into becoming the deputy of Fonda's Marshal Simon Fry, based on McCord's ability to handle a weapon. That's basically the show in a nutshell, since the plots are the cookie-cutter type you'd come to expect from Revue. After viewing a couple episodes (which last aired a few years ago on TV Land), you can understand why Norman Lear made the jump to revolutionizing the sitcom. Can you imagine Archie Bunker or George Jefferson in the Old West? My rating: ***** stars out of 10

"The Deputy" is a Top Gun Production from Revue Studios, Hollywood. 76 episodes were filmed between 1959 and 1961.

I recently saw one of the episodes from the series and I had the chance to recorded it,being this will a rare opportunity you'll see Henry Fonda is his only TV series. One interesting part about the show: Fonda was the Marshal who was in charge of law and order in the Arizona Territory of the 1800's as Simon Fry. He always had a deputy beside(who was a storekeeper and lawman as well)him to bring in criminals who broke the law and brought them to justice in the old west. The show was a huge hit when ran on NBC from 1959-1961,when Fonda was still cranking out feature films and starring in a TV series during that time. One note about the show: Fonda also had a second partner helping him out as well,if you catch some of the episodes you'll see a boyish looking Kent McCord(long before he became Officer Malloy on Adam-12 years later)which is rarely seen nowdays. But if you do,it will be a opportunity to catch a great Hollywood actor in one of his best and only TV series that produced 78 episodes and produced by Revue Studios,the same studio that produced the westerns "Wagon Train", "Shotgun Slade",and "The Virginian";the crime shows "Johnny Staccato", "M Squad",and the situation family-friendly comedies "Leave It To Beaver","Bachelor Father",not to mention the anthology drama series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

At best I could only give "The Deputy" (1959-1961) an average, 5-star rating - 'Cause I found that this TV series was pretty mediocre viewing (for the most part).

About the only time that I thought that "The Deputy" actually showed any real promise was when actor, Henry Fonda was not physically present in the story.

Yeah. I thought that Fonda (as Marshal Simon Fry) was about as drab and dreary as you could ever possibly imagine an actor to be (in a pivotal role).

In fact - I'd actually go so far as to say that Fonda's stale and tired performance pretty much ruined my enjoyment of this TV Western in a really big way. Yep. It sure did.

I appeared in this series for one episode, "The Lesson" in 1960. I played Pete Jenkins. I probably went by my stage name at that time, which was Philip Grayson instead of Philip Greisman, the name I used on earlier TV shows. I am trying to find a copy of this show. Would anyone have one? I am also looking for other shows I was on. "U.S. Marshall" (Nine O'Clock Pick-up), "Panic"(Peter and the Tiger), "Checkmate" (Tight As A Drum), a catholic series that used to be shown on Sundays called "This is the Life"(episode #624, Prejudice and The Price Of Friedship), "Official Detective"(The People vs. Al Nickoloff). If anyone knows where I can get copies of any of these shows, please let me know.

We enjoy the rapport between the stars of the show. Great dialog! Something sadly missing from today's shows. Wish we had more like this show to watch besides the drivel Hollywood puts out now. We need heroes to look up to that don't swear or get naked every chance they get.