The Deputy

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.

Overall, the Deputy is a pretty good Western Show.

Fonda pops in & out at the Show's beginning & end; and the formulaic Story wraps up neatly in the show's half hour .

It's nice to see Hollywood Actors star in many of the Episodes. One episode I watched featured James Colburn.

My biggest negative critique is the jazzy anachronistic Music; more suitable for the Show Peter Gunn and the pool scenes of The Beverly Hillbillies, than a Western.

Besides that, watching a few Episodes isn't too bad a way to kill an hour.

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.

The Deputy had a fatal gimmick to start with when it debuted on television in 1959. It's star was to be movie legend Henry Fonda who played a US Marshal. But note the title of the series, the one who carried the show for the most part was his deputy in one particular town in his jurisdiction, Allen Case.

Case was a storekeeper in the town so the deputy's job was a part-time gig. He was not a violent man, only resorting to firearms when he absolutely had to. For action fans this was a big no no.

But in plain fact it was Fonda's name that lured viewers to the show and he only appeared in maybe a third of the episodes and in some only brief appearances. So people tuned in for Fonda and didn't get him.

This was a busy period in Henry Fonda's life, he was working in three different mediums, stage, screen, and television. My guess is that he didn't have the time to devote to a weekly television series and opted for this format. After two seasons The Deputy was canceled.

It was an average television western, but the next time Fonda did a regular TV series it was as a full time star.

Beware. The DVD cover presented by IMDb and the DVD from Amazon.com are not from this series. Legendary Lawmen is a different series. The Deputy has not been released on DVD or VHS as of September 1, 2006. Some of the episode copyrights were renewed by Universal City Studios, Inc., which now is owned by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which is owned by General Electric (GE).

Also, the program music theme by Jack Marshall is under copyright so even if some episodes are in public domain, the theme music is under copyright. There were seventy-six episodes produced by Top Gun Productions.