Sugarfoot

It's been mentioned over and over, the Tom Brewster character called "Sugarfoot" in this series was an "unlikely hero." Sugarfoot is much like "Monk" in that, he has a handicap - he is apprehensive and often unsure of himself. He wants to solve crimes in the Old West but is often thrust into scenarios in which he feels uncomfortable. His character is much like Jimmy Stewart in "Destry Rides Again," or perhaps, Gary Cooper in "Along Came Jones." Then again, perhaps there is a hint of "Jim Rockford" in this character.

Will Hutchins was obviously chosen for his appeal to young ladies as a surfer-looking blond with a good haircut. Seems like he would have fit a little better in a "Hawaiian Eye" style show. He has a bit of an "Owen Wilson" appeal, although, definitely campier.

All of this considered, I enjoyed "Sugarfoot" as a tongue-in-cheek Western series.

For the first time in decades, as far as I know, "Sugarfoot" is being rerun in rotation with "Cheyenne" and "Bronco," just as it did when the show originally aired. "Maverick" is also being rerun in the preceding slot. Of the four, "Maverick" is clearly the superior series, deserving to have won the only Emmy Award in the category of "Best Western." Do not be fooled by the Mel Gibson movie of the same name; in comparison to the original it fails almost as badly to capture the magic of the series as Will Smith's "Wild, Wild West" failed to capture the magic of television's "The Wild, Wild West."

Of the three remaining series, "Cheyenne" and "Bronco" are almost interchangeable, which as I'll explain below, makes sense. "Sugarfoot" stands out because of the protagonist's, Tom Brewster, aversion to carrying a gun and his lackadaisical desire to avoid trouble; "Sugarfoot" is "Destry Rides Again" brought to television unfortunately without James Stewart. Will Hutchins isn't bad in the role, but he just isn't dynamic enough, in my opinion, to carry what essentially is an anthology series, the location and supporting cast changing with every episode. Had Warner Bros. allowed Brewster to have stayed in one place and cultivated a supporting cast around him, the show could have easily lasted longer than four seasons.

Regarding the earlier post's statement of how "Sugarfoot," "Maverick," et al. originally aired, here's the correct version (all of the on the U.S. network, ABC):

1955-1956: "Cheyenne" premieres on Tuesday at 7:30 (EST) (and where it will stay until 1959) as one of three series in rotation under the umbrella title, "Warner Bros. Presents." The other series were "King's Row" and "Casablanca"; all three were based on earlier Warner films. "Cheyenne" was the most popular and avoided the cancellation the other two received at season's end.

1956-1957: "Cheyenne" runs in rotation with "Conflict." This new show was a true anthology, with cast and setting different each episode. It was canceled at the end of the season.

1957-1958: "Sugarfoot" premieres in rotation with "Cheyenne."

"Maverick" premieres on Sunday at 7:30 (EST). After a few episodes, production of "Maverick" fell behind schedule; it took eight days to produce an episode when, I believe, each was supposed to take six. Westerns just took longer to produce which is why "Cheyenne" ran in rotation in the first place. To compensate for the slow delivery of "Maverick" episodes, a new character, Bret Maverick's brother, Bart, was added and episodes centering on him were rotated with Bret episodes.

1958-1959: "Cheyenne"/"Sugarfoot" in rotation on Tuesday, "Maverick" continues on Sunday. Maverick will win the "Best Western Series" for this season of shows.

There is a big change regarding "Cheyenne" this season. The star, Clint Walker, refused to work because of the unfavorable terms of his contract, which among other things required Warner to pay him only scale, while Walker was required to give Warner 50 percent of all personal-appearance fees he received. Warner was not ready to give up a hit series and replaced Walker with Ty Hardin, who played Bronco Layne, who was essentially the Cheyenne character with a different name.

1959-1960: Walker returns and "Cheyenne" moves to Monday at 7:30 (EST) where it rotates with "Shirley Temple's Storybook."

Hardin is rewarded for being a team player and stars in "Bronco," which rotates with "Sugarfoot" in the Tuesday at 7:30 slot.

"Maverick" remains on at 7:30 on Sunday.

1960-1961 "Cheyenne" is joined by "Sugarfoot" and "Bronco" at 7:30 on Mondays. However, now instead of each being individual series, all are listed under the umbrella title of "Cheyenne." If you watch any of these programs in syndication, you can tell when the "Cheyenne" umbrella starts: Rather than each having an individualized end card over which the credits ran, there is a unifying one showing full figure silhouettes of the three leads sitting on horses. "Sugarfoot" is canceled at the end of the season.

"Maverick" continues Sunday at 7:30. However, James Garner, Bret Maverick, refused to work for the reasons Clint Walker had a few seasons earlier, but unlike Walker, Garner didn't return (though he would return to the character in 1978 and 1981). Jack Kelly, playing Bart, did stay as replacements for Bret were tried, including Roger Moore as cousin Beau and Robert Colbert (who resembled Garner from a distance) as never-before-mentioned brother Brent.

1961-1962 "Cheyenne"/"Bronco" at Monday, 7:30. (End card altered to reflect just the two programs.)

"Maverick" remains on Sunday, but airs an hour earlier at 6:30 (EST). A handful of new Bart episodes aired along with reruns of episodes featuring Bart or Bart & Bret. The show was canceled at the end of the season.

1962: "Cheyenne" returns alone for the fall and then is canceled in December.

I'm sure WB's writers were attempting to create a unique, if unlikely hero. The clean-cut boyish good looks were exactly what they were looking for. There were plenty of tough guys-Paladin, Bronco Lane,Rowdy Yates, etc. There were a couple of clever and slightly cowardly con men: Bart and Bret Maverick. What there was not was a nice, clean-cut kid to stand against evil-until Sugarfoot sauntered onto the scene, that is. The challenge, of course, was for this young kid to defend us from evil once a week for four years. It was the classic "Clark Kent/ Superman" formula except that there were no phone booths in the Old West !

Thanks to the folks at my cable provider, I am able, once again, to see a few of the shows that emanated from the Warner Brothers Television 'boilerplate', namely, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Maverick, and, Sugarfoot. Watching them was a fond memory for me, and THIS is the type of television that I will always remember. An attractive ensemble cast for each program, and the songs by Mack David and Jerry Livingston (the former-named is the brother of Hal David of that 'other' songwriting ampersand), and the opening and closing artwork (the opening was in lowercase letters, the closing had initial capital letters, at which time the respective theme songs were sung by a fine group of studio singers).

What a pleasure to see these shows again. Let's get THESE on DVD.

In some ways the weakest hero on the WB stable, Tom Brewster roamed the West with an "aw shucks" young Jimmy Stewart attitude "and a rifle and a volume of the law". As a youngster, he was my least favoured Western hero, perhaps because he seemed too much the boy next door, too much like a weakling. Will Hutchins did an excellent job in the role, and often the writing was a notch above the other WB Westerns, but there was nothing heroic about the nice guy Tom. There was little heroic about Bret Maverick either but that was a very different matter. And that leads to the problem: Sugarfoot was just too young. Nick Adams may have been young but he was "The Rebel". Tom Brewster: too young, too neutered. Too bad. Not a bad theme song though.