Sugarfoot

When the television series Sugarfoot was winding down its four year run I remember that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance had a way too old James Stewart playing a young attorney who came out west to seek fame and fortune as per Horace Greeley. Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster was more the age of the character that Stewart did.

And Brewster came to us once a month sharing viewing time with Cheyenne, Bronco, and Maverick. You have to remember that the stars of all these TV westerns were aspirant film stars as well and Warner Brothers was going to get maximum use out of them. And of course James Garner from Maverick had the biggest success on the big screen.

Hutchins was a nice peaceable sort of young man in the Wild Bill Elliott tradition. He may have started a greenhorn in the west, a Sugarfoot so to speak, but he learned to handle a Colt .45 with reasonable skill as I recall.

Sugarfoot came at the height of TV westerns, we'll never see these kinds of shows again, I fear.

There's no doubt Warner Brothers were the King of TV westerns in the late 50's to early 60's. My two favorites in the hour format were 'Cheyenne' and 'Sugarfoot'. Will Hutchins was a handsome, innocent looking 'boy next door' type who didn't fit the usual mold of tough westerner, and that's what fooled people, especially the baddies, because when he had to , he could out draw and out punch with the best of them! Therein lies the charm of this show, and Will Hutchins pulled it all off with great skill. He was a cowboy we could relate to! Pity he wasn't given more chances later, he could have played the type of roles that James Stewart, Robert Cummings or Fred MacMurray used to in their heydays! But at least, thanks to DVD's and the grace of Warner Brothers, he'll forever be Tom Brewster, the beloved 'Sugarfoot' in 69 little movies! Also had one of the best theme songs too! By the way, I may be the only one, but I also loved 'The Alaskans'. Hope they put that onto DVD as well!

"Sugarfoot" was one of 4 westerns that shared a time slot on the same night. The other shows were "Maverick", "Cheyenne",and "Bronco Lane". So you only got to see each of them once a month. Each had it's own song, and unfortunately, I remember them. They were all different but strangely alike. Sugarfoot was a blond,blue-eyed young man who really went against the "cowboy/hero" type. He was an "aw shucks," type and didn't use his gun as much as other western heroes. Maverick was a smooth talking gambler and was usually funny. Bronco Lane was from Texas and as far as I remember, was his best attribute. Cheyenne was an absolute hunk with broad shoulders, really big chest, and a small waist. Each one of them seemed to just roam around, getting into trouble, rescuing people, and solving crimes. Boy, could we use them nowadays.

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.