Sugarfoot

Infobox Television
show_name = Sugarfoot


caption = Will Hutchins staring as Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster
show_name_2 = "Tenderfoot" (UK name)
genre = Western
Legal drama
creator = Michael Fessier [http://aa.1asphost.com/CTVA/US/Western/Sugarfoot.htm Classic Television Archive entry for "Sugarfoot".] ]
director =
developer =
presenter =
starring = Will Hutchins
Jack Elam
voices =
narrated =
theme_music_composer = Mack David and
Jay Livingston
opentheme =
endtheme =
composer = Ray Heindorf
Max Steiner
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 4
num_episodes = 69
list_episodes =
executive_producer = William T. Orr
producer = Harry Tatelman
Caroll Case
Burt Dunne
Arthur W. Silver
supervising_producer =
asst_producer =
co-producer =
editor = James Moore supervisor
Carl Pingitore
Leo H. Shreve
James C. Moore
Harold Minter
Robert B. Warwick, Jr.
Robert Watts
story_editor =
location = California
camera =
runtime = 60 mins.
network = ABC
picture_format = 1.33:1 monochrome
audio_format = monaural
first_run =
first_aired = September 17, 1957
last_aired = April 17, 1961
preceded_by =
followed_by =
related =
website =
imdb_id = 0050063
tv_com_id =

"Sugarfoot" is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson. Brewster was a correspondence-school graduate whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the peculiar nickname "Sugarfoot".

The show had no relation to the 1951 movie "Sugarfoot", but its pilot episode was a remake of an offbeat 1954 Western called "The Boy from Oklahoma", starring Will Rogers, Jr. as Tom Brewster. As played by Rogers in the movie, Brewster never used firearms, preferring to vanquish villains with his roping skills (à la Will Rogers Sr.) if friendly persuasion failed. Perhaps for practical reasons, the pilot altered the character slightly, making Brewster reluctant to use firearms, but able and willing to do so as a last resort. That was the way he remained throughout the series, and the title song even mentioned that he carried a rifle as well as law book.

"Sugarfoot" was one of the earliest products of the alliance between ABC and the fledgling Warner Brothers Television Department, chaired by William T. Orr. During the same period, other similar shows would appear, including "Maverick" with James Garner and Jack Kelly, "Cheyenne" with Clint Walker, "Bronco" with Ty Hardin, "Lawman" with John Russell, and "Colt .45" with Wayde Preston. Hutchins appeared as Sugarfoot in crossover episodes of "Cheyenne" and "Maverick", and in an installment of "Bronco" called "The Yankee Tornado" featuring Peter Breck as the young Theodore Roosevelt.

In popular culture

The TV series "Sugarfoot" is mentioned, and the theme song is sung, in an episode of "Arrested Development" titled "Spring Breakout".When shown in the United Kingdom, the show was entitled "Tenderfoot." This left British viewers somewhat confused, because the theme song still referred to the character as "Sugarfoot."

References

External links

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* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6229765142472313878&q=Roy+Huggins&total=20&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5 Roy Huggins' Archive of American Television Interview]