Sugarfoot

Did You Know?

• Will Hutchins played the dual role of Tom Brewster and the outlaw Abram Thomas, "the Canary Kid", in four episodes.
• Wayde Preston appeared as Christopher Colt from Colt .45 in those same four Canary Kid episodes.
• Jack Elam was cast as occasional sidekick Toothy Thompson in two of the final five episodes.

Background

Sugarfoot had no relation to the 1951 Randolph Scott Western film of the same name aside from the studio owning the title and the theme music. Its pilot episode, "Brannigan's Boots", was a remake of the 1954 Western film The Boy from Oklahoma, which starred Will Rogers Jr. as Tom Brewster. That pilot recycled the film's plot and featured Sheb Wooley and Slim Pickens reprising their roles. In the film, Brewster carried no gun and disliked firearms, defeating villains with roping skills; the pilot altered the character to be reluctant but able to use guns if necessary, a stance maintained throughout the series.

The title song mentions that Sugarfoot carries a rifle and a law book. Whenever he enters a saloon, he orders sarsaparilla with a dash of cherry. Sugarfoot was an early product of the alliance between ABC and Warner Bros. Television, chaired by William T. Orr, alongside programs like Maverick, Cheyenne, Bronco, Lawman, and Colt .45. Hutchins appeared as Sugarfoot in crossover episodes of Cheyenne and Maverick, and in a Bronco installment titled "The Yankee Tornado" with Peter Breck as a young Theodore Roosevelt.

Jack Kelly appeared as Bart Maverick in the Sugarfoot episode "A Price on His Head", and James Garner appeared as Bret Maverick at the end of the episode "Misfire".

In popular culture

The western series Sugarfoot first aired in 1958, but only in the UK's Midlands region. When the BBC picked it up for a national broadcast in 1960, they renamed it Tenderfoot, even though the theme song kept calling the hero Sugarfoot. After 1964, ITV brought the show back under its original title, this time airing it across the whole country. The show later got a mention in an Arrested Development episode, which also played its theme.