Sugarfoot

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!

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.

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 !

"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.