The Deputy (TV series)
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The Deputy is a 1959-1961 half-hour NBC Television Network western series featuring Henry Fonda as Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona territory and Allen Case as Deputy Clay McCord. Fonda narrated most episodes and appeared briefly at the beginnings and ends, playing the lead in only six episodes in the first season and thirteen in the second. Usually he would give his deputy the assignment then more or less thank him afterward at the episode's conclusion. As Fred MacMurray later did while shooting the sitcom series My Three Sons, Fonda shot all his work at once to leave himself free for other projects. The difference in quality between Fonda's episodes and Case's was often cited by both critics at the time and Fonda himself in later interviews. Fonda wore a growth of stubble on his face as Fry, decades before the Sonny Crockett character in Miami Vice did the same and attracted so much attention that special razors were marketed to achieve that look.
The series was created by Norman Lear, who would go on to develop some of the biggest TV comedy hits of the 1970s, like All in the Family, Sanford and Son and Maude. The show was also produced by Revue Studios, and featured a jazz score by Jack Marshall, who later composed the Munsters theme. Actors appearing in the series included Denver Pyle, Clu Gulager, Roxane Berard, Vito Scotti, and Wallace Ford.
