The Deputy (TV series)
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The Deputy is a 1959-1961 half-hour western television 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 and produced by Revue, and featured a jazz score by Jack Marshall, who later composed the Munsters theme.
