Original title
The Deputy
Released
9/12/1959
Origin country
US
Genre
Western
Production companies
Top Gun Productions
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
2
Number of episodes
76
The Deputy is an American western series that aired on NBC from September 1959, to July 1961. The series stars Henry Fonda as Chief Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory and Allen Case as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.
In the premiere episode, titled "The Deputy," Fry selects Silver City, Arizona, as the spot to head off two men he suspects of carrying supplies to a holdup gang led by Ace Gentry (Robert J. Wilke). After arresting the supply drivers, Fry tricks Clay McCord into joining him in delivering the foodstuffs to Gentry. When McCord realizes he has been duped into raiding an outlaw camp, he turns back toward Silver City, leaving Fry to face the outlaws alone.
Charlotte Nelson tells Clay McCord of her concern for her younger brother, Trooper, who has fallen into a gang headed by the evil Bull Ward. McCord then arranges for Trooper to get an honest job as messenger for a mining company, transporting shipments of gold. This pleases Ward who assumes that Trooper will turn the gold over to him, but Trooper has mended his ways and when confronted and threatened by Ward while delivering the gold, shoots him. Having proven his worth, Trooper now gets his friend, Tommy -- another former member of Ward's gang -- hired to assist him in his job as messenger.
Three bank robbers come across a traveling-players' caravan. They shoot the actor-manager and two of them then kidnap Angela, one of the actresses. The third robber, Cowan, stays with the other actress, Lily, and is arrested by Simon Fry. Cowan winds up in the Silver City jail but escapes, steals a horse, and knocks down Fran McCord as he flees. Clay McCord and Herk Lamson track Cowan to a cabin where his two cronies are holed up with Angela. (One of these cronies is dying from a knife wound sustained when he and the other robber fought over Angela.) Clay and Herk arrest Cowan and Clay kills the other robber in a gunfight. Angela is then reunited with Lily.
Simon Fry arrests a ""Drifter"" for shooting a man, stealing his wife, and then shooting her. He takes the Drifter to a jail in the nearby town but, when a lynch-mob gathers, moves him on to Silver City. Following him is a landowner named Akins and several of Akins' cronies who are anxious for some quick ""justice."" Fran McCord believes the Drifter's pleas of innocence and persuades brother Clay to help Fry transport the prisoner to a trial in Prescott. Before this happens, Akins tricks the Drifter into making a jailbreak but this plan fails. On the trail to Prescott, Akins again makes a move against the Drifter which Fry and Clay thwart. Fry then reveals to Clay evidence of the Drifter's guilt.
supplying gunpowder to the Apaches. Herk's journey to Prescott with his prisoner is endangered when a garrulous telegrapher spreads the word of Deaver's capture - word that reaches the prisoner's Indian allies.
While Chesley Vantage eagerly greets the arrival in Silver City of his son, Brad, who's been studying in Kansas to be a veterinarian, word reaches Deputy McCord that a gunfighter is also on the way from Kansas, apparently to settle a score. McCord soon learns that Brad acquired his vet training while serving time in a Kansas prison. He also learns that the gunfighter, Jim Stanton, wants to kill Brad because he mistakenly believes Brad warned authorities about a planned prison escape. McCord spares Brad from Stanton's wrath by coming up with a ruse to put Brad in jail. Then McCord kills Stanton in a barroom shootout. Brad's now free to set up his practice and his father, himself a reformed outlaw, is none the wiser about his son's criminal past.
Marshals in three Arizona towns have been shot dead and Simon Fry fears the killer may now be coming to Silver City. He sends Herk Lamson off on vacation and watches as four suspicious strangers arrive in town: a cowboy named Barker, a gambler named Regan, a salesman named Madden, and a guitar-player named Wilk. Fry arrests Regan for cheating at cards while Clay McCord offers to escort Wilk back to his hotel. Wilk pulls a gun on McCord in an alley and explains he's been shooting marshals because his daughter was killed in the crossfire when marshals were making an arrest. Fry then comes into the alley followed by Fran McCord. Fran distracts Wilk who is then shot by Fry. As Wilk dies, he says he'll be happy to rejoin his daughter.
McCord infiltrates a group of outlaws to inform Fry of their plans. Fry: Henry Fonda. Johnny: Henry Brandon. Curly: Gerald Milton. Billy: Richard Bakalyan. Ike: Charles Fredericks.
Clay finds a note in a murdered man's pocket that threatens death to Herk Lamson. Marshal Fry is convinced that the crime is linked to a sensational trial held the previous year where a woman was convicted of murdering her husband and her brother's vowed vengeance.
A gang headed by men named Quincannon and Usher kidnap Fran McCord. They tell her brother, Clay, that to save his sister he must go along with their plan to rob the payroll of a local mine. Clay cooperates, even going so far as to lure Simon Fry out of town on the day of the robbery. Fry, however, sees through Clay's ruses and soon Clay tells him the truth. Together they ride to the mine and in a shoot-out with the gang, Clay kills Quincannon. Usher rides off to the cabin where Fran is being held. Fran has freed herself from her ropes and when Usher enters the cabin, she throws water in his face and hits him in the head with a frying pan. Clay and Fry then arrive to complete the arrest.
Vivian Vance as widow Emma Gant, who tries to enlist Fry's help in protecting her property from greedy ranchers. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Billy: Robin Riley. Fran: Betty Lou Keim.
Apaches steal a shipment of repeating-rifles headed for the cavalry at Ft. Donaldson. Simon Fry fears this means war but Clay McCord wants to get the Indians' side of the story and so travels alone to visit Chief Magnus. He learns the Chief is angry because white men have been ambushing Apaches and selling their scalps. McCord promises to deal with the culprits who prove to be an old man named Isbel and his two sons, the bloodthirsty Mordecai and the more sensitive Micah. In the ensuing shoot-out, Micah is killed but McCord, though shot in the leg, manages to arrest Isbel and Mordecai. Chief Magnus is now satisfied and returns the stolen rifles.
Fry baits a trap for three killers by fixing a raffle. McCord: Allen Case. Mrs. Bean: Carol Kelly. Timmy: Dennis Rush. Finley: Lane Bradford. Lamson: Wallace Ford. Dillon: Karl Lucas.
Con Marlowe makes a violent escape from a work-gang at the Arizona Territorial Prison. He heads for Silver City where his wife, Peg, awaits him and where he can find Marshal Lamson, the man he blames for sending him to prison. During an encounter between the two in Peg's hotel room, Marlowe strikes a match to light a cigar and Lamson, thinking Marlowe's drawing his gun, shoots him dead. The bullet strikes Marlowe in the back and when word of this spreads, townspeople turn against Lamson. Marlowe's widow vows to avenge her husband and sends for two gunfighters, Fred Sooley and Len Harbin. Sooley figures this isn't his fight and leaves town but Harbin challenges Lamson in the hotel dining room. Deputy McCord arrives on the scene, Harbin draws his gun to shoot Lamson, and McCord shoots Harbin dead, the bullet entering the gunfighter's back. The townspeople in the dining room agree McCord's actions were justified and McCord uses this incident to prompt the townspeople to reexamine their at
Fry enlists the help of a clergyman's sister to clear McCord of a murder charge. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Blanche: Lillian Bronson. Rev. Cartwright: Willard Sage.
While defending the Spencer ranch against rustlers, Deputy McCord shoots and kills ranch-owner Aaron Spencer. Though the shooting seems justified, McCord feels guilty, especially when breaking the news to young Mrs. Spencer. At first she is angry and bitter but later softens and seems to be falling in love with McCord, much to his discomfort. Red Dawson and his rustlers now break into the Spencer home one night, demanding money. (It seems Aaron Spencer, unknown to his wife, was the rustler's secret partner.) McCord arrives in time to arrest the rustlers and Mrs. Spencer decides to join relatives in Canada.
A man named Kipp has been brought in from San Francisco to get rid of Simon Fry. He ambushes Fry who's driving a buckboard but the buckboard overturns, spills a can of coal oil, and in the ensuing fire, Kipp is burned beyond recognition. His body is mistakenly thought to be Fry's and Clay McCord sadly delivers the eulogy at Fry's funeral. Fry, after revealing himself to an astonished McCord, then disguises himself as a book salesman and goes in search of the man who hired Kipp. Two of this man's thugs, Vic Rufus and Jubba, eventually lead Fry to their boss, Jake Carter. Carter, an old enemy of Fry, has been forcing farmers off their land, knowing that land values will rise sharply after a railroad goes through that area. Fry manages to arrest Carter.
Protection racketeers invade Silver City, planning to replace the small merchants with a chain of stores. Beatrice: Phyllis Avery. Fry: Henry Fonda. Fletcher: Paul Dubov. Briscoe: Kim Spalding. McCord: Allen Case. Fran: Betty Lou Keim.
McCord and Fran try to rehabilitate a teenage thief (Robert Montgomery Jr.). McCord: Allen Case. Fran: Betty Lou Keim. Fry: Henry Fonda. Mike: Bob Hopkins. Pete: Johnny Seven. Solomon: Ron Soble.
A suffragette incurs the wrath of male citizens. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Hodges: Carleton Young. Sloan: James Lanphier. Tinny: Tod Griffin.
While returning from Mexico with a prison escapee, Marshal Fry and Clay McCord are ambushed by a Mexican landowner whose daughter, Felipa, has been kidnapped by an American miner from Leadville, Evan Sloate. The landowner vows to kill Fry unless McCord can return Felipa. McCord rides to Leadville and is directed to Sloate's mine by Lorrie, Sloate's discarded girlfriend. McCord gets a job in the mine and makes contact with Felipa but their conversation is interrupted by the jealous Sloate. Sloate flogs McCord and orders him off his property but McCord sneaks back and rescues Felipa. Sloate soon catches up with them. Before he can shoot McCord, however, Felipa shoots her kidnapper. The Mexican then gets his daughter back, Fry is freed, and he and McCord resume returning that escapee to prison.
A paraplegic seeks revenge on McCord and Fran, whose father he blames for his condition. Groat: Gerald Mohr. McCord: Allen Case. Fran: Betty Lou Keim. Kemmer: Kevin Hagen. Priscilla: Mari Aldon. Doc: Charles Seel.
Local businessmen offer a reward for bank robbers---dead ones. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Rosie: Jean Willes. Ross: Richard Garland. Hawkins: John Dennis. Mrs. Carter: Frances Morris.
A bounty hunter stalks Ralph Jenson, who escaped from prison to visit his dying father. Jenson: Ron Hayes. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Harch: Alan Baxter. Judge: Edward Earle. Pete: Raymond Hatton. Miller: Charles Seel.
A trio of three men, (Coffer, File, and Fancy), rob the bank in Silver City one night after setting fire to Clay McCord's store as a diversion. Clay persues them to a mine but winds up being imprisoned inside a mine tunnel. A family of traveling Gypsies comes across the scene. The two sisters in this family free Clay who then shoots one of the robbers and captures the other two. One of these two knew Clay from childhood and Clay, seeing that the robber isn't all bad, promises to speak up for him at his trial.
Andy Willis' boyish looks are deceiving---he's a hired killer. Willis: Richard Crenna. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Lucy: Coleen Gray. McCullough: Frank Ferguson.
Gunfighter Johnny Dean wants to shed his reputation by settling down in Silver City under the alias ""Roger Enright."" He plans to buy a ranch north of town and marry the local music teacher, Helen Ivers. Trouble arrives in the form of Dan Crawford, a young man who's been trailing Dean and who wants to kill him in a shootout in order to acquire a reputation. Local bully Burt Johnson learns of Crawford's quest and decides to kill Dean himself. To settle which man will get the ""honor,"" Crawford and Johnson play cards. Crawford wins but when Johnson learns Crawford has a reputation for shady card-dealing, he challenges Crawford to a duel on the town's street. Dean tries to avert bloodshed by stepping between them but the men fire anyway and Dean is killed. Deputy McCord checks the body and says it shows only one bullet hole. Each shooter claims to be the one who fired the fatal shot but McCord refuses to settle their dispute, not wanting either man to claim ""credit."" He later confides to Ma
A man refuses to reveal the location of stolen loot needed to save a boy from blindness. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Scofield: Lee Patterson. Claudia: Bek Nelson. Porter: Francis DeSales.
Barney Wagner uses loopholes in the law to evict farmers from their land. Clay McCord deplores this practice but cannot intervene since Wagner's staying within the law. Eventually McCord tricks Wagner into offering him a job which then enables him to arrest Wagner for attempted bribery. This pleases McCord since Wagner shot McCord's father eleven years ago.
McCord uses a gambling-hall hostess to lure her boy friend---a wanted outlaw---to Silver City. Julie: Karen Steele. McCord: Allen Case. Fry: Henry Fonda. Reed: Dennis Cross. Lucille: Irene James.
Two cowboys swindle an illiterate farmer. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Huerta: Carlos Rivera. Allison: John Hoyt. Webb: Howard Wendell. Coyle: Tom McKee. Queed: Don Gordon.
Fry falls prey to a trap laid by an escaped criminal.
Fry guards his prisoner from the Brainard gang, who have orders to free---or silence---the jailed man. Brainard: Donald Woods. McCord: Allen Case. Tully: Gregg Palmer. Jose: Vito Scotti.
Vince Edwards as an ex-convict who intends on becoming a doctor---if the townspeople let him forget his past. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Sutton: Rex Holman. Tanner: Chris Alcaide. Doc Landy: Addison Richards.
McCord helps a woman search for her missing son. Ma Mack: Nina Varela. Abner: Jack Hogan. Fry: Henry Fonda. Bates: Douglas Kennedy. Reece: Gregory Walcott. Lamson: Wallace Ford.
Clay is curious and concerned when Chief Marshal Fry insists on personally handling the investigation into the activities of a pair of swindlers, one of whom happens to be a beautiful young blonde. Clay learns that the young woman is the daughter of woman who spurned his love more than twenty years ago and the deputy fears that Simon may be allowing his personal feelings to cloud his professional judgment.
Clay tries to help a two-fisted but gullible sergeant recover two thousand dollars of Army funds stolen by a beautiful blonde saloon hostess and her two card sharp confederates.
Simon Fry arrests Jason Harris, the marshall of Hondo, for complicity in some robberies. Harris could clear himself but remains silent to protect his guilty wife, Laurie. Laurie's fallen for a man named Johnny Dustin and together they plan to get rid of Harris. Dustin betrays Laurie, however, and Fry and Clay McCord then see to it that the guilty are caught and punished. Fry then offers the exonerated Harris a job in the new town of Yorba Linda.
Well-to-do Elmer Jackson is murdered and evidence points to his nephew, Phil, who has fled town. Clay McCord suspects Phil's sister, Martha, knows his whereabouts though she denies this. Clay secretly follows Martha out of town but she knocks him out with a rock to the head and rides on to a cabin where she meets her lover, outlaw Tweed Younger. Tweed killed Elmer Jackson but made it look as if Phil had. Phil's now a prisoner in the cabin. Double-crossing Martha shoots Tweed and is about to kill Phil when McCord arrives on the scene.
Fry has his hands full with a jailed outlaw, and the man's mother, who knows nothing about her son's life of crime. Stanhope: James Franciscus. Mrs. Stanhope: Josephine Hutchinson. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case.
In an isolated shack, a lonely woman harbors a wounded killer on the run. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Sarge: Read Morgan. Hester: Virginia Gregg.
Clay McCord arrests Jack Rivers for assaulting an Indian named Black Wing but Black Wing, distrusting the legal system, refuses to testify against him. Judge Wilkens releases Rivers who is then abducted by Black Wing and taken to an Indian village for some ""Apache justice."" Clay McCord rides out to the village to make sure that ""white man's law"" prevails.
A romantic triangle develops when Fry and McCord are assigned to escort a pretty murder witness to New Orleans. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Lucy: Patrice Wymore. Foreman: Carl Benton Reid.
Sarge befriends a boy who witnessed the murder of his grandfather. Tommy: Dennis Joel. Sarge: Read Morgan. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Boyd: Joseph Bassett. Brewer: Henry Rowland.
Fay Spain as convicted murderess Sally Tornado, who is being escorted to execution by McCord (Allen Case). Fry: Henry Fonda. Jipsom: William Fawcett.
McCord and Sarge suspect three brothers of bank robberies. Fry: Henry Fonda. Martha: Cathy Case. Terry: Minga Mitchell. Suzy: Carmen Phillips. Jay: Jack Ging. Frank: Lew Gallo. Gary: Buzz Martin.
Townsfolk fear that the outlaw McCord brought in has smallpox. Amy: Mary Tyler Moore. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Collins: Tyler McVey. Landy: Addison Richards. Nathan: Robert Osterloh.
A duke challenges McCord to a horse race. Fry: Henry Fonda. Dmitri: Carl Esmond. Sarge: Read Morgan. Farrell: George Wallace. Hawkins: Clancy Cooper. Bartender: Phil Tully.
McCord refuses to be bribed into releasing a cattleman's son. McCurdy: Roy Roberts. Pete: Ed Nelson. Fry: Henry Fonda. Touhy: Duane Cress. Mayor: Ed Prentiss.
Fry has his hands full protecting murder suspects from an Indian attack---and each other. Elston: Ron Harper. Ricker: Frank Maxwell. McCord: Allen Case. Trooper: Pat McCaffrie.
The lawmen try to protect schoolteacher Mary Willis from her husband, a wanted outlaw. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Danton: Harry Lauter. Jenkins: Stevan Darrell. Johnny: Kevin O'Neal. Grisby: Fred Kruger.
Fry tries to find out why bank clerk Herb Caldwell offered no resistance to robbers. Calico Bill: Murvyn Vye. McCord: Allen Case. Sarge: Read Morgan. Madge: Mary Beth Hughes.
Clint Hammer uses strong-arm tactics to convert his inheritance into cash. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Selene: Carolyn Craig. Lawson: John McLain. Mildred: Mary Munday.
McCord and Sarge fall prey to a crooked sheriff and a power-hungry judge. McCord: Allen Case. Sarge: Read Morgan. Denton: Reed Hadley. Smith: Robert Brubaker. O'Brien: Eugene Iglesias.
Paroled killer Shad Billings returns after five years in prison, hoping to resume cattle ranching with his wife, Meg. While there have been false rumors linking Meg with Marshall Fry, Meg has actually been involved with a mine-guard from Tombstone named Trace Phelan. Fry urges Phelan to clear out but Phelan humiliates the unarmed Billings whom Fry then jails for his own protection. Then, instead of moving on as Fry hopes, Phelan vists the Billings homestead to kidnap Meg who now wants no part of him. Fry follows and guns down Phelan in a shoot-out. Billings and Meg are re-united.
To help financially pressed McCord, Sarge agrees to fight a boxing champion for $500. Sarge: Read Morgan. McCord: Allen Case. Titan: Hal Baylor. Collins: Stafford Repp. Dillon: Paul Gilbert. Dan: Don Heitgert.
Richard Chamberlain as a parolee accused of murdering his fiancee's father. McCord: Allen Case. Annie: Floy Dean Smith. Jenner: Bigelow C. Sayre. Lake: George Chandler. Potter: Tommy Jackson. Sarge: Read Morgan.
Slade Blatner brings in a young outlaw and demands the reward. The outlaw: Blatner's son. Johnny: Billy Gray. Blatner: Ted de Corisa. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Sheriff: Kenneth MacDonald.
Fry searches for the man who killed the main witness against outlaw Josie Styles. Farley Styles: DeForest Kelley. Josie: Phyllis Love. McCord: Allen Case. Wiley: Robert E. Griffin.
Outlaw Frank Barton, alarmed by his son's desire to emulate him, arranges for his own arrest. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Jeb: Jack Chaplain. Kitt: Rickie Sorenson. Whitey: Reedy Talton. Gabe: Robert C. Ross.
Sarge accidentally kills the son of a powerful rancher while protecting a young woman from his unwanted advances. Unfortunately for Sarge, there were no witnesses to the struggle and the rancher uses his political influence to have a hanging judge appointed for the trial. Clay tracks the frightened woman through Albuquerque into the New Mexican mountains in hopes of bringing her back to serve as a witness as Sarge's trial.
Fry tries to protect the Baker family from three gunmen---without revealing that he is a lawman. McCord: Allen Case. Zed: John Marley. Molly: Virginia Christine. Meadows: Jerome Thor. Whip: William Stevens. Mark: Donald Losby.
McCord's boyhood friend returns with a killer's reputation. Jason: Denny Miller. McCord: Allen Case. Fry: Henry Fonda. Arnold: Lon Chaney. Cabot: Bill Hale. Sarge: Read Morgan.
The widow of a lynched man returns to town to claim the farm he left behind.
Mike Rogers needs money for an operation on his deaf-mute daughter Laura.
McCord is besieged by angry townspeople when he closes a profitable tannery. Fry: Henry Fonda. Sarge: Read Morgan. Culp: Whit Bissell. Crockett: Stephen Roberts. Hall: Ray Kellogg.
Dixie Miller glories in his fame when credited with killing two fugitives. Miller: Stanley Adams. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Logan: Gregory Walcott. Mace: Henry Fleer. Hoak: King Calder.
Two Army deserters turn to crime---with the aid of Gatling guns. Bo Braddock and Con Hawkins trade the Army life for lives of crime—with the aid of some high-powered Gatling guns. The pickings are pretty good around Silver City, especially since Fry and McCord's Sixguns are no match for the Gatlings.
Two former crooks, suspected of robberies, take steps to clear themselves. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Ortega: George Dolenz. Miller: Elisha Cook. Gardner: J. Edward McKinley. Nathans: Robert Osterloh. Clark: Norman Willis.
Jason Getty, poisoned by one of his enemies, has two days to live---and find his killer. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Landy: Addison Richards. Croman: Frank Overton.
A deathbed confession frees Albee Beckett, who embarks on a campaign of terror against the people who convicted him. Beckett: Russell Johnson. Rufus: Jason Robards Sr. Fry: Henry Fonda. McCord: Allen Case. Mary: Tracey Roberts. Tanby: Jerry LaZarre. Briggs: Roy Wright.
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