Wednesday, October 19, 2016

I Shot The Sheriff...

...but I did not shoot:

See, if it weren't for comic books, I never would have known that Henry Fonda once had his own television show!! Thank you, Dell!!

Of course, it was a fairly easy paycheck for Fonda. Over the two seasons, his Marshall Simon Fry was really the lead in only 25% of the episodes. The rest of the time, he just narrated, and showed up briefly in the prologue and (sometimes) the epilogue. His deputy, Clay McCord, did the heavy lifting in most episodes...hence the name of the series!

In fact, Fonda apparently recorded most of his work for each season in a few lengthy filming sessions, freeing himself for more lucrative and more artistically respectable movie work during the traditional television filming period. Nice work if you can get it.

And really, that's all I have to say about The Deputy...Except that I have Henry Fonda preserved in comic book form. Which is why I love comic books...

4 comments:

Madman said...

I just LOVE your blog, particularly as it highlights some of the more obscure corners of comic book history. Do you own these comic books, such as The Deputy you highlighted today? Do you live in a comic book museum?

Thanks for your daily and entertaining blog !

TC said...

Henry Fonda also had a TV sitcom, "The Smith Family," in 1971-72. In that series, he was the star, and, AFAIK, he appeared in every episode.

snell said...

Madman--"Obscure corners" is sort of the summary of my life.

I do own most of the comics I blog about, albeit many of the older ones are in digital format (I recommend these guys as a good cheap source of public domain old stuff in convenient DVD form). Between that and Comixology and subscribing to Marvel Unlimited, plus my disheveled collection of 20,000+ physical comics...yeah, I have too many comics...

TC--True enough, that was a decade later, when Fonda was no longer as sought after for movie roles, especially as a lead.

ShadowWing Tronix said...

They air (or at least aired, I'm not sure) the show on retro television channel Cozi TV. I didn't watch it because Let's Make A Deal was on.