Sugarfoot

- Season 1

(1957)

When the crooked politicians who run Bluerock see what a lousy shot Tom is, they appoint him sheriff after the previous sheriff is killed. Tom takes the job seriously, though, and when he sees a pair of boots standing against a wall in the sheriff's office, he puts them on. A pretty young girl watching him says those boots were her father's, the previous sheriff, and Tom isn't man enough to fill them. To show her she's wrong, Tom determines to find her father's killers.

Tom takes a job on a ranch, not knowing that his new boss is involved in a range war. When Tom finds out about it, he also finds out that the rival ranch owner is a beautiful young girl.

A bitter old rancher, with a grudge against the world, hires a gunman to avenge himself against those he believed wronged him. Tom tries to convince the old man to get rid of his hired killer, but if he can't do that then he must stop the gunman himself.

Tom is appointed to lead a cattle drive when the trail boss is shot by outlaws. The boss' daughter reveals the drive's secret destination to a handsome young cowboy she has a crush on, not knowing that he's actually one of the outlaw gang. He carries that information to his fellow rustlers, who then set up an ambush.

Tom runs into his childhood sweetheart, but finds out that she is now a dance-hall girl. She reveals that she's trying to leave that life but that a wealthy, powerful and ruthless cattle rancher is going to force her to marry him.

The owner of a silver mine can't meet his payroll because he's been robbed. Tom tries to find out who's behind the robberies.

Sugarfoot unknowingly figures in a scheme by Mercy Preston to get rid of two men who are standing in the way of her owning a rich mine. However, Mercy's sister Patience finds out about her plans and tries to help Sugarfoot.

While up in the mountains, Tom manages to capture a beautiful wild horse. However, the animal is later stolen from him. When he discovers that it has been sold to a local rancher, Tom gets a job as a stable hand at the ranch, in order to take care of the animal and find out who stole it from him.

Tom comes to the aid of a pretty young girl after her father, a miner, is murdered by claim-jumpers.

In order to trap a gang of bank robbers, Tom lets word slip out that he knows the location of the loot from their last robbery.

Tom is forced to serve on a jury in the case of a rancher accused of rustling cattle, for which the judge is calling for hanging, and a public auction of the man's land, if he is found guilty. It quickly becomes apparent that everyone else on the jury is too anxious to convict, despite weak evidence, and that they are too afraid to defy the wealthy rancher who has brought the charges and wants the accused man's land. Tom holds out for acquittal and persuades the jurors to hold a secret ballot. But the deadlocked verdict is only the beginning of the problems Tom and ...

Tom's friend Sandy Randall has sent for his Swedish mail-order bride. But instead of his own picture, he sent one of Tom, thinking he was better looking, hence when she arrives she thinks Tom is the one who sent for her. Before either Sandy or Tom get a chance to tell the bride the truth, another much more dangerous and jealous man from her past arrives, complicating matters for all.

Tom comes to the aid of a young woman who is trying to keep her late uncle's ranch. The uncle was killed after receiving a loan from a woman saloon owner, and his niece needs more time to pay it back, but it becomes apparent to Tom that there is something on the ranch which the saloon owner wants, and that it may have something to do with why the uncle was killed.

Tom tries to help Charity Lloyd locate Wesley Jerome, a man no one claims to have heard of. What Charity has not told is that Jerome is actually her husband, Wes J. Lloyd, a wanted outlaw.

On the road, Tom meets up with a sick older man contemplating suicide. A hotheaded kid also stops by, as does his older sister who is determined to discourage his idea to join a notorious outlaw gang. To give the old man and Tom some shelter she brings them to her house, only to find that the outlaw and his gang are holding them all at gunpoint, with a seriously wounded member of the gang that the boy and his sister used to know.

A merchant hires Tom to deliver a wagon load of blankets and medicinal supplies to the Indians, with a beautiful Indian girl going along as a guide. Afterward, however, Tom discovers that the blankets and medicine are not the only things in the wagon.

The stagecoach Tom is riding on is held up, and its driver killed. When the bandits open the strongbox, however, they find only sand inside. Determined to get the money they'd been planning on, they hold the other four passengers hostage and send Tom into town to get the money from the business partner of one of the men on the stage. But when Tom tells businessman why he needs the money, he doesn't believe him. Tom has to find another way to get the money to save the passengers' lives.

After taking a job working for a pretty Asian woman in her road show, Tom meets a little girl who tells him that her uncle plans to kill her. Though he doesn't take her seriously at first, he begins to suspect the uncle may be the man he saw selling rifles to the Indians, and when the little girl disappears he starts to suspect even worse.

Tom is told that his friend Cliff Raven, a half-Indian who he has been studying law with, is wanted for the murder of a white girl he had been seeing. Tom goes to Raven and tries to talk him into coming in peacefully to prove his innocence, but Raven escapes, not trusting that he will get a fair trial. When Tom finds him in an old mine both he and Raven wind up trapped in it when it caves in.

Tom is informed by letter that an uncle of his died and left him one-quarter interest in a mine. But when he arrives to make his claim, he finds that his uncle was killed in a brawl, and that no one knows where the mine is or even if it exists. All he is able to claim is two mules, which he uses to build a railroad spur. But someone seems to want to sabotage the spur, and he wonders if it has to do with how his uncle died.