The Double Life of Henry Phyfe
{{More citations needed|date=July 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Red Buttons Double Life of Henry Phyfe 1965.JPG
| caption =
| genre = Sitcom
| creator = Luther Davis
| writer =
| director =
| developer =
| presenter =
| starring = Red Buttons
Fred Clark
Parley Baer
Zeme North
| voices =
| narrated =
| theme_music_composer = Vic Mizzy
| opentheme =
| endtheme =
| composer =
| country = United States
| language = English
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 17
| list_episodes =
| executive_producer =
| producer =
| company = Luther Davis Productions
Filmways Television
| runtime = 30 minutes
| channel = ABC
| first_aired = {{Start date|1966|01|13}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1966|05|05}}
}}
The Double Life of Henry Phyfe is a 17-episode American sitcom broadcast on ABC from January 13 to September 1, 1966,{{cite book|last=McNeil |first=Alex |title=Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-02-4916-8 |date=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dctkAAAAMAAJ| access-date=May 28, 2021}}{{Cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|author-link=Tim Brooks (historian)|last2=Marsh|first2=Earle F.|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=2007|isbn=978-0-345-49773-4|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC|access-date=May 28, 2021}} and starring Red Buttons.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
Plot
Henry Phyfe (Buttons) was a mild-mannered accountant, until circumstances forced the American Counter Intelligence Service (CIS) to recruit him to impersonate a foreign agent named U-31, who had been killed in an automobile accident. The agent looked just like Phyfe, but the two men's personalities were drastically different. That severe contrast laid the groundwork for many of the episodes.
Phyfe's girlfriend, Judy Kimball, her mother Florence and his boss at the accounting firm, Mr. Hamble, were all unaware of Henry's secret life, with Gerald Hannahan, the regional director of the agency the lone person to know the secret. The characters of the girlfriend and mother-in-law were phased out halfway through the abbreviated run.
A recurring plot line was that U-31 had a wide range of skills (golf, samurai sword fighting, etc) which Phyfe would attempt to learn (generally unsuccessfully) just before his mission.
Cast
- Red Buttons as Henry Phyfe
- Fred Clark as Gerald B. Hannahan
- Zeme North as Judy Kimball
- Marge Redmond as Mrs. Florence Kimball
- Parley Baer as Mr. Hamble
Episodes
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="background:#fff;" |
| style="background:#;"| No.
! style="background:#;"| Title ! style="background:#;"| Directed by ! style="background:#;"| Written by ! style="background:#;"| Original air date {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 1 |Title = Phyfe and a Filly |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|01|13}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 2 |Title = Phyfe on a Ferry |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|01|20}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 3 |Title = Whatever Happened to Yesterday? |DirectedBy = Leslie H. Martinson |WrittenBy = Ben Starr |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|01|27}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 4 |Title = Phyfe and the Models |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|02|03}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 5 |Title = The Reluctant Lover |DirectedBy = Howard Morris |WrittenBy = Leo Rifkin |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|02|10}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 6 |Title = Phyfe's First Felony |DirectedBy = Charles R. Rondeau |WrittenBy = Rich Eustis & Al Rogers |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|02|17}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 7 |Title = The Unfriendly Persuasion |DirectedBy = Leslie H. Martinson |WrittenBy = {{StoryTeleplay|s= Charles Marion & Monroe Manning|t= Phil Leslie and William Raynor & Myles Wilder}} |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|02|24}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 8 |Title = Phyfe and the Code Book |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|03|03}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 9 |Title = The Old Flame |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|03|10}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 10 |Title = Operation Henry Phyfe |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|03|17}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 11 |Title = Visit to Washington |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|03|24}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 12 |Title = Phyfe Takes a Wife |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|03|31}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 13 |Title = Jail Bird Phyfe |DirectedBy = Howard Morris |WrittenBy = Sloan Nibley & Bill Lutz |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|04|07}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 14 |Title = Spend a Million Phyfe |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|04|14}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 15 |Title = A Shot in the Dark |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|04|21}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 16 |Title = Phyfe Goes Skiing |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|04|28}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} {{Episode list |EpisodeNumber = 17 |Title = Will the Real U-31 Try to Stand Up? |DirectedBy = |WrittenBy = |OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1966|05|05}} |ShortSummary = |LineColor = }} |
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Overview
Actor Peter Bonerz (The Bob Newhart Show) had auditioned for the role of Henry Phyfe before Red Buttons was selected.{{Cite web|title=Peter Bonerz on auditioning for (but not getting) the lead in The Double Life of Henry Phyfe|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/double-life-henry-phyfe|website=Television Academy}}
Buttons noted that, unlike Agent Maxwell Smart in NBC's new hit Get Smart, his character was shy, used no gadgets in his work, and was an impostor, not an actual agent. Phyfe's CIS boss was played by veteran character actor Fred Clark, who bore a superficial physical resemblance to Smart's "Chief" played by Edward Platt.
The show marked Buttons' return to weekly television after his variety show had ended a three-year run in 1955. During the interim, Buttons found roles in 15 different motion pictures, including an Academy Award-winning performance in the 1957 Marlon Brando film, Sayonara.
The concept of an "every man" recruited to impersonate someone of importance has been used for many years in literature (for example, The Prisoner of Zenda). A few months after the series' cancellation, the animated film, The Man Called Flintstone, featured the same premise as Henry Phyfe, while another TV series, The Man Who Never Was, debuted in the fall of 1966 with the premise reversed as a spy found himself impersonating a businessman who had been killed.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0059980|The Double Life of Henry Phyfe}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Double Life of Henry Phyfe, The}}
Category:1966 American television series debuts
Category:1966 American television series endings
Category:1960s American sitcoms
Category:American spy comedy television series
Category:American spy television series
Category:Television series by Filmways