The Double Life of Henry Phyfe

The Double Life of Henry Phyfe is a 17-episode American sitcom broadcast on ABC from January 13 to September 1, 1966,^[1][2] and starring Red Buttons.^{[citation needed]}

The Double Life of Henry Phyfe
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Luther Davis
Starring	Red Buttons Fred Clark Parley Baer Zeme North
Theme music composer	Vic Mizzy
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	17
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Luther Davis Productions Filmways Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	January 13 (1966-01-13) – May 5, 1966 (1966-05-05)

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

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Phyfe and a Filly"	Unknown	Unknown	January 13, 1966 (1966-01-13)
2	"Phyfe on a Ferry"	Unknown	Unknown	January 20, 1966 (1966-01-20)
3	"Whatever Happened to Yesterday?"	Leslie H. Martinson	Ben Starr	January 27, 1966 (1966-01-27)
4	"Phyfe and the Models"	Unknown	Unknown	February 3, 1966 (1966-02-03)
5	"The Reluctant Lover"	Howard Morris	Leo Rifkin	February 10, 1966 (1966-02-10)
6	"Phyfe's First Felony"	Charles R. Rondeau	Rich Eustis & Al Rogers	February 17, 1966 (1966-02-17)
7	"The Unfriendly Persuasion"	Leslie H. Martinson	Story by : Charles Marion & Monroe Manning Teleplay by : Phil Leslie and William Raynor & Myles Wilder	February 24, 1966 (1966-02-24)
8	"Phyfe and the Code Book"	Unknown	Unknown	March 3, 1966 (1966-03-03)
9	"The Old Flame"	Unknown	Unknown	March 10, 1966 (1966-03-10)
10	"Operation Henry Phyfe"	Unknown	Unknown	March 17, 1966 (1966-03-17)
11	"Visit to Washington"	Unknown	Unknown	March 24, 1966 (1966-03-24)
12	"Phyfe Takes a Wife"	Unknown	Unknown	March 31, 1966 (1966-03-31)
13	"Jail Bird Phyfe"	Howard Morris	Sloan Nibley & Bill Lutz	April 7, 1966 (1966-04-07)
14	"Spend a Million Phyfe"	Unknown	Unknown	April 14, 1966 (1966-04-14)
15	"A Shot in the Dark"	Unknown	Unknown	April 21, 1966 (1966-04-21)
16	"Phyfe Goes Skiing"	Unknown	Unknown	April 28, 1966 (1966-04-28)
17	"Will the Real U-31 Try to Stand Up?"	Unknown	Unknown	May 5, 1966 (1966-05-05)

Overview

Actor Peter Bonerz (The Bob Newhart Show) had auditioned for the role of Henry Phyfe before Red Buttons was selected.^[3]

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

1. McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-02-4916-8. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
2. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
3. "Peter Bonerz on auditioning for (but not getting) the lead in The Double Life of Henry Phyfe". Television Academy.

External links

• The Double Life of Henry Phyfe at IMDb