Fonda portrayed Chief Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory and Case played Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.

As Fred MacMurray did while shooting the sitcom series My Three Sons, Fonda performed all of his work on The Deputy in several lengthy sessions, so as to leave himself free for other projects.

Read Morgan joined the show in the second season as Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, known as "Sarge", a one-eyed United States Army cavalry enlisted man stationed in town.

The book was titled simply The Deputy, after the series; the author was veteran Western novelist Roe Richmond; the publication date was September, 1960; and the cover illustration, featuring Henry Fonda and Allan Case, was a painting by John Leone.

Bantam Books reissued the novel in 1986, as a non-tie-in, paperback edition, displaying no stated connection to the TV series whatsoever, under the title The Saga of Simon Fry.