Maverick
(1957)
Run Time: 60 min
Color: Black and White
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1
Sound: Mono
Producer: Warner Bros Television
Genre
- Western
Seasons: 5
Episodes: 124
Overview
Maverick initially starred James Garner as Bret Maverick, an adroitly articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother Bart Maverick, and for the remainder of the first three seasons, Garner and Kelly alternated leads from week to week, sometimes teaming up for the occasional two-brother episode.*The Maverick brothers were poker players from Texas who traveled the American Old West by horseback and stagecoach, and on Mississippi riverboats, constantly getting into and out of life-threatening trouble of one sort or another, usually involving money, women, or both. They would typically find themselves weighing a financial windfall against a moral dilemma. Their consciences always trumped their wallets since both Mavericks were intrinsically ethical.*When Garner left the series after the third season due to a legal dispute, after which he began a successful movie career, Roger Moore was added to the cast as cousin Beau Maverick. As before, the two starring Mavericks would generally alternate as series leads, with an occasional "team-up" episode.*Partway through the fourth season, Garner look-alike Robert Colbert replaced Moore and played a third Maverick brother, Brent. No more than two series leads (of the four total for the run of the series) ever appeared together in the same episode, and most episodes featured only one. All two-Maverick episodes included Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick. For the fifth and final season, the show returned to a "single Maverick" format as it had been originally in the first eight episodes, with all the remaining new episodes starring Kelly as Bart. The new episodes, however, alternated with reruns from earlier seasons starring Garner as Bret.*Budd Boetticher directed several of the early episodes of the first season until sharply disagreeing with Huggins about Maverick's philosophy, which resulted in Boetticher assigning Bret Maverick's scripted lines to supporting characters and filming the result, thereby attempting to change the whole series by making Maverick into a standard Western hero as found in the earlier Boetticher-directed series of theatrical films starring Randolph Scott. Robert Altman wrote and directed the episode entitled "Bolt from the Blue" starring Roger Moore in the fourth season, with a couple of scenes later purloined and reshot for the subsequent Mel Gibson movie version.*The show was part of the Warner Bros. array of TV Westerns, which included Cheyenne, Colt .45, Lawman, Bronco, The Alaskans, and Sugarfoot.
Other Related Shows
1.
The Bundle From Britain
Roger Moore's first appearance as Cousin Beau, met at the dock by Bart after arriving back from England. (Bart, incidentally, gives and spells out his full first name as "Bartrum" in this episode, and the ship the "Cynthia B" makes a return appearance.) An evenly balanced two-cousin episode according more or less equal time to each Maverick, as the two inadvertently get caught up in a kidnapping attempt on a spoiled British heir. Moore's character is the namesake nephew of Bret and Bart's father, the original Beau Maverick, portrayed by James Garner in "Pappy", the first episode of the third season. Moore was recruited at Jack L. Warner's insistence to fill the void left by Garner's departure from the series and actually wore some of the same suits that Garner had worn. Moore had also earlier performed many of Garner's scenes on a series called The Alaskans, using scripts that had been recycled from Maverick with only names and locales changed, an extremely common Warner Bros. custom at the time. The Maverick actors were almost exactly the same age; Garner had been 29 when the series began while Kelly and Moore were both less than a year older.
2.
Hadley's Hunters
Bart runs afoul of a local sheriff who gives him five days to capture a criminal ... or else Bart will be hanged for his crimes. This comedic episode features several ten-second cameos from western leads in other Warner Brothers series, including Lawman (John Russell and Peter Brown), Bronco (Ty Hardin), Cheyenne (Clint Walker), and Sugarfoot (Will Hutchins). Edward Byrnes is also seen in a wordless cameo combing his hair and tending horses at "77 Cherokee Strip", and Bart visit's Colt's office from the just-cancelled Colt .45 show, only to find it abandoned and derelict! Co-starring Edgar Buchanan as the rogue sheriff, George Kennedy, Robert J. Wilke, Howard McNear, Andra Martin, Roscoe Ates and Robert Colbert. (Colbert, a dead ringer for Garner, was later cast in the season as a new Maverick brother named Brent who was dressed entirely like Bret?he plays an entirely different character here although his resemblance to Garner as he wore an identical hat on the back of his head, exactly as Garner had, doesn't put the viewer in mind of a coincidence.) During the beginning of the third season, the network ran a television commercial for the series heralded by the announcer proclaiming, "Look who's blasting the West wide open!" that consisted almost entirely of clips from this episode, with no evidence of Roger Moore's character's existence.
3.
The Town That Wasn't There
How could a whole town disappear without a trace? With Merry Anders, John Astin, Lane Chandler, and Steve Pendleton as Marshal McCoy.
4.
Arizona Black Maria
Lost in the desert with no water and having barely averted being scalped by a Native American, Bart winds up a passenger on a prison wagon. With a pre-Gilligan Alan Hale, Jr. and Joanna Barnes.
5.
Last Wire From Stop Gap
Bart and Beau discover a secret telegraph station hidden in a cave in this two-cousin episode. Notice that when the Maverick cousins enter a room, Kelly goes in front, just as Garner normally used to, and when they're standing or sitting together in scenes, Kelly is usually on the viewer's left, just as Garner most frequently was in two-brother episodes. Also, the Mavericks never appear in suits in this installment, both instead wearing their buckskin jackets throughout, as was the case with most episodes featuring Kelly and Moore together. With Tol Avery and Olive Sturgess
6.
Mano Nera
With Gerald Mohr in an episode set in New Orleans.
7.
A Bullet For the Teacher
With Kathleen Crowley, Max Baer, Jr., child actor Ronnie Dapo, Joan Tompkins as Mary Burch, and Brad Johnson as Jim Reardon. Co-written by Leo Gordon, who scripted several episodes in addition to playing "Big Mike McComb" the first two seasons.
8.
The Witch of Hound Dog
With Wayde Preston in an episode featuring a beautiful witch who appears to have magical powers.
9.
Thunder From the North
Beau finds himself embroiled with a nest of unscrupulous shopkeepers who've been methodically swindling the local Native American tribe. With Andra Martin as Indian princess Pale Moon.
10.
The Maverick Line
Bret's last appearance for almost twenty years (until the 1978 TV-movie The New Maverick), in a memorable two-brother episode filmed the previous season with Buddy Ebsen as comical highwayman Rumsey Plum; Charles Fredericks, wielding a sawed-off shotgun, as loathsomely despicable murderer Shotgun Sparks; Peggy McCay (who'd appeared with Garner and Kelly in the previous season's "The Sheriff of Duck'n'Shoot") as the brothers' attractive partner in a business venture; and Chubby Johnson as a cantankerous stagecoach driver. This was originally slated to be the first episode of the season until Garner was granted his freedom from Warner Bros. by the courts and the studio realized that he wouldn't return to the series, whereupon The Bundle From Britain with Roger Moore became the season's first offering instead. Bret and Bart have more or less equal screen time in this comical episode, in which they unexpectedly inherit a stagecoach business they don't want. During the show's opening titles prior to the beginning of the episode, with Ed Reimers announcing the cast in voiceover, the credits include only Garner and Kelly, as though it were the previous season, with no mention of Roger Moore. The Maverick brothers share more time together onscreen in this episode than any other, by a very wide margin, although the dialogue and camera are, as always, weighted toward Garner.
11.
Bolt From the Blue
Written and directed by Robert Altman, with Sugarfoot's Will Hutchins playing a frontier lawyer.
12.
Kiz
With Kathleen Crowley as millionairess Kiz, who tells Beau that a killer is after her, convincing him that she's crazy. The episode also features Whit Bissell as "Clement Samuels," Tristram Coffin, Max Baer, Jr. and Don Beddoe.
13.
Dodge City or Bust
With Howard McNear ("Floyd the Barber" on The Andy Griffith Show as well as "Doc Adams" in the original radio Gunsmoke). Bart's wanted for murder after protecting a ravishing woman (Diana Millay). Beau appears quite briefly at the end of the episode.
14.
The Bold Fenian Men
An Army colonel (Arch Johnson) forces Beau to infiltrate Irish revolutionaries known as Fenians. Beautiful Irish lass Deidre Fogarty (Sharon Hugueny) is Beau's love interest. Her father, Terence, is portrayed by Irish character actor Arthur Shields (Oscar winner Barry Fitzgerald's brother). Lane Bradford is a sergeant assigned by the colonel to be Beau's contact. Welsh-born character actor Jack Livesey plays a Fenian leader. There are several allusions to other stories, for example when Arthur Shields assists a drunken Roger Moore to his room, asking "Going my way?", a reference to his brother Barry's Oscar winning role.
15.
Destination Devil's Flat
With Peter Breck (playing Sheriff Dan Trevor), just prior to his five appearances as Doc Holliday, Merry Anders, Chubby Johnson, and an alcohol-loving dog with eerily humanoid responses to the notion of visiting the bar across the street.
16.
A State of Siege
In New Mexico, Bart saves the life of a fellow gambler. As a gesture of thanks, the gambler offers Bart hospitality in his elaborate hacienda?which turns out to be practically deserted and under siege. With Ray Danton as Don Felipe and Slim Pickens as a stagecoach driver.
17.
Family Pride
With Karl Swenson as a genial general, Denver Pyle as a blackthorn stick-wielding Irishman, and Stacy Keach, Sr. as a sheriff. An early plot point involves standard time, which was not introduced to the United States until 1883, eight years after the 1875 setting for this episode.
18.
The Cactus Switch
With Fay Spain as Lana Cain, Lane Chandler as the sheriff, Edgar Buchanan (later "Uncle Joe" on Petticoat Junction) as a ruthless villain, and Chubby Johnson. This a Bart (Jack Kelly) episode with Beau (Roger Moore) appearing briefly at the beginning and end.
19.
Dutchman's Gold
With Mala Powers. Beau (Roger Moore) won a saloon in a poker game co-owned by a fetching woman. The popular titular song is incorporated into the episode to some extent.
20.
The Ice Man
With Andrew Duggan, Shirley Knight, and a frozen corpse.
21.
Diamond Flush
With Belgian gamine Roxane Berard; Berard was leading lady to Garner, Kelly, and Moore during the course of the series in four episodes, playing a different role each time. Co-written by actor/writer Leo Gordon, who had portrayed "Big Mike McComb" in the first two seasons; oddly, Gordon never appeared in a Maverick series episode that he wrote and was sometimes billed with his middle initial ("Leo V. Gordon") for writing but not acting credits. Gordon also wrote the screenplays for some movies.
22.
Last Stop: Oblivion
With a vicious Don "Red" Barry and a murderous Buddy Ebsen.
23.
Flood's Folly
Trapped in a snowstorm in the Rockies, Beau (Roger Moore) takes shelter in an enormous closed hotel. With Jeanne Cooper as the attractive but unwelcoming hotel owner and Marlene Willis as her stunningly beautiful daughter.
24.
Maverick At Law
With Tol Avery and Gage Clarke. Bank robbers stuck the money into Bart's saddlebags during their getaway.
25.
Red Dog
With Lee Van Cleef, John Carradine, Sherry Jackson, and Mike Road, who later appeared in two more episodes as con man Pearly Gates. Beau Maverick's fitting final episode. Beau stumbles onto a cave which soon serves as the gathering place of a motley and dangerous gang of gunslinging criminals, including John Carradine and Lee Van Cleef. Sherry Jackson delivers an energetic performance as a gunman's feisty and promiscuous woman. Unhappy with many of the other scripts, Roger Moore leaves the show, remarking that if his stories had been as good as Garner's in the first two seasons, he would have stayed.
26.
The Deadly Image
This is the episode in which the lead character (Bart) has an evil exact double played by the same actor, with the same voice. Almost every narrative television series in the 1960s used this plot device at least once. With Gerald Mohr (who later voiced "Reed Richards" in an early animated version of The Fantastic Four) and Dawn Wells (who subsequently portrayed "Mary Ann" in Gilligan's Island). Co-written by actor/writer Leo Gordon.
27.
Triple Indemnity
With Peter Breck as Doc Holliday. This is the initial appearance of Breck in a recurring role as Holliday, whose interpretation is starkly different from the seriously realistic, darker portrayal by Gerald Mohr, who played the gunman in earlier episodes ?The Quick and the Dead? and briefly in ?Seed of Deception." Breck's Holliday is depicted as a marginally friendly acquaintance of Bart?s, who initially helps set up a scheme. This relationship continues in four more episodes in Season Five. Also, while Garner had already left the program prior to the start of the season (Kelly and Moore are listed as the series stars in the opening credits), Bret is mentioned predominately throughout the plot as Bart purchases a $50,000 double indemnity insurance policy with his brother Bret (not cousin Beau) as the beneficiary. One memorable line of dialogue appears to be a writer's joke in reference to Garner's departure. In response to Holiday's question as to why wouldn't Bret just shoot him to collect the insurance money, Bart replies, "Because he's my brother! ... although we haven't been that close lately ..."
28.
The Forbidden City
Strapping Garner lookalike Robert Colbert's debut as Brent Maverick, a character dressed exactly like Bret Maverick. Bart only appears rather briefly in the episode. Colbert's resemblance to Garner is rather eerie, especially in profile; like both James Garner and Roger Moore, he looks like the drawing in the opening credits. When the studio told contract player Colbert that he'd have to play a role patterned so precisely after Garner's, he said, "Put me in a dress and call me Brenda, but don't do this to me."
29.
Substitute Gun
With Coleen Gray, the actress who played John Wayne's character's fianc?e at the beginning of the 1948 movie Red River.
30.
Benefit of the Doubt
The second and last appearance of Brent Maverick, and his only solo episode. With Slim Pickens in a brief supporting role as a stagecoach driver. The main plot involves a rivalry between two sisters. Colbert, who resembled Garner and wore Bret's garb while portraying a different Maverick brother named Brent, was four years younger than Kelly and Moore, making him about the same age that Kelly had been in the series' first season. The studio had intended Kelly, Moore, and Colbert to appear in the series at the same time and numerous publicity shots of the three of them together survive. Colbert has noted that he was simply not called back for the following season and heard nothing from the studio about it one way or the other.
31.
The Devil's Necklace (Parts I & II)
The only two-part episode in the series, a flashback story at a remote army post, a troop of soldiers find Bart to be the only survivor of a massacre. Bart tells them the story: how he sensed he could make some money by purchasing a wagonload of merchandise from a peddler who was anxious to sell. After Bart checked inside the wagon, he understand why the man was so quick to sell--it included a shipment of illegal liquor and a kidnapped Indian girl. With Sharon Hugueny as Bart's love interest, Indian maiden Tawny who tells him (a number of times), "me, friend", John Dehner, John Hoyt, Steve Brodie, John Archer, Michael Forest and Chad Everett.
31.
The Devil's Necklace (Parts I & II)
Bart relates to the soldiers how, after he and the peddler were later captured by the tribe, the man tricked the Indian chief into believing that he had a magic necklace, and traded it for his freedom. The chief, now believing himself to be impervious to harm, orders his warriors to attack the fort.