JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Creative Writing Forum Maverick (TV western 1957-62)

while James Garner got the lighter, more humorous scripts.

118 EPITAPH FOR A GAMBLER - When Bart wins at roulette in Sunrise, Nevada, the casino cannot pay and he accepts an I.O.U. No comedy here! Gun play! An epitaph is a phrase on a tombstone.

119 THE MAVERICK REPORT - Bart wins a newspaper. Jack Kelly actually owned a newspaper: The Huntington Beach News.

120 MARSHALL MAVERICK is the kind of comedy the series resorted to toward the end. When the marshal is shot during a poker game, the mayor makes Bart the marshal until Wyatt Earp arrives. Funny man John Dehner shows up impersonating Earp. Dehner is hilarious when the outlaws try to kill him. The real Wyatt Earp appears, and Dehner comes clean. He wanted to feel important. Doc Holliday makes a cameo appearance. He and Earp were friends in real life.

121 THE TROUBLED HEIR - Pearly Gates and Marla get Bart into a poker game only to abscond with the pot after Marla smokes up the room. Bart ultimately saves Pearly.

122 THE MONEY MACHINE - Bart is in Kansas City to meet cousin Jackie, whom he remembers as a shy, skinny girl. Of course, she has grown up, is beautiful, and has ambitions of becoming an actress. When gullible Jackie stumbles onto counterfeiters, she buys a money machine. Bart and Jackie trail Big Ed Murphy to Denver, where they con the con man. Bart builds his own machine! The Maverick series is about money, and the Denver Mint is mentioned. Cousin Jackie ends up buying a diamond machine, which happens to be real.

123 MR. MULDOON'S PARTNER - Bart encounters a leprechaun. This is the next to last episode, and Maverick is now low-comedy. The leprechaun is Mr. Muldoon, and he pops out of a bottle. He is 543 years old and speaks of himself in the third person. He grants Bart 5 wishes, the first of which is for money. Maverick gets his money, but with strings. It is stolen! We are told that it is the unselfish wish that works out for the best. Janet Lake is bad girl Bonnie, helping Bart's opponent cheat him at cards. Maverick women dressed to the nines, wearing long full dresses that covered everything. Period costumes!

124 ONE OF OUR TRAINS IS MISSING - Kathleen Crowley is Modesty Blaine in Maverick's final episode, April 22, 1962. She tells Bart there has never been anyone else but him. She is engaged to a railroad man and wants Bart to get her out of it. When Bart is thrown out of town, he rides a train with Modesty, Doc Holiday and Diamond Jim Brady. There is a safecracker on board, but Modesty manages to get the $100,000 from the safe. There is a bet on whether or not the train will cross the state line before midnight. Ed Robertson calls Kathleen Crowley a "chameleon" because of her number of roles. Jack Kelly said he found out Maverick was canceled by reading it in the paper.

Bret and Bart owned the west, immaculately dressed and in their prime. They sidestepped one mess after another. Their characters were impossibly romantic! I was 13 and enjoyed the escapism.

Bret and Bart dressed in similar fashion. Bret wore a black coat, vest, ruffled shirt, string tie and white slacks. Bart wore a black coat, vest, short necktie and black pants.

The brothers constantly alluded to advice given by their pappy. It added to the laid-back humor: "Flattery is like perfume. It's okay to smell it, but don't swallow it."

Money was a key element. It had to be since the brothers were professional gamblers. Banks were everywhere!

James Garner left the show after 3 seasons. He was involved in a lawsuit against Warner Brothers, which he won. Roger Moore as cousin Beau (named after Pappy) appeared in 14 episodes during the 4th season. Robert Colbert as younger brother Brent appeared in 2 episodes. Jack Kelly was the only Maverick left for season 5, which consisted of 13 episodes. Roy Huggins, the show's creator, left after the second season.

There were some beautiful women: Diane Brewster as Samantha Crawford and Kathleen Crowley as Modesty Blain. Pat Crowley, of no relation to Kathleen, was another stunner! Maverick women were a type. They looked alike, short hair up, no bangs on their foreheads. Much like the girls of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Almost every show involved money. Crooks swindled the Mavericks, and they tried to recoup. There was a lot of mistaken identity. There were murders for which the brothers were framed, and the twists and were endless! Plots were variations. The writing was brilliant.

Ed Robertson is partial to the first two seasons, lamenting how the sly humor evolved into comedy, even slapstick. Still, the last 3 seasons were enjoyable.

Watching the 4th and 5th seasons, I got used to Jack Kelly as Maverick. He was as good as Garner. The last episodes hold up. Season four ended with a two-parter, the only one in the series, and Bart pulled it off, mixing drama and humor as well as his brother. Sharon Hugueny is the Indian girl who befriended Bart.

There were no blacks in Maverick, and whites killed whites. It is not surprising since the 1870s were not long after the Civil War in which 700,000 whites were killed by other whites. Slavery is not an issue.

William T. Orr was the show's executive producer with Coles Trapnell credited as producer. In my opinion, Maverick stands alone in the history of television!

Revised 2016
Jim Colyer