Maverick 

Bret and Bart Maverick (and in later seasons, their English cousin, Beau) are well dressed gamblers who migrate from town to town always looking for a good game. Poker (five-card draw) is ... See full summary »

Creator:

Roy Huggins

Stars:

Jack Kelly, James Garner, Roger Moore

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 10 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Jack Kelly	...	Bart Maverick / ... 83 episodes, 1957-1962
James Garner	...	Bret Maverick / ... 60 episodes, 1957-1962

Storyline

Bret and Bart Maverick (and in later seasons, their English cousin, Beau) are well dressed gamblers who migrate from town to town always looking for a good game. Poker (five-card draw) is their favorite but they've been known to play such odd card games as Three-toed Sloth on occasion. The show would occasionally feature both or all three Mavericks, but usually would rotate the central character from week to week.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in series title | parody | spoof | gunfight | desert | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 September 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

Maverick

Filming Locations:

Apacheland Studios - 4369 S. Kings Ranch Road, Gold Canyon, Arizona, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min (124 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

This series featured two different takes on Doc Holliday. In the first season, Gerald Mohr played Holliday as a hard living, ruthless gunslinger. In seasons four and five, Peter Breck played Holliday as more of a comedic rogue that was constantly getting Bart in trouble with his various schemes.

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Goofs

Filming seemed to take place in a limited number of spots, so you see some very familiar scenery repeating both within and between episodes. Be prepared for a chase scene passing the same trees and rocks several times, as well as certain scenes cropping up in stories supposedly hundreds of miles apart. Standard stuff for its day.

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Quotes

Bret Maverick: Cole, as my old pappy always taught me, the only time you ever quit when you're winnin' is after you've won it all.

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Connections

Referenced in Ricky Nelson: Original Teen Idol (1999)

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Soundtracks

Maverick
Music by David Buttolph
Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster

User Reviews

This was NOT "The James Garner Show"

Unlike most reviewers, I watched "Maverick" when I was a little girl and enjoyed it. However, many of the reviews distort what this series was about, thinking that because James Garner became a star as a result of it, he was the entire show, and that Jack Kelly wasn't any good, let alone Roger Moore. Garner definitely was NOT the whole show although he was obviously a world-class actor who was superior in his reaction to situations. The strength of the show was not with any particular actor- -it was in the writing. The writing was top-notch and clearly tongue- in-cheek. You don't see this type of writing in modern television programs. "Maverick" was the jewel of the crown of the great Warner Brothers westerns of the late 1950s.

Garner left in a contract dispute after the third season, but I have found the Kelly shows during the first three seasons and thereafter were just as good as any of the Garner episodes. I also enjoyed watching the Roger Moore episodes of the fourth season. When I was younger, I, like most of the reviewers, tended not to watch the episodes with Kelly and Moore and focused only on Garner. That was my loss, for these shows were consistently good no matter who the lead actor was.

I believe if you are going to review a television series that had rotating lead actors as this one had, you should watch the entire series, not pick out episodes because a particular actor is in it.