Sixty minutes of classic Maverick. Bret's shifty character is all over the inventive Driskill script from opening horse kick to closing escape out of town. The show's iconoclasm reaches a high or low when Bret fesses up to cowboydom's ultimate sin-- he can't be sheriff because he's a "coward" and a "lousy shot" on top of it. An ice sheet must have descended on Hades at the sound of that sacrilege. But, not to worry, towns can be tamed by quick wits and a stacked deck as well as by the proverbial six-gun, and Bret shows how. The irreverent twists fly fast and furious, even when shady lady Peggy McKay arrives in town with an eye on Bret and the town bank. Actually, the series pioneered gender equality by showing how the ladies could be just as charming and low-down as the Maverick boys. Watch her get even sneakier than Bret, and only by calling in brother Bart can Bret even the odds.
Good to see ex-cowboy star Don (Red) Barry picking up a paycheck if only for a bit role. Trouble with seeing these episodes daily instead of weekly is facing up to the cost-cutters used in production. Note how the Maverick boys keep checking into the same hotel lobby, front desk, and staircase episode after episode. Then again, maybe these hotels are just a frontier version of the standard Marriott floor plan. But however you cut it, this is vintage humor on the Hollywood range.