A Flock of Trouble

Except for the shootout climax, this is classic Maverick. Watch sheep flock owner Bret with typical Garner charm duck and finagle his way around sheep hating cattlemen. He's won the flock in a poker game and must now figure out a way to sell them before the cattle boys skin him. Good thing there's a tomboy girl heading up the cattle posse. Seems she's just waiting for someone to bring out her feminine side, and Bret's only too happy to oblige. It's a highly enjoyable episode, with amusing situations and clever dialog. I just wish the writers had completed the story with the same sly humor they use in the buildup. This is one of the entries that carried the series to popular heights.

(In passing—there's more to the cattle vs. sheep feud than just preferences for steak and leather over mutton and wool. Seems sheep eat the roots of plants, thus killing them, whereas cattle do not. As a result, sheep can destroy the forage for cattle. Now, I've seen a number of similar themed shows, but have never seen this underlying fact explained to audiences, and I'm not sure why.)