Maverick

I still remember as a lad when Maverick made its debut on the ABC network. It was on Sunday nights at 7:30 and with that early half an hour start, it knocked the stuffings out of Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen who had their shows begin at 8:00 in the Nielsen ratings.

Maverick was unlike any western that had been on television before. Previously you had heroes stand tall and tangle with villainy head on. Maverick was no coward, but he never went looking for trouble and he never would look for a face to face confrontation if a little back channel maneuvering would work as well.

The show started the precedent that Law and Order, Criminal Intent is using now to give star Vincent Donofrio some rest with having Chris Noth and another female partner solve crimes on alternate weekends. James Garner was the original Bret Maverick and later Jack Kelly was brought in as brother Bart. Later on we had cousin Beau and another brother Brent played by Roger Moore and Robert Colbert.

Those last two we never even see the episodes with them. James Garner wanted a feature film career and Maverick helped launch him in one. His best efforts have always been when he's played a variation on Maverick and that would include his later hit series, The Rockford Files.

Unfortunately Jack Kelly never got the same break as Garner. But Bart was also pretty good at thinking on his feet as well. Still he was good performer and the Bart episodes do hold their own. And the shows they did together, pure magic.

Although I grew up watching classic television I somehow completely missed Maverick until 2015. Thus while Maverick is an older series it was very new to me. I suppose that is the wonderful thing to realize that there are still great series out there to discover.

I started to watch Maverick specifically because of James Garner. I had recently re-watched the Great Escape (a favorite film of mine) and wanted to see more from Garner. Garner is absolutely wonderful here in his first starring role and it's no surprise that he had a long and very rich career.

However a real surprise for me was Jack Kelly. Before Maverick I had absolutely no idea who Jack Kelly was which is not surprising because while he did a lot of small roles and guest spots, Maverick was definitely the highlight of his career. I am also happy I went into Maverick blind and did not read the many grossly inaccurate reviews that Garner was all there was to Maverick. You will notice that most people who say Kelly did not measure up to Garner admit they "skip the Kelly episodes". Another trend I notice that those who do give Kelly the most credit say they have reevaluated Kelly as an adult and realize they underrated him.

Pretty much with the first 3 seasons whether you watch a Kelly or Garner episode you can't lose. Garner tended to have the best comedy and Western parody scripts while Kelly got the better dramatic and drawing room comedy scripts. It was the contrast between Kelly & Garner that made the series so great along with well written scripts that still stand up as classics today. However the very best episodes had Garner and Kelly together, their chemistry was pure magic and one of the shows biggest mistakes was not giving us more episodes with them together.

Seasons 4 and 5 aren't bad but they definitely don't measure up to the previous 3 seasons (the best of which is season 2). Not only because you have lost Garner at that point but Roy Huggins the producer and creator of the series left at the end of season 2. Most of the best writers also left with him.

For a short time Roger Moore joined the series as cousin Beau. Moore put up a good effort despite weaker scripts but the series would never be the same without Garner. Although if my previous paragraphs were not clear I feel if Kelly had been the one to leave the show he also would have left an irreplaceable hole. Garner of course started the series without Kelly but in those very early episodes the show was still finding itself and is also not the best Maverick has to offer.

However even at its worst, Maverick is still pretty entertaining if not as clever and witty as it once was. You only notice the decline in the later seasons when you have just finished watching the superior earlier seasons.

This was one of the best TV Westerns to come out of the golden age of the 1950's television. For the five seasons that it ran on the ABC-TV network from 1957 to the final episode in early 1962,"Maverick" was in a class by itself especially with the performance given by James Garner as the suave and sophisticated man of the West-Bret Maverick,a gambler,all-around gentlemen with the ladies,and a man who was quick with a gun when it came to handling difficult situations. In some of the episodes,some of the situation that Maverick would get into and sometimes he would get out of them as well would be set toward his facial expressions;a virtual three-ring circus of sorts was something to look at,even though that was a Western,but a TV western that was aimed at adult audiences,but kids were watching it too. But "Maverick" had something that the other Westerns lacked-a flair for comedy,and during James Garner's tenture,his genius for comedy was inspirational not to mention having his character become a rather "cool" for taking care of business situations while at the same time,having a serious like businessman approach. This would work well during James Garner's second TV series-"The Rockford Files",years later. After Garner's departure,the solo outings from various actors,would prove that when watching them,you can see just how good "Maverick" really was. However,the other actors,including Jack Kelly as Bret's brother Bart along with Robert Colbert(as Brent Maverick),and their British cousin Beau Maverick(played by Roger Moore)including others that would make their stride including Richard Long and Efrem Zimbalist,Jr. during the show's five year-run. This was a string of TV Westerns that ABC-TV and Warner Bors. cranked out including "Cheyenne","Sugarfoot",and the Western adventure,"The Alaskans" during the early years of television.

During the 1950's and part of the early 1960's,there were mainly several types of shows;you had the regular quiz show/game show concept, family oriented comedies,crime dramas,action-adventure fare,and westerns. During its run,Maverick brutally satirized two of the most popular Westerns of their day;Gunsmoke and Bonanza,in different episodes,not to mention it also satirized another show too;Wagon Train, which was in another episode. Recently cable's TVLand,brought back these episodes after years out of circulation,and their rerunning these episodes every so often,so catch them when you can.

It's amazing how many "cool"" guys there were in the late '50s playing the heroes in television westerns. There was the "king of cool" Steve McQueen as "Josh Randall" in "Wanted: Dead Or Alive," Richard Boone as "Paladin" in "Have Gun, Will Travel," and more.

That more included James Garner as "Maverick." He was one of those guys the ladies thought was attractive and the men liked, too, a man's man and a ladies' man at the same, time. "Brett Maverick" was hip, cool under pressure, a fast-talker with quick wit, a great poker player, suave and sophisticated but physically tough if all else failed. However, he preferred to use his brains over his brawn.

Maverick's humor, I think, endeared him to the public the most of all his attributes. You can thank James Garner for that, because he was always funny in any movie role that asked for humor. He downgraded his acting ability, but we all know better. Garner made this a very, very popular show.

Eventually, brothers Bart and Beau were introduced in the series but I was disappointed if I saw Garner wasn't going to star that week.

It was appropriate he had a role in the 1990s movie starring Mel Gibson, who did Garner's character proud.

My hope is that some day individual Mavrick seasons will come out on DVD.

This is the role that made James Garner, and as much as I like his later work, for me he would never be this much fun to watch again (exception: Support Your Local Sheriff, but that was unquestionably written to capitalize on his Maverick role).

I remembered liking Maverick when I was a kid, but after 40 odd years I didn't remember a single episode or plot line. I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to find this series resurrected on Good Life (Now American Life) TV. Sadly, after a few years ALTV abandoned the excellent B&W series they had been showing, and began airing very inferior color series from later years. Yep, I'll take Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip over Time Tunnel and Lost in Space .... EVERY time.

However, when it aired on ALTV, discovering each episode's charm brought my wife and I months of entertainment, and expectation for the next week.

Among some classic episodes to look for are:

* "War of the Silver Kings", this is the first episode and unquestionably one of the best

* "Gun Shy", an absolutely hilarious take off on Gun Smoke

* "A Fellow's Brother", an entertaining story throughout that made me fall out of my chair laughing when presented with the twist that resolved the crises

* "Shady Day at Sunny Acres", in which Bret Maverick spends the majority of the episode in a rocking chair on the town's boardwalk, whittling and uttering the line, "I'm workin' on it"

* "Pappy", wherein you meet the originator of all of Bret's "My old Pappy used to say ..." lines. Garner of course plays dual roles in the episode and does a great job. (So the movie is only the 2nd time he got to play Bret's father!)