Bret Maverick

Last updated
Bret Maverick
Brett Maverick - Title Card.jpg
Genre
Developed byGordon Dawson
Starring
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes18 (list of episodes)
Production
Production location California
Running time60 minutes
Production company Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseDecember 1, 1981 (1981-12-01) 
May 4, 1982 (1982-05-04)
Related

Bret Maverick is an American Western television series that starred James Garner in the title role, a professional poker player in the Old West. The series aired on NBC from December 1, 1981, to May 4, 1982. It is a sequel series to the 1957-1962 ABC series Maverick , as well the short-lived 1979 TV series Young Maverick , and that series' pilot, the 1978 TV movie The New Maverick , all of which starred Garner in the same role (though he appeared only briefly in Young Maverick). In the two previous series, Bret Maverick had been a solitary rounder who travels from riverboat to saloon looking for high-stakes games. In this series, Maverick has settled down in Sweetwater, Arizona Territory, where he owns a ranch (The Lazy Ace) and is co-owner of the town's saloon (The Red Ox). However, he is still always on the lookout for his next big score, and continues to gamble and practice various con games whenever the chance arises. The series was developed by Gordon Dawson, and produced by Garner's company Cherokee Productions (mistakenly dubbed "Comanche Productions" on the end credits) in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Contents

Series overview

Almost two decades after the original Maverick series, and a few years after his appearance in the 1978 TV movie The New Maverick , Bret Maverick has put down roots in the frontier community of Sweetwater, Arizona Territory where he's now the silent partner of the Red Ox saloon that he won in a card game. Maverick's still a gambler, and is not above running various con games to help make the money he needs to keep his businesses afloat. Because of this, he is viewed with suspicion by many of the town's more prominent citizens, especially the town's newly appointed sheriff.

Bret's business partner is Tom Guthrie (Ed Bruce), the town's former sheriff and co-owner of the Red Ox Saloon. (Actor Ed Bruce, a noted country singer, also co-wrote and performed the show's theme song.) Bret's penchant for organizing cons and money-making schemes of questionable legality means that he and ex-sheriff Guthrie are often at odds with each other, although they still remain friends. Also seen as series regulars are Richard Hamilton as Cy Whitaker, the aging but feisty foreman of Maverick's ranch; Ramon Bieri as prosperous local banker Elijah Crow; Darleen Carr as Mary Lou "M.L." Springer, the fetching owner, editor, and photographer of the local newspaper; David Knell as Rodney Catlow, M.L.'s young assistant; and John Shearin as Mitchell Dowd, the town's arrogant and ineffectual sheriff.

Also seen frequently are three actors who were carry-overs from Garner's previous series “The Rockford Files”. Stuart Margolin ("Angel" on “The Rockford Files”) he appeared with "James Garner" in "nichols" 1971 to 1972 1st ,appears in a recurring role as crooked Native American Philo Sandeen; frequent Rockford Files bit player Jack Garner (James' brother) plays the role of Jack, the Red Ox's bespectacled bartender; and Luis Delgado (James Garner's longtime stand-in, and "Officer Billings" on Rockford) plays Red Ox employee Shifty Delgrado. Semi-regulars included Tommy Bush as the inept but friendly Deputy Sturgess, and Marj Dusay as Kate Hanrahan, the town's local madam.

U.S. television ratings

SeasonEpisodesStart DateEnd DateNielsen RankNielsen RatingTied With
1981-8218December 1, 1981May 4, 198234 [1] N/AN/A

Cancellation and aftermath

Despite respectable ratings, the show was canceled by NBC at the end of the first season, airing only eighteen episodes. Writer/producer Roy Huggins, original creator of the title character but otherwise unconnected with this series despite Garner's request that he come aboard mid-season, speculated that one reason the new show didn't quite work was that Maverick, traditionally a drifter, had settled down in one place. Also, several costumes and hairstyles, particularly of series regular Darleen Carr, reflected the style of the 1980s and not the old west in which the show was set. Jack Kelly, who had alternated the lead with Garner and later Roger Moore in the original 1957–62 Maverick series, had been slated to return as Bret's brother Bart Maverick in the second season, and briefly appeared at the very end of the only season.

A number of scripts for the following season had been written and presented to Kelly, according to subsequent interviews; Bart was going to look after the saloon in Arizona while Bret ranged across the West, thereby making this series closer in conception and tone to the original Maverick. The series' final episode also included a number of other changes to the series set-up: notably, Tom Guthrie was re-elected as sheriff, and sold his interest in the Red Ox to Kate Hanrahan, who immediately reinvented the establishment as an upscale brothel. As well, Mitchell Dowd was appointed to a government position as an inspector of bars and hotels throughout the Arizona territory, where he promised to remain a thorn in Maverick's side.

The 2-hour first episode was eventually trimmed and repackaged as a TV movie for rerunning on local stations under the title Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace . Additionally the series' only two-part episode was similarly repackaged as Bret Maverick: Faith, Hope and Clarity . NBC took the unusual step of rerunning the episodes two additional times - in the summer of 1988 to help provide 'new' programming during a writers strike, and in the summer of 1994 to play off publicity surrounding the Mel Gibson movie remake of the original Maverick series also featuring Garner. [2]

As a tribute to the character featured on this television series and on Maverick, on April 21, 2006, a ten-foot bronze statue of James Garner as Bret Maverick was unveiled in Garner's hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, with Garner present at the ceremony.

Regular cast

James Garner as Bret Maverick and Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick in the series Maverick James Garner Jack Kelly Maverick 1959.JPG
James Garner as Bret Maverick and Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick in the series Maverick

Episode list

No. in
season
TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
1"The Lazy Ace" Stuart Margolin Gordon T. DawsonDecember 1, 1981 (1981-12-01)
2
3"Welcome to Sweetwater" Rod Holcomb Gordon T. DawsonDecember 8, 1981 (1981-12-08)
4"Anything for a Friend" Ivan Dixon Lee David Zlotoff December 15, 1981 (1981-12-15)
5"The Yellow Rose" William Wiard Lee David ZlotoffDecember 22, 1981 (1981-12-22)
6"Horse of Yet Another Color"Ivan DixonS: Geoffrey Fischer;
S/T: Lee David Zlotoff
January 5, 1982 (1982-01-05)
7"Dateline: Sweetwater"William Wiard Ira Steven Behr January 12, 1982 (1982-01-12)
8"The Mayflower Women's Historical Society"Ivan DixonLee David ZlotoffFebruary 2, 1982 (1982-02-02)
9"Hallie" John Patterson Marion Hargrove February 9, 1982 (1982-02-09)
10"The Ballad of Bret Maverick" Jeff Bleckner Gordon T. DawsonFebruary 16, 1982 (1982-02-16)
11"A Night at the Red Ox"William WiardLee David ZlotoffFebruary 23, 1982 (1982-02-23)
12"The Not So Magnificent Six" Leo Penn S: Shel Willens;
T: Geoffrey Fischer
March 2, 1982 (1982-03-02)
13"The Vulture Also Rises" Michael O'Herlihy T: Gordon T. Dawson;
S/T: Rogers Turrentine
March 16, 1982 (1982-03-16)
14"The Eight Swords of Dyrus and Other Illusions of Grandeur"John PattersonS: Larry Mollin;
S/T: Gordon T. Dawson
March 23, 1982 (1982-03-23)
15"Faith, Hope and Clarity: Part 1"Leo PennS: Paul L. Ehrmann;
S/T: Lee David Zlotoff
April 13, 1982 (1982-04-13)
16"Faith, Hope and Clarity: Part 2"Leo PennS: Paul L. Ehrmann;
S/T: Lee David Zlotoff
April 20, 1982 (1982-04-20)
17"The Rattlesnake Brigade" Fernando Lamas T: Barton Dean;
S/T: Geoffrey Fischer
April 27, 1982 (1982-04-27)
18"The Hidalgo Thing" Thomas Carter Gordon T. DawsonMay 4, 1982 (1982-05-04)

DVD release

On April 22, 2014, Warner Bros. released Bret Maverick: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time, via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the United States. [3]

Syndication

The series has rerun on Encore Westerns since fall 2008. On December 30, 2018, U.S. TV network getTV started rerunning the series. [4]

Currently, it airs on getTV on the weekends.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Garner</span> American actor (1928–2014)

James Scott Garner was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, which included The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews; Cash McCall (1960) with Natalie Wood; The Wheeler Dealers (1963) with Lee Remick; Darby's Rangers (1958) with Stuart Whitman; Roald Dahl's 36 Hours (1965) with Eva Marie Saint; as a Formula 1 racing star in Grand Prix (1966); Raymond Chandler's Marlowe (1969) with Bruce Lee; Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) with Walter Brennan; Blake Edwards's Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews; and Murphy's Romance (1985) with Sally Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination; One Special Night 1999 with Julie Andrews; He also starred in several television series, including popular roles such as Bret Maverick in the ABC 1950s Western series Maverick and as Jim Rockford in the NBC 1970s private detective show, The Rockford Files.

<i>The Rockford Files</i> Television series

The Rockford Files is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974, to January 10, 1980. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator Jim Rockford, with Noah Beery Jr. in the supporting role of his father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, a retired truck driver. The show was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell. Huggins had created the television show Maverick (1957–1962), which starred Garner, and he wanted to create a similar show in a modern-day detective setting. In 2002, The Rockford Files was ranked No. 39 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

<i>Maverick</i> (TV series) American TV series (1957–1962)

Maverick is an American Western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins and originally starring James Garner as an adroitly articulate poker player plying his trade on riverboats and in saloons while traveling incessantly through the 19th-century American frontier. The show ran for five seasons from September 22, 1957, to July 8, 1962 on ABC.

<i>Bronco</i> (TV series) Western TV series

Bronco is a Western television series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Theodore Roosevelt, Belle Starr, Cole Younger, and John Wesley Hardin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramon Bieri</span> American actor (1929–2001)

Ramon Arens Bieri was an American film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Margolin</span> American actor and director (1940–2022)

Stuart Margolin was an American film, theater, and television actor and director who won two Emmy Awards for playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin on the 1970s television series The Rockford Files. In 1973, he appeared on Gunsmoke as an outlaw. The next year he played an important role in Death Wish, giving Charles Bronson his first gun. In 1981, Margolin portrayed the character of Philo Sandeen in a recurring role as a Native American tracker in the 1981–1982 television series, Bret Maverick.

<i>Sugarfoot</i> American Western TV series

Sugarfoot is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with Cheyenne ; Cheyenne and Bronco ; and Bronco. The Warner Bros. production stars Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. Brewster was a correspondence-school student whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the nickname "Sugarfoot", a designation even below that of a tenderfoot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Kelly (actor)</span> American actor

John Augustus Kelly Jr., known professionally as Jack Kelly, was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of Bart Maverick in the television series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Colbert</span> American actor

Robert Louis Colbert is an American actor best-known for his leading role as Dr. Doug Phillips on the ABC television series The Time Tunnel and his two appearances as Brent Maverick, a third Maverick brother in the ABC/Warner Brothers western Maverick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Gordon</span> American actor (1922–2000)

Leo Vincent Gordon was an American character actor and screenwriter. During more than 40 years in film and television he was most frequently cast as a supporting actor playing brutish bad guys but occasionally played more sympathetic roles just as effectively.

Young Maverick is a 1979 Western television series and a sequel to the 1957–1962 series Maverick, which had starred James Garner as roving gambler Bret Maverick. Charles Frank played Ben Maverick, the son of Bret's first cousin Beau Maverick, making him Bret's first cousin once removed. Frank's real-life wife Susan Blanchard played his girlfriend Nell, while John Dehner appeared as a frontier marshal who had arrested Ben's father Beau decades before. The series was cancelled by CBS after six hour-long episodes had been shown, leaving two which were never aired on the network. All eight episodes were screened later that year on BBC1 in the UK.

<i>The New Maverick</i> 1978 TV film

The New Maverick is a 1978 American Western television film based on the 1957–1962 series Maverick starring James Garner as Bret Maverick. The New Maverick also stars Charles Frank as newcomer cousin Ben Maverick, Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, and Susan Sullivan as Poker Alice Ivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Teal</span> American actor (1902–1976)

Ray Elgin Teal was an American actor. His most famous role was as Sheriff Roy Coffee on the television series Bonanza (1959–1972), which was only one of dozens of sheriffs on television and in movies that he played during his long and prolific career stretching from 1937 to 1970. He appeared in pictures such as Western Jamboree (1938) with Gene Autry, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) with Fredric March and Myrna Loy, The Black Arrow (1948), Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) with Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster.

<i>Nichols</i> (TV series) American Western television series

Nichols is an American Western television series starring James Garner. It was first broadcast in the United States on NBC during the 1971–72 season. Set in the fictional town of Nichols, Arizona, Nichols differed from traditional Western series. The time period was 1914, at the beginning of the motorized era and well after the decline of the "Old West". The main character, a sheriff also named Nichols, rode on a motorcycle and in an automobile rather than on the traditional horse. Nichols did not carry a firearm and was generally opposed to the use of violence to solve problems, preferring other means. Margot Kidder played his love interest, a barmaid named Ruth.

<i>Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace</i> 1981 TV film

Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace is a 1981 American Western television film released as the 2-hour pilot episode of the series Bret Maverick, trimmed to a quicker pace and repackaged as a TV-movie for rerunning on local television stations. The 1981 show was based on the 1957 series Maverick, catching up with professional poker-player Bret Maverick. The film, written by Gordon T. Dawson and directed by Stuart Margolin, occasionally appears under the simpler title Bret Maverick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shady Deal at Sunny Acres</span> 10th episode of the 2nd season of Maverick

"Shady Deal at Sunny Acres", starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, remains one of the most famous and widely discussed episodes of the Western comedy television series Maverick. Written by series creator Roy Huggins (teleplay) and Douglas Heyes (story) and directed by Leslie H. Martinson, this 1958 second-season episode depicts gambler Bret Maverick being swindled by a crooked banker after depositing the proceeds from a late-night poker game. He then surreptitiously recruits his brother Bart Maverick and a host of other acquaintances to mount an elaborate sting operation to recover the money.

Duel at Sundown (<i>Maverick</i>) 19th episode of the 2nd season of Maverick

"Duel at Sundown" is a 1959 episode of the Western comedy television series Maverick starring 31-year-old James Garner and 29-year-old Clint Eastwood. A mean fortune hunting bully (Eastwood) becomes jealous when Bret Maverick (Garner) begins spending time with his girlfriend Carrie, the daughter of Bret's old friend, who desperately wants Bret to marry her before Eastwood's evil character does so.

Bret Maverick: Faith, Hope, and Clarity starring James Garner is a two-part episode of the 1981-82 Western television series Bret Maverick edited together and released to local television stations as a TV movie. The show involves a religious cult that swindles the townspeople out of a tract of land. Maverick winds up straightening everything out. The episodes were directed by Leo Penn and the film is sometimes entitled simply Bret Maverick. The same thing was done with the two-hour series premiere, slightly condensed and marketed to television stations as Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace. The Bret Maverick television series was a sequel to the 1957 series Maverick, created by Roy Huggins, in which Garner had played the same character two decades earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Garner filmography</span>

American actor and producer James Garner rose to prominence as a contract player for Warner Bros. in the 1957 television show Maverick as the series initial lead character Bret Maverick. He would continue to be associated with the Maverick brand several times in his career, as his original character Bret Maverick in the 1978 television film The New Maverick, briefly in the series Young Maverick (1979), and the series Bret Maverick (1981–1982). He also appeared in the role of Marshal Zane Cooper in the 1994 western film Maverick, with Mel Gibson portraying the role of Maverick.

References

  1. "The TV Ratings Guide: 1981-82 Ratings History -- Primetime is Awash in a Bubble Bath as Nighttime Soaps Become the Rage" . Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  2. "What Are the Best Fictional Gamblers?". The Gazette. 28 November 2023. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  3. "'The Complete Series' Starring James Garner is Now on DVD!". Archived from the original on 2014-04-23.
  4. "James Garner Returns as Bret Maverick on GetTV" . Retrieved 30 December 2018.