Pictured is a gem I recently purchased at a comic book show. I've been hoping to find an affordable issue of Maverick in decent condition for a long time. If you've been reading this blog, you know I love westerns--especially the TV westerns of the 50s and 60s. While the big screen cowboys are okay, my first love is the TV western whose memorable recurring characters get to seem like old friends.
Maverick is my favorite western and possibly my favorite TV show of all time. Not your typical horse opera, Maverick had complex plots, witty dialog, comedy relief, a reluctant hero, and excellent acting.
The comic based on the series lasted 19 issues from 1958 to 1962. The first six issues were a part of Dell Publishing's Four Color series, while the seventh issue was published as Maverick # 7 and the numbering continued from there. Each issue featured photo covers and the one pictured below introduced Bart Maverick to comics (I recently purchased this one at a comic shop sale).
Bret Maverick (James Garner) was originally to be the only Maverick, until Warner Brothers got behind on production of the TV series. Then Jack Kelly was introduced as Bret's brother, Bart Maverick. So now two episodes could be filmed simultaneously with two separate production crews with respective episodes featuring either Bret or Bart. The Bart episodes would alternate with the Bret episodes Sunday nights on ABC. The brothers would occasionally share an episode.
Garner left the show after three seasons due to a contract dispute. Kelly continued as Bart and Garner was replaced by Roger Moore who played the Mavericks' British cousin, Beau Maverick. On an earlier episode, Moore had appeared as Jack Vandergelt III, a character very much like the Beau Maverick character. This historical episode was the only one in which Garner, Kelly, and Moore all appeared together. It would be great if someone made available some 8 x 10 stills of the three together from that episode.
Moore played Beau Maverick in only 13 episodes, citing mediocre scripts as his reason for leaving the show. Robert Colbert appeared as Bart's brother, Brent Maverick, in two episodes of Season Four. Publicity photos of Kelly, Moore, and Colbert together and in character still survive. While it was intended that the three appear together in the show, Moore left too soon for that to happen. An episode with Bret and Bart together also aired during Season Four, but was actually a hold over filmed during Season Three. So this makes Season Four the only season in which each of the four Mavericks appeared at least once. Only Kelly returned for the fifth and final season. His new episodes alternated with Garner reruns from earlier years.
The comics stories always starred whatever Mavericks were currently on the TV show. The artist was Dan Spiegle who visited Garner on the set and took great pains to make his characters look like the actors.
Maverick has appeared somewhere each decade of the last half of the twentieth century. The original series ran from 1957 to 1962. The 1970s saw a made-for-TV movie, New Maverick, with Garner, Kelly, and introducing Charles Frank as cousin Ben Maverick. His series, Young Maverick ran only 8 episodes on CBS with Garner making a cameo in the first show.
NBC was the third network to pick up Maverick as Garner returned in Bret Maverick for the 1981-82 season. Kelly made a cameo as Bart in the final episode and would have become a regular player had there been a second season. Kelly also appeared as Bart Maverick in Kenny Rogers' 1991 The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw.
The year 1994 saw the theatrical release of Mel Gibson's Maverick in which Gibson played Bret. Co-stars included James Garner and Jodie Foster.
So where has Maverick shown up in the 21st century? In 2006, a Bret Maverick statue was unveiled at a ceremony with Garner present in his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. The Encore Westerns cable network has aired the entire series in chronological order. And of course, Maverick occasionally shows up at a comic shop or show.
A sugarfoot, as opposed to a tenderfoot, was an inept cowboy, as in "Don't quit your day job".
Surprising how everybody always got it wrong. In the show, it "one stage below a tenderfoot", but they never explained how. Tom Brewster was called that because he didn't like to use a gun.
Posted by: formwiz | October 15, 2011 at 09:12 PM