Welcome to the Riding the Range blog series. We are looking at some of the best-loved westerns from the fifties and sixties. Today Maverick is up.

James Garner plays poker-playing Bret Maverick on this show that featured a bit more humor than some westerns. Set on riverboats and in old west saloons, the show ran from fall of 1957 through July of 1962.

The show, created by James Huggins, debuted on NBC on Sunday nights. It was up against some tough competition with Jack Benny which alternated weeks with Bachelor Father. The show remained on Sunday nights for its entire run.

While Garner was the star, during the first season, Bret’s brother Bart (Jack Kelly) shows up. The brothers appear in alternate episodes, sometimes teaming up for a game or two. The brothers were drawn to adventure and to dangerous situations. They often found trouble in finances or love. However, they were true gentlemen and always did the right thing. Unfortunately, they were both slow with the gun, but fast with the fist. In one episode, Bart mentioned that “my brother Bret can outdraw me any day of the week, and he’s known as the Second-Slowest Gun in the West.”

After season three, Garner left due to contract disputes. Garner sued Warner Brothers for breach of contract. They had suspended him without pay during a writers’ strike. The studio claimed they had no scripts with the writers on strike, but court testimony revealed that they had about 100 scripts on hand and could have been filming, so Garner was released from his contract.

After Garner’s departure, Roger Moore made his appearance as Beau Maverick, cousin. The first choice to fill the role was given to Sean Connery who turned it down. Later Connery would play James Bond and his replacement when he left was Roger Moore.  However, it wasn’t long before Moore chose to leave and was replaced by Robert Colbert as brother Brent.

During the last season, Colbert was just not called back or notified that he was no longer part of the show. However, they had a season to fill so Garner reruns were alternated with Kelly original episodes for the fifth season. I guess all the other Maverick brothers and cousins had moved out west. Are you confused yet because I am.

The announcer for the show was Ed Reimers. Reimers was the “Voice of Allstate” from 1957-1979, reminding people that they were “in good hands with Allstate.”

The theme song was written by David Buttolph and Paul Francis Webster.

There were some fun episodes on the show. “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” featured Garner in a rocking chair, whittling and seeming to “ponder” a way to get $15,000 back which was stolen while brother Bart is running a complicated sting operation to do just that.

“Duel at Sundown” is fun for the cast. Clint Eastwood shows up as one of the bad guys. Edgar Buchanan and Abby Dalton are also featured in the show.

“Escape to Tampico” used items from the set of Rick’s Café Americain and the show includes to many Casablanca references to people and dialogue in the show.

Despite the short time he was on the show, Garner got a statue in honor of his character. Norman, Oklahoma has a ten-foot-tall statue of Garner as Bret Maverick, which was dedicated in 2006.

It’s too bad that neither the network nor Warner Brothers could not get its act together with this show. It had a bit of everything: drama, comedy, romance, adventure. However, you are already starting off alternating the brothers, and with the constant replacements, it’s no wonder fans just walked away, and the ratings dropped drastically. Some of the episodes were so unusual and creative for their time that the show could have been a huge hit and a long-running show. I’m amazed the show managed to stick around for five seasons. Garner, Kelly, Moore, and Colbert all went on to prolific and successful careers in film and television.