- THE WAR OF THE SILVER KINGS
Original Airdate: September 22, 1957
Synopsis. Soon after arriving in the mining community of Echo Springs, Maverick wins a high-stakes poker game with Phineas King, the unscrupulous town magnate. King doesn’t take kindly to losing—he has Maverick beaten up, and later tries to have him killed. Knowing that King is as much a cheater as he is a millionaire, Maverick is determined to beat him at his own game.
“The War of the Silver Kings” establishes the key elements of Maverick’s character. Twice, Bret beats Phineas King by sheer bluff—he stayed in the poker game, and later won the game, by betting with an envelope filled with clipped newspaper; then he snows King into settling with the miners even though Maverick knew that the court had reversed the decision upholding the apex law. Upon accepting defeat, King thinks back and then realizes exactly how Bret did it. “It was guts, nothing but guts,” he said, with clear respect for Maverick’s abilities.
Synopsis. In the town of Hallelujah, outlaw Cliff Sharp breaks into Bret’s hotel room and plants evidence linking Maverick to a $40,000 robbery-and-murder scheme. After the town convicts him on circumstantial evidence, Bret faces the gallows. When greedy Sheriff Tucker offers to fake the hanging if Bret leads him to the stolen money, Maverick goes along with the ruse but ditches the sheriff at the first opportunity. When Bret discovers that Molly Clifford, Sharp’s wife (played by Whitney Blake) arrives in Hallelujah, he trails her to New Mexico in the hopes of finding the money and clearing his name.
Synopsis. This episode introduces Gretchen Corbett as Rockford’s attorney Beth Davenport, who (as Becker puts it) “collects lost causes like they were rare coins.” Beth’s client Ann Calhoun has been accused of the murder of her husband, poet Kevin Calhoun. Jim would rather pass on the case, since the evidence linking Ann to the crime seems insurmountable (not to mention the fact that Ann has no money), and he becomes less inclined to pursue the matter after two attempts are made on his life. But the case takes an interesting turn after Rockford uncovers a connection between the murder victim and the legal rights to the novel The Dark and Bloody Ground.
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Synopsis. David Frankham guest stars as “Captain” Rory Fitzgerald, a con artist acquaintance whom Bart encounters in Virginia City. Fitzgerald owes Maverick $4,000, but claims to be out of money. Bart becomes suspicious when he recognizes the glamorous “countess” whom Fitzgerald is escorting as Liz Bancroft, a card dealer from New Orleans. He later discovers that Fitzgerald and Bancroft are plotting to swindle wealthy Placer Jack Mason out of $200,000.
Synopsis. Dennis and Peggy Becker purchase 2½-percent ownership of a posh hotel resort in a deal brokered by Simon Lloyd, a flim-flam artist who doesn’t tell the Beckers that the “hotel” actually houses condominiums, all of which are fully owned. To their embarrassment, the Beckers discover that they not only spent $7,500 (on a lobby!!), they’re also indentured into paying a $700,000 trust deed. Dennis hires Jim to win back their money. Drawing on his vast grifting skills, Rockford concocts an elaborate scheme designed to beat Lloyd at his own game.
