- THE ART LOVERS
Original Airdate: October 1, 1961
Synopsis. In San Francisco, Bart becomes a servant to railroad tycoon Paul Sutton in order to pay off a $25,000 gambling debt. Sutton faces bankruptcy—a new railroad project has encountered delays, and the board of directors has denied his request for another loan of $500,000. Sutton’s one asset, an apparently original daVinci Mona Lisa, can’t help him because he bought it from a dealer who claims it was stolen. When Maverick recognizes the dealer as a con artist friend (whose specialty is forging daVincis), he devises a scheme to sway the board members into changing their vote.
At the time he filmed “The Art Lovers,” Jack Cassidy was married to singer/actress Shirley Jones (Oklahoma!, The Partridge Family). In April 1961, six months before this episode aired, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960). More than twenty years later, she would star with James Garner in Tank (1984).
Synopsis. Rocky’s life becomes endangered after he inadvertently witnesses an illegal business transaction between his trucker friend Johnny LoSalvo and LoSalvo’s ruthless boss Hammel, who has plotted to hijack six of his own trucks as part of a master plan to steal an incoming cargo of valuable sable furs. Although Rocky has no idea what’s going on, Hammel wants the old man eliminated simply because Rocky can identify him. Guest stars include Ted Gehring and Scott Brady, both of whom were both originally under consideration for the role of Dennis Becker in the Rockford Files pilot, and Bucklind Beery, the real-life son of series star Noah Beery Jr.
