- THE JAIL AT JUNCTION FLATS
Original Airdate: November 9, 1958
Synopsis. In Broken Wheel, Wyoming, Bret bumps into the “new” Dandy Jim Buckley, who claims that he’s now making an honest living selling horses. Buckley promises Maverick double his money back if Bret joins him as his business partner. Reluctantly, Maverick loans Buckley $2,000―and is quite shocked when he sees that Dandy Jim is actually buying horses. But Buckley’s true colors show when he plants a rumor about a gold strike, then sells back the horses—at a profit—to anyone foolish enough to check out the “claim.” After Buckley pays Bret his share (then immediately steals it back), Maverick finds Dandy Jim locked inside an apparently impregnable jail in nearby Junction Flats, where Buckley is accused of shooting the sheriff’s nephew. In order to get his money back, Maverick must break Buckley out of jail.
“The Jail at Junction Flats” scored a 46 audience share when it first aired on the night of Nov. 9, 1958, a figure that made it the most-watched episode of Maverick to that point. Both “Gun-Shy” and “The Saga of Waco Williams” would top that mark within a matter of weeks.
Synopsis. Bart and Dandy Jim Buckley join a mining camp in the Black Hills, where they await an opportunity to play poker with the other miners. While panning for gold, they meet prospector Genessee Jones, who has $8,000 in gold dust. But Jones is also a card shark who relieves Bart, Mike Manning and Joe Hayes (two other miners) of all their money. When Jones is found dead, Bart, Manning, and Hayes become the likely suspects. Knowing they all will hang unless the real killer confesses, Bart proposes that the three of them cut cards, and that whoever draws the high card must confess to the crime. When Bart wins the draw, he apparently faces the gallows—but it’s all part of a plan that he hopes will lead him to the real killer.