- STAMPEDE!
Original Airdate: November 17, 1957
Synopsis. Bret teams with Dandy Jim Buckley to settle the score with Tony Cadiz, a cadaverous gambler who took the both of them for $12,000 (and left Bret for dead). Cadiz is traveling to the South Dakota mining town of Deadwood, where he plans to make a fortune by showcasing Battling Kreuger, the bare-fisted pugilist whom he manages. Cadiz offers to pay 2-to-1 odds to any man who can last ten rounds with “the Battler.” After staking themselves to $4,000 (their reward for recovering two bags of gold stolen from the Wells Fargo Bank), Bret and Jim meet Noah Perkins, a giant of a man who seems the perfect opponent for Battling Kreuger. Bret and Jim set up a high-stakes showdown between Noah and Kreuger. When Noah bows out at the last minute, however, Maverick must take his place.
Roy Huggins originally intended Dandy Jim Buckley as a one-shot character, but he ended up bringing him back four more times because he so thoroughly enjoyed what Efrem Zimbalist Jr. brought to his portrayal. Zimbalist, for his part, considered working with James Garner to be among the highlights of his career.
Synopsis. Maverick befriends Lefty Dolan, a bank robber who rescued Bret from “a parcel of very disappointed poker players.” Their friendship is cut short when Lefty is gunned down by two other holdup men—but before he dies, Lefty tells Bret an incredible story. Several years earlier, he and three others had pulled a bank robbery in Dry Springs, Arizona. A man named Jed Ferris, who bore a slight physical resemblance to Lefty, was arrested and convicted for the crime. Lefty, whose conscience has bothered him over the fact that an innocent man has paid for his crime, asks Bret to do whatever he can to clear Jed’s name.