- GUATEMELA CITY
Original Airdate: January 31, 1960
Synopsis. In San Francisco, Bret sets out to apprehend two jewel thieves and collect the $25,000 reward for their capture.
Author ● Journalist ● Radio Host ● Collaborative Writer
Synopsis. In San Francisco, Bret sets out to apprehend two jewel thieves and collect the $25,000 reward for their capture.
Synopsis. In Temple City, California, Bart becomes embroiled in the gubernatorial election between town boss Rath Lawson and Reform Party candidate Calvin Powers.
“The Ice Man” is the only episode in which Bart, or any other Maverick, dispels some wisdom from his dear old mother.
Synopsis. In San Francisco, Bart sets to even the score against Van Buren Kingsley, a ruthless New Orleans aristocrat who cons people into buying stock in a worthless diamond company. Kingsley not only pilfered $17,000 from Bart, but had our hero shanghaied.
Best known for his portrayals of American patriot and founding father Benjamin Franklin, Fredd Wayne previously appeared as card shark Honest Carl Jimson in “Relic of Fort Tejon.”
Synopsis. Wealthy John Vandergelt III hires Bret to switch identities with him as part of an elaborate attempt to woo the lovely Lydia Linley.
“The Rivals” is the only episode of Maverick to feature the three “principal” Mavericks: James Garner, Jack Kelly, and Roger Moore. Although Moore plays another character (millionaire and incurable romantic John Vandergelt III), the storyline has Van switching identities with Bret. In that respect, Moore “plays” Maverick, which he eventually did in real life during the fourth season.
Synopsis. Bart wins $5,000 playing poker in Fairview and stores the money in a hotel safe. The next day, he discovers that the money has been stolen, and the hotel clerk killed. Needing money, he applies for a loan at the bank, where he discovers that the bank president, a widow named Wilma White (guest star Julie Adams), is being threatened. Wilma hires Maverick to protect her.
Julie Adams, whom we also saw as the queen of King City in “Brasada Spur,” had previously co-starred with Jack Kelly in a live presentation of “Just Across the Street” that aired on Lux Video Theatre in January 1957.
Synopsis. After winning half-ownership of a saloon, but needing money to keep the business afloat, Beau becomes partners with a mysterious gold prospector known only as The Dutchman.
Mala Powers (Outrage) guest stars in an episode based on “Dutchman’s Gold,” a spoken-word recording that became a Top 40 hit for Walter Brennan in April 1960.
Synopsis. Maverick meets Twelve Angry Men as Bret finds himself the only juror who votes to acquit a man who stands accused of murder.
The first of four episodes featuring William Reynolds (The F.B.I., The Islanders, “The Purple Testament” episode of The Twilight Zone), “Rope of Cards” also introduced viewers to “Maverick Solitaire,” where you can take any deck of cards, shuffle it, deal yourself twenty-five cards, and come up with five pat hands practically every time. According to legend, sales of playing cards spiked the day after this episode first aired.
Synopsis. Jerome Horne and John Bordeen run the largest railroad company in Virginia City. Bordeen owes Bret $10,000, but he’d rather shoot him than pay him. Maverick kills Bordeen in self-defense—but after reporting the shooting to the sheriff, he discovers that the body (and all other evidence) has been removed. Maverick becomes further confounded the next day, when Horne pays him the money—and insists that Bordeen is alive and well.
This episode features an exchange that epitomizes what Roy Huggins had in mind when he created Maverick. In this sequence, Ellen Bordeen (played by Ruta Lee) asks Bret for help:
ELLEN
If my father’s posing as John Bordeen,
he’s doing it against his will, Mr. Maverick.
MAVERICK
Possibly.
ELLEN
Probably. But what can I do about it?
MAVERICK
Go to the sheriff, I guess.
ELLEN
Jerome Horne put the sheriff in office.
Can you help me?
MAVERICK
No, ma’am.
ELLEN
Because you have your $10,000?
MAVERICK
Yes, ma’am.
ELLEN
You aren’t very noble.
MAVERICK
No, ma’am.
Maverick decides to help Ellen, anyway—but only after she convinces him that she knows how to handle a gun. We’ll see Ruta Lee again in “Plunder of Paradise” and “Betrayal.”
Synopsis. Bret spends the Fourth of July in Hollow Rock, where he hopes to make some easy money by betting on Silver King, the prize quarter-horse owned by his friend Colonel Arnold Taylor, in the town’s annual horse race. When crooked Sheriff Jesse Carson robs and beats Bret out of more than $4,200, Maverick uses the race to even the score.
William Reynolds previously appeared in “Rope of Cards” and “Diamond in the Rough.” George O’Hanlon, best known as the voice of George Jetson, starred in the Joe McDoakes comedy shorts that Richard Bare, who directed “Holiday at Hollow Rock,” wrote and directed for Warner Bros.
Synopsis. Wells Fargo authorities, long frustrated by the antics of train robber Incredible Clay Corey, dispatch undercover agents throughout the Kansas City railway to find the notorious bandit, whose description is unknown. The $2,000 reward for Corey’s capture entices Bart, who finds himself flat broke (and extremely hungry) in the small town of Crenshaw, Kansas. Bart meets Marybelle McCall, an apparently reformed faro dealer who is traveling with her minister uncle—along with $50,000 in church donations—to Devil’s Flat, Colorado, where they plan to build another mission. Maverick becomes suspicious when the sheriff of Crenshaw (who is really Clay Corey) takes a personal interest in the money’s whereabouts.