There was never another Western series quite like Maverick. A satirical take on the Old West, the five-season series followed a gambling con man as he bumbled around the open frontier, often finding himself in comedic situations and getting into heaps of trouble. But if you’ve ever seen more than a single episode of Maverick, you may have been confused by the assortment of rotating leading men. Watching the early seasons may be easy, but as soon as James Garner left the show, things on Maverick got a bit complicated.
‘Maverick’ Began With James Garner, but Quickly Hired Jack Kelly to Help Carry the Load
Although the show began with only James Garner as the poker-loving Bret Maverick, it soon became clear to Garner and series creator Roy Huggins that this wasn’t sustainable for long. By the eighth episode, “Hostage!,” the cast had expanded to include Jack Kelly as the titular hero’s gambling brother, Bart Maverick. It’s true that Maverick was originally meant to be a one-man show, but the intense production schedule quickly proved too much for Garner to handle on his own, especially being the only cast member. When the producers recognized this, they hired another Maverick in an attempt to ease the load. To make it easier on audiences, Kelly’s character was essentially identical to Garner’s, just with a slightly different name. That may be a bit confusing now, but at the time, it was a novel change that saved the show.
Together, the pair made Maverick a real hit. As Bret and Bart would alternate episodes, Maverick quickly found its voice and wasted no time rising to the top of ABC’s ratings. Occasionally, the two appeared alongside one another when schedules overlapped, including in the show’s best episode, “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres.” The sky appeared to be the limit for Maverick, which had found its stride with both Garner and Kelly at the helm. While many still preferred Garner, Kelly more than pulled his weight, and soon Bart Maverick became just as capable as Bret in every way. For three seasons, the ABC Western appeared to be running smoothly, with the show’s only non-Maverick cast member, Samantha Crawford (played by Diane Brewster, reprising her role from Cheyenne), causing trouble between the two rambling gamblers over the course of four episodes. But all of that changed after the third season ended.
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“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
After Its Third Season, Garner Quit ‘Maverick,’ Leading to the Introduction of Several New Mavericks
According to Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Garner “walked out on Warner Bros. Studios, demanding a better contract.” However, having just been through something similar with Clint Walker on Cheyenne, the studio (who owned the ABC series) refused to play ball. Instead, Bret Maverick was written off his own show, replaced by Roger Moore as a brand-new, never-before-mentioned cousin named Beau Maverick, a Texan who had fought in the Civil War before moving to England only to return to America to ramble like his cousins before him. Although Moore had previously appeared as a different character in Season 2’s “The Rivals,” the studio had no trouble casting him as Beau. Ironically, Moore had already performed some of Garner’s own Maverick dialogue on his own short-lived program, The Alaskans (which was known for using recycled Maverick scripts), so it was clear from the get-go that he could pull off the character.
However, Moore didn’t stick around either. After sixteen episodes, Beau Maverick likewise rode into the sunset, leaving midway through Season 4. Not wishing to leave Jack Kelly to carry the show on his own, the studio opted to cast Robert Colbert as the previously unmentioned brother: Brent Maverick. As with Moore, Colbert had shown up earlier on the series (earlier that season, in fact) in “Hadley’s Hunters” as a different character, but that didn’t dissuade Warner Bros. Like Moore, Colbert didn’t work out long-term either, though he only appeared in two episodes, first alongside Kelly’s Bart Maverick in “The Forbidden City” and in his only solo appearance two episodes later in “Benefit of the Doubt.” After that, there was only one Maverick left standing.
Jack Kelly Stuck With ‘Maverick’ Until the Show Was Canceled in Season 5
By the time the fifth season was in production, Colbert wasn’t asked to return. While Garner appeared only once more as Bret Maverick in Season 4’s “The Maverick Line” (alongside Kelly’s Bart), Maverick‘s last season would echo the show’s first seven episodes, only featuring one leading man. Jack Kelly carried the comedic Western drama for 13 more episodes before the network pulled the plug. For a show that released inspired parodies of both Gunsmoke and Bonanza, it was a shame that the series ended on such a sorry note.
Of course, that’s not the end of the Maverick story. Years later, James Garner would later reprise his role as Bret Maverick on short-lived revivals such as the TV movie The New Maverick, the prequel Young Maverick, and his own sequel series, Bret Maverick. (He also cameoed in the Mel Gibson movie.) Jack Kelly too would play Bart Maverick again, first opposite Garner in The New Maverick and his solo revival series, and again later in an episode of The Fall Guy and the TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, his final on-screen role. There are certainly a lot of men who live up to the Maverick name, and if you’ve ever wondered why there were so many, now you know.
