Thursday, October 1, 2026
****
In the 1950s, television was dominated by the western. Handsome hombres rode the trail, marshaled in frontier towns, punched cows on the way to market and loosed a lot of lead in the mythic west of prime time.
Even for devotees, most of these horse operas blend into one hazy, holster-wearin', fist-fightin', cattle-ropin' memory. Except one. Maverick, which debuted in 1957 and ran for 5 seasons, was a comedy with a decidedly anarchic feel.
Rather than resolving the weekly plot through violent action, gamblers Bret and Bart Maverick (James Garner and Jack Kelly) preferred to weasel their way out of fights by working the angles of a situation to survive and profit from it. Funny, clever and anti-authoritarian (the bad guys are often crooked bankers, sheriffs and businessmen), the series is a TV classic. From Warner Home Video.
Not rated.
