Every Version of Maverick

Born on television, not on the page

Maverick did not begin as a novel, a comic strip, or a stage play. It was an original creation: Roy Huggins wrote the character of Bret Maverick specifically for television, and ABC debuted the series in September 1957. That origin matters because Maverick was built from the start as a critique of the Western genre that surrounded it. Where nearly every other Western hero of the era was square-jawed and morally unblemished, Bret Maverick was a coward by preference, a gambler by profession, and a wit by nature. He quoted his fictional father's aphorisms, ran from fights he could have won, and outsmarted villains rather than outgunning them.

The show was an immediate hit, and a rare thing in 1950s television: a genre piece that audiences loved partly because it was making fun of the genre. James Garner and Jack Kelly played brothers Bret and Bart, alternating episodes for most of the run, which let the production keep pace with a demanding schedule while doubling the cast's charm. When Garner left after the third season over a contract dispute with Warner Bros., the series continued but never quite recaptured its original spark.

The franchise spent two decades dormant before Garner returned for a short-lived 1981 NBC revival, and then the property crossed into feature films with Richard Donner's 1994 movie, which cast Mel Gibson in the role while finding a clever place for Garner himself. For a character created for television with no literary source to adapt, Maverick has proven surprisingly durable across generations.