MAVERICK: LEGEND OF THE WEST
by Ed Robertson
Foreword by Roy Huggins

• $17.95 ISBN: 0-938817-35-3
• 7x10 208 pages 50 B&W photographs

Brilliantly-conceived, well-executed, and immensely popular, the Emmy award-winning MAVERICK (ABC, 1957-1962) injected humor into the Western series format--and catapulted James Garner into stardom.

When it debuted, MAVERICK looked very much like dozens of other Westerns that were saturating prime time television in the late 1950s--it told typical Western stories, and it appeared to have a typically handsome hero in the person of Bret Maverick (James Garner). But Bret Maverick--and, later, his younger brother Bart (Jack Kelly), cousin Beau (Roger Moore), and younger brother Brent (Robert Colbert)--didn't behave the way we've come to expect from our cowboy heroes. Bret Maverick, the gentle grifter who made a living playing cards and who preferred thinking, rather than shooting, his way out of trouble was an exception. The traditional Western hero was an altruist who wouldn't hesitate dropping everything to help a damsel in distress. Bret would point the damsel in the direction of the sheriff's office ("That's his job," he'd say), although sometimes he would get involved--if he was certain he could collect the reward money.

ABC scheduled MAVERICK on Sunday evenings against three prime time powerhouses (The Jack Benny Program, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Steve Allen Show)--and got away with it. Millions of people tuned in at 7:30 p.m. to watch the fresh, hip show that became the Western among Westerns, and a bonafide television legend that burned itself indelibly in the hearts and minds of its vast television audience.

MAVERICK's appeal has endured over the years: reruns of the 124 episodes have played continuously in this country and abroad since the series ended its network run in 1962. But, like most legends, MAVERICK'S history is based as much on myth as on fact. MAVERICK: LEGEND OF THE WEST examines the myths and the realities, what made the show work during its first two seasons and how the backstage struggles drove away the two key elements behind the show's success--creator/producer Roy Huggins and star James Garner. Ed Robertson (author of THE FUGITIVE RECAPTURED) explores the history of this unconventional Western with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and recollections from many of the show's key participants--filled with as many plot twists as any given episode of the series.