SERIES / 1979

Young Maverick

Young Maverick is a 1979 television series that unsuccessfully attempted to recapture some of the magic of the highly successful 1957 series Maverick, which had starred James Garner as roving gambler Bret Maverick. Charles Frank played Ben Maverick, the son of Bret's first cousin Beau Maverick, making him Bret's first cousin once removed. Frank's real-life wife Susan Blanchard played his girlfriend Nell, while John Dehner appeared as a frontier marshal who had arrested Ben's father Beau decades before. The series was cancelled by CBS after only eight hour-long episodes had been shown, leaving several which were never aired. The 1978 TV-movie The New Maverick, featuring Garner as Bret, Frank as Ben, Jack Kelly as Bret's brother Bart Maverick, and Blanchard as Nell, served as the pilot for the series. Garner appeared as Bret Maverick in the very first scene of the series, but only for a few moments. Among the actors appearing on the series were Howard Duff, John McIntire, James Woods, Donna Mills, and Harry Dean Stanton. Roger Moore, who played Beau Maverick in the original series, never appeared in Young Maverick. Despite the title, Frank was three years older than Garner had been at the launch of the original series.