The original con men, the Maverick clan usually resolves their issues through brains over brawn.In a time where most westerns were all "shoot em ups" the mavericks would rather con their way into a solution. This was a time where writers actually needed to think about the plots and romance did NOT require explicit camera shots. A refreshing change of pace.

You could say that this is James Garner's Rockford File Prelude. It is much more than that. This series was one of Warner Brother's most successful TV western's which competed successfully against an over weighted number of western series in the late 1950's.Jack Kelly and James Garner alternated as the star of this show. Late in the series Roger Moore got worked into the mix as well. Every support player usually came out of Warner's movie studio for the most part, but that was plenty of talent in the late 1950's. It took charisma and a smile and a wink to make this work. All the series stars fit the bill.The scripts for this were well written and allowed the cast to hone their acting for later efforts. Sometimes the show was too good. This show is a logical prelude to The Wild Wild West too though the stunt work on this series and the action stuff was quite a bit tamer here.The theme song and the animation figures in the opening credits drew in viewers for over 5 years. The poker theme and the riverboat gambler both get glorified in this series. It is an enjoyable look back at the old days, with solid actors anchoring the ride.

I Would like to see a good quality DVD set of the Maverick series. I know of none. I have been watching on Encore and Would be interested in good a decent quality DVD set of the series. I bought the 22 DVD set from DVDMediastar.com in Canada www.dvdmediastar.com for $USD $79.95 and was very disappointed and returned it. I have seen other sets that are on other web sites and auction sites and have looked at a couple, but they all seem to be the same set or a copy of the set. Quality of these obviously unauthorized DVDs is nothing like the episodes shown on Encore (many show the channel it was taped from in the corner). I doubt that Warner Brothers will release the whole series in an authorized release.

It's amazing how many "cool"" guys there were in the late '50s playing the heroes in television westerns. There was the "king of cool" Steve McQueen as "Josh Randall" in "Wanted: Dead Or Alive," Richard Boone as "Paladin" in "Have Gun, Will Travel," and more.That more included James Garner as "Maverick." He was one of those guys the ladies thought was attractive and the men liked, too, a man's man and a ladies' man at the same, time. "Brett Maverick" was hip, cool under pressure, a fast-talker with quick wit, a great poker player, suave and sophisticated but physically tough if all else failed. However, he preferred to use his brains over his brawn. Maverick's humor, I think, endeared him to the public the most of all his attributes. You can thank James Garner for that, because he was always funny in any movie role that asked for humor. He downgraded his acting ability, but we all know better. Garner made this a very, very popular show.Eventually, brothers Bart and Beau were introduced in the series but I was disappointed if I saw Garner wasn't going to star that week.It was appropriate he had a role in the 1990s movie starring Mel Gibson, who did Garner's character proud.My hope is that some day individual Mavrick seasons will come out on DVD.