MAVERICK: The TV Series -- NEW BOOK

This book was more than a decade in the making. My publisher, Ben Ohmart of Bear Manor Media, and I flew out to California for the unprecedented access to production files for a number of television programs produced in the late fifties and early sixties, produced by Warner Brothers. The film studio decided to utilize their studios, sets, props, costumes and contract players to produce a number of television programs for ABC-TV, with tremendous success and critical acclaim. Along the way, the studio made stars out of Clint Walker, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Edd Byrnes, Roger Smith, John Russell, Peter Brown, Wayde Preston, Diane McBain, and of course... James Garner.

Maverick was one of those programs and the western remains one of the top ten among fans of cowboy television. So you can understand why it was the one book we wanted to get published. The basic premise of Maverick, a professional gambler who wandered the west avoiding trouble and finding himself caught up in life-threatening adventures, was televised for five seasons over ABC-TV, and spawned a number of comic books, collectibles and sequels. ABC was poised to fire its Sunday ammunition against the competing Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen, with heavy bets to the tune of a million dollars placed by the Kaiser Industries Corp. and Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp., its sponsors.

The chief asset of the show was its sense of humor. If an adult Western was to be truly adult, it could not take itself too seriously. Rather than kiss the woman and ride off into the sunset, Maverick could be expected to win a bet by kissing his horse and fleeing out of the county by riverboat. Along the way he cleaned up corruption and disruption of law and order in the unsettled old West.

The goal was not to compete with other fast-drawing hotshot television Westerns, but rather to differentiate from them. That was the Roy Huggins formula. He created and produced the series, ensuring a refreshing take in an era when television Westerns were a variation-on-a-theme. Huggins wanted to avoid the clichés that populated other television Westerns.

Linda Alexander, who wrote the definitive biography of Jack Kelly, jumped on board to help with the book. Then Steven Thompson, a top-notch historian for comic books and pop culture, jumped on board to contribute. The best part of this project was that none of the authors had egos or wanted sole credit -- the finished product was the end game and as a result, their passion became a collective collaboration that makes this book definitive. So you can believe I am not exaggerating when I say this book has been a decade in the making. The icing on the cake is having consulted very possible avenue including production files. (Yes, that means the episode guide includes the dates of production, filming locations, budgets, and more. You won't find that anywhere else!) Fans of Maverick will find themselves wanting to re-watch the episodes once again with all the new behind-the-scenes trivia brought to light.

To purchase your copy, visit here: 

https://www.martingrams.biz/products/maverick-a-history-of-the-television-series