Maverick: "Hadley's Hunters"

(This post is part of the 8th Annual Favourite TV Show Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts)

(Ever since I started the 8th Annual Favourite TV Show Blogathon, I have written about an episode from a different show each year. This is the first time I am repeating myself. For the 3rd Annual Favourite TV Show Blogathon I wrote about the Maverick episode "Gun-Shy." I hadn't planned on writing about another Maverick episode this year. In fact, I had planned to write about a WKRP in Cincinnati episode in honour of the late Howard Hesseman. It was last week that someone much closer to myself and the classic film and TV community died than Mr. Hesseman. Patricia Nolan Hall, known to her friends as Paddy Lee and known for her blog Caftan Woman, passed on last week. Those of you who knew Paddy probably also know that both Maverick  and Perry Mason numbered among her favourite shows. I then decided to write about a Maverick episode for this blogathon. Paddy Lee, this one is for you.--Terence)

Bart Maverick and Bronco
Lane

Among the TV Westerns of the Fifties, Maverick was unique. The heroes of most Westerns of the era were brave, often humourless lawmen or drifters (who often differed from the lawmen only in that they weren't professionals). The heroes of Maverick were the Maverick brothers, Brett (James Garner) and Bart (Jack Kelly), who were gamblers by profession. The Mavericks preferred to get out of situations using their wits instead of their guns or fists, often with plenty of humour. And while both Bret and Bart were honest themselves, they were not below concocting a long con against those who were not honest themselves. Bret and Bart Maverick were then very different from the other heroes of Western TV shows in the Fifties. The tone of the show was different as well. Maverick was played tongue in cheek.

The episodes of Maverick usually centred on one brother or the other, with Bret and Bart teaming up in a few. The episode "Hadley's Hunters" is a fourth season episode, by which time Bart was the sole remaining Maverick.. In "Hadley's Hunters" Sheriff Hadley (Edgar Buchanan) has an ongoing scheme in which his deputies will commit various robberies and then the sheriff pins it on some innocent victim. Bart has the misfortune of coming upon a stagecoach robbery committed by one of Hadley's deputies. Sheriff Hadley then gives Bart an ultimatum. He has five days to capture the "bandit" behind the robbery (in this case, Cherokee Dan Evans, played by Robert Colbert) or face the gallows himself.

Maverick was one of several Westerns produced by Warner Bros. for the network ABC. What set Warner Bros.' Westerns apart from Western TV shows produced by other studios is that the Warner Bros. Westerns all took place in a shared universe. The "Warner Bros. Shared Universe" (for lack of a better term) was born when Bret Maverick appeared in the Sugarfoot episode "Misfire" on December 10 1957. Afterwards Warner's Western heroes would appear from time to time on the Westerns of other Warner Western heroes: Bart appeared on Sugarfoot; Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster (Will Hutchins) appeared on several episodes of Cheyenne; Christopher Colt (Wayde Preston), the hero of Colt .45, appeared several times on Sugarfoot; and so on.

"Hadley's Hunters" went further than any episode of any Warner Bros. Westerns before in featuring very nearly every Warner Bros. Western hero except Bret Maverick. In tracking down Cherokee Dan, Bart seeks help from various characters from other Warner Bros. Western series. He visits Marshal Dan Troop (John Marshall) and his deputy Johnny McKay of Lawman in their office in Laramie. He catches Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster reading a law book outside a building. Bart tries to catch Cheyenne Bodie (Clint Walker) of the show Cheyenne while riding to no avail. He catches Bronco Lane (Ty Hardin) of Bronco in the street after being thrown out of a saloon in a brawl. Bart then visits a dust and cobweb covered office where there is a briefcase belonging to Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company. The scene is a clear reference to the TV show Colt .45. Its hero Sam Colt Jr. (Donald May) is apparently long gone. Here it must be pointed that Colt .45 had recently been cancelled.

The final cameo is perhaps the funniest. Bart visits a stable called "77 Cherokee Strip" and talks to a stable hand played by Edd Byrnes Of course, Edd Byrnes played Kookie on Warner Bros.' detective series 77 Sunset Strip. Much like Warner Bros.' Westerns, their detective shows also existed in their own shared universe, with characters from 77 Sunset Strip appearing on Hawaiian Eye and so on. Edd Byrne's appearance in "Hadley's Hunters" would seem to indicate that Warner Bros.' Westerns and detective shows take place in the same reality. Okay, the stable hand clearly cannot be Kookie (not unless he found the Fountain of Youth), but he could easily be Kookie's grandfather or great grandfather.

Warner Bros. shows weren't the only ones referenced in "Hadley's Hunters." Played tongue in cheek, it was not unusual for Maverick to make references to other TV shows, Indeed, several episodes were parodies of other TV series, including "A Cure for Johnny Rain" (a parody of Dragnet),  the aforementioned "Gun-Shy" (a parody of Gunsmoke), and "Three Queens Full" (a parody of Bonanza). In "Hadley Hunters" a weaponless Bart asks a bartender for any weapons, but the only thing he has is a sawed-off shotgun called "a  Mule's Foot or something like that" left behind by some bounty hunter. The scene is a clear swipe at the popular CBS Western Wanted: Dead or Alive, on which bounty hunter Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) used a rifle with a shortened barrel called a "Mare's Leg."

As interesting as the appearances of Warner Bros.' Western heroes are, "Hadley's Hunters" features another interesting bit of casting. Cherokee Dan is played by Robert Colbert, who would later be cast as the "lost" Maverick brother Brent Maverick. In the fourth season, after Roger Moore (who played cousin Beau Maverick) departed the series, Warner Bros. attempted to introduce another Maverick brother. Brent Maverick was played by Robert Colbert and was little more than a clone of Bret. Robert Colbert was not particularly anxious to play the role, knowing that the character would not be well received. As it turned out, Robert Colbert was right. Brent only appeared in two episodes.

Of course, beyond the various Warner Bros. Western characters and Robert Colbert, "Hadley's Hunters" featured some interesting casting. Edgar Buchanan excels as Sheriff Hadley, who is not only crooked but down right narcissistic. Indeed, not only is the town named for him, but he has his own biographer, Copes, played by Howard McNear (who had played Doc on the radio version of Gunsmoke and would later play Floyd the Barber on The Andy Griffith Show). George Kennedy, who would go onto a successful movie career, played one of Hadley's deputies, Jones.

While Maverick was not as good in its fourth season as it once was, "Hadley's Hunters" demonstrates that it was still capable of churning out fine episodes. "Hadley's Hunters" is a good combination of action and humour, precisely what one wants from a Maverick episode. And it certainly holds the record for the biggest crossover of any Warner Bros. Western TV series.