This feature length TV movie isn’t awful, but it will still disappoint fans of the classic, sharp-witted television western starring James Garner as card sharp, con man, and all-around good guy Bret Maverick and the less famous Jack Kelly as his similarly inclined brother, Brett. (Later on, future James Bond Roger Moore also joined the series as their cousin, Beau Maverick.) People who have never seen the original series should stay completely away.
Filmed in 1978, “The New Maverick” is an unsold pilot masquerading as a partial family reunion. The plot involves Garner’s Bret trying to find his brother Bart, who owes him $1,000, while having another thousand dollars appropriated by Ben Maverick (soap heartthrob Charles Frank), Beau’s son. Ben, of course, has entered the family business and he winds up competing with his older cousin to collect the reward for a stolen Gatling gun. Both the younger and elder Mavericks encounter beautiful, semi-trustworthy women, including Susan Blanchard (Charles Frank’s former “All My Children” costar and real life wife) as a sneaky servant and Susan Sullivan as “Poker Alice,” an elegant, mature, sharp-tongued gambler every bit Brett’s equal and easily the best new element in this attempted series reboot. Bart Maverick eventually drops in for the final fifteen minutes, but Beau Maverick, presumably still resting up from romancing Barbara Bach in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” never makes the scene.
“The New Maverick” was ably directed by Hy Averback, who literally helmed every single show on U.S. television made between 1955 and 1985 (well, not literally), and was written by Juanita Bartlett, a principle writer on Garner’s other teleclassic, “The Rockford Files.” Though made by real pros both in front of and behind the camera, the show doesn’t seem to have much reason for existing, and therefore meanders along without any real conflict. The stakes in this game are so low, it’s barely worth playing.
