Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace is a 1981 American Western television film released as the 2-hour pilot episode of the series Bret Maverick, trimmed to a quicker pace and repackaged as a TV-movie for rerunning on local television stations. The 1981 show was based on the 1957 series Maverick, catching up with professional poker-player Bret Maverick (James Garner). The film, written by Gordon T. Dawson and directed by Stuart Margolin, occasionally appears under the simpler title Bret Maverick.
The real pilot, however, of both this series and the preceding CBS show Young Maverick, could be said to be the 1979 TV-movie The New Maverick, which featured both Garner as Bret and Jack Kelly as his brother Bart.
Contents
Cast
James Garner as Bret Maverick
Ed Bruce as Sheriff Tom Guthrie
Ramon Bieri as Elijah Crow
Richard Hamilton as Cy Whittaker
John Shearin as Sheriff Mitchel Dowd
David Knell as Rodney Catlow
Darleen Carr as Mary Lou Springer
Janis Paige as Mandy Packer
Bill McKinney as Ramsey Bass
John McLiam as Doc Holliday, Card Player
Stuart Margolin as Philo Sandeen
Billy Kerr as Blue-Eyed Kid, Gunfighter
Jack Garner as Jack, Red Ox Bartender
Luis Delgado as Shifty Delgado
Ed Bakey as Lyman Nickerson, Card Player
Bill Cross as Dembro
Richard Moll as Sloate
Chuck Mitchell as Joe Dakota, Card Player
Duane R. Campbell as Lucas, town drunk
Ivan J. Rado as Wolfgang Mieter, Miner who tunneled into Bank
David H. Banks as Delta Fox, Card Player
Tommy Bush as Deputy Sturgess
Ruth Estler as Townswoman
Norman Merrill Jr. as Bank Teller
Al Berry as Townsman
Kirk Cameron as Boy #1
Max Martini as Boy #2 (billed as Max Martin)
Plot
Bret Maverick wins a saloon in a poker game and decides to end his roving ways and settle down in Sweetwater, Arizona. He takes on as a partner the former sheriff who comes with a shady background.
Doc Holliday had been a semi-regular character on the original Maverick series, showing up twice in season 1 (played by Gerald Mohr as a serious, no-nonsense killer), and five times in seasons 4 and 5 (played by Peter Breck as a flighty, somewhat unstable con man and schemer). Here he is played by John McLiam as an old friend and fellow gambler who appears to be near the end of his life, but is looking for that one last big score. The real Doc Holliday died at the age of 36; McLiam was 63 at the time of the filming of this episode.