I recorded the first dozen Maverick shows and have been watching them the last couple of days. They are of extraordinary high quality considering they were filmed in 1957.
They actually wrote good stories. They had an episode where Bret Maverick was helping a cowboy named Waco Williams. If you remember the Rockford Files episodes with Lance White you will like this. Waco does about everything wrong and still comes up on top while at the end James Garner admits he may have been the one who was doing everything wrong.
Waco stirs up trouble. Shoots dead the son of a rancher who tried to kill him and wounds the father and with Mavericks help kills 2 more. He winds up getting the ranchers daughter as his wife because the father thinks Waco is man enough for her.
Wiki: “The Saga of Waco Williams” is a critical favorite which paired Preston with James Garner, as Bret Maverick, and drew more viewers than any other Maverick episode and remains one of Preston’s career milestones. Tom Selleck’s recurring comical character of Lance White in NBC’s later The Rockford Files, starring James Garner, is loosely based by writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell upon Waco Williams
Wayde Preston play Waco.