The New Maverick is a 1978 TV film with James Garner reprising his role as Bret Maverick. The script is by Juanita Bartlett and direction by Hy Averback.
It was a pilot for Young Maverick, starring Charles Frank as Ben Maverick. Ben is the son of Beau, who was played by Roger Moore. I didn't care for Ben much at all and that saves me 25 smackaroonies. I was waffling on buying the DVD set, now I don't have to wonder, it's off the Wish List. I did buy, and have to watch at some point, the follow up series Bret Maverick. James Garner reprises his role as Bret in this 1981 show. It only lasted the one season of 18 episodes.
The New Maverick is pretty much the same old Maverick. The story is a typical Maverick story but not as good as one of the best ones. Bret and Ben meet up for the first time in many years. Ben is owed $1000 by Bart and he figures Bret should give him the money. Bret won't pay up so Ben steals it from Bret's secret stash. They are a weird family. Bart is played by Jack Kelly, who only appears near the end of the movie.
The local big shot rail man colludes with a scummy guy to steal some gattling guns from a train. The train big shot has political ambition, his idea is they steal the guns, hide them, and he finds them. Thus gaining some cred with the locals. The Army offers a reward and everyone fights over that. It's more complicated than it should be, the story lines keep bumping into each other. It looks nice but it's not going to get my attention any time soon. So far I'd just watch a few favorites from the original series and skip the rest.
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