Here's Part Two of the 1960 TV Weekly article:
"'I [JK] banged my head against a wall for two years before the thing finally equalized itself. It wasn't anyone's fault. It's just a peculiarity of the audience that it picks out one guy in shows like this and makes him No. 1. Sort of the same situation exists this time, but I really hope the same condition doesn't arise.
'After all," Kelly went on easily, "we're both in the same show getting the same exposure. And I know how hard Roger is going to have to work. When this 'top gun' business comes up about two people who are working together...well, you know what can happen.'
Actually, of course, Kelly walked out on the show only a few steps behind Garner. Warner Brothers talked him into coming back, however.
'I'd have come back anyway,' he said. 'I came back because it was the smart thing for me to do. Jim? Well, I figure he knows what he's doing.'
The question now before Kelly, Moore, Warners, ABC, et al is whether the series will be as successful without Garner was it was with him.
'I hope it won't hurt us,' Kelly shrugged. 'It don't think it will if Roger and I hit it off as well as Jim and I did. We clicked together right from the start. That's why I say now, don't call me 'top gun'.'"
Incidentally, Roger Moore had debuted as "Beau" on September 18, 1960. And, after only about a month, this Maverick cousin hadn't clicked with one viewer. They wrote to TV Weekly:"I think we should send the 'Bundle from Britain' (Roger Moore) back to the British. When are we ever going to get the Maverick situation straightened out? The program was so good, but it sure has slipped, especially since they dropped Bret."
The editor replied: "They didn't drop Bret. He dropped himself from the series. Let's give Moore a chance to fill the gap."
Of course, Roger Moore ultimately didn't fill the Maverick gap. JK ended up being the only "gun" during the series' final season, although brother Bret did appear in reruns.
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Thanks for Part II, Bartista...very interesting article.
ReplyDeleteJanet T.
Very, very interesting!
ReplyDeleteThe striking thing about Roger Moore was that he resembled Garner so closely. He looked every bit as much like the drawing at the beginning of the show as Garner did, and it was apparently a picture of Garner. Wonder what might have happened had they cast Stuart Whitman, who'd been up for Kelly's Bart part in '57, instead of Moore when Garner left. He looked eerily like Garner at the time, you almost have to see it to believe it. Never thought of that before. I have a feeling Whitman and Kelly would've been great together.
The chemistry between Kelly and Moore never approached the Garner/Kelly partnership, unfortunately, although it certainly wasn't bad. It didn't help that the scripts were so much weaker, and without Huggins' editorail polish so evident during the first two seasons.
We were talking about Kelly being accorded reduced stature in that recent PBS show about "Maverick." The worse injustice was to leave Huggins completely out of it.
The last time I commented here I said I'd shut up for a while. Can't, though, in the face of a post this fascinating. Viva Bartista!
(Someone should have Robert Colbert comment, I think he's still alive and kicking, and he could be Brentisto.)
How interesting that Jack Kelly followed James Garner out the door during Garner's contract dispute with Warner Brothers; I'm sure he appreciated Jack's support. But Roger Moore was so miscast in the role of Beau Maverick that it wasn't funny. Even back in the mid-1970's, when the reruns aired on a local station and I finally watched the entire series from start of finish, my enthusiam for it cooled so much whenever Moore appeared onscreen that I skipped those episodes for Jack's. I was also puzzled when, after Beau inexplicably disappeared from the show, a new Maverick sib, Brent, suddenly appeared out of the blue, dressed in Bret's clothes; I was like, "Huh? Where'd he come from?" Even more surprising was when he vanished after only two episodes. It's been just recently that I learned the story of Robert Colbert's two episode stay on "Maverick". The poor guy didn't want to do it in the first place and I could see why, as James Garner's "Maverick" boots were simply too big for anybody to fill. As Roger Moore found out after appearing in only 15 episodes.
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