Howdy!
TVShowsOnDVD has posted the cover art for the upcoming Maverick first season DVD. It looks like the cover is short one Maverick, however. :(
NOTE: The TVShowsOnDVD site originally stated that the DVD set would contain extras such as audio commentary and a featurette, but later issued a correction, saying this was in error. The DVD set will contain: DVDs. But, with JK on those DVDs, who needs extras? ;-)
STAY TUNED! :)
Posts
Sure hope Jack Kelly is on the cover at some point, too! This is the kind of thing that upsets me...just seeing JG on the cover. :(
ReplyDeleteIt's good the dvd's are coming out, though. Everyone will get to see Bart in the episodes.
-Janet T.
Maybe Season Two will feature the famous shot of Garner leaping over a hitching rail while Kelly crouches and aims a rifle. Or maybe not, since Garner's a bit less recognizable in that one, I guess. The next couple of seasons should feature them both on the cover, though, on the assumption that after people see this one, they'll know who Kelly is.
ReplyDeleteI may be misunderstanding your comment, Michael, but Jack Kelly is already well-known and recognized.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who prefer him to Garner, know he earned and deserves the credit for being "Maverick" as much as Garner, and in fact was with the show well after JG left.
-Janet T.
I don't think the issue is that folks don't know who Jack Kelly was. It's more that the Powers That Be (then) were determined to see James Garner & Jack Kelly spar for the top spot, & that "game" continues to sell to this day. Despite Jack's overwhelming popularity during the show's history (Jack was on Maverick longer than Garner), there was a sour spot from the get-go that the show had to take on that 2nd star due to production issues. Jack Kelly received more fan mail from females than Garner, in general, & to this day, his fan base--& he continues to have an extensive fan base--is still female-driven. There are some men, however, who can see why he remains popular, & that group is growing daily.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest, Mr. Powers, that you read the recent biography published on Jack? ; >
I agree with Janet and Linda, Jack Kelly was ever bit as important to Maverick as Mr. Garner and should have been included on the cover of the DVD's. Jack Kelly has a nice fan base and facebook page for fans. The biography by Linda Alexander is an excellent way to get more information on Jack Kelly's life. I recommend the book as it tells of an interesting man who was raised to become an actor, had many roles other than Maverick, became Mayor of Huntington Beach, Ca. and was a loving and devoted father. Yes, Jack Kelly should have been on the cover of Season One and should be on the remaining DVD covers for the series as well. He was the only Maverick in Season Five.
ReplyDeleteDidn't mean that Kelly doesn't deserve to be on the cover. I only meant that Kelly's largely forgotten today by the general public although us Aficionados of the series revere Kelly's contribution but Garner's still famous (if you don't believe me, start asking people who "the actor Jack Kelly" is the next time you're in a grocery store line or some other place where you can comfortably talk to strangers, then ask the same question about "the actor James Garner"). I think the best comedy or adventure team in all the annals of film was Garner and Kelly as the Mavericks, and half that unique phenomenon had to be Kelly. Like Gable & Tracy or Dressler & Beery or Page & Plant or Lennon & McCartney, the team was exponentially more than the sum of its parts. As Garner noted in PBS's superb "Pioneers of Television" vignette about the series, "...working with him made it so much easier. You could just bounce off him. Watch him act." Any discerning viewer of any age who picks up this first season DVD will know exactly what I'm talking about and it will enhance sales to have them both on the cover for the second season more than for the first. To break the ice, though, it's better marketing to have Garner on the cover by himself so his image is the only one people glancing at the cover will see since he remains more or less as famous as ever at the moment by dint of his films (two of which, Paddy Chayefsky's "The Americanization of Emily" and ensemble classic "The Great Escape," are arguably the two most entertaining war movies ever filmed) and his subsequent television series "The Rockford Files."
ReplyDeleteAs for the new books about Garner and Kelly, I'm dying to read them both and certainly will.
I do understand Kelly's popularity and hope that the series' appearance on DVDs will increase it exponentially. There were a lot of episodes on youtube recently but Time Warner is reputedly the most zealous company about pulling their copyrighted work down immediately. It would be more sensible if they uploaded a couple of choice episodes themselves as an advertisement for the DVDs.
ReplyDeleteLinda, did Kelly ever make any films or television shows with his sister Nancy? If not, why do you think he didn't, assuming there might be specific reasons? Her career arguably reached heights that his never really did, at least as far as becoming an actual movie star, and depending upon how you weigh what they did. Can't quantify the artistry of "Maverick," which surpasses even movies like "Jesse James," which was my father's favorite film; it had been unavailable since his childhood and after he came down with terminal cancer, he kept saying it would surface immediately after his death, which it did, right on schedule. He never saw it as an adult. All close-ups are reserved for Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda, though, and you can watch the whole movie repeatedly and still have only the haziest idea of what she looked like, which was one hell of a lot like her kid brother. I always found it intriguing that Kelly had his innings with being in the shadow of both a fictional sibling and an actual one. Linda, any thoughts on that?
Apropos of nothing, I live with a symphony cellist and she's practicing at the moment in the next room. I feel like I'm in heaven.