• Source: Shady Deal at Sunny Acres
  • "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres", starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, remains one of the most famous and widely discussed episodes of the Western comedy television series Maverick. Written by series creator Roy Huggins (teleplay) and Douglas Heyes (story) and directed by Leslie H. Martinson, this 1958 second-season episode depicts gambler Bret Maverick (James Garner) being swindled by a crooked banker (John Dehner) after depositing the proceeds from a late-night poker game. He then surreptitiously recruits his brother Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) and a host of other acquaintances to mount an elaborate sting operation to recover the money.
    As Huggins noted during a lengthy discussion of the episode in his Archive of American Television interview, the first half of the 1973 movie The Sting seems based on Huggins' script. While Bart and all of the series' recurring characters join forces to energetically flim-flam the banker ("....if you can't trust your banker, who can you trust?"), Bret sits whittling in a rocking chair across the street from the bank every day, responding to the amused and patronizing queries of the local townspeople curious about how he plans to recover his money, "I'm working on it."
    "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" was generally the first episode that Garner mentioned in interviews.
    The episode is also the only one featuring brief appearances by all five of the series' early semi-regular recurring characters: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Dandy Jim Buckley, Diane Brewster as Samantha Crawford, Leo Gordon as Big Mike McComb, Richard Long as Gentleman Jack Darby, and Arlene Howell as Cindy Lou Brown. It proved to be the final series appearance for both Samantha and Dandy Jim because they were each working full-time on new series, Zimbalist in 77 Sunset Strip and Brewster as the schoolteacher in Leave It to Beaver. Additionally, for Gentleman Jack and Cindy, it was their only appearance in an episode in which Bret also appeared, although they shared not a single scene with Bret—all their dealings on Maverick were with Bart.


    Cast


    James Garner as Bret Maverick
    Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick
    John Dehner as Bates the banker
    Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Dandy Jim Buckley
    Diane Brewster as Samantha Crawford
    Leo Gordon as Big Mike McComb
    Richard Long as Gentleman Jack Darby
    Arlene Howell as Cindy Lou Brown
    Regis Toomey as Ben Granville
    Karl Swenson as Sheriff Griffen
    Joan Young as Susan Granville
    Irving Bacon as Employee
    Val Benedict as Cowhand
    Earle Hodgins as Plunkett
    Jonathan Hole as Desk Clerk
    J. Pat O'Malley as Ambrose Callahan
    Syd Saylor as 1st Townsman
    Leon Tyler as Henry Hibbs
    Edwin Reimers as Announcer (voice)


    See also


    "Duel at Sundown"
    List of Maverick episodes
    Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace
    The Rockford Files


    References




    External links



    Shady Deal at Sunny Acres in the Internet Movie Database
    Shady Deal at Sunny Acres in TV Guide.com
    Shady Deal at Sunny Acres in TV.com
    Reviews of "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres"
    Roy Huggins' Archive of American Television Interview
    Stephen J. Cannell's Archive of American Television explanation of Huggins' approach
    Museum of Broadcast Communications: Maverick Archived September 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
    James Garner's Archive of American Television Interview
    The Paley Center for Media

Kata Kunci Pencarian: