8.2/10239 votes#1 - War of the Silver Kings
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/1957
Bret Maverick takes down a money-hungry gambler in the town of Echo Springs. He befriends an old drunk, who turns out to be a successful judge. Maverick strikes a deal with the gambler, Phineas King, to merge the ""silver lady"" mine with ""the new hope"" mine.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Writer: N/A
7.9/10207 votes#2 - Point Blank
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/29/1957
Bret meets a delightful and cunning girl (Karen Steele). Within minutes, she makes plans for his future — a permanent plot on boot hill.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Writer: N/A
8.2/10191 votes#3 - According to Hoyle
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/6/1957
Samantha Crawford is a con artist employed by George Cross. Cross once lost $50,000 to Bret Maverick and is determined to get it back. Two riverboat owners staked Maverick $5,000 which he promptly loses to Samantha. Samantha claims Cross is her father and needs the money to get out of jail. Maverick forms a partnership with Samantha and purchases gambling equipment in a scheme to put Joe Riggs, a crooked game room owner, out of business. Samantha and Cross doublecross Maverick by selling the equipment to Riggs.
Director: Budd Boetticher
Writer: N/A
7.8/10152 votes#4 - Ghost Rider
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/13/1957
A woman who'd been traveling with Bret suddenly disappears. Looking into things he discovers that she'd been reported dead more than a week ago.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Marion Hargrove
8.1/10157 votes#5 - The Long Hunt
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/1957
Bret tries to prove the innocence of a man serving a life sentence. But there's someone who wants the prisoner to stay where he is.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: DeVallon Scott
7.7/10164 votes#6 - Stage West
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1957
Fleeing a band of angry Native Americans, Bret takes shelter in a way station where a family of nasty outlaws are planning their bloodiest deal.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
7.8/10160 votes#7 - Relic of Fort Tejon
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1957
Bret wins a camel in a card game and ends up using her to bring a crooked gambling den owner to justice.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Jerry Davis
7.6/10142 votes#8 - Hostage!
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1957
Bret Maverick meets up with brother Bart in New Orleans where they plan to obtain passage on a riverboat where big money poker games are held but end up getting involved in the kidnapping of the riverboat owner's daughter instead.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Gerald Drayson Adams
8.1/10142 votes#9 - Stampede
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/17/1957
Bret and Dandy Jim Buckley bet heavily on a boxing match but when their fighter withdraws it's up to Bret himself to step into the squared circle.
Director: Abner Biberman
Writer: Gerald Drayson Adams
7.6/10129 votes#10 - The Jeweled Gun
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/24/1957
Bart agrees to pose as the husband of a woman who's traveling through the badlands. Big mistake because he soon finds himself the target of a killer.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Roy Huggins
7.6/10138 votes#11 - The Wrecker
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/1/1957
Bart takes to the sea after buying a derelict cargo ship. The wreck is extremely valuable and he wants to know why.
Director: Franklin Adreon
Writer: N/A
8.5/10170 votes#12 - The Quick and the Dead
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/8/1957
The only person who can clear Bret of a robbery charge has been marked for death by the notorious gunfighter/gambler Doc Holliday.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Douglas Heyes
7.6/10119 votes#13 - The Naked Gallows
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/15/1957
Bart pokes his nose into an unsolved murder case and ends up facing the business end of a killer's .45.
Director: Abner Biberman
Writer: Howard Browne
7.8/10135 votes#14 - Comstock Conspiracy
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/29/1957
Arriving in the mining boom town of Virginia City, Bret gets involved with a mining engineer in his struggle for improved working conditions.
Director: Howard W. Koch
Writer: Gene Levitt
8.0/10111 votes#15 - The Third Rider
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/5/1958
Bart gets involved with two devious couples in this episode which sees him trying to clear himself of a bank robbery and a murder.
Director: Franklin Adreon
Writer: N/A
8.2/10151 votes#16 - Rage For Vengeance
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/12/1958
Bret is happy to escort a lovely widow to the bank with a large sum of cash - until he learns the money is counterfeit.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Roy Huggins, Marion Hargrove
8.4/10166 votes#17 - Rope of Cards
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/19/1958
It's shades of 12 Angry Men when Bret becomes the lone holdout for a not guilty verdict in a murder trial. He has to use a long shot card trick to convince the other jurors that the defendant might be innocent.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: N/A
8.1/10109 votes#18 - Diamond in the Rough
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/26/1958
After being beaten up, robbed, and shanghaied, Bart sets out to expose the man responsible, a respected member of San Francisco society, as a diamond swindler.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Marion Hargrove
7.6/10133 votes#19 - Day of Reckoning
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/2/1958
Fearless Bret feels it's about time someone did something about the town bully so he asks the townspeople to do something.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Carey Wilber
7.8/10116 votes#20 - The Savage Hills
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/9/1958
Against his better judgment, Bart teams up with Samantha Crawford to recover stolen Treasury plates.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Gerald Drayson Adams
7.5/10127 votes#21 - Trail West to Fury
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/16/1958
During a hellacious rainstorm the brothers Maverick relate to pal Dandy Jim Buckley about the time in Texas shortly after the Civil War when they searched far and wide for a tall man who could clear them of a murder charge.
Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Writer: Gene Levitt
8.2/10107 votes#22 - The Burning Sky
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/23/1958
In the desert, an Indian ambush leaves Bart and other stagecoach passengers to battle their attackers, each other, and the sun.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Writer: Howard Browne, Russell S. Hughes
8.1/10114 votes#23 - The Seventh Hand
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/2/1958
Samantha Crawford arranges for Bret to sit in on a high stakes poker game but he's the fall guy when the game gets robbed.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Howard Browne
7.5/1098 votes#24 - Plunder of Paradise
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/9/1958
There's gold in them thar hills, and Bart Maverick and Big Mike McComb are out to get it. But so are four nasty Mexican banditos.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Douglas Heyes
8.3/10134 votes#25 - Black Fire
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/16/1958
The heirs of millionaire General Eakins are being killed off one by one so why is Bret Maverick so worried? He's posing as one of the heirs and might be the next intended victim.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Howard Browne, Marion Hargrove
The Best Episodes of Maverick Season 1
Every episode of Maverick Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Maverick Season 1!
The Maverick boys - Bret, Bart, Beau and Brent - are a clan of well-dressed dandies, gamblers who'd much rather make their money playing cards...
Genres:ComedyWestern
Network:ABC
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"War of the Silver Kings" is the best rated episode of "Maverick" season 1. It scored 8.2/10 based on 239 votes. Directed by Budd Boetticher and written by N/A, it aired on 9/22/1957. This episode is rated 0.3 points higher than the second-best, "Point Blank".