ALL SHOOK UP: THE FATE OF BART MAVERICK

As I mentioned in an ealier post, I believe the movie adaptation of "Maverick" belongs in the TV Universe.  It's not a remake; a continuation.  Mel Gibson was playing Bret Maverick Jr. and James Garner was back in the saddle again as the original Bret.

What would have helped sell this argument would have been the appearance of Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick at some point.  But of course, that might have undermined the big reveal at the end, because Garner was supposed to be playing Sheriff Zane Cooper.  (But honestly, I would think any true 'Maverick' fan would have figured out he had to be the one and only Bret Maverick, Sr.!)

The fact that Bart Maverick wasn't at that big poker competition, looking at it from within the reality of the main TV dimension, fills me with dread.  (And I have to look at it from that perspective because the answer is known to me if looking at it from the P.O.V. of the Trueniverse - Jack Kelly, who played Brother Bart, passed away in 1992.)

One would think Bart Maverick would have answered the siren call of that marathon riverboat game.  So the only conclusion would have to be that by that time in the Toobworld timeline, he was dead, sad to say.

Bret Maverick was born April 7, 1847.  I'm not sure it was ever established, but I've always believed Bart was his older brother. 

If Bret's age wsa in comparison to that of Garner's, then the movie "Maverick" must have taken place at some point between 1903 and 1913.  (I have no problem fudging a few years, but the actor has to look like he could pull it off.  In Garner's case, I think he could have.)

I'm going to say that the movie takes place after 1907.  (I'm favoring 1913.)  Why?  In 1906, Bart Maverick took part in a very high stakes poker game in San Francisco, playing with the likes of Brady Hawkes, Bat Masterson, the grandfather of John Steed, and even President Teddy Roosevelt.  Bart was one of the first who had to drop out, admittng that he wasn't the best poker player in the Maverick family.

After the game ended (with Brady Hawkes winning the pot, natch!), the Hotel Carlton was rocked by the massive earthquake that practically leveled San Francisco in April of 1906.  And even though he left the game early, I'm afraid that there was no way Bart Maverick could have left San Francisco before the earthquake struck.

Hellz!  I doubt he even left the Carlton Hotel!  He was probably still downstairs commisserating with the other losers in the hotel bar!

I'm afraid there's no other splainin that would work as well as to why Bart Maverick never made that poker game on the Commodore's riverboat.  I'm afraid he died in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

BCnU!