THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE MAVERICKS & THE NICHOLSES

Recently, Sharon Viljoen posted several pictures of Jack Kelly in the Facebook page "A Maverick Life: Fans of Jack Kelly" which show the actor in an episode of 'BJ And The Bear'.  (Those photos are throughout this post.)

Here's what Sharon wrote about it:

In the first episode of 'B.J. and the Bear' that Jack did - "The Murphy Contingent" in 1979 - he played a Federal Agent named Nichols.  This time he was a good guy.

From TV.com:
Facing eviction from their community center, a group of Vietnam veterans devise a plan to raise money, but B.J. disapproves.

Normally, this episode wouldn't have triggered my toobey-sense, but it's that name for his character, you see. 

Nichols.....

From the IMDb:

In 1914, Nichols, a soldier sick of killing, returns to his Arizona hometown named after his family, and is strong-armed into serving as Sheriff by the Ketcham clan, who run the area. Nichols, who doesn't believe in toting a gun, scoots around via a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The Ketchams install as Deputy their relative, Mitch Mitchell. The nasty Deputy has a dog named Slump, and Mitchell is very dumb. A business-savvy local gal has an undefined relationship with Nichols, but it's obvious there's lots of action in the back rooms of her saloon. The strict moral lines of traditional Westerns are absent in this very Vietnam War era show's view of the Old West's dying days: the Ketchams aren't all bad, and little-respected Sheriff Nichols wouldn't mind ripping off the town to head for Mexico.

A theory of relateeveety would seem O'Bvious.  Sheriff Nichols did a lot of living by that point in 1914 when he quit the Army.  He was born around 1870 and being the good-looking cad that he was, he probably played Johnny Appleseed with many a lass in the Old West, and it wasn't apples he was planting....

And that would have been good enough for a theory of relateeveety ordinarily during this traditional salute to the TV Westerns every August.  But I have another O'Bservation to make....

I've always maintained that Nichols and Bret Maverick were related.  Bret's Pappy, Beauregard Maverick, had an eye for the ladies as well.  So I would not have any problem with the idea that he sired a few more kids besides Bret and Bart.  The unjustly derided Brent Maverick would be a case in point.

For example, it could be that in the 'Maverick' episode "Pappy", he wasn't just engaged to marry eighteen-year-old Josephine St. Cloud, but that he already - shall we say - staked a claim on her, although neither one of them knew it at the time.  Who knows what happened after Josephine married Dan Jamison?  Did she give birth to a dark-haired baby and pass it off as Dan's?

[One day I'd like to search out other characters named Jamison, hoping to find a tall, dark-haired stranger for whom I could make the claim that Beauregard Maverick was in his family tree.]

But we're talking about the Nichols line right now.  It's going to be my theory of relateeveety that Pappy Maverick visited Nichols, Arizona, in 1869 and by the time he left, at least one woman in town was carrying his child.

The one who gave birth to the Nichols we knew either was a Nichols girl who gave birth out of wedlock, or she was married to one of the Nichols family on whom she cheated with Pappy.

In either situation, young Nichols probably didn't have a happy family life growing up and I think he was gone as soon as he could get away.

I don't know if it was nature or nurture, but it seems likely that Young Nichols was an amiable charmer who showed he had a way with the ladies.  

And so I think at some point in his twenties, at least by the time he was thirty, Nichols saddled a young woman with child.  It could be the reason he ran off to join the Army; to avoid the responsibility.  But I think he married her and then abandoned her.  

That child, a boy, grew up to be the father of that federal agent Nichols.  (Like his grandfather, he was known to us only by his first name.)

And we can see that the theoretical connection to the Mavericks is sound - the same DNA sequence for Bentley Maverick and his nephew Bartley were echoed in Agent Nichols.

So there you are.  A theory of relateeveety that posits Beauregard Maverick as Agent Nichols' great-grandfather and Sheriff Nichols as his grandfather.

As for other Toobworld citizens who resemble a movie actor named Jack Kelly ("Forbidden Planet", "To Hell And Back"), I go back a few generations to Beauregard Maverick.  As I stated, I think he had more than one illegitimate child besides Sheriff Nichols and Brent Maverick. 

There are also those children sired by Pappy's brother Bentley Maverick.  He could have sired several daughters who would go on to marry men named Hammond, Ryan, and O'Shea.  And along with the boys who would carry on those family names, they would have daughters who would go on to marry men with names like Devlin, Baker, Elkwood, Donner, Wayne (perhaps from Gotham City?), and even a Kelly!

And let's not forget Bret's brother (and Brent's half-brother) Bart Maverick.  Who knows how many family trees began with him?

This plethora of sources from the American Old West could account for so many characters who resembled Jack Kelly.

Would it be possible to continue tracking the future generations of the Nichols lineage in Toobworld without Jack Kelly and James Garner around anymore.  Yes, but we can't rely on the power of tele-genetics any longer for the double vision resemblances.  But the argument can be made for others named Nichols to be related to Agent Nichols.

Take for example NYPD Detective Zachary Nichols.  Agent Nichols was 25 years of age when Zach was born, a normal age to start having kids if my own family history is any indication.  (Then again, nothing about my birth could be considered normal.)

But there you are - one last theory of relateeveety for Clan Nichols:

• Beauregard "Pappy" Maverick
• Sheriff Nichols
• Agent Nichols' Father
• Agent Nichols
• Detective Zachary Nichols

Pretty impressive bloodline, I'd say!

TV SHOWS CITED:

• 'B.J. And The Bear'
• 'Maverick'
• 'Nichols'
• 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'
• 'Get Christie Love!"
• 'The Hardy Boys Mysteries'
• 'Batman'
• 'Quincy, M.E.'
• 'Here's Lucy'
• 'The Fall Guy'
• 'McCloud'
• 'Banacek'

Happy trails!

A tip of the Stetson to Sharon Viljoen for the inspiration for this theory of relateeveety by supplying those pictures.  If you're a fan of Jack Kelly, why not check out the Facebook page "A Maverick Life: Fans of Jack Kelly"?