THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - THE BART MAVERICK LINE(S)

In the Facebook page celebrating actor Jack Kelly and the book about him by Linda Alexander, the focus is of course on his role as Bart Maverick in ‘Maverick’.

In December of last year, one of the page administrators, Sharon Viljoen, shared a spate of colorized publicity pictures of Bart Maverick with a handful of his leading ladies from various episodes.  (And many of those loverly ladies proved to be just that – a handful!)

STELLA LEGENDRE
"THE GOOSE DROWNDER"
(FAY SPAIN)

BELLE MORGAN
"BRASADA SPUR"
(JULIE ADAMS)

DAISY HARRIS aka DAISY HASKELL
"THE JEWELED GUN"
(KATHLEEN CROWLEY)

JANET KILMER
"THE THIRTY-NINTH STAR"
(BETHEL LESLIE)

VIRGINIA CORY
"THE NAKED GALLOWS"
(JEANNE COOPER)

LINDA
THE LASS WITH THE POISONOUS AIR"
(JOANNA MOORE)

MODESTY BLAINE
"ONE OF OUR TRAINS IS MISSING"
(KATHLEEN CROWLEY)

MYRA
"YOU CAN'T BEAT THE PERCENTAGE"
(KAREN STEELE)

SYDNEY SUE "FRENCHY" SHIPLEY
"HIGH CARD HANGS"
(LILYAN CHAUVIN)

I’m writing this up back in December of 2018 and for alls I know, Sharon has even more portraits to offer.  But for the sake of this post, I’m going with that original handful of “heroines”.

As many in Team Toobworld are probably aware, I treat what I see on TV as being its own reality.  And as such, I don’t hold to the strictures of either the scripts nor the times in which the series was originally broadcast.  And there are plenty of times in each episode – of any TV show when it comes to that! – when we just don’t see what is going on in a character’s life.  This would include not only the edits that mark a passage of time but also what goes on while the commercials are interrupting.

So who’s to argue that Bart Maverick was better than any other man?  I don’t think he would even try to make that claim.

Therefore, Bart Maverick could be seen as the Amos Burke, Sam Malone, Fonzie, and Martin Tupper of the Old West, giving James T. West a run for his money when it comes to capturing the title of “Playa of the Plains”.

As such, it would certainly provide plenty of fodder for quite a slew of theories of relateeveeties.  And there were plenty of Jack Kelly characters throughout the 1960s and the 1970s who could be considered as descendants of Bart  Maverick.  (The strong genetic imprint of his DNA passed down intact over several generations would be quite the giveaway.)  None of those future Jack Kelly roles would need to share any more of a bloodline than to have Bart as their great-grandfather or grandfather.
 
Among those characters would be Arthur Ryan of ‘Get Christie Love!’, Jack O’Shea in a couple of ‘Batman’ episodes, and Harry Hammond of the Hardy Boys half of ‘The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries’.
Happy trails to you!

O'BSERVATION:
I'll have more about two of these actresses and their characters on 'Maverick' in other posts this month.