TV URBAN LEGEND: Warner Bros. used some sneaky tactics to effectively "steal" the rights to the iconic TV character, Maverick, from his creator.
One of the all-time greatest TV screenwriters and producers was Roy Huggins. Huggins was such a prolific writer that he often used a pseudonym, John Thomas James (the names of his children), on the shows that he worked on, as Huggins had the belief that the audience would be wary if they saw the same name writing all the episodes of the show. Huggins was so successful and such an in-demand writer that he even worked out provisions where "John Thomas James" would get perks, as well, just to see if he could (as after all, John Thomas James was now ALSO a seemingly very prolific writer with a number of credits on popular shows). I did a TV legend once about how Huggins even got "James" his own parking space.
Huggins first came to fame working for Warner Bros. Television in the late 1950s. However, his experience working with Warner Bros. was so sour that he not only stopped working for them, but soon came up with one of the most memorable writer contracts in the history of television, to the point where it is simply referred to as "The Huggins Contract." Learn what rather sketchy behavior Warner Bros. did to essentially "steal" Huggins' creations from him, thus forcing him to create the most powerful writer contract in television to later protect himself.
WHAT WAS MAVERICK AND HOW DID ROY HUGGINS COME TO CREATE IT?
As I've discussed in the past, Walt Disney's Disneyland, specifically its Davy Crockett sub-series, was a game-changer in the world of television. Not only did it essentially launch the deluge of westerns on television, the overall success of the Disney-branded series (one of two shows that Disney launched to help pay for the development of his then-new amusement park, Disneyland, the other being The Mickey Mouse Club) led to networks trying to see if other movie studios were interested in following suit with similar programming. In 1955, Warner Bros. launched a television division, and its first series, Warner Bros. Presents, debuted in 1956. The series rotated between TV shows based on Warner Bros. properties like Casablanca and one new western show, Cheyenne. The programs would also air 10-minute promotions for upcoming Warner Bros. movies. Cheyenne was a smash hit, and Warner Bros. decided to relaunch a new series called Conflict (which was basically Warner Bros. Presents under a different name), and have it rotate with Cheyenne every week.
Conflict would be used to launch new shows, and Warner Bros. asked Roy Huggins, one of the best writers on Cheyenne, to come up with a new show. Huggins was not a fan of Cheyenne, feeling that it was a generic western, so his idea for a new show was to do almost the opposite approach of Cheyenne. He later recalled, “I kept saying to my close friends that I wanted to do a series about a guy who was not a Western hero. If any pretty girl ran up to Cheyenne and said, ‘Oh, I need help.’ He would say, ‘What do you need?’ I wanted a guy who if a pretty woman ran up to him and said, ‘I need help.’ He would say, ‘The sheriff’s office is right over there.’ Or, if someone came in running into the saloon and said, ‘Hey, so-and-so … is out there looking for you.’ Now, Cheyenne would check his holster and walk out. Maverick would go out the rear window. I said that’s the kind of Western I want to do.”
And thus, the gambling anti-hero Maverick was born, with a young James Garner gaining the lead of the series, Bret Maverick (soon, Jack Kelly would be added to the series as Bart Maverick, Bret's brother. This allowed the show to shoot two episodes at a time. The scripts would be written for a generic "Maverick," and Garner would get first dibs on the best scripts, with Kelly doing the rest).
Warner Bros. loved the idea....perhaps TOO much.
HOW DID WARNER BROS. "STEAL" MAVERICK FROM HUGGINS?
Huggins had already written the pilot episode, "Point Blank," a twisty, almost crime noir story, when he was informed by Warner Bros. that all new shows had to be based on properties that Warner Bros. already owned, so that the show would be considered created by Warner Bros., not Huggins, and thus he would not be owed royalties. Huggins obviously hated that idea, but was still early in his career, so he went along with it, finding a book that Warner Bros. had optioned called War of the Copper Kings and adapted it into an episode of Maverick, with the first episode of Maverick being called "The War of the Silver Kings."
Maverick was a hit, so Huggins had enough of a reputation that he was able to avoid having to base his next show, 77 Sunset Strip, on a Warner Bros. property, so it seemed like he was going to be in the clear for ownership and royalties-sake, but then Warner Bros. came up with ANOTHER way to strip him of his rights (I detailed their plot in an old TV Legends Revealed). Well, as the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me," and so Huggins quit working for Warner Bros. and then came up with the "Huggins contract," which stated that Huggins would maintain ownership of the rights to any program that he originated, even if he was not actively involved in the actual production of the property – all he needed was to actually come up with the IDEA for the show.
Huggins created the acclaimed series, The Fugitive, under the "Huggins contract," and thus, decades later, Huggins owned the property when it was remade into a blockbuster movie in 1993, netting Huggins millions. Therefore, while he was taken advantage of a bit early in his career, it all worked out in the end.
The legend is...
STATUS: True
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