Maverick
The Cactus Switch
TV Flash files “The Cactus Switch” as hour 97 of 124 in the TV Flash guide — Maverick (1957–1962) on ABC, season 4, episode 18, aired 1961-01-15, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E18: listed hour 97 of 124 in the Maverick guide, hour 18 of 32 in season 4. It aired 1961-01-15 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Family Pride” (S04E17). Next is “Dutchman's Gold” (S04E19).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Thinking all's well with the world after he cleans up in a card game, Bart offers to help a troubled young woman.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Cactus Switch sit in the Maverick guide?
S04E18 is listed hour 97 of 124 — hour 18 of 32 in season 4, season 4 episode 18.
When did Maverick S04E18 air?
The Cactus Switch aired 1961-01-15 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with James Garner's Bret — cards before bullets is the brief. Get the wink before you worry about later lead changes.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Maverick is the western that winked: James Garner's gambler hero preferring cards to bullets, charm as a substitute for machismo. Watch it in 2026 as Garner's star-making vehicle and a classic studio-system rebellion tale — the Warner Bros. contract fight still reads as the coolest walkout in cowboy clothes.
Flash: a poker table where the rest of the night is still glaring, a gambler who would rather fold than pose, and a Warner Bros. contract already waiting to be a walkout. ABC's *Maverick* (1957–1962), 124 episodes, five seasons, Roy Huggins's western that winked. James Garner as Bret Maverick, Jack Kelly as brother Bart, later Roger Moore as cousin Beau and Robert Colbert as Brent. Charm and irony did the shooting. **The coolest walkout in cowboy clothes is the story.**
Filed against
- James Garner as Bret Maverick
James Garner’s Jim Rockford answered machines, drove a beat-up Firebird, and made PI work look exhaustingly human on The Rockford Files. Anti-hardboiled charm aged into pure cool; studio lawsuits became Hollywood lore. On TV Flash he is…
- Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick
Jack Kelly’s Bart Maverick dealt the western that winked — cards before bullets, charm as a substitute for machismo, a 1950s Warner gambler hour that preferred a bluff to a brawl. Brotherly heat beside James Garner’s smile. TV Flash files…
- Roger Moore as Beau Maverick
Roger Moore’s Beau Maverick practiced raised-eyebrow charm on the western that winked, then haloed Simon Templar on The Saint — Leslie Charteris’s globetrotting rogue, ITC suave without gadget overkill, white cars as a lifestyle. Garner’s…
- Robert Colbert as Brent Maverick
Robert Colbert’s Brent Maverick shuffled into the western that winked — James Garner’s gambler preferring cards to bullets, charm as anti-machismo — then took The Young and the Restless’s Genoa City glamour as a 1970s soap strategy.…