All times Eastern & Pacific.

In the 1950s, Warner Bros.’s TV division had an explicit policy that any series they made had to be based on some property that the studio already owned, so there would be no creator credit (and, more to their point, no creator payment). Huggins took over as producer of the Western “Cheyenne” [BTW, nominally based on a WB film which it did not noticeably resemble, undoubtedly due to that policy] very shortly after its 1955 premiere. James Garner guest starred in one episode, and so impressed Huggins that he came up with a series premise about a gambler in the West. Between knowing that he needed Garner, who was then under firm contract to Warners, for the lead, and about that policy, Huggins had to find a property in the studio’s hands that he could ostensibly base his series on. He did, worked aspects of it into his pilot script, and “Maverick” debuted in September 1957. All of that, I repeat, is in Robertson’s book.

Whatever else happened, Roy could NOT have been caught by surprise with the “77 Sunset Strip” situation. I find it more likely that Warner having purchased and filmed the novel more than a decade earlier cut Huggins out, just as whoever wrote the story that HE used for “Maverick” got nothing there for that reason (Robertson’s account effectively concedes that last bit, too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XolGoBpPgs

Sheesh…