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James Garner is one of the most iconic Western stars of all time on the small screen, having played poker player Bret Maverick in the hit 1950s series “Maverick.” However, a decade after that series ended, Garner put his spurs back on for a new western, but the one-season ’70s series, “Nichols,” was not as successful.
Garner left “Maverick” after three seasons, and there was tension between him and the studio behind the hit western, Warner Bros. He spent the remainder of the decade primarily starring in Western films, with only a handful of television spots where he appeared largely in his own role. By the early ’70s, however, Garner and the studio had apparently reconciled, and he took the title role in “Nichols.”
The show was different from your typical western; rather than being set in the Wild West of the late 1800s, the NBC series was set in 1914. The characters don’t just ride horses, they ride motorcycles. Garner’s Nichols returns to his somewhat more modern and industrialized hometown to discover that a rival family has all but taken over the place. Future Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder played her love interest, while the late Stuart Margolin played her sidekick. Margolin and Garner would later star in “The Rockford Files” in the 1970s.
James Garner was so frustrated with Nichols’ failure that he killed the main character in the finale.
“Nichols” faced problems from the start despite James Garner’s previous success as the lead in a popular television western. In fact, as the author explains in his autobiography “The Garner Files: A Memoir”, his success in “Maverick” ultimately worked against the new series. Chevrolet was supposed to sponsor the series, but the automaker withdrew its support after the wife of one of the executives complained “It’s not ‘Maverick'” following a screening at Chevrolet headquarters in Detroit. Chevrolet chose to sponsor only half of the series.
The hits kept coming. Coverage of the 1972 presidential election topped a third of the season’s 24 episodes. NBC moved the show to a new night in the middle of the season, but even not changing the name to “James Garner as Nichols” in an explicit attempt to cash in on his Western stardom made no difference. Although Garner says “Nichols” posted admirable numbers when it aired opposite the top-rated TV show at the time, “Marcus Welby, MD,” the network gave him the axe.
“I was so angry and disappointed that I decided to kill Nichols in the last episode,” Garner wrote. His character is shot in the opening sequence, only for Nichols’ twin brother, Jim Nichols (also played by Garner), to ride into town to avenge his brother. Despite the failure of the series and a somewhat trolled ending, Garner really likes the series. “In my mind, ‘Nichols’ is right up there with ‘Maverick’ and ‘Rockford,'” he wrote.
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