Curtis Perry Outtake: Ford Maverick – Feeling Blue
– Posted on April 22, 2020
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Toss me the keys, I’ll drive it.
It’s a stick!
How can you tell? I’m usually pretty good with details but I’m not seeing any telltale signs regarding the type of transmission –
The house is definitely stick based.
Ernest Painter was my very good fifth-grade math teacher. He had a great big white wizard’s beard and a commanding voice with which he called class to order each day: “Seated and quiet!”. He smelt of menthol cigarettes, and—like all my good teachers—didn’t take no crap from nobody, not even me.
He drove a Maverick.
Ironically, I had a Maverick in the mid to late 70’s that was a sky blue much closer to the color of the trim on the house than to the car (although perhaps mine would look the same as this one were it still around).
I hope not, for safety’s sake. That car frequently felt like each one of its corners wanted to go in a different direction.
Wonderful phrase. I had a ’74 Maverick, also sky blue, and it felt the same way. Uncomfortable seat, uncertain handling, but never failed.
I watched several episodes of Emergency! the other evening, and noted that in two scenes several seasons apart, Maverick drivers pulled over promptly and safely to let Squad 51 and Engine 51 pass while on call. Were Maverick owners more courteous? 🙂
They are when they’re paid $50 as extras to pull over on camera 🙂
Where is Emergency being aired? It was on Netflix a few years ago, very nice to see it in HiDef, great show that took place in my (old) neck of the woods, great to see the on-road scenery.
The full series has been available on DVD for several years.
Even as a kid, the realism of Emergency! (thanks to Jack Webb), made the show vastly more watchable than CHiPS. I’ve been watching episodes from 1976, and notice a lot of Ford product placements.
Talk about coincidence, but the ’69 Olds 98 posting today shows a cast of “characters” from the 1969 brochure, and I’m betting that the “cowboy” shown is none other than Robert Fulller aka Dr. Brackett from Emergency. Hopefully, he isn’t living in the house with the Maverick!
You’re right, he does look like Robert Fuller, with Lou Ferrigno eyebrows (in the photo shoot). 🙂 I checked at the IMDB and Wikipedia, and no mention of Mr. Fuller appearing in that Olds ad campaign. He does look convincing.
My wife and I love Emergency. We are working our way through the series for the umpteenth time now. Lots of good car spotting. Many scenes of the squad driving through the streets of LA are reused many times. One of my favorites shows a Toyota(?) wagon parked on the side of the street with both of it’s passenger side doors open.
I have read that in the episode where Johnny and Roy trade cars they used the actors personal cars. Randolph Mantooth had a Land Rover and Kevin Tighe had a Porsche. Tighe’s Porsche can be spotted in the background of several scenes throughout the series.
I also thought that the Cowboy in the Olds ad may be Robert Fuller.
The Maverick four-door sedan was the preferred ride of Henry Fonda, who portrayed Detective Sgt. Chad Smith, patriarch of “The Smith Family.”
There is an odor of Marlboro Reds, Schlitz, and general despair about that image.
Hahaha! +1 – And I love it / these for that very reason.
I don’t know if it’s the skill of the photographer, the general setting or perhaps I’m coming down with something, but this may be the first Maverick that actually looks halfway decent to me, rust spots and all.
I wonder where that is, sort of looks like Ferndale, CA or similar area.
I like the picture, but never cared much for the Maverick. Ford did have a great marketing campaign with this reworked Falcon.
I like the state decrepitude the house & car are in. If this is in CA my guess would be in far north in the Cascades like Yreka?
Upon first glance, I thought maybe someone had done a meticulous masking of trim with blue painter’s tape in preparation for a fresh white spray job on the house. On closer look, perhaps not.
It appears that it’s the car’s turn for a repaint. I might suggest a shade that goes better with the house?
I’d love to have one like your posted picture!! 🙂
Me too! But it would have have Cougar/T-bird tail lights.
Yes the decrepitude is palpable. Kind of like the owner hasn’t been seen in months and has actually expired in his lazyboy chair…
These days that’s probably a fate that awaits many of us.
Count me among the fans of Mr. Perry’s work. This particular photo just screams “blue collar small town America.” He really has a knack for this sort of thing.
My late elementary school crossing guard, Mrs. Steckl, and her Maverick. Picture taken in 1985. I don’t think I’ve seen a running/driving Ford Maverick on the road since then.
Nice patina! Ready for Bring A Trailer! Should bring $12K.
Classic shot…love it
As for the Maverick, no car looked worse with its 5 mph bumpers. Had a friend whose Dad got a new one of these (same color/config as this one)…even as a 12 year old I was embarrassed to be seen in such poor style! Today, would be fun to take for a ride.
“So, uhh, bob, I see you put blue masking tape around all the trim, you ever going to actually get around to repainting the siding? It’s been, let me check my watch, 3 years, 7 months now.”
Ha! Exactly what I thought. Perhaps they’re getting ready to spray paint the house?
(nah…probably not…)
While I was in high school, our neighbour had a Maverick, about a 1971 I’d guess, a complete stripper, three on the tree, dog dish wheel covers, no radio, the thing was lucky to have been painted. He made decent enough money, he worked on the line at the Ford plant in Oakville. The fellow’s summer pastime on Sundays was to spend the afternoons in the backyard on his lawn chair with a bottle of cheap vodka. We learned to let our privet hedge grow a bit higher.
Interesting that the Maverick never really had one restyle during its 8 year run. The ‘77 basically looks just like the ‘70.
The Maverick was a HUGE hit when introduced in April ‘69 as a 1970 model. A staggering 579,000 were sold in the extended model year, which came close to the first year sales of the Mustang. The long hood/short deck looked fresh and modern and Ford backed it with heavy advertising. Had a friend who bought one new. Pretty spartan. Didn’t even have a glove box, but did have factory A/C. Had the 200 c.u.six, which was an option.
I had two Mavericks.. a 70 Grabber and a 73 Grabber. The 70 had the 200; the 73 had the 250. The 70 was an early iteration with the Mach1 3-spoke woodgrain rim-blow steering wheel. No power anything. Vinyl bench.
The 73 had power steering and brakes, buckets, and OMG a glove box.
They were simple cars… very easy to work on. Zero quality issues. The biggest issues were my efforts as a teenager try to kill the 70… high speed, fast turns, neutral slams… a Mustang it wasn’t. I learned a lot about car maintenance and repair from my shenanigans. Great memories.
Wow, a 1999 CA reg sticker in the proper location, and a 2004 sticker in the MONTH spot
They have disappeared off the road, which is probably okay. I drove a few and they were mangy cars, horrible steering, horrible brakes and, well, horrible. One was orange with manual brakes; I think I’m still mashing on that brake pedal….