Some Maverick Chronology

"Ghost Rider", 13 October 1957, the fourth episode of the first season, is set in White Rock, a town that seems to be in Texas since Mary Shane mentions traveling from Montana to Texas. Bret Maverick meets Mary Shane one night, and then is told that Mary died nine days ago. The next morning Bret rides out to where he saw her last with his coat, and finds his coat, and also sees her tombstone saying that she died on June 3, 1872. So Bret should meet Mary on June 12, and the episode should continue on June 13 and 14, 1872.

Episode 6, of season 1, "Stage West", 27 October 1957, involves Sioux Indians chasing Bret from the Black Hills to stop him talking about the gold someone found. That would be pointless after the gold rush there started in late 1874 and early 1875.

"The Jeweled Gun", 24 November 1957, the tenth episode of the first season, features a funeral with a tombstone with a death date in 1876, and narration saying that the funeral was on a Wednesday afternoon in May, 1876, which means that the funeral should have happened May 3, 10, 17, 24, or 31, 1876.

The third episode of season two, ""Alias Bart Maverick", 5 October 1858, has Gentleman Jack Darby and Cindy Lou Brown flee through Sioux territory with Bart Maverick in pursuit. This is very probably the trip to Deadwood mentioned in "Passage to Fort Doom", and so should happen after Deadwood was founded in early 1876 and before the later episode in 1878.

The ninth episode of season two, "The Thirty-Ninth Star", 16 November 1968, apparently began in Colorado near Denver on July 4th, in the centennial year, and thus on July 4, 1876. Suggested by the famous movie Winchester '73 (1950), I guess. Bart mentions that he hasn't been in Colorado before, although in "the Jeweled Gun" he had taken a stagecoach in May, 1876, from New Mexico to Laramie, Wyoming, which should have taken him through Colorado.

I note that the 4th of July prediction that there would be 39 stars in the flag next 4th of July never came true. There were 38 stars in the US flag from the 4th of July 1877 to the 4th of July 1890, when the number of stars jumped to 43.

The twenty third episode of season two, "Passage to Fort Doom", 8 March 1959, shows tombstones for two characters killed near the end showing they died in June, 1878. Bart Maverick and Cindy Lou Brown separately join a wagon train headed for Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, a trip they say they made before.

Episode seven of season three, "Full House", had Bret Maverick meet a bunch of famous western outlaws. The only year when the criminal careers of seven of those outlaws overlapped was 1878, but the 8th outlaw, Cole Younger, was arrested and in jail late in 1876 and didn't get out of prison until 1901, when the other outlaws were dead or retired. So "Full House" could only happen in the wild west and not the real west of history.

Episode nine of season three, "The Ghost Soldiers", 8 November, 1959, happens after the Black Hills Gold Rush began in late 1874 and when people fear that a war could break out with the Sioux Indians, making it before the Great Sioux War began in March 1876 - at least in the real west instead of the reel one.

Episode eleven in season three, "A Fellow's Brother", 22 November 1959, involves several persons seeking revenge for the deaths of their brothers, according to the "code of the west" followed in this episode.

The tombstone of one of murdered brother has a death date of June, 1875.

So in season three both "The Ghost Soldiers" and "A Fellow's Brother" seem to happen in 1875, which is the year before the first season episode "The Jeweled Gun" happening in May, 1876. And Bart Maverick appears in both "The Jeweled Gun" and "A Fellow's Brother", proving that Bart's episodes were not aired in fictional date order.

The seventeenth episode in the fourth season, "Family Pride", 8 January 1961, allegedly happens in 1875. Wikipedia's list of episodes says: "... An early plot point involves standard time, which was not introduced to the United States until 1883, eight years after the 1875 setting for this episode."

So "Family Pride" should happen a year before "The Jeweled Gun" which aired three seasons earlier.

Episode 23 of season 4, "Flood's Folly", 19 February 1961, begins with Beau Maverick travelling through mountains to Denver, & thus probably in western Colorado. Beau takes refuge from a snowstorm in a mountain hotel nicknamed "Flood's Folly". The backside of a jigsaw puzzle is signed and dated in 1875 - June 1875 I think - is said to be a year earlier, putting the episode in 1876.

So fictional dates of Maverick episodes must not be in the order they were produced and broadcast, but instead jump around the decade of the 1870s. And no doubt other Maverick episodes give other examples of that.

See also: https://moviechat.org/tt0050037/Maverick/5b5b52f655d3a000146bf8c6/The-Maverick-Universe