The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 234

39 if Demise of Bret Maverick' makes Darleen Carr jobless By DICK KLEINER HOLLYWOOD Among the casualties when NBC revealed its schedule for next fall was' the James Garner show "Bret Maverick." There are those whoay that the demise of'Bret Maverick" marks the official end of the TV western, at least for this cycle. For Darleen Carr, who played Mary Lou on the series, the demise was far more personal. Participating in that show was a help to her in more ways than one, and she was very optimistic that it would be renewed. We talked on the set, before the new schedule came out, and she thought, at the time, that things looked promising for a second season for the show. jf "They are writing eight scripts ahead." she said, "and they are remodeling the bar set.

That set was too big and, even when we had 50 extras, they were lost on the set, so they are making that set a little smaller and more manageable. "And we have Marj Dusay now, playing a.kind of Kitty-like character and that makes the show more interesting, too. With her running the saloon, it's a more exciting place. So I feel optimistic about next season." But, obviously, her optimism was misplaced. The Darleen Carr She says she is now going to try to organize a foundation to research Duncan's Disease, and see if a cure can be found.

"So little is known about the disease," she says, "and it is so tragic when it happens. There is a ovl lea was ui ujJjJtu, aim uai iccu vai i uiv uaiui and Ed Bruce and Marj Dusay and the others, is out of a job. She says she enjoyed the series, because she liked the character she was playing. "Mary Lou is she said. "So many of the female characters on television are victims.

But Mary Lou is not a victim. I hate to play victims, because I am not a victim myself, and so I don't like to play them." There was another reason why Darleen Carr liked working on "Bret Maverick," and will always be grateful to and for the show. 2'2-year-old son died last November, "from a rare and mysterious ailment known as Duncan's Disease. He had been sick since he was nine months old. "Having the series to do every day was a godsend to me.

It was the best thing that could have happened to me at that time. "He was Still living when we started shooting 'Bret But he was very sick. When he went to the hospital for the last time. I was working and I couldn't be with him around the clockSas I had always been before. 4 ''But Zelko husband, Zelko Megovetich was with him.

I believe there is a purpose to everything, and I think that was the purpose of my doing the series so I could handle it." possiDinty may De genetic ana so don think I will ever have any more I couldn't go through that again." Her husband is a Yugoslavia-born horse trainer, who specializes in training quarter, -and cutter uA.An cuA i i nurses, one aayo ii wao uuiaea uiui uiuugm uneiii together in the first place. "I always loved she says, so did he. Now we have a small ranch not far away; and we own a few horses, and he trains those and he also 1 trains some i fr Maybe Westerns have had it on television, but there will always be horses around the Megovetich ranch. And you won't find a prettier ranch girl anywhere than the mistress of that spread..