The Rifleman – A Ripping Good Western

by Guy Belleranti

The 1950’s and 1960’s saw a huge number of westerns come and go on television. Many are forgotten today, but a few are still seen in reruns on various television cable stations.

Some were half an hour in length and others were longer. One of the best of the half hour length westerns was The Rifleman.

Filmed in sparkling and atmospheric black and white The Rifleman ran from 1958 to 1963. In all, 168 episodes were made.

Chuck Connors starred as Lucas McCain, a widower with a son, Mark (played by Johnny Crawford). The McCains lived on a ranch outside the fictional town of North Fork in the New Mexico territory.

McCain was an honest, hard-working man who stood up for others against gunslingers, cheats and just plain evil bad guys. He was a good father to Mark, and taught his son both from the “Good Book” and by example. The stories emphasized the warm love father and son had for one another.

The program was called The Rifleman because often the show ended with McCain having to use his rifle to defend the innocent. McCain was anything but trigger happy, but sometimes the granite faced, 6’5” man had no choice but to use his gun. And what a gun it was! The modified Winchester had a large rapid cocking handle and could be cocked and fired quickly. And its sound. . .no gun in any other western has ever sounded quite like it.

Character actor Paul Fix played McCain’s friend Micah Torrance. The aging Marshal of North Fork, Torrance often needed McCain’s help in dealing with toughs who came to town.

While some considered the program very violent it really wasn’t any more violent than most other westerns of the era. The show did have dark moments with nasty no-goods, but it also had strong moral lessons. McCain didn’t always have to resort to using his rifle, but there was always that possibility and this possibility kept tension high for the viewer.

A number of well known actors and actresses guest starred on the program. Among them were John Carradine, Dennis Hopper, Agnes Moorehead, James Coburn, Edgar Buchanan, Michael Landen, Sammy Davis, Jr, Martin Landau, Buddy Hackett and Lee Van Cleef.

Interestingly, before Johnny Crawford played Mark McCain he was a Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club.

Chuck Connors, meanwhile, was a professional athlete before becoming an actor. He was a professional basketball player for a short time, played minor league baseball for many years in the 1940s and even had a very short stint in the Major Leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. He also appeared in some movies and in several other TV programs. However, Connors will always be best remembered as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman.

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