The Rifleman

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The Rifleman is an American Western television program that ran on ABC, from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963, a production of Four Star Television.

History

According to network publicists, the series was set in the 1880s. There are also numerous episodes where the date is given in the 1880s. A wooden plaque next to the home stated that it was rebuilt by Lucas McCain and his son Mark in August 1881.

Westerns were popular when The Rifleman premiered, and producers struggled to find gimmicks to distinguish one show from another. The Rifleman's gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle with a trigger mechanism allowing for rapid-fire shots. Despite the anachronism of a Model 1892 in the 1880s, Connors demonstrated its rapid-fire action during the opening credits as McCain dispatched an unseen bad guy on North Fork's main street. Although the rifle may have appeared in every episode, it was not always fired, as some plots did not lend themselves to violent solutions, e.g., a cruel teacher at Mark's one-room school. There were several episodes where McCain dispatched the bad guys without the use of the rifle at all and he once threw the rifle to knock his opponent off his horse instead of killing him because he was a friend. In one episode McCain even "spiked" the barrel of his own gun when he knew it was going to fall into the hands of the villain so that it would backfire. McCain was also well versed in the use of a six gun although he did not own one and this aspect was rarely shown.

The various episodes of The Rifleman promote fair play toward one's opponents, neighborliness, equal rights, and the need to use violence in a highly controlled manner ("A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark," McCain tells his son, "But that doesn't mean you go looking to run TO one!"). In other words, the program's villains tend to be those who cheat, who refuse to help people down on their luck, who hold bigoted attitudes, and who see violence as a first resort rather than the last option. Indeed, a curious aspect of the program is that when they meet African-Americans, the people of North Fork are truly color-blind. In "The Most Amazing Man", a black man (played by Sammy Davis, Jr.) checks into the only hotel in town; for the entire show, no one notices his race. Not only is this noteworthy for the 1880s setting, it was radical for Hollywood of the early 1960s. While the message was clear, it was neither heavy-handed nor universal. A certain amount of xenophobia drifts around North Fork, however, forcing McCain to defend the right of a Chinese immigrant to open a laundry ("The Queue") and the right of an Argentine family to buy a ranch ("The Gaucho"). This racial liberalism does not extend to villains, however. The Mexicans in "The Vaqueros" are portrayed as indolent, dangerous, and speak in the caricatured way of most Mexican outlaws in Westerns of the time.

Another fundamental value of the series is that people deserve a second chance. Marshal Micah Torrance is a recovering alcoholic. Similarly, McCain gives an ex-con a job on his ranch ("The Jailbird"). Royal Dano appeared as a former Confederate States of America soldier, given a job on the McCain ranch, who encounters the Union soldier who had cost him his arm in battle. The soldier, now a general, arranges for medical care for the wounded former foe, quoting Abraham Lincoln's orders to "Bind up the nation's wounds." (Dano also appeared as a wealthy tanner who mistakenly believes Mark is his lost son and again as a preacher with a haunting gunfighter past in an episode where Warren Oates and L. Q. Jones, as unsavory brothers, try to goad him into a gunfight and attempt to bushwhack him.)

The show was created and initially developed by a young Sam Peckinpah, who would go on to become the director of classic Western movies (The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country, etc.). Peckinpah, who wrote and directed many of the best episodes from the first season, based many of the characters and situations on real-life scenarios from his childhood growing up on a ranch. He also used many character actors such as Warren Oates and R.G. Armstrong (the marshall in two early episodes who was killed by James Drury before Paul Fix joined the cast) who would later feature prominently in his films. His insistence on violent realism and complex characterizations, as well as his refusal to sugarcoat the lessons he felt that the Rifleman's son needed to learn about life, soon put him at odds with the show's producers at Four Star. He left the show and created another classic TV series, The Westerner, starring Brian Keith, which was short-lived.

Synopsis

The black-and-white program starred former athlete Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, a widower, Union veteran of the Civil War (lieutenant in the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment), and a homesteader. McCain and his son Mark (singer Johnny Crawford) lived on a ranch outside the fictitious town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory.

The pilot episode, "The Sharpshooter", was originally telecast on CBS on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater on March 7, 1958, and was repeated, in slightly edited form, as the first episode of the series on ABC. Regulars on the program included Marshal Micah Torrance (Paul Fix) (R. G. Armstrong was the original marshal for two episodes, the first and the fourth), Sweeney the bartender (Bill Quinn), and a half-dozen other denizens of North Fork (Hope Summers, Joan Taylor, Patricia Blair, John Harmon, and Harlan Warde were regulars). Fifty-one episodes of the series were directed by Joseph H. Lewis, the director of the classic film noir Gun Crazy (1950), which accounts for some of the show's virtuoso noir lighting and dark, brooding quality. Ida Lupino directed one episode, "The Assault". Connors wrote several episodes himself. Robert Culp of CBS's Trackdown, wrote one two-part episode.

The February 17, 1959, episode of The Rifleman proved to be a spin-off for an NBC series, Law of the Plainsman starring Michael Ansara in the role of Marshal Sam Buckhart. In the story called "The Indian", Buckhart came to North Fork to look for Indians suspected in the murder of a Texas Ranger and his family.^[1]

Cast

• Chuck Connors portrayed Lucas McCain, a rancher and widowed father who used his Winchester firearm as a last resort. Lucas earns enough money from a turkey shoot contest to purchase a ranch near North Fork in the New Mexico Territory, where he dedicates himself to rearing his son.
• Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain
• Paul Fix as Marshall Micah Torrance

Recurring cast

• Bill Quinn as Sweeney the Bartender
• Patricia Blair as Lou Mallory
• Joe Higgins as Nils Swenson
• Harlan Warde as John Hamilton
• Joan Taylor as Milly Scott
• Hope Summers as Hattie Denton
• John Harmon as Eddie Halstead
• Seven different actors played the doctor through out the series, usually with the name of Doc Burrage: Edgar Buchanan (five times), Fay Roope (twice), Rhys Williams (six times), Jack Kruschen (twice), Robert Burton (twice), Ralph Moody (three times) and Bert Stevens (once).
• Richard Anderson as six different characters: Tom Birch; Lariat Jones; Duke Jennings; Jason Gowdy; Harry Chase; and Griff.

Guest stars

Many guest stars appeared more than once during the series playing different roles. Those that appeared more than once often played both "good" and "bad" roles. Prominent actors included:

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2007)

• The Rifleman's Rifle The trick feature of the rifle was a screw pin attached to the large loop lever which was positioned so as to trip the trigger when the ring was slammed home, thus allowing Lucas to rapid-fire the rifle, similarly to a semi-automatic rifle. The trigger trip screw pin was also used in two configurations. Sometimes McCain had the screw head turned inside close to the trigger. Most of the times he had it on the outside of the trigger guard with a lock nut on the outside to further secure its position. In some of the episodes the screw was taken out completely when rapid fire action was not needed. When properly adjusted, this screw “squeezed” the trigger when the lever was fully closed.

• McCain fires twelve shots from this 11-round rifle during the opening credits. Seven shots are fired in the first closeup as the credits open and five more shots are shown as the camera switches to another view. The soundtrack contained a dubbed-in thirteenth shot to allow the firing to time out with a section of the theme music. McCain then swings the rifle to cock it and reaches for a round from his shirt pocket. The rifle was chambered in .44-40 caliber which could be used as six-gun cartridges or rifle rounds.^[2]

• The Rifleman has a villainous twin/lookalike relative, a plot staple of practically every television series of the era; sooner or later on almost every series, the evil exact duplicate with precisely the same voice (eerily enough) inevitably turns up for a single episode.

• Chuck Connors played basketball for the Boston Celtics from 1946–1948. He also played professional baseball for several teams thereafter. He was one of only twelve athletes to have played in the National Basketball Association and in Major League Baseball. Former Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Duke Snider played a member of an outlaw gang in one episode. Snider and Connors were teammates on the 1949 Dodgers. Snider played in 146 games; Connors in one, as a 28-year-old rookie. Also appearing in episodes were Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale and legendary college and professional football coach Sid Gillman

• Former NBA player Chuck Person, a prolific long-range shooter, was known as "The Rifleman", since he has the same names (first and middle) as Chuck Connors.

• Chuck Connors is the only actor to appear in all 168 episodes of the series. Johnny Crawford is the runner-up in terms of a number of shows that an actor appeared in. Crawford appeared in all the episodes of the show, with the exception of 1, towards the end of the final season, for a total of 167 of 168 episodes.

• In the 1982 movie Airplane II: The Sequel (in which Chuck Connors played The Sarge), one scene has Connors' old Rifleman rifle lying next to some blueprints of the moon shuttle Mayflower.

• The still-popular show ended in 1963, when both Connors & Crawford needed to moved on to other projects. Connors starred in the short-lived series, Arrest and Trial for ABC, and Crawford had decided to concentrate on his studies, while pursuing a career in music.

DVD releases

MPI Home Video has released The Rifleman on DVD in Region 1 in various incarnations. They have released single disc DVDs which contain 5 episodes as well between 2002 - 2006 they released 6 volume sets with each release containing 20 episodes. However, the releases feature a random collection of episodes, they are not in original broadcast order.

Further reading

• Christopher Sharrett, The Rifleman (TV Milestones Series), Wayne State University Press, 2005

References

External links

• Chuck Connors
• The Rifleman at the Internet Movie Database
• The Rifleman at TV.com
• The Rifleman at EpGuides.com
• The Rifleman's Rifle
• Rifleman Connor's
• The Rifleman's Rifle demonstration on YouTube.com