The Rifleman is an American Western television series starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black and white, in half-hour episodes. The Rifleman aired on ABC from September 30, 1958, to April 8, 1963, as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first primetime series on American television to show a single parent raising a child.
The program was titled to reflect McCain's use of a Winchester Model 1892 rifle (an anachronism, as the show was set in the 1880s) which had been customized to allow repeated firing by cycling its lever action. He demonstrated this technique in the opening credits, as well as a second modification that allowed him to cycle the action with one hand using a technique known as "spin-cocking".
Overview
Lucas McCain is a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War and widower. He was a lieutenant in the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment and received a battlefield commission at the Battle of Five Forks just before the end of the war.Hume, Cyril. The Rifleman, episode 1/16, first aired January 13, 1959 (This conflicts with episode 3/25, "The Prisoner", in which a former Confederate cavalry major states that he was Lieutenant McCain's prisoner after the Battle of Fort Donelson.The Rifleman, episode 3/25, "The Prisoner". First aired March 14, 1961.) Having previously been a homesteader, McCain buys a ranch "about three miles" outside the fictitious town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory, in the pilot episode. He and his son Mark had come from Enid, Oklahoma, following the death of his wife, Margaret (née Gibbs), when his son was six years old.
The series was set during the 1880s; a wooden plaque next to the McCain home states that the home was rebuilt by Lucas McCain and his son Mark in August 1881.The Rifleman, "The Wyoming Story" part 1 & 2 (season 3) This conflicts with dates given during the first season episode “The Bank Guard” where Lucas speaks of losing his savings “about 10 years ago” during “the slump of ‘78”.
A common thread in the series is that people deserve a second chance; Marshal Micah Torrance is a recovering alcoholic, and McCain gives Torrance a job on his ranch in "The Marshal". Royal Dano appeared in "The Sheridan Story" as a former Confederate soldier who is given a job on the McCain ranch and encounters General William Sheridan, the man who cost him his arm in battle. Learning why the man wants him dead, Sheridan arranges for medical care for his wounded former foe, quoting President Abraham Lincoln's last orders to "... bind up the nation's wounds".
Despite his status as the series' protagonist, Lucas McCain is not without fault; he has a tendency to be stubborn and bossy, he has a bit of an inflated ego, and he is at times over-protective of his son Mark. In "Death Trap", an episode with Philip Carey as former gunman (and old adversary) Simon Battles, he is unwilling to believe the man has changed and become a doctor. It takes a gunfight (with Battles fighting alongside him) to make him admit he is wrong. In "Two Ounces of Tin", with Sammy Davis Jr. as Tip Corey (a former circus trick-shot artist turned gunman), McCain angrily orders him off the ranch when he finds him demonstrating his skills to Mark. Corey suggests he is a hypocrite, because McCain has an equally deadly reputation in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, where he first acquired the nickname the Rifleman.
Cast
Main Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, a rancher, a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, father, and widower Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain, Lucas's son Paul Fix as Micah Torrance, marshal of North Fork, New Mexico
Recurring Bill Quinn as Frank Sweeney, the North Fork Saloon bartender (38 episodes) Patricia Blair as Mallory House hotel owner Lou Mallory (22 episodes) Joe Higgins as blacksmith Nels Swenson (21 episodes) Harlan Warde as banker John Hamilton (18 episodes) Joan Taylor as general store owner Milly Scott (18 episodes) Hope Summers as general store owner Hattie Denton (16 episodes) John Harmon as hotel clerk Eddie Halstead (12 episodes) Chris Alcaide as a regular bad guy (10 episodes)
Eight actors played the town doctor during the series (usually known as "Doc Burrage"): Paul Fix (first episode only; he returned to the cast as Micah), Edgar Buchanan, Fay Roope, Rhys Williams, Jack Kruschen, Robert Burton, Ralph Moody and Bert Stevens. In addition to Joe Higgins, several actors also played blacksmith Nels (sometimes credited as Nils) Swenson, including Richard Alexander, John Dierkes, Henry Rowland and Karl Swenson.
Guest stars More than 500 actors made guest appearances in more than 970 credited roles during the five-year run of the series. Guest stars included veteran actors John Anderson, Richard Anderson, Lyle Bettger, Whit Bissell, Harry Carey Jr., John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., Ellen Corby, Royal Dano, John Dehner, Jack Elam, Med Flory, Dabbs Greer, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., Richard Kiel, John Milford, Agnes Moorehead, Denver Pyle, Lee Van Cleef, and Adam West, most appearing multiple times in different roles. Several then-newcomers appeared in the series, including Claude Akins, Dan Blocker, James Coburn, Mark Goddard, James Drury, Dennis Hopper, L. Q. Jones, Michael Landon, Warren Oates, Marian Seldes, Harry Dean Stanton, and Robert Vaughn. Other notable guest stars and character actors who made cameo appearances were Sammy Davis Jr., future baseball Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Don Drysdale, comedian Buddy Hackett, Pernell Roberts (who was on Bonanza at the time), Bobby Crawford Jr. (elder brother of series star Johnny Crawford; himself a star on Laramie from 1959 to 1960), and writer/director/producer Paul Mazursky.
John Abbott Julie Adams Stanley Adams Claude Akins (three times) Norman Alden Chris Alcaide (ten times) Ed Ames James Anderson John Anderson (eleven times) Richard Anderson (six times) Keith Andes Michael Ansara (twice) R. G. Armstrong (twice as the first sheriff) Phyllis Avery ("The Baby Sitter") Parley Baer (twice) Raymond Bailey James Best Lyle Bettger (twice) Edward Binns Whit Bissell (four times) Sidney Blackmer (three times) Dan Blocker Edgar Buchanan (six times) Robert Burton (twice) Harry Carey Jr. (twice) Philip Carey Paul Carr (four times) John Carradine (twice) Conlan Carter (twice) Lonny Chapman (twice) Lon Chaney Jr. Virginia Christine (twice) Lee Van Cleef (four times) James Coburn (twice) Ben Cooper Ellen Corby (twice) Dennis Cross (six times) Robert Culp (twice, wrote a two part episode) Abby Dalton Royal Dano (five times) Cesare Danova (three times) Sammy Davis Jr. (twice) John Dehner (four times) Frank Dekova (twice) Richard Devon (seven times) Lawrence Dobkin (four times, directed four times, wrote one episode, co-wrote one episode) James Drury (twice) Jack Elam (five times) Leif Erickson William Fawcett (twice) James Franciscus Dean Fredericks (twice) Bert Freed (twice) Robert Foulk (five times) Michael Fox (four times) Kathy Garver Leo Gordon (twice) Don Grady (twice) Dabbs Greer (eight times) Buddy Hackett (twice) Ron Hagerthy (Ben Haskell in 1960 episode, "The Deserter") Ron Hayes ("Six Years and a Day") Skip Homeier Dennis Hopper (twice, including the series premier episode) Arthur Hunnicutt Katy Jurado Enid Jaynes (four times) Chubby Johnson (three times) I. Stanford Jolley L.Q. Jones Douglas Kennedy Richard Kiel Robert Knapp Jack Kruschen (four times) Michael Landon in two episodes, "End of a Young Gun" and "The Mind Reader" Martin Landau Marc Lawrence (twice) George Lindsey Dayton Lummis (twice) George Macready (twice) Paul Mantee (twice) Kevin McCarthy (twice) Patrick McVey (twice) John Milford (eleven times) Denny Miller Mort Mills (twice) Ralph Moody (six times) Agnes Moorehead Vic Morrow (twice) Ed Nelson (three times) Warren Oates(five times) Michael Pate (five times) Gigi Perreau (twice) John M. Pickard William Prince Denver Pyle (five times) Darryl Richard Herbert Rudley (twice) Bing Russell (twice) William Schallert (three times) Vito Scotti (three times) Dan Sheridan Thomas (Tom) Snyder Harry Dean Stanton K. T. Stevens (five times) Harold J. Stone (three times) Leonard Stone (twice) Glenn Strange (six times) Akim Tamiroff Robert Vaughn Adam West Gregory Walcott (twice) Robert Webber James Westerfield (twice) Grace Lee Whitney Peter Whitney (nine times) Robert J. Wilke (twice) Adam Williams (six times, co-wrote one episode) Rhys Williams (six times) Jeff York
Episodes
Production The Rifleman was partially filmed in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California.
Development The series was created by Arnold Laven and developed by Sam Peckinpah, who became a director of Western movies. Peckinpah, who wrote and directed many early episodes, based many characters and plots on his own childhood on a ranch. His insistence on violent realism and complex characterizations, as well as his refusal to sugarcoat the lessons he felt the Rifleman's son needed to learn about life, put him at odds with the show's producers at Four Star. Peckinpah left the show and created a short-lived series, The Westerner.
Opening credits The opening credit sequence of each episode depicted McCain walking down the street of a town while rapid-firing his Winchester 44-40 1892 model rifle that had been modified at the trigger and lever. The rifle's modification allowed McCain to fire the rifle only by hand pumping the lever, which had a setscrew imbedded in it to trip the weapon's trigger. At various points during the series, episodes would show McCain deftly handling and shooting the rifle ambidextrously. When Connors auditioned for the show, the director suddenly threw a rifle at him; the former Major League Baseball player caught it and got the job.
Rifle
Westerns were popular when The Rifleman premiered, and producers tried to find gimmicks to distinguish one show from another. The Rifleman'''s gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle, with a large ring lever drilled and tapped for a set screw. The lever design allowed him to cock the rifle by spinning it around his hand. In addition, the screw could be positioned to depress the trigger every time he worked the lever, allowing for rapid fire, emptying the magazine in under six seconds during the opening credits on North Fork's main street.
The trigger-trip screw pin was used in two configurations: with the screw head turned inside (close to the trigger), or more often, outside the trigger guard with a locknut on the outside (to secure its position). In some episodes, the screw was removed, when rapid-fire action was not required. When properly adjusted, the screw "squeezed" the trigger when the lever was fully closed. The rapid-fire mechanism was originally designed to keep Connors from puncturing his finger with the trigger as he quickly cycled the action of the rifle. With this modification, Connors pulling the trigger for each shot was not necessary, so he did not have to place his finger in harm's way. A close-up of the rifle's large looped lever and trigger-set screw can be seen in the third-season episode "Miss Bertie."
The rifle may have appeared in every episode, but it was not always fired; some plots did not require violent solutions (for example, one involving Mark's rigid new teacher). McCain attempts to solve as many problems as possible without resorting to shooting, yet still manages to kill 120 villains over the show's five-year run. Notably, McCain almost never carried a pistol, although he is a good shot with it, especially when he improvised a crude gunstock from a board, when facing a villain (played by Vic Morrow) who had stolen his rifle.