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The Rifleman

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The Rifleman
Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Crawford and Chuck Connors, 1962.
GenreWestern
Created bySam Peckinpah
StarringChuck Connors
Johnny Crawford
Paul Fix
ComposerHerschel Burke Gilbert
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes169
Production
ProducersArthur H. Nadel
Levy-Gardner-Laven
Running time30 minutes
Production companyFour Star-Sussex
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseSeptember 30, 1958 –
April 8, 1963
Related
Law of the Plainsman

The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran on ABC, from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963, a production of Four Star Television. It was also one of the first primetime series ever to have a widowed parent raise a child.

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 states 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, Connors demonstrated its rapid-fire action during the opening credits as McCain dispatched an unseen villain 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, 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!"). [neutrality is disputed]Thus the program's villains tend to cheat, to refuse help to those down on their luck, to be bigots, and to see violence as a first resort rather than the last option.[neutrality is disputed]Indeed, when the people of North Fork meet blacks, they are truly color-blind. [neutrality is disputed] 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. [neutrality is disputed] 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. [neutrality is disputed]Yet a certain amount of xenophobia drifts around North Fork, once forcing McCain to defend the right of a Chinese immigrant to open a laundry ("The Queue") and later, the right of an Argentine family to buy a ranch ("The Gaucho"). [neutrality is disputed]This racial liberalism does not extend to villains, however. The Mexicans in "The Vaqueros" are indolent and dangerous, and speak in the caricatured way of most Mexican outlaws in Westerns of the time. [neutrality is disputed]

Another fundamental 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 Marshal"). Royal Dano appeared five times, once as a former Confederate States of America soldier in ("The Sheridan Story"), given a job on the McCain ranch, who encounters General Philip Sheridan, the man who had cost him his arm in battle. Learning why the man wants him dead, Sheridan arranges for medical care for the wounded former foe, quoting Abraham Lincoln's last orders to "...Bind up the nation's wounds." (Dano also appeared as a man who thought he was Abraham Lincoln, as a rainmaker, 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.)

McCain was human and could also play the hypocrite. In an episode with Phil 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", again with Sammy Davis, Jr., this time 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. And in "Stopover" with Adam West as gunman (and former teacher) Chris Roth, who turns up at the ranch as a passenger on a stagecoach stranded in a blizzard, McCain reacts when he realizes who Roth really is, again stating his views that a man who earns his way with a gun is unsavory. It is an unusual reaction from a man who has, by this time in the series, killed over twenty men. Indeed, he killed four the day he first showed up in town. And, from what we learn throughout the series, from Mark and others, he had a healthy - or unhealthy - reputation in the Indian Territories back in Oklahoma. It was here he first acquired the nickname of "The Rifleman". The McCains lived in Enid, Oklahoma where Lucas' wife died in a smallpox outbreak (Season 5, "The Guest").

The show was created and initially developed by a young Sam Peckinpah, who would go on to become the director of classic Westerns. 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 marshal 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 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. Sidney Blackmer played Judge Hanavan, who owned the only hotel in North Fork, the California House and Restaurant, albeit for only a few episodes.

Synopsis

The black-and-white program centered around Lucas McCain (played by former baseball/basketball player Chuck Connors), a widower, Union veteran of the American Civil War (a Lieutenant in the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment), and a homesteader. McCain and his son Mark (played by future 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, and Frank Gilroy penned End of a Young Gun.

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, an American Civil War veteran (Union Army), 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, whom he adores and whom he promised to protect and keep safe when Mark's mother was dying, and fending off gunfighters looking to kill the "fastest man in the west." He loved his wife a lot and misses her too much to remarry, although he does have several potential love interests in town. It is shown many times throughout the series how much Lucas loves his son and how he would do anything for him or to keep him safe. A cattleman, he is often mistaken by strangers as a "sodbuster" a term of denigration for a farmer in the eyes of most people, it seems, including in Lucas' and Mark's eyes.
  • Johnny Crawford as Mark McCain, the son of Lucas McCain. Mark is about 10 when the series starts and somewhere around 15 when it ends (albeit in real life Crawford was 12 when the series started filming and thusly 17 when it ends). McCain protects Mark often to the point of stifling his development as an independent person, although their relationship is very sweet. He refuses for a long time to let Mark near a gun (perhaps the producer's defference to the standards of the 1960's audience), although Mark is able to shoot well. In contrast, in many cases by today's standards-but not the standards of the 1880's (or perhaps the 1960's)-Mark is left alone to fend for himself in the wilderness, something that could get a parent in trouble with Child Protective Services and the police in today's more protective atmosphere for children in probably most jurisdictions. Mark idolizes his father. During an episode when Lucas is trying to find a fugitive in an undercover capacity for a local Marshal, we see Mark moping and missing him greatly while he is gone for months.
  • Paul Fix as Marshall Micah Torrance, who tries to monitor Lucas McCain and keep gunfighters away from him. It is implied that Mark sees him as a grandfather figure. While Torrance is portrayed in some episodes as an ineffectual and even laughable figure, always relying on McCain to step in and handle things, he frequently demonstrates his ability to deal with his own problems, as in "The Marshal", where he kills two gunmen, including the man who has critically injured McCain. He relies on a slug-loaded shotgun as his equalizer and is proficient in its use.

Recurring cast

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:

3

The Rifle

The trick feature of The Rifleman's 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]

Connors the athlete

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

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. These releases are now out of print as MPI Home Video no longer has the rights to the series.

Further reading

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

References

  1. ^ The Rifleman Episode Guide List
  2. ^ The Legendary Rifle: A Closer Look

External links

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