The Rifleman

I loved the opening to the Rifleman. It starts out with Chuck Connors firing off a salvo from that cool looking Winchester slung down low. Man, he meant business. And then the theme song began. I just had to watch it. I saw many episodes in reruns, when I was about 10 or 11, in the middle 60's , usually on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The original was a little before my time. It was really my kind of show. Great cast. Luke was great. (Ah Paaaah!)Chuck Connors was awesome! And you knew that at some point in the show he was going to have to use that awesome rifle. I still remember the episode where he had a big fist fight and got a fat lip and winced and then chuckled while taking a sip of coffee to end the show. That was back in the day when Westerns were king.

I think much of the success of "The Rifleman" TV series was due to the casting of Chuck Connors as the "hero." We quickly grew used to him in this part but at the time the series started, he was probably regarded by many casting directors as a "bad guy" -- such as the part he played in "The Big Country." There was something mean and menacing about him. But by casting him as the boy's father in "The Rifleman," the show used Connors' toughness to counteract the sentimentality that might otherwise have enveloped this series. (Can you imagine how syrupy "The Rifleman" would have been had Doug McClure played the lead?)

After some people thought that Chuck Conners as the "bad guy" in such films as "The Big Country",it was quickly misjudged by his character when he played Lucas McCain in "The Rifleman". The show was centered around him and his son Mark in the town of Northfolk. But the coolest thing on that show was that Winchester rifle he had,and he could fire at any range from it!!! He never used a six shooter. The way he took on the baddies with that rifle was the absolute trademark of that show which was one of the coolest and most exciting TV westerns ever to come out of the 1950's,and to this day it still holds up to other TV westerns that would endure years later. A great classic from that golden age of grand TV.

Chuck Connors plays an inspiring hero in The Rifleman, defending himself, his son, and his friends against gunslingers, cheats, and swindlers. His character (Lucas McCain) is brilliant, brave, strong and just, and supported by a great cast. It's a beautiful series that I often find myself staying up way too late to watch.

As a kid growing up in the 70s, "The Rifleman" was one the only other western besides "Wild, Wild, West" that I really liked--I envied Mark McCain and the great father he had on the show (played by Connors). Yes, each show was a morality play but so were many other shows of the 50s & 60s (including "Star Trek"). They made their point at a time when there was still some innocence in America, and even taught tolerance for people from other countries/cultures (for example, in the episode of "Rifleman" where a Japanese man gets insulted & pushed into a fight with one of the locals & uses Judo to defend himself). Lucas McCain taught his son by example NEVER to use a gun or fight unless it was self-defense. It sounds silly now, but when I was a kid I wished my dad had explained things to me the same way Chuck Connors did to his son in the show--ah well, thank goodness for TV writers! :)