The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher 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 was filmed in black-and-white, 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 prime time series to have a widowed parent raise a child.
The peaks and the valleys. Find the essential episodes — and the ones to skip.
A small, lightning-fast Black gunman who recently killed the 5 men the law allowed to murder his father years before demands that Lucas, acting as deputy marshal in Micah's absence, throw his badge in the dirt - or he will kill him next.
Lucas McCain hires a bitter ex-Confederate to help him around the ranch. When General Philip Sheridan and his staff stop at McCain's ranch to camp, Lucas is afraid there will be trouble.
A gunfight with an unwilling participant brings a need for a doctor, but Doc Burrage is out of town. A doctor passing through North Fork volunteers to help. However, he and Lucas have a past, and not a good one.
It seems to be the end of the line for the Jackman clan after their farm is put up for sale to pay back taxes. It's clear they weren't cut out for farming and go off to Paradise, a nearby town. They arrive to find that the position of town Marshal is vacant and family patriarch Nebeneezert takes the job and deputizes his three sons. They soon realize just what they've got themselves into when they see that all of the badges have bullet holes in them. When bank robbers come to town, Lucas helps them keep the peace.
Each point is an episode, plotted in order. Colored bands mark season boundaries. Look for the rise, the plateau, or the decline.
High votes + high rating = beloved classic. High votes + low rating = notorious stinker. Low votes + high rating = hidden gem.
One point per season. Smooths out the episode-to-episode noise to reveal the bigger arc.
Did each season build or fizzle? Green means the finale outscored the premiere. Red means the opposite. Longer arrows, bigger swings.
How steady is each season? Tightly clustered dots mean reliable quality. Scattered dots mean a wild ride.
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