The Rifleman

The Rifleman
Logo of The Rifleman, 1958
Genre	Western
Created by	Arnold Laven
Starring	Chuck Connors Johnny Crawford Paul Fix
Composer(s)	Herschel Burke Gilbert
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	168 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Levy-Gardner-Laven Arthur H. Nadel (associate)
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Four Star Productions
Distributor	Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 30, 1958 – April 8, 1963
Chronology
Related shows	Law of the Plainsman
Website

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 1870s and 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 on American television to show a widowed parent raising a child.

The program was titled to reflect McCain's use of a Winchester rifle, customized to allow repeated firing by cycling its lever action. He demonstrated this technique in the opening credits of every episode, as well as a second modification that allowed him to cycle the action with one hand.

The series centers on Lucas McCain, a Union Civil War veteran and widower. McCain had been a lieutenant in the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment, and he had received a battlefield commission at the Battle of Five Forks just before the end of the war. Having previously been a homesteader, McCain buys a ranch 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 when his son was six years old.

The opening theme at the beginning 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 pin 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.