Westlich von Santa Fe

I am so pleased this marvelous "TV Noir" from the late 1950's is back on TV re-runs (Hallmark Channel). As a kid, I watched this show because I wanted a rifle like the one Lucas McCain had. As a 50+ year old now, I enjoy the show for a different reason - the very different style of filming it used - B&W of course, but dark, with high contrasts much like film noir. As a father of two sons I also like the interaction between father and son on the show, and how Mark is taught from "The good Book" as well as from experience, and Lucas teaches by example, hard lessons and easy ones, a stern but always loving father. The depiction of a simple life with hard work, long days, and well deserved rest at supper is perhaps fantasy in today's world, but good to strive for. Micah as a no-nonsense sheriff who has lost an edge to old age, and compensates by packing a sawed-off scatter-gun and common sense to keep the peace. No blood or gore, no entry and exit wounds, who cares? That's why I like this genre of TV, it's simple and plain, but sends a good message of hard work, simple life, and good overcomes evil in the end.

Chuck Connors showed more acting in this show than he did in any other, and seems to have been made for the part. Forget all the gibberish about guns and TV. I love this show, and other westerns, and have never owned a gun, nor do I plan to (unless I take up hunting). That's not the point. The point to me is the lessons taught in these shows, good overcomes evil in the end, and justice is served. Real life? No. But that's why I like to watch these shows - good overcomes evil at least for a Saturday afternoon.

This show, and a couple of others - Virginian and High Chaparral were some of the best TV viewing for me growing up. Emphasis on character building, the Western scenery was just window-dressing to me. Even Bonanza (after Michael Landon started to influence stories more) became a great show emphasizing character building. As a father, I learned from all the fathers in these shows (as well as from my own father) how to be a good father, and help to build good character in my own sons. Who said the TV was an "idiot box". Like a computer, it's a tool, and can be used for idiot purposes, or for growing.

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.

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.

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! :)

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?)