Secrets Of TV’s The Rifleman: More Than Just Guns And Good Times

The legendary American Western TV series The Rifleman starred Chuck Connors as widowed rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his young son, Mark McCain. They lived in a little town in the New Mexico Territory in the 1870s and 1880s that eerily attracts sharpshooters from all over.

The Rifleman Story

For five seasons fans followed the show as McCain toted his rifle around the ranch in one of the most revered TV series of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Show creator Arnold Laven and developer Sam Peckinpah became legends in directing Westerns. The set and cast of The Rifleman was top notch, and the life lessons and character reveals that played out captivated its audience until the end.

Read on to get the lowdown about what went on behind the scenes and to learn why the show really went off the air.