If folks recall Chuck Connors today at all sadly for an entire generation of viewers he was one of the many villains in the mini-series ROOTS. But earlier than his career in film/TV he had played award winning basketball for Seton Hall University. He was a stellar athlete who even had a shot at pro ball. And even more trivia, the late Soviet boss Brezhnev was a big fan of The Rifleman and the conservative Connors agreed to meet Leonid after coaxing from Richard Nixon. All of this is available to any Wikipedia reader.The actor who played Mark McCain --in a vignette shown on ME TV-- remarked that he as a youngster doubted he'd be selected to be Lucas McCain's son. He was chosen and fondly recalled tossing baseball with Connors in between shooting (of the series, that is). The two later were in an episode of BRANDED! with Connors as the disgraced army officer and the young man as the town sheriff. BRANDED was sort of an old west "Fugitive" show. Jason McCord (Connors' character) was on an endless quest to prove once and for all that his court martial and separation from the army had been baseless.The Rifleman addressed racism/discrimination head on. McCain clashed with a Mexican bully but later begrudgingly admired the man's toughness and willingness to fight for his honor. And an African American gunslinger was played by none other than Sammy Davis Jr.
Tarheel
I thoroughly enjoy watching The Rifleman. A couple of things: 1) on the show Lucas was a crack shot even with the modified trigger. 2) Mark was not proud of his Dad for beating the bad guys - Mark was proud of his Dad for doing right. 3) Lucas did not kill "two or three [bad guys] per show" as some may speculate. (The body count: 245 killings in 168 episodes - an average of 1.46 per episode. Lucas was responsible for about 1/2.) :-)
If folks recall Chuck Connors today at all sadly for an entire generation of viewers he was one of the many villains in the mini-series ROOTS. But earlier than his career in film/TV he had played award winning basketball for Seton Hall University. He was a stellar athlete who even had a shot at pro ball. And even more trivia, the late Soviet boss Brezhnev was a big fan of The Rifleman and the conservative Connors agreed to meet Leonid after coaxing from Richard Nixon. All of this is available to any Wikipedia reader.The actor who played Mark McCain --in a vignette shown on ME TV-- remarked that he as a youngster doubted he'd be selected to be Lucas McCain's son. He was chosen and fondly recalled tossing baseball with Connors in between shooting (of the series, that is). The two later were in an episode of BRANDED! with Connors as the disgraced army officer and the young man as the town sheriff. BRANDED was sort of an old west "Fugitive" show. Jason McCord (Connors' character) was on an endless quest to prove once and for all that his court martial and separation from the army had been baseless.The Rifleman addressed racism/discrimination head on. McCain clashed with a Mexican bully but later begrudgingly admired the man's toughness and willingness to fight for his honor. And an African American gunslinger was played by none other than Sammy Davis Jr.
I thoroughly enjoy watching The Rifleman. A couple of things: 1) on the show Lucas was a crack shot even with the modified trigger. 2) Mark was not proud of his Dad for beating the bad guys - Mark was proud of his Dad for doing right. 3) Lucas did not kill "two or three [bad guys] per show" as some may speculate. (The body count: 245 killings in 168 episodes - an average of 1.46 per episode. Lucas was responsible for about 1/2.) :-)