Johnny Crawford Movies

Hoping to halt the ratings decline suffered by the ABC western series The Rifleman towards the end of its second season, the series' producers made a handful of significant changes during Season Three. For one thing, the show was moved from its family 9PM Tuesday timeslot to 8:30 PM on the same night, thus avoiding the one-two punch of competing series Dobie Gillis and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (it was now seen opposite the second half of the hour-long NBC oater Laramie and the now-all-rerun Father Knows Best. Next, the incessant preachifying and moralizing of series protagonist Lucas McCain (Chuck Conners) was pared down to its barest minimum, usually reserving Lucas' words of wisdom to his son Mark (Johnny Crawford) to the closing scene of each episode, after 22 minutes' worth of solid action and adventure. Finally, a dash of feminine interest was added to the stew in the shapely form of Millie Scott (Joan Taylor), the feisty but gorgeous new storekeeper in North Fork ("Miss Milly" was first seen in the episode bearing that name, which originally aired November 15, 1960). Although Millie and Lucas get off on the wrong foot, the two later become close (but not too close) friends--and besides, what western series could do without the occasional "damsel in distress" plotline? Demonstrating the newer, "tougher" Lucas McCain, the season opener "Trail of Hate" finds the normally pacifist Lucas seeking revenge when his son Mark is victimized by bank robbers. Other highlights this season include "Seven", in which a gang of condemned murderers hold North Fork in thrall;"The Pitchman", with future Hawaii 5-0 producer Bob Sweeney as a glib lightning rod salesman; Richard Whorf, soon to direct dozens of episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, plays a drunken artist who redeems himself when he sketches the image of a killer in "The Illustrator"; Buddy Hackett", cast as a villain (!) in one of the first-season episodes, returns as a dimwitted janitor who inadvertently becomes a "fast draw" in "The Clarence Bibs Story"; and the great Agnes Moorehead plays the title role in "Miss Birdie", the story of a peppery old spinster who gets it in her head to capture a notorious outlaw. Season Three is also distinguished by the series' first two-part episode "The Wyoming Story", in which Lucas goes undercover for the government to break up a gang of illegal arms dealers. Not long afterward, we are treated to the series' 100th episode, "Dark Day in North Fork", a harrowing story wherein a blinded Lucas faces a showdown with an old enemy. Finally, the episode "Assault" boasts the directorial talents of Ida Lupino, who'd honed her TV western skills on such classic series as Have Gun, Will Travel. And still later, the episode "The Queue" makes a courageous stand against blind racial prejudice. Unfortunately, the aforementioned "improvements" upon The Rifleman failed to do the trick ratingswise,with the series plummeting to 27th place--which, in all fairness, was largely due to the overall flagging of interest in TV westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No less than Sam Peckinpah was the writer of The Rifleman's deubt episode, in which widower Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) and his son Mark (Johnny Crawford) arrive in North Fork in hopes of owning and maintaining their own ranch. Though essentially a man of peace, Lucas is forced to show off his astonishing skill with a rifle to win a turkey shoot in order to afford the down payment on the ranch--and in so doing he earns the disdain of the first in a long line of blackhearted villains who will learn the hard way that Mr. McCain is not a man to be trifled with (Incidentally, that callow bully who picks on the McCain in an early scene is Dennis Hopper! In later episodes, a pre-Bonanza Michael Landon plays a wounded bank robber who forces Lucas to hide him from the law; Paul Fix makes his first series appearance as Micah Torrence, here presented as a once-famous lawman turned drunken bum (though he'd pull himself together suffiently to become North Fork's marshal soon enough!); an insane judge (George Macready) plots to kill Mark after his own son is turned over to the local hangman by Lucas; Claude Akins appears a bank guard with some unfortunate "friends"; a filthy-rich and despicably cruel Frenchman (played by the doggedly non-French Akim Tamiroff) will stop at nothing to gain control of the McCain ranch; future Man From UNCLE Robert Vaughn is seen as a rule-bound apprentice marshal whose poor eyesight may prove to be his undoing; Vaughn's future Magnificent Seven costar James Coburn shows up as a crooked ranch foreman; spaghetti-western headliner Lee Van Cleef is menace personified as an ex-convict who comes to North Fork a-gunnin' for Marshal Torrance and John Carradine chews the scenery as a portrait photographer who was once the sadistic overseer of a Civil War prison camp (this episode is one of the few westerns to use a photo as a key piece of evidence in a murder trial!). Auterists should note that one of the first season's best episodes, "Shivaree", was directed by the underrated and brilliant Joseph H. Lewis (Terror in a Texas Town). And TV trivia buffs will like the episode titled The Indian, which serves as the pilot for the weekly western series Law of the Plainsman, starring Michael Ansara as Native American federal marshal Sam Buckhart. Originally telecast on Wednesday at 9 PM EST, Season One of The Rifleman easily outrated its rival network series The George Burns Show and The Arthur Godfrey Show, end up as America's fourth highest-rated series (and ABC's number one attraction!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide