Season 1 (1958–1959)
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Sharpshooter" | Arnold Laven | Sam Peckinpah | March 7, 1958 (1958-03-07) |
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Lucas (Chuck Connors) and Mark McCain (Johnny Crawford) finally find the ranch they have been looking for, but the ranch comes with a price, and Lucas may have to decide between the ranch and his son's life. |
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| 2 | 2 | "Home Ranch" | Arnold Laven | Sam Peckinpah | October 7, 1958 (1958-10-07) |
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After two of Oat Jackford’s cowhands burn the McCain house, drag Lucas, and steal his rifle, Lucas goes to hunt Jackford (Harold J. Stone) and his men to inform them that he and his boy are there to stay. Guest stars: Lee Farr, Steve Rowland, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., Don Kennedy, Jack N. Young, and Bobby Somers |
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| 3 | 3 | "End of a Young Gun" | Jerry Hopper | Frank D. Gilroy | October 14, 1958 (1958-10-14) |
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When Mark gets caught on a mountain ledge, a young outlaw (Michael Landon) risks his life to rescue him and breaks his leg doing so. Guest stars: Charles Cooper, Joe Haworth, Carolyn Craig, Mel Carter, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 4 | 4 | "The Marshal" | Sam Peckinpah | Sam Peckinpah | October 21, 1958 (1958-10-21) |
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The notorious Sheltons ride into North Fork to take revenge on Marshal Micah Torrance (R. G. Armstrong) who is now crippled. Guest stars: James Drury, Warren Oates, Robert J. Wilke, Abby Dalton, Bill Quinn, Bert Stevens, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 5 | 5 | "The Brother-in-Law" | Arnold Laven | David Victor & Herbert Little, Jr. | October 28, 1958 (1958-10-28) |
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Johnny Gibbs (Jerome Courtland), Lucas McCain's fugitive brother-in-law, visits the McCain ranch. Guest stars: Charles Watts, Karl Lukas, Dan White, Fay Roope, Archie Butler, Bobby Somers, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 6 | 6 | "Eight Hours to Die" | Arnold Laven | Palmer Thompson | November 4, 1958 (1958-11-04) |
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A bitter judge (George Macready) kidnaps Mark and plans to kill him to avenge his own son's hanging while Lucas watches. Guest stars: Russell Collins, Hope Summers, Marilee Phillips, Irving Mitchell, Bobby Crawford Jr., Bud Osborne, Jack N. Young, and Bobby Somers |
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| 7 | 7 | "Duel of Honor" | Joseph H. Lewis | Ken Kolb | November 11, 1958 (1958-11-11) |
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A stagecoach breaks down and Italian nobleman Count Di Montova (Cesare Danova) is stranded overnight in North Fork. He accepts a challenge for a gun duel after being insulted by Sim Groder (Jack Elam). Guest stars: Glenn Strange, John Dierkes, Joe Bassett, John Harmon, Bill Quinn, Archie Butler, Robert H. Robinson, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 8 | 8 | "The Safe Guard" | Joseph H. Lewis | David Swift | November 18, 1958 (1958-11-18) |
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The first bank in North Fork is opening, and a Texas gunfighter (Claude Akins) is hired to guard the safe, but a gang of bank robbers that used to include him arrives in town. Guest stars: Marc Lawrence, Sidney Blackmer, Harlan Warde, Hope Summers, Dennis Cross, Mel Carter, Fritz Ford, Robert H. Robinson, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 9 | 9 | "The Sister" | Montgomery Pittman | Montgomery Pittman | November 25, 1958 (1958-11-25) |
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Mark tries to set Lucas up with a woman (Sherry Jackson) he thinks would make a perfect wife. Lucas soon finds himself contending with the woman's two brothers as well as some outlaws intent on killing him. Guest stars: Dan Blocker, David Tyrell, John Dierkes, Lance Fuller, Mike Morgan, Mort Mills, Hope Summers, Michael Harris, Archie Butler, and Fritz Ford |
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| 10 | 10 | "New Orleans Menace" | Arnold Laven | Cyril Hume | December 2, 1958 (1958-12-02) |
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A New Orleans gambling czar (Akim Tamiroff) and his men stop at the McCain ranch and decide to take it from Lucas. Guest stars: Harlan Warde, Michael Pate, Hope Summers, Jerry Oddo, Galvan DeLeon, Jack Tornek, Bobby Somers, Archie Butler, Robert H. Robinson, and Jesse Wayne |
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| 11 | 11 | "The Apprentice Sheriff" | Arthur Hiller | Barney Slater | December 9, 1958 (1958-12-09) |
| Lucas tries to help a young West Point reject, who is filling in as marshal, just as the town erupts into a gunfight. | |||||
| 12 | 12 | "Young Englishman" | Arnold Laven | Arthur Weiss | December 16, 1958 (1958-12-16) |
| Lucas accuses the young foreman of a neighboring ranch of rustling one of his calves. | |||||
| 13 | 13 | "The Angry Gun" | David Swift | Samuel A. Peeples | December 23, 1958 (1958-12-23) |
| Lucas and Mark return from a cattle sale when their stage is robbed by three outlaws. Lucas sends Mark on in the stage while he goes after the outlaws without his rifle. | |||||
| 14 | 14 | "The Gaucho" | Jerry Hopper | Bruce Geller | December 30, 1958 (1958-12-30) |
| Lucas helps an Argentinian family who are new to North Fork when they are ridiculed by others. | |||||
| 15 | 15 | "The Pet" | Joseph H. Lewis | Ken Kolb | January 6, 1959 (1959-01-06) |
| Lucas allows Mark to take in a homeless horse after its owner is killed in a gunfight. Lucas soon discovers the truth about the horse and has to fight a gunman who does not want his secret to be exposed. | |||||
| 16 | 16 | "The Sheridan Story" | Arnold Laven | Cyril Hume | January 13, 1959 (1959-01-13) |
| Wanting to teach Mark about tolerance and acceptance, Lucas hires an injured and bitter confederate soldier to work on his ranch, only the Union army also arrives at the farm. | |||||
| 17 | 17 | "The Retired Gun" | Arnold Laven | Barney Slater | January 20, 1959 (1959-01-20) |
| A famous gunman promises his new bride that he will retire from gunfighting and settle in North Fork, but five outlaws try to make him break his promise. | |||||
| 18 | 18 | "The Photographer" | Arnold Laven | Ken Kolb | January 27, 1959 (1959-01-27) |
| When a photographer friend of the McCains is accused of murder, father and son take opposing views on the matter. | |||||
| 19 | 19 | "Shivaree" | Joseph H. Lewis | David Victor & Herbert Little | February 3, 1959 (1959-02-03) |
| A young couple is forced to marry after they hide the fact that one of them is a girl, and Lucas helps them hide; but a rowdy crowd calls for a Shivaree. | |||||
| 20 | 20 | "The Deadeye Kid" | Jerry Hopper | Palmer Thompson | February 10, 1959 (1959-02-10) |
| Without telling his father, Mark helps a boy from Brooklyn hide from the law when the boy is accused of murder. | |||||
| 21 | 21 | "The Indian" | Arnold Laven | Cyril Hume | February 17, 1959 (1959-02-17) |
| U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart arrives in North Fork to look for Indians who are suspected in the brutal murder of a Ranger and his family. (This is the pilot for the series Law of the Plainsman.) | |||||
| 22 | 22 | "The Boarding House" | Sam Peckinpah | Sam Peckinpah | February 24, 1959 (1959-02-24) |
| Julia Massini, a reformed gambler, runs a respectable boarding house in North Fork, but her old boss shows up and tries to force her to turn her place into a gambling house. | |||||
| 23 | 23 | "The Second Witness" | Lewis Allen | Judy & George W. George | March 3, 1959 (1959-03-03) |
| After the witness in a murder case is killed, Lucas agrees to testify in order to convict a murderer, but someone wants the prosecution stopped. Mark and the townsfolk try to talk Lucas out of testifying. | |||||
| 24 | 24 | "The Trade" | Joseph H. Lewis | David Lang | March 10, 1959 (1959-03-10) |
| After falling in love with a sick young woman, fugitive Sam Morley asks his friend Lucas to turn him in and use the reward money to pay for the woman's medical needs. | |||||
| 25 | 25 | "One Went to Denver" | Lewis Allen | Pat Fielder | March 17, 1959 (1959-03-17) |
| Lucas' friend and renowned bank robber Tom Birch comes for a surprise visit, upsetting Mark. Neither know the man has plans to rob the North Fork bank. | |||||
| 26 | 26 | "The Deadly Wait" | Joseph H. Lewis | Arthur Browne, Jr. | March 24, 1959 (1959-03-24) |
| Released from Yuma prison, Dan Maury arrives in North Fork intent on getting even with Marshal Torrance, who helped send him to jail. | |||||
| 27 | 27 | "The Wrong Man" | Arnold Laven | N. B. Stone, Jr. | March 31, 1959 (1959-03-31) |
| A crooked marshal from another territory intentionally kills an innocent man so that he can collect the bounty money and blackmails the real outlaw. | |||||
| 28 | 28 | "The Challenge" | Lewis Allen | David Victor & Herbert Little | April 7, 1959 (1959-04-07) |
| An escaped killer holds Hattie and Micah hostage at the General Store to prove that he is still good with a gun. | |||||
| 29 | 29 | "The Hawk" | Lamont Johnson | Arthur Browne, Jr. | April 14, 1959 (1959-04-14) |
| The McCains befriend a stranger after he saves Mark from a rattlesnake, but they soon discover that he is not who he says he is. | |||||
| 30 | 30 | "Three-Legged Terror" | William Conrad | Palmer Thompson | April 21, 1959 (1959-04-21) |
| Lucas takes in an orphaned teen (Dennis Hopper) being raised by his abusive uncle after trouble is caused at the school. | |||||
| 31 | 31 | "The Angry Man" | Jerry Hopper | Arthur Browne, Jr. | April 28, 1959 (1959-04-28) |
| A neighboring rancher refuses medical assistance when his son is seriously hurt in an accident because he blames doctors for the death of his wife. | |||||
| 32 | 32 | "The Woman" | Arnold Laven | Pat Fielder & Bernard Girard | May 5, 1959 (1959-05-05) |
| After a boy (Paul Carr) admits to his father that he and the school teacher (Patricia Barry) are in love, the rancher chases the advocator for women's rights out of town. Lucas wants to learn the truth. | |||||
| 33 | 33 | "The Money Gun" | Sam Peckinpah | Bruce Geller | May 12, 1959 (1959-05-12) |
| Bookkeeper Asa Manning (William Phipps) hires a professional gunman (John Dehner) to provoke Oat Jackford (Bert Freed), a bully rancher who suspects him of embezzlement, into a gunfight. Lucas is forced to assist Jackford, the man he once hated. | |||||
| 34 | 34 | "A Matter of Faith" | Don Taylor | Harry Kronman | May 19, 1959 (1959-05-19) |
| A drought has forced local cowhands to seek work on a railroad construction project and railroad executives are afraid that their workers will desert them when an old man (Royal Dano) claims to have found a way to make rain. | |||||
| 35 | 35 | "Blood Brothers" | Arnold Laven | Story by: Chuck Connors Teleplay by: Pat Fielder |
May 26, 1959 (1959-05-26) |
| Lucas is surprised when Micah wishes death on a dying man (Max Wagner) he brings into North Fork, then Lucas discovers that Micah holds a big secret. | |||||
| 36 | 36 | "Stranger at Night" | Lewis Allen | David Lang | June 2, 1959 (1959-06-02) |
| Mark stumbles across a dead man and the only clue to his identity is a belt with the initials RM. | |||||
| 37 | 37 | "The Raid" | Paul Landres | Harry Julian Fink | June 9, 1959 (1959-06-09) |
| A renegade band of Indians captures Mark and disappears into the hills of New Mexico. (This is the sequel to the episode The Indian.) | |||||
| 38 | 38 | "Outlaw's Inheritance" | Don Taylor | Judy & George W. George | June 16, 1959 (1959-06-16) |
| The townspeople question the reputation of Lucas when he is named in a will of a notorious outlaw. | |||||
| 39 | 39 | "Boomerang" | Joseph H. Lewis | Arthur Browne, Jr. | June 23, 1959 (1959-06-23) |
| Lucas takes in an orphaned boy (Lee Kinsolving) and teaches him how to use a gun, not knowing that the boy plans on killing the banker (Harlan Warde) he believes is responsible for his father's death. | |||||
| 40 | 40 | "The Mind Reader" | Don Medford | Robert C. Dennis | June 30, 1959 (1959-06-30) |
| Accused of a murder he did not commit, a young man (Michael Landon) is finally cleared by the accidental discovery of a "mind reader" (John Carradine). |
Read more about this topic: List Of The Rifleman Episodes, Episodes
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