In his 2005 monograph
The
Rifleman, Seton Hall University professor
Christopher Sharrett maintains
that the series is "the most compelling of the TV westerns that appeared
at the end of the 1950s," superior to both the longer-running
Gunsmoke and
Bonanza. Sharrett categorizes adult TV westerns into two
groups--the gunfighter motif, exemplified by programs such as
Gunsmoke,
Have Gun -- Will Travel, and
Wanted:Dead or Alive, and the frontier settler motif, exemplified by
Bonanza and
Wagon Train. Sharrett finds that
The Rifleman is unique in fusing those two constructs, depicting
with unusual authenticity for its era the trials and triumphs of a single
parent with a son and a trademark weapon running a ranch on the outskirts of an
established community.
Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain is not a marshal upholding
law and order like Matt Dillon or an adventurer seeking to administer justice
as he sees fit, as are Paladin, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Bronco, Bill Longley of
The Texan, or any of a number of other
gun-toting drifters. He is a rancher and a citizen of North Fork, New Mexico
who happens to have a distinctive weapon, like Josh Randall of
Wanted: Dead or Alive or Wyatt Earp, who
isn't afraid to use it to defeat evil threats to a barely tamed frontier.
Sharrett also admires The
Rifleman as an early example of the vision of original writer-director Sam
Peckinpaugh and revels in its inherent contradictions in portraying Lucas as a
reasonable man who would rather settle disagreements peacefully rather than
resorting to the savage violence he seems unable to avoid because of the
unreasonableness of others. Sharrett also sees the western in general as a
subliminally controlling influence on male America during an age of Cold War,
conformism, and capitalist propaganda, depicting a male fantasy of freedom and
power while still championing the benefits of domesticity. But while The Rifleman may ultimately uphold the
status quo, it also offers a glimpse into the cracks in its foundation.
Sharrett points out that although Lucas McCain staunchly
supports North Fork Marshal Micah Torrance, whom he rescued from a debilitating
alcoholism and persuaded the town to install as chief lawman, it is Lucas who
more often than not has to back him up to make the law stick. During episodes
that aired in 1961, this origin story is replayed in "Closer Than a
Brother" (February 21, 1961) when Micah learns that an old nemesis,
near-sighted gunman Ansel Bain, who made him flee in fear years ago, has been
spotted in a nearby town and is apparently headed to North Fork. Micah becomes
cranky and then turns his badge over to Lucas, whom he acknowledges is always
the one to bail him out, and descends back into a bout of drunkenness. Rather
than providing a sympathetic ear to his old friend, Lucas gives him a dose of
tough love by not only riding to the next town and telling Bain where Micah
lives but in also refusing to back Micah up after Bain pays him a visit and
sets up a meeting in town for the next day. When he learns of Lucas' role in
setting Bain onto him, rather than getting angry he considers it an act of kindness
that Lucas would have gone to all that trouble, and he musters up the courage
to rip Bain's glasses from his head and knock him out with a whiskey bottle.
Though Lucas refuses to assume his usual role of Micah's bodyguard, he still
orchestrates the incident's resolution by pushing Micah face first into what he
fears most, essentially bailing him out from his own self-pity.
Though Lucas may unofficially provide Micah's backbone, he
is officially a part of the town's establishment as a member of the town
council. However, in one of the contradictory twists that Sharrett so enjoys,
it seems that whenever he has to attend a town council meeting, Mark gets into
trouble. In other words, in supporting the community, Lucas endangers his own
family. In "A Friend in Need" (December 25, 1961), Lucas go into town
to buy supplies at Milly Scott's general store. Lucas has to stay in town that
evening for a town council meeting, telling Mark to take the supplies home with
him after he helps Milly stock in her canned goods. But unbeknownst to the
McCains, they are being watched by hired gun Carl Avery, who kidnaps Mark in a
plot to lure Lucas out of town where he can be shot down. Fortunately, Avery is
not a good enough shot to hit Lucas on the first try, before he realizes he is
under attack, and Lucas is savvy enough to get under the building Avery is
perched on and shoot him upward through the roof. Lucas is lucky to survive an
incident that would never have happened had he not chosen his duty as a
responsible citizen over his duty as a protective parent.
Lucas likewise runs into trouble when serving as a town
official in the High Noon-inspired episode
"Long Gun From Tucson" (December 11, 1961). Micah is out of town and
has designated Lucas to fill in for him when notorious gunman John Holliver
returns to avenge being literally ridden out on a rail 5 years earlier.
Gunsmith Henry Waller, blacksmith Nils Swenson, and hotel clerk Eddie Halstead
are all nervous when they hear of Holliver's expected return, as they all had a
role in his ouster and figure they could be the target of his revenge. But
after Lucas talks to Holliver and learns that he doesn't care whom he shoots,
just as long as it is a North Fork citizen, Waller, Swenson, and Halstead all
back away and argue that Lucas, as the designated law officer, should be the
one to face Holliver, who has brought three other gunman with him to ensure
that he gets a fair shot, or so he claims. Never one to shirk his duty as a
beacon of law and order, Lucas goes into the street on the assigned morning to
face Holliver and his gang, but is surprised when Waller, Swenson, and Halstead
follow him with pistols to back him up. In another stroke of good fortune,
Lucas and his band of amateur shooters mow down Holliver and his men without a
single injury.
Lucas is again put in harm's way as the result of
steadfastly supporting law and order in "The Decision" (November 6,
1961) when he witnesses the son of a local rancher baron, Corey Hazlitt,
mercilessly gun down one of his father's ranch hands. Though Hazlitt's brother
and cousin threaten Mark's safety and later gang up on and beat Lucas to a pulp
in an effort to get him to recant his testimony, Lucas refuses to back down. At
first Lucas doesn't tell Mark about the threat to his life and merely tells him
to stick close to the house until the trial is over. When Mark nevertheless
goes out into the pasture to repair a broken fence, hoping that his father will
be pleased that he took the initiative, Lucas is instead furious that Mark
disobeyed his orders, but after Mark explains his reason for his actions, Lucas
has to tone down his anger and accept the responsibility that he was not
forthcoming in his communication to his son. As Sharrett has observed, Lucas'
parenting style is more aligned with the then-popular teachings of Dr. Spock
rather than the more traditional top-down patriarchy of the 19th century. But
even with his more modern approach to child-rearing, Lucas is challenged in balancing
his responsibilities of parent vs. citizen.
In expounding on Lucas' role as a reasonable supporter of
the established order, Sharrett also mentions that the show at times dealt with
racism in a slightly more enlightened way than society as a whole or the
western in particular. Sharrett describes at length the 1959 episode "The
Indian" in which Michael Ansara portrays Native American Sam Burkhardt,
who is also a Harvard-educated U.S. Marshal (the character would be spun off
into its own series, Law of the Plainsman,
later that year) whom the citizens of North Fork at first reject because of his
race but are later shown the error of their ways by Lucas. In 1961, the episode
"The Queue" (March 16, 1961) takes a similar approach to race, though
this time through the story of Chinese launderer Wang Chi, who incurs the wrath
of a local bigot and general troublemaker whom Lucas eventually has to gun
down. While the episode depicts Lucas and Milly helping Wang Chi set up his
business in North Fork and Mark becomes best friends with Wang Chi's son, even
defending him against the bullying of the bigot's son, having him depicted as a
launderer reinforces existing stereotypes about the Chinese, and by episode's
end both Wang Chi and his son have shorn their traditional Chinese ponytails,
called a "queue," signifying that they have discarded any notion of
returning to their homeland and have accepted being assimilated into American
society. So while blatant racism is painted as evil, one must still conform to
the white definition of normality to be fully American.
During this era when the African-American civil rights
movement was gaining momentum, many westerns treaded lightly on the subject of
race by dramatizing racism against the Chinese or Native Americans rather than
confronting racist treatment of Blacks head-on. In the 34 episodes airing in
1961, we see only one African-American character, and his appearance is a
curious one. In the aforementioned "Closer Than a Brother," Lucas is
forced to take over the role of marshal when Micah has a breakdown at the
prospect of facing his nemesis Ansel Bain. After Micah pins his marshal badge
on Lucas, the latter is approached out of the blue by an African-American
laborer named Thaddeus, who says he overheard in the saloon that Lucas had been
made marshal and therefore might need help on his ranch. Without knowing
anything more about Thaddeus or his background, Lucas shakes his hand and
accepts his offer. Later that evening back at the McCain ranch, Lucas reads the
Bible for inspiration about how to deal with Micah's dilemma, and Thaddeus
shows that he is well-versed in the teachings of the Good Book. Afterwards we
never see or hear from Thaddeus again, his only purpose seeming to be in
showing that Lucas is a tolerant and thoughtful man. Though he is depicted
favorably, Thaddeus is far from a fully realized human being, serving more as a
prism through which we can more fully appreciate Lucas's brilliance. The series
would offer a more complete Black character the following year in the episode
"Two Ounces of Tin" starring
Sammy Davis, Jr., which Sharrett
describes in some detail. But in 1961 the series didn't know how to deal with
the African-American.
Like many other westerns of the era,
The Rifleman skirted the racial implications of the country's Civil
War. We frequently encounter former Confederate Army characters, and often as
not, they are shown as being unable to accept their defeat. In "The
Prisoner" (March 14, 1961) Lucas is captured by one such character, Major
Aaron King, and his adjutant Cpl. Troc and placed in a wooden cage they have
built outside North Fork. The deranged King intends to punish Lucas, as a
former member of the Union outfit that defeated and imprisoned King and Troc in
deplorable conditions, as payback for what he endured. Lucas eventually
outsmarts the Confederates by breaking out of the cage when he is brought some
food, grabbing Troc's gun, and shooting both men dead. King and Troc are
depicted as insane because they want revenge for treatment during a war that
ended 20 years ago, not because they fought for a cause that enslaved people because
of their race. At episode's end Micah brings King's saddle bags back to Lucas's
house and Mark removes a Confederate flag, commenting that his father always
told him the flag was a sign of honor. Lucas replies that those two men were
not honorable but that men on both sides fought bravely to produce a country
where all can be free. In 1961, Blacks may have been technically free but were
certainly not equal. Shows like
The
Rifleman and virtually every other western, white-washed an inglorious
period in American history in the service of perpetuating a white male American
patriarchy, a system that we are still struggling with today.
As of this writing, the first two seasons of
The Rifleman have been released on DVD
by the original production company of
Levy-Gardner-Laven. The program also airs
Saturday mornings on the
AMC cable channel.
The Actors
For the biographies for
Chuck Connors,
Johnny Crawford, and
Paul
Fix, see the 1960 post for
The Rifleman.
Joan Taylor
Born
Rose Marie Emma in Geneva, Illinois, both of Taylor's
parents were show business veterans. Her Austrian mother
Amelia Berky, was a
song-and-dance vaudeville star in the 1920s. Her Sicilian father was a
Hollywood prop man but later managed a movie theater after moving the family to
Lake Forest, Illinois, where Taylor developed a love of the movies shown at her
father's theater. After graduating from the Chicago National Association of
Dancing Masters, Taylor moved to Hollywood in 1946 and began acting at the
Pasadena Playhouse. Actor
Victor Jory set up an interview for her with producer
Nat Holt, which led to a movie career, beginning with the western
Fighting Man of the Plains in 1949. It
was also at the Pasadena Playhouse that she met her first husband
Leonard
Freeman while working on a production of
Here
Comes Mr. Jordan, and the couple were married in 1953. Taylor continued her
film career throughout the 1950s, appearing mostly in westerns as well as two
cult sci-fi classics--
Earth vs. The
Flying Saucers and
20 Million Miles
to Earth. In 1958 she moved from feature films over to television, making
guest appearances on programs such as
Wagon Train,
Yancy Derringer, and
21 Beacon Street until she was cast as
Chuck Connors' romantic interest beginning in Season 3 of
The Rifleman.
Taylor made 18 appearances as
general store proprietor Milly Scott over two seasons of
The Rifleman in a role reminiscent of Miss Kitty on
Gunsmoke or Lily Merrill on
Lawman. After her contract expired, she
made a single appearance on
77 Sunset
Strip and then retired from acting. Her husband went on to create and
produce the series
Hawaii Five-O, and
after his death from surgery complications in 1974, Taylor took over his
production company for the remainder of the series' run. She also turned to
writing screenplays, co-authoring the 1997 feature comedy
Fools Rush In as well as TV movies and an episode of the series
Family. In 1976 she remarried to TV
director/producer
Walter Grauman, who worked on
The Untouchables,
The
Fugitive,
Barnaby Jones, and
Murder, She Wrote, but the couple
divorced 4 years later. Taylor died of natural causes at the age of 82 on March
4, 2012 in Santa Monica, California.
Ralph Moody
Ralph Roy Moody was born in St. Louis in 1886 and began
performing on the stage at age 14 in 1900. Besides performing at the 1904
World's Fair in his hometown, he performed in a variety of theater troupes
throughout the midwest, eventually forming his own troupe named after his wife,
the
Hazel McOwen Stock Company, in which she also acted. One performance in
Dallas, TX in 1927 billed Moody as a
Harold Lloyd impersonator. However,
Moody's traveling theater days came to an end in 1939 when tornados destroyed
most of his tents. He then turned to radio acting, playing the character Uncle
Abner on radio in Topeka, Kansas and later settling in Cincinnati to work for
Crosley Radio in the early 1940s. In 1945 he moved to California, and after a
3-month dry spell began to find work on radio programs such as
Red Ryder and
The Roy Rogers Show. At the age of 62 he finally broke into films
in 1948 and the following year began also acting on TV programs such as
The Lone Ranger. Because of his rugged
features, he was often cast either as an old man or a Native American or other
non-white ethnic type in films such as
Road
to Bali,
The Far Horizons, and
Reprisal! He appeared 15 times in a
variety of roles on the original TV version of
Dragnet and another 5 times when Jack Webb brought the series back
to TV in the late 1960s. Other than 4 appearances as the Native American
Nochalo/Nachato on the western series
Broken
Arrow in the late 1950s, his role as Doc Burrage on
The Rifleman was his only recurring role. He appeared 9 times in
the role between 1961-63. Once during that span the role was played by
Robert
Burton, and before Moody took over the role in 1961 it had been played by
Edgar
Buchanan,
Rhys Williams,
Jack Kruschen, and
Fay Roope.
Moody remained active after
The Rifleman right up until his death at age 84 in 1971, appearing
in multiple episodes not only of
Dragnet
but also of
Bonanza,
Perry Mason,
Gunsmoke, and
Daniel Boone.
His last credit was for the 1971 TV movie
The
Impatient Heart. He passed away September 16, 1971 in Burbank, California.
Bill Quinn
William Tyrell Quinn, born in New York City, began his
acting career at age 6, appearing in the Broadway production
Daddies in which he was billed as Billy
Quinn. Besides appearing in vaudeville, Quinn made his film debut in the 1924
silent feature
The New School Teacher,
but his career on film really didn't take off until some 25 years later when he
first appeared on the TV series
The Big
Story. His over 200 career acting credits are also largely on television,
though he did also appear in
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds, three
Don Knotts features--
The Reluctant Astronaut,
The
Shakiest Gun in the West, and
How to
Frame a Figg--and as McCoy's father in
Star
Trek V: The Final Frontier. But the first of several recurring TV roles was
as bartender Frank Sweeney in 38 episodes of
The Rifleman during the show's entire 5-year run. He made many
other guest appearances during this period on shows such as
Wanted: Dead or Alive,
Perry Mason, and
Hawaiian Eye.
Once
The Rifleman
ended, Quinn was cast as a variety of different judges in Chuck Connors' next
series,
Arrest and Trial, and
concurrently played a series of different admirals on
McHale's Navy. He also appeared in a variety of roles in 7 episodes
of
Bonanza and
The Big Valley and 6 episodes of
Ironside and
The F.B.I.,
as well as smaller numbers of appearances on shows like
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,
The
Virginian, and
Mod Squad. In 1970
he began appearing as Felix and Oscar's physician Dr. Melnitz on
The Odd Couple, and in 1972 he appeared
3 times as Mary Richards' father on
The
Mary Tyler Moore Show. Because Quinn's daughter
Virginia was married to
Bob
Newhart, Quinn also appeared 4 times on
The
Bob Newhart Show and another 3 times on
Newhart
a decade later. He played a judge 8 times on
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, played Police Chief Paulson on
MacMillan & Wife, and, most
memorably, played Archie Bunker's blind neighbor Mr. Van Ranseleer on
All in the Family and
Archie Bunker's Place. His last credited
role was in
Star Trek V. He died of
natural causes at age 81 on April 29, 1994 in Camarillo, California.
Joe Higgins
Like Bill Quinn, actor
Joseph H. Higgins, born in
Logansport, Indiana, began his career as a child at the age of 9. His
television career began with a 1960 appearance as an unnamed bartender on
The Rifleman. After that he would appear
20 more times during the remainder of the series' run, mostly as blacksmith
Nils Swenson.
After The Rifleman,
Higgins benefitted from his association with Chuck Connors, appearing in the
feature film Flipper and 24 times as Jake
Shakespeare on the series Arrest and
Trial. He continued steady TV work thereafter on shows such as Burke's
Law, The Monkees, The Big Valley, and Daktari.
But Higgins' biggest break came when he was cast as a
gravel-voiced southern sheriff JW in Dodge automobile TV commercials in 1969
with the catch-phrase "You in a heap o' trouble, boy!" The commercial
proved so popular that Higgins was retained for a series of Dodge commercials
over the next several years, then a series of safety public service
announcements promoting seat belt use, and even commercials for local Dodge
dealers after the national commercials were discontinued. He also was cast in
sheriff roles on programs such as Green
Acres, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,
and The Fall Guy and in feature films
such as Sixpack Annie and The Man From Clover Grove. His character
JW obviously provided the blueprint for scores of southern-fried sheriffs to
come, most notably Jackie Gleason's Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit. His last acting credit was in a 1987 episode
of the TV series Stingray. Besides
his acting career, Higgins was an avid airplane buff and earned a Ph.D. in
Aviation Education from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He died from a
heart attack at the age of 72 on June 15, 1998.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 3, Episode 15, "Six Years and a Day":
John
Larch (starred in
The Wrecking Crew,
Play Misty for Me, and
Dirty Harry and played Deputy District
Attorney Jerry Miller on
Arrest and Trial,
Gerald Wilson on
Dynasty, and Arlen
& Atticus Ward on
Dallas) plays vengeful
former doctor Jack Cooke.
Ron Hayes (see the biography section for the 1960
post on
Bat Masterson) plays hired
gun Bruce.
James Gavin (Sheriff Frank Madden on
The Big Valley) plays stranded traveler Lee Marston.
Season 3, Episode 16, "Flowers by the Door":
Richard
Anderson (shown on the left, appeared in
Forbidden Planet,
Paths of Glory, and
Seven Days in May and played D.A. Glenn
Wagner on
Bus Stop; Lt. Steve Drumm
on
Perry Mason; Chief George
Untermeyer on
Dan August; Oscar
Goldman on
The Six Million Dollar Man
and
The Bionic Woman; and Buck
Fallmont on
Dynasty) plays traveling
book salesman Jason Gowdy.
Patricia Breslin (Amanda Peoples Miller on
The People's Choice and Laura Brooks on
Peyton Place) plays ranch wife Cora
Seevers.
Season 3, Episode 17, "The Long Trek": Lonny
Chapman (appeared in East of Eden, Baby Doll, The Birds, and The Reivers
and played Frank Malloy on For the People)
plays extradited outlaw Stanley.
Season 3, Episode 18, "The Actress":
Morris Ankrum
(starred in
Rocketship X-M,
Invaders From Mars,
Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, and
The Giant Claw and played the judge 22 times on
Perry Mason) plays Lucas' neighbor Jacob
Black.
Diana Millay (shown on the right, played Laura Collins on
Dark
Shadows) plays his young wife Elizabeth Garrett Black.
Season 3, Episode 19, "Face
of Yesterday":
John Anderson (see the biography section for the 1960 post
on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp)
plays drunkard troublemaker Hank Clay.
Ben Cooper (Waverly on
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and
the Director on
The Fall Guy) plays his
sharp-shooting son Simon Lee.
K.T. Stevens (Vanessa Prentiss on
The Young and the Restless) plays his wife
Nancy.
Season 3, Episode 20, "The Wyoming Story, Part 1"
and Season 3, Episode 21, "The Wyoming Story, Part 2":
Kent Taylor (Carlos
Murietta on
Zorro and Capt. Jim Flagg
on
The Rough Riders) plays corrupt
U.S. Indian agent Forbes McKee.
Dabbs Greer (see the biography section for the
1960 post on
Gunsmoke) plays La Mesa,
Wyoming town drunk Finny.
Russell Thorson (Det. Lt. Otto Lindstrom on
The Detectives and William Kennerly on
Peyton Place) plays La Mesa Marshal Gene
Burks.
Season 3, Episode 22, "Closer Than a Brother": Berry
Kroeger (appeared in Black Magic, Gun Crazy, Hitler, and Demon Seed) plays
Micah's nemesis Ansel Bain. Rex Ingram (shown on the left, starred in The Green Pastures, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
Thief of Baghdad (1940), Cabin in the
Sky, Sahara, God's Little Acre, and Anna
Lucasta) plays ranch worker Thaddeus. Kelly Thordsen (Colorado Charlie on Yancy Derringer) plays saloon
troublemaker Arthur Truelove.
Season 3, Episode 23, "The Lost Treasure of Canyon Town":
William Fawcett (Clayton on Duffy's Tavern,
Marshal George Higgins on The Adventures
of Rin Tin Tin, and Pete Wilkey on Fury) plays ghost town resident Mr. Newman. Robert
Foulk (Ed Davis on Father Knows Best,
Sheriff Miller on Lassie, Joe
Kingston on Wichita Town, Mr. Wheeler
on Green Acres, and earlier played
Phillip Toomey on The Rifleman) plays
his son Herbert.
Season 3, Episode 24, "Dark Day at North Fork":
John
Milford (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays ex-convict Jack Solby.
Season 3, Episode 25, "The Prisoner": John Dehner (shown on the right, played Duke
Williams on The Roaring '20's,
Commodore Cecil Wyntoon on The Baileys of
Balboa, Morgan Starr on The Virginian,
Cyril Bennett on The Doris Day Show,
Dr. Charles Cleveland Claver on The New
Temperatures Rising Show, Barrett Fears on Big Hawaii, Marshal Edge Troy on Young Maverick, Lt. Joseph Broggi on Enos, Hadden Marshall on Bare
Essence, and Billy Joe Erskine on The
Colbys) plays former Confederate Major Aaron King. Adam Williams (appeared
in Flying Leathernecks, The Big Heat, Fear Strikes Out, and North
by Northwest) plays his adjutant Cpl. Troc.
Season 3, Episode 26, "Assault":
Linda Lawson (shown on the left, played Renee
on
Adventures in Paradise, Pat Perry
on
Don't Call Me Charlie, and Laura
Fremont on
Ben Casey) plays farmer's
daughter Vashti Croxton.
Paul Mantee (starred in
Robinson Crusoe on Mars,
Blood
on the Arrow, and
A Man Called Dagger
and played Det. Al Corassa on
Cagney
& Lacey and Commander Clayton on
Hunter)
plays her fiance Cade Conway.
King Calder (Lt. Gray on
Martin Kane) plays her father King Croxton.
Med Flory (played
clarinet in the Ray Anthony orchestra and founded and plays alto sax in the
group Super Sax, appeared in
Gun Street,
The Nutty Professor (1963), and
The Gumball Rally, and played Sheriff
Mike McBride on
High Mountain Rangers)
plays her brother Thess.
Bob Sweeney (Oliver Munsey on
Our Miss Brooks, Fibber McGee on
Fibber McGee and Molly, and Gilly Box on
Brothers; also directed 80 episodes of
The Andy Griffith Show and lesser numbers of many other series)
plays traveling salesman Speed Sullivan.
Danny Richards, Jr. (Franklin Sanders
on
Willy) plays his son Swifty.
Season 3, Episode 27, "Short Rope for a Tall Man":
Bert Freed (appeared in
The Atomic City,
The Cobweb, and
Paths of Glory and played Rufe Ryker on
Shane) plays small-town kingpin Ben Crown.
William Schallert (see
the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays general store owner Joe Lovering.
Norman
Leavitt (Ralph on
Trackdown) plays undertaker
Jephtha Docking.
Season 3, Episode 28, "The Clarence Bibs Story":
Buddy
Hackett (shown on the right, starred in
God's Little Acre,
The Music Man,
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and
The Love Bug and played Stanley Peck on
Stanley and Uncle Lonnie on
Action)
plays mop boy Clarence Bibs.
John Milford (see "Dark Day at North
Fork" above) plays troublemaker Reade.
Lee Van Cleef (starred in
High Noon,
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms,
For
a Few Dollars More,
and
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) plays
troublemaker Wicks.
X Brands (Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah on
Yancy Derringer) plays gunman Pretty Man Longden.
Denver Pyle (Ben
Thompson on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Grandpa Tarleton on
Tammy,
Briscoe Darling on
The Andy Griffith Show,
Buck Webb on
The Doris Day Show, Mad
Jack on
The Life and Times of Grizzly
Adams, and Uncle Jesse on
The Dukes
of Hazzard) plays Longden's partner George Tanner.
Season 3, Episode 29, "The Score Is Even": Adam
Williams (see "The Prisoner" above) plays murderer Jax. Kelly
Thordsen (see "Closer Than a Brother" above) plays his partner Andy. Joe
Benson (appeared in 40 episodes of The
Rifleman, mostly as uncredited bartenders, townsmen, and the like) plays horse
owner Abe Merar.
Season 3, Episode 30, "The Mescalero Curse": Michael
Pate (starred in Face to Face, Julius Caesar, Hondo, and Tower of London
and played Chief Vittoro on Hondo and
Det. Sgt. Vic Maddern on Matlock) plays
Apache witch doctor Mogollan. Jackie Searl (one-time child actor, appeared in Tom Sawyer (1930), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Alice
in Wonderland (1933), Great
Expectations(1934), and Little Lord
Fauntleroy) plays ranch hand Tom.
Season 3, Episode 31, "Stopover":
Adam West (shown on the left, played Det.
Sgt. Steve Nelson on
The Detectives,
Bruce Wayne on
Batman, Captain Rick
Wright on
The Last Precinct, and Dr.
Noah Goddard on
Black Scorpion) plays
stage passenger Mr. Ryan.
Gordon Jones (appeared in
The Green Hornet,
Flying Tigers,
My Sister Eileen,
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and
McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on
The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete
Thompson on
The Ray Milland Show,
Hubie Dodd on
So This Is Hollywood,
and Butch Barton on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays liquor salesman Vince Medford.
Bethel Leslie (appeared
in 15 episodes of
The Richard Boone Show
and played Claudia Conner on
All My
Children and Ethel Crawford on
One
Life to Live) plays stage passenger Tess Miller.
Season 3, Episode 32, "The Lonesome Bride":
Joan
Shawlee (appeared in
All Ashore,
Some Like It Hot,
The Apartment,
Irma La Douce,
The Wild Angels, and
Willard and played Aggie on
Aggie, Lorna on
The Betty Hutton Show, Pickles Sorrell on
The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Margo on
The Feather and Father Gang) plays mail-order bride Mary Woodson.
Kay
E. Kuter (Newt Kiley on
Petticoat
Junction and
Green Acres) plays prankster
Charv Banner.
Season 3, Episode 33, "Death Trap":
James Drury (shown on the right, appeared
in
Forbidden Planet,
Pollyanna, and
Ride the High Country and played The Virginian on
The Virginian and Captain Spike Ryerson
on
Firehouse) plays cattle drover
Spicer.
John Pickard (Capt. Shank Adams on
Boots
and Saddles and Sgt. Maj. Murdock on
Gunslinger)
plays drover Stacey.
Steve Pendleton (see the biography section for the 1960
post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp)
plays North Fork Deputy Ben Johnson.
Philip Carey (starred in
I Was a Communist for the FBI, Inside the
Walls of Folsom Prison,
Calamity Jane,
Mister Roberts,
Dead Ringer, and
Three For
Texas and played Lt. Michael Rhodes on
Tales
of the 77th Bengal Lancers, Philip Marlowe on
Philip Marlowe, Capt. Edward Parmalee on
Laredo, and Asa Buchanan on
One
Life to Live) plays physician Simon Battle.
Gigi Perreau (see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
The Betty Hutton Show) plays his daughter Vickie.
Season 3, Episode 34, "The Queue":
Victor Sen Yung
(Jimmy Chan in 13 Charlie Chan movies, Cousin Charlie Fong on
Bachelor Father, and Hop Sing on
Bonanza) plays Chinese launderer Wang
Chi.
Peter Whitney (Sergeant Buck Sinclair on
The Rough Riders and Lafe Crick on
The Beverly Hillbillies) plays racist Vince Fergus.
Season 4, Episode 1, "The Vaqueros": Martin Landau
(shown on the left, starred in North by Northwest, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The
Fall of the House of Usher, and Ed
Wood and played Rollin Hand on Mission:
Impossible!, Commander John Koenig on Space:
1999, Dr. Sol Gold on The Evidence,
Bob Ryan on Entourage, and Frank
Malone on Without a Trace) plays bandito
Miguel. Than Wyenn (Licenciado Piña on Zorro)
plays bandito Ramos. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on The High Chaparral) plays bandito Angelo. Ziva Rodann (appeared in Forty Guns, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, The Story of Ruth, and College
Confidential and played Nefertiti on Batman)
plays cantina dancer Maria. Vladimir Sokoloff (appeared in The Life of Emile Zola, Road
to Morocco, For Whom the Bell Tolls,
Back to Bataan, and I Was a Teenage Werewolf) plays her
father Abuelito.
Season 4, Episode 2, "First Wages": Ed Nelson (Michael
Rossi on Peyton Place and Ward Fuller
on The Silent Force) plays wanted
criminal Ben Vargas.
Season 4, Episode 3, "Sheer Terror": Charles
MacCaulay (appeared in Head, Blacula, Airport '77, Raise the
Titanic, Splash, and 6 Perry
Mason TV movies and played Elliot Kincaid #2 on Days of Our Lives) plays foppish bank robber Mr. Sloan. Tommy Cook (appeared
in Adventures of Red Ryder, Jungle Girl, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Humoresque,
and Teenage Crime Wave) plays his
gunman Andy Carr.
Season 4, Episode 4, "The Stand-In":
Dabbs Greer (shown on the left, see
"The Wyoming Story, Part 1" above) plays prison wagon driver Bert
Taylor.
Richard Devon (shown on the right, played Jody Barker on
Yancy
Derringer) plays his partner Gus Potter.
Charles Cooper (starred in
The Wrong Man and played the sheriff on
Father Murphy and Judge Robert Boucher
on
The Practice) plays their prisoner
Rudy Croft.
Season 4, Episode 5, "The Journey Back": John
Anderson (see "Face of Yesterday" above) plays army deserter Will
Temple. John Milford (see "Dark Day at North Fork" above) plays squatter
Jess Grady. Harry Carey, Jr. (starred in Red
River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays army investigator Lt.
Vaughn.
Season 4, Episode 6, "The Decision": Denver Pyle (see
"The Clarence Bibs Story" above) plays rancher patriarch Frank
Hazlitt. Hampton Fancher (played Deputy Lon Gillis on Black Saddle and co-wrote the screenplay and was executive producer
on Blade Runner) plays his son Corey.
Kevin Hagen (John Colton on Yancy
Derringer, Inspector Dobbs Kobick on Land
of the Giants, and Dr. Hiram Baker on Little
House on the Prairie) plays his son Harry. Richard Kiel (shown on the left, starred in The Phantom Planet, Eegah, The Longest Yard, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, and Pale Rider and played Moose Moran on Barbary Coast) plays their cousin Carl. Henry Norell (Henry Slocum
on Oh, Those Bells) plays Hazlitt's
attorney C. Henry Whitmore.
Season 4, Episode 7, "Knight Errant":
Lawrence
Dobkin (Dutch Schultz on
The Untouchables,
the narrator on
Naked City, Judge
Saul Edelstein on
L.A. Law, and Judge
Stanley Pittman on
Melrose Place) plays
Lucas' old friend Don Lagarde.
Jack Elam (Deputy J.D. Smith on
The Dakotas, George Taggart on
Temple Houston, Zack Wheeler on
The Texas Wheelers, and Uncle Alvin
Stevenson on
Easy Street) plays his squire
Gates.
Sean McClory (Jack McGivern on
The
Californians and Myles Delaney on
Bring
'Em Back Alive) plays former rustler Col. Charles Black.
Season 4, Episode 8, "Honest Abe": Royal Dano (shown on the right, appeared
in The Far Country, Moby Dick, and The Outlaw Josey Wales) plays Abel Lincoln, who believes he is
Abraham Lincoln. K.T. Stevens (see "Face of Yesterday" above) plays his
sister Emma. Charles Cooper (see "The Stand-In" above) plays out-of-town
troublemaker Matt Yordy. Pick Temple (cowboy folksinger who hosted the
children's program The Pick Temple Giant
Ranch) plays a saloon singer.
Season 4, Episode 9, "The Long Goodbye": Edgar
Buchanan (shown on the left, played Uncle Joe Carson on The Beverly
Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction, Red Connors on Hopalong Cassidy, Judge Roy Bean on Judge Roy Bean, Bob/Doc Dawson on Tales of Wells Fargo, and J.J. Jackson
on Cade's County) plays eccentric
former hobo Grandpa Fogarty. Teddy Rooney (son of actors Mickey Rooney and
Martha Vickers) plays his grandson Woody. Virginia Christine (was the Folger's
Coffee woman in commercials and starred in The
Mummy's Curse, The Killers, and Night Wind and played Ovie Swenson on Tales of Wells Fargo) plays busybody
Mrs. Dalrymple. Bill Zuckert (Arthur Bradwell on Mr. Novak and Chief Segal on Captain
Nice) plays escaped convict Debo Lee.
Season 4, Episode 10, "The Shattered Idol":
Kevin
McCarthy (starred in
Death of a Salesman,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956
& 1978),
The Misfits, and
Hotel and played Philip Hastings on
The Survivors, Claude Weldon on
Flamingo Road, Zach Cartwright on
Amanda's, George Hayward on
Bay City Blues, and Lucas Carter on
The Colbys) plays author Samuel Clemens.
Jack Elam (see "Knight Errant" above) plays pool shark Russell.
Bud
Osborne (played stagecoach drivers in dozens of westerns and in episodes of
The Cisco Kid,
Annie Oakley,
The Range Rider,
Hopalong Cassidy,
The Lone Ranger,
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok,
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,
Rescue
8,
Zorro,
Bronco,
Law of the Plainsman,
Johnny Ringo,
Cheyenne,
The Texan,
Maverick, and
Rawhide) plays stagecoach driver Mr. Loomis.
Season 4, Episode 11, "Long Gun From Tucson":
Peter
Whitney (see "The Queue" above) plays vengeful gunman John Holliver.
Whit
Bissell (starred in
He Walked by Night,
Creature From the Black Lagoon,
I Was a Teenage Werewolf,
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and
Hud and played Bert Loomis on
Bachelor Father, Calvin Hanley on
Peyton Place, and Lt. Gen. Heywood Kirk
on
The Time Tunnel) plays gunsmith
Henry Waller.
Season 4, Episode 12, "The High Country":
James
Coburn (shown on the right, starred in
The Magnificent Seven,
Charade,
Our Man Flint, and
In Like
Flint and played Jeff Durain on
Klondike
and Gregg Miles on
Acapulco)
plays mountain man Ambrose.
Jan Stine (Roger on
The Donna Reed Show) plays his friend Gorwin Morgan.
Ellen Corby (Henrietta
Porter on
Trackdown and Esther Walton
on
The Waltons) plays Gorwin's mother
Mrs. Morgan.
Valora Noland (appeared in
Beach
Party,
Muscle Beach Party,
Sex and the College Girl, and
Summer Children) plays her daughter
Clare.
Booth Colman (Prof. Hector Jerrold on
General Hospital and Dr. Felix Burke on
The Young and the Restless) plays mountain village leader Jeremiah.
Season 4, Episode 13, "A Friend in Need":
Parley
Baer (Mayor Roy Stoner on
The Andy Griffith Show, Darby on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Mayor Arthur J. Henson on
The Addams Family, and Doc Appleby on
The Dukes of Hazzard) plays rancher Neff
Packer.
Lee Farr (Lt. Jim Conway on
The
Detectives and was married to actor Felicia Farr) plays hired gunman Carl
Avery.
Tom Snyder (shown on the left, Emmy-winning talk-show host of
The Tomorrow Show and
The
Late, Late Show) plays posse member Pete.
We see the fictional Benny's inflated sense of self-worth on
display in the very first 1961 episode, "Jack Casting for TV Special"
(January 1, 1961). Jack has been allowed by the network to cast the actors for
an upcoming special telling his life story. When it comes to casting the part
of his boyhood girlfriend, Mildred Homquist, Jack selects an attractive,
curvaceous, and flirtatious young actress to give the impression that he is
such a good lover that he could win such a beauty. But this is undercut when he
casts the part of his mother and the actress auditioning for the part is the matronly
real Mildred Holmquist. After she leaves, Jack remarks, "She hasn't
changed a bit." His cheapness is also shown when he tries to hire an
experienced child actor to play him as a boy by bribing the boy with a large
lollipop, only to learn that the child has an agent, who is also a child and
who demands $2,000 for his client, threatening to walk out when Jack, as
expected, refuses to pay so much. After seeing that he can't intimidate the
young agent, Jack realizes that the uncompromising child agent should play him
in the special rather than the child actor. This episode, like several aired in
1961, is actually a reworked version of an episode broadcast 7 years earlier,
in this case "The Life of Jack Benny" from November 28, 1954. But
because he doesn't rely solely on currently topical humor, Benny's jokes are
timeless.
Nor is Benny the only series regular whose character is
depicted in unflattering terms. Announcer Don Wilson is the subject of continuous
fat jokes. In "Don's Anniversary" (January 15, 1961) Benny celebrates
Wilson's 27 years with his program by dressing him in a crown and robe and
having him sit on a throne, only to have the seat of the throne collapse under
Wilson's heft. And in "Jack Goes to the Cafeteria" (December 10,
1961) Benny comes out for the final monologue and reveals that all the food
shown in the cafeteria sketch was real, listing off the vast amounts they used
for each item. He then tells Wilson to be sure that all the leftover food is
returned to the studio commissary so that he can get his deposit back, only to
have Wilson say, "That food was supposed to go back?" and Benny
reply, "I should have known" as Wilson pats his stomach. It is only recently that people have begun to
question whether making fun of weight problems might be cruel. In Benny's day
the assumption was that weight was simply a reflection of willpower. Singer
Dennis Day's simpleton character is also the butt of many jokes. In "Death
Row Sketch" (February 5, 1961) Day plays Benny's son, to whom Benny must
repeatedly explain what a cup, saucer, and knife are. In "Jack Is Followed
Home" (December 3, 1961) Day stalks Benny to scare him in an act of
revenge after Benny lets Bobby Rydell sing two songs on the program but doesn't
allow Day to sing any. After the police catch Day and ask Benny if he wants to
press charges, Benny declines but then takes Day across his knee and spanks him
with a hairbrush, reinforcing the idea that Day is a child-like dimwit. There
is never any indication that Day's character is somehow mentally deficient; he
just doesn't seem to benefit from Benny's instruction. The only character who
does not come off as flawed is Rochester, whom we described in our 1960 post as
having been modified after Benny came under fire for racial stereotyping just
after World War II. Rochester is depicted as his own man who knows his
boundaries. In "Jack at the Supermarket" (January 22, 1961) Rochester
outsmarts Benny in a game of gin rummy by cheating, forcing Benny to do all of
his chores for the day in a maid's outfit, though Benny is then able to pull
the same stunt on Don Wilson, who in turn pulls it on Dennis Day. On his day
off, Rochester is not cowed into jumping up to answer the phone when Jack calls
from the studio hoping to get a ride home, nor does he jump at Benny's subtle
suggestion that he fix him something to eat, forcing Benny to cook his own
omelet, though he needs Don Wilson to first crack the egg because he is too
weak to do it himself. But Rochester shows his devotion to Jack in "New
Year's Eve" (December 31, 1961) when he turns down an opportunity to go
out on the town after Benny comes home early due to his girlfriend being unable
to get off work. Rather than leaving Benny alone, Rochester decides to stay
home with him and toast in the New Year with a bottle of champagne. In real
life Benny had performed a similar, even larger friendly gesture during his
touring days in refusing to stay in any hotel where Eddie Anderson was not
welcome.
Season 11, Episode 11, "Jack Casting
for TV Special": Mel Blanc (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Flintstones) plays telegram
delivery man Herman. Maudie Prickett (Cassie Murphy on Date With the Angels and Rosie on Hazel) plays Jack's secretary Miss Gordon. Dennis Holmes (Mike
Williams on Laramie) plays child
actor Jimmy Evans. Barry Gordon (shown on the left, played Dennis Whitehead on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Charlie Harrison on Fish, Gary Rabinowitz on Archie Bunker's Place, Roger Hightower
on A Family for Joe, and was the
voice of Donatello on Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles) plays Jimmy's lawyer Harry Johnson.
Season 11, Episode 13, "Don's
Anniversary": Howard McNear (shown on the right, played Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show and Jansen the Plumber on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show)
plays radio network executive Mr. Willoughby. Nancy Kulp (Pamela Livingstone on
The Bob Cummings Show, Jane Hathaway
on The Beverly Hillbillies, Mrs.
Gruber on The Brian Keith Show, and
Mrs. Hopkins on Sanford and Son)
plays an elocution teacher. Roy Rowan (announcer for I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show,
and Here's Lucy) plays himself. Bill
Baldwin (was the announcer on The Bob
Cummings Show, the narrator on Bat Masterson, and played a variety of announcers, newsmen, and emcees on a
host of programs including Mister Ed,
The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Addams Family) plays himself. Leonid
Kinskey (appeared in Duck Soup, Les Miserables (1935), Ball of Fire, Casablanca, and The Man With
the Golden Arm and played Pierre Quincy on The People's Choice) plays ballet teacher Sergei Finskey. 
Season 11, Episode 16, "Jack
Goes to the Gym": Lisa Davis (Hula Hips Jenkins on The George Burns Show) plays the new studio receptionist. Alan
Hale, Jr. (shown on the right, played Biff Baker on Biff Baker
U.S.A., Casey Jones on Casey Jones,
and The Skipper on Gilligan's Island)
plays gym owner McGuire. Frank Gerstle (shown on the left, played Dirk Gird on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and voiced Raseem on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour) plays his
assistant Larry Hawkins. Norman Alden (Johnny
Ringo on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,
Captain Horton on Rango, Grundy on Not for Hire, Tom Williams on My Three Sons, and Coach Leroy Fedders
on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) plays a
plumber. Richard Reeves (Murphy on Date
With the Angels) plays a boxer.
Season 11, Episode 17, "Death
Row Sketch": Mamie Van Doren (shown on the left, starred in Untamed Youth, High School
Confidential!, The Beat Generation,
Girls Town, and College Confidential) plays herself. Gerald Mohr (narrator on 19
episodes of The Lone Ranger,
Christopher Storm on Foreign Intrigue,
voice of Mr. Fantastic and Reed Richards on Fantastic
4) plays Harry the boarder. Alan Dexter (Frank Ferguson on Days of Our Lives) plays Jack's
rehearsal manager. 
Season 12, Episode 3, "Jack
Goes on Trial for Murder": Raymond Burr (shown on the right, appeared in M, A Place in the Sun, The Blue Gardenia, and Rear Window and played Perry Mason on Perry Mason and in 26 Perry Mason TV
movies, Robert T. Ironside on Ironside,
and R.B. Kingston on Kingston:
Confidential) plays Perry Mason. Grandon Rhodes (see "Main Street
Shelter" above) plays a process server.
Frank Wilcox (Henry Van Buren on Waterfront,
Beecher Asbury on The Untouchables, Mr.
Brewster on The Beverly Hillbillies and
Petticoat Junction, and the judge 8
times on Perry Mason) plays the
court-room judge George. George E. Stone
(appeared in The Front Page, Little Caesar, Guys and Dolls, The Man With
the Golden Arm, and Some Like It Hot,
played The Runt in 10 Boston Blackie movies, and played the court clerk on Perry Mason) plays the court clerk.
Season 12, Episode 5, "Tennessee
Ernie Ford Show": Tennessee Ernie Ford (shown on the right, popular singer and host of The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show) plays
himself. Joe Besser (replaced Shemp Howard as the third of The Three Stooges
and played Stinky Davis on The Abbott and
Costello Show, Mr. Jillson on The
Joey Bishop Show, and voiced Babu on Jeannie
and Scare Bear on Yogi's Space Race)
plays a broadcast engineer. Eddie Ryder (see the biography section for the 1961
post on Dr. Kildare) plays another
broadcast engineer. Ross Elliott (Sheriff Abbott on The Virginian) plays Jack's director Fred.
Season 12, Episode 6, "Jack
Plays Golf": Eric Monti (shown on the left, professional golfer and golf pro who gave lessons
to Benny and other celebrities) plays himself. John Gallaudet (Chamberlain on Mayor of the Town, Judge Penner on Perry Mason, and Bob Anderson on My Three Sons) plays golfer George
Simpson. Barry Kelley (starred in The
Asphalt Jungle, The Manchurian
Candidate, and The Love Bug and
played Mr. Slocum on Pete and Gladys
and Mr. Hergesheimer on Mister Ed)
plays golfer Mr. Herbert. Hugh Sanders (starred in That's My Boy, The Pride of
St. Louis, The Winning Team, and The Wild One) plays an unnamed golfer. Mel
Blanc (see "Jack Casting TV Special" above) voices a talking squirrel.
Bill McLean (Dave on The Jim Backus Show)
plays Jack's caddie.
Season 12, Episode 8, "Jack
Goes to the Cafeteria": Jane Morgan (shown on the right, popular singer) plays herself. Dave
Willock (starred in Let's Face It, Pin Up Girl, and The Fabulous Dorseys and played Lt. Binning on Boots and Saddles, Harvey Clayton on Margie, and was the narrator on the animated Wacky Races) plays a bus passenger. Ross Elliott (see
"Tennessee Ernie Ford Show´above) returns as Fred the director. Frank
Gerstle (see "Jack Goes to the Gym" above) plays a cafeteria server.
Shirley Mitchell (Yvonne Sharp on Sixpenny
Corner, Kitty Devereaux on Bachelor Father, Janet Colton on Pete and
Gladys, and Clara Appleby on The Red
Skelton Hour) plays a cafeteria server. Robert Bice (Capt. Jim Johnson on The Untouchables) plays a cafeteria
server. Victor Sen Yung (Jimmy Chan in 13 Charlie Chan movies, Cousin Charlie
Fong on Bachelor Father, and Hop Sing
on Bonanza) plays a cafeteria server
serving Mexican food. Vito Scotti (Jose on The Deputy, Capt. Gaspar Fomento on The
Flying Nun, Gino on To Rome With Love,
and Mr. Velasquez on Barefoot in the Park)
plays a cafeteria server serving Chinese food.
Season 12, Episode 11, "New
Year's Eve": Jill Jackson (Hollywood news reporter) plays herself. Charlie
Bagby (Jack's pianist) plays himself. Frank Remley (Jack's guitarist) plays
himself. Wayne Songer (Jack's clarinetist) plays himself. Sammy Weiss (Jack's
drummer) plays himself. Shirley Mitchell (shown on the left, see "Jack Goes to the
Cafeteria" above) plays Jack's girlfriend Gloria.
