The BEST episodes of The Rifleman season 1
Every episode of The Rifleman season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Rifleman season 1!
Widower Lucas McCain can fire a round with his specially modified Winchester in three-tenths of a second. Added to his high moral code and resolve enable him to help Marshal Micah Torrance maintain order in town while raising his son, Mark, on a ranch near North Fork, New Mexico.
#1 - The Gaucho
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/30/1958
Rumson, without even saying to whom he had sold his property, left the bill of sale with the bank and moved away from North Fork. Curge, who's highest offer was upped by $1,000.00 is upset because Rumson sold out to a "peppergut". The Argentez family who bought the place are from Argentina. Lucas arranges for Mark to hang out with Manolo, who teaches Mark to use the Bolas. Manolo is angered at anyone who shows interest in his sister, he believes she is only for a "Caballero". Her latest suitor, Ned Dunnell, has been found murdered and the townsfolk are quick to believe it was Manolo.
#2 - The Boarding House
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1959
Reformed card sharp Julia Massini now runs a respectable boarding house in North Fork, but Sid Fallon is threatening to reveal her sordid past unless she lets him turn the establishment into a saloon and gambling hall.
#3 - Blood Brothers
Season 1 - Episode 35 - Aired 5/26/1959
Lucas McCain gives blood to save a dying man and is surprised by Marshal Torrance's odd behavior toward the man. Then three men arrive from a nearby town and demand custody of the stranger.
#4 - The Mind Reader
Season 1 - Episode 40 - Aired 6/30/1959
When a wealthy rancher is killed, Mark suggests that they seek the aid of a mind reader to identify the murderer.
#5 - Boomerang
Season 1 - Episode 39 - Aired 6/23/1959
When a rancher dies after the bank forecloses the mortgage on his property, his son blames the banker for his father's death.
#6 - Outlaw's Inheritance
Season 1 - Episode 38 - Aired 6/16/1959
Lucas is the town's representative to the railroad commission until an infamous train robber dies and leaves his ill-gotten wealth to Lucas. Lucas must clear his name and stop the reckless ambition of his replacement.
#7 - The Raid
Season 1 - Episode 37 - Aired 6/9/1959
When renegade Apaches wound Lucas and kidnap Mark, Marshal Torrance joins with U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart to form a rescue posse.
#8 - Stranger at Night
Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 6/20/1959
Mark's finding of the body of a murder victim starts Lucas, his friend Artemus, and Marshal Torrance on a search for the killer.
#9 - A Matter of Faith
Season 1 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/19/1959
Although a drought has forced local cowhands to seek work on a railroad construction project, railraod executives are afraid that their workers will desert them if they believe an old man's claim to have found a way to make rain.
#10 - The Money Gun
Season 1 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/12/1959
When his employer begins to suspect him of embezzlement, bookkeeper Asa Manning decides to hire a professional gunman to take care of the problem.
#11 - The Woman
Season 1 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/5/1959
An unfounded rumor causes North Fork's outspoken feminist schoolteacher to be attacked by a mob of angry townspeople.
#12 - Three-Legged Terror
Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/21/1959
When a rambunctious teenager wrecks a schoolroom, Lucas McCain, as a member of the North Fork school board, asks the boy's reluctant uncle to pay for the damages.
#13 - The Hawk
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/14/1959
Young Mark manages to capture a hawk, but then falls into danger from a rattlesnake. When a stranger comes to his rescue, the grateful Mark invites the man home, unaware that he is on the run from the law.
#14 - The Challenge
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/7/1959
When escaped convicts hold up the general store in North Fork and take Marshal Torrance hostage, Lucas comes to the rescue.
#15 - The Deadly Wait
Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/24/1959
Dan Nowry, released from Yuma prison, arrives in North Fork intent on getting even with Marshal Torrance,who helped send him to jail.
#16 - One Went to Denver
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/17/1959
Lucas welcomes his old friend Tom Birch, who once saved his life, unaware that the man is now a bank robber who is on the run with his gang.
#17 - The Trade
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/10/1959
Outlaw Sam Morley falls in love with a young woman who has a serious illness, and asks Lucas to turn him in for the reward and then use the money to pay for her medical care.
#18 - The Second Witness
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/30/1959
Lucas puts his life in jeopardy when he agrees to testify in a murder case where the first witness was killed before he could testify, and the killer is still at large.
#19 - The Indian
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/17/1959
U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart arrives in North Fork in search of renegade Indians suspected of the brutal killing of a Texas Ranger and his family, but the townspeople are suspicious of him when they discover that he too is an Indian.
#20 - The Deadeye Kid
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/10/1959
McCain befriends Donnel O'Mahoney, a tough kid from Brooklyn, and arranges with two men for the young man to continue his travels on their wagon, but then one of them is murdered and the other accuses the boy of having done it.
#21 - Shivaree
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/3/1959
Aaron Pelser's wagon train came across a pair of young boys on a buck board heading west and invited them to join the train. When he found out that one of the boys was actually a girl and the two claimed to be headed to Yuma to get married, Pelser and his crowd force them to be married in North Fork. The wagon train folks want to throw a shivaree, which may have been innocent enough except for two reasons. The first reason being that the couple does not count it as their wedding because they want to be wed by the groom's father in Yuma. The second reason is that Chet Packard keeps pushing things too far, beyond the spirit of a friendly shivaree.
#22 - The Photographer
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/27/1959
Abel Goss, the photographer who took Lucas' wedding photograph, is in North Fork doing a portrait of Mark standing in the street. When Goss sees Col. Whiteside and his sidekick Jamison, he recognizes them as the butchers who tortured him and others while he was captive in their prisoners of war camp. When Lucas stops him from killing them, Goss swears to kill those men. Whiteside planned to call Goss out, but he had Jamison shooting from the upstairs hotel window, as his insurance. When the shots are fired, Whiteside is dead, shot in the back, and his gun hadn't been fired. Goss is arrested and at the trial Lucas and Mark have different testimonies. Mark reenacts the scene in the street, and Lucas backs Mark's theory , using the photographic negative Goss had shot of Mark.
#23 - The Retired Gun
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/20/1959
Wes Carney and his wife Clair want to settle down and they figure North Fork might do fine. Wes is a well known gunfighter, who has promised Clair that he would hang up his guns for good. The Carney's want to live a simple, honest life and the Feed and Grain Store, which is up for sale, seems like it might work for them. Carney's reputation and the news that he's settling down brings troublemakers to North Fork. Lucas is the only man willing to stand as deputy with Micah. After Lucas tells the Carney's a story, Clair releases Wes of his promise and the three men take on the troublemakers. After the showdown, Clair announces that Wes will be taking the Sheriff's position he was offered in another town, if it's still available.
#24 - The Sheridan Story
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/13/1959
Frank Blandon, a man with only one good arm, wanders on to the ranch. Lucas gave Blandon a job to "hire him and Mark a clear conscience". General Sheridan and his patrol wandered by and Lucas offered to let them stay the night at the ranch. Blandon pulled a gun on General Sheridan, as it turned out Blandon was a confederate soldier, who once had General Sheridan in his gun sight during the war. Blandon hung fire, but Sheridan did not hesitate and blew out Blandon's shoulder. General Sheridan shamed Blandon out of exacting his revenge, then lifted Blandon's spirit by praising Johnny Rebs' fighting spirit. Sheridan ordered that Blandon be taken to a hospital to have his shoulder properly mended, carrying out his Commander in Chief's last order to ""Bind up the Nation's wounds.""
#25 - Young Englishman
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/23/1958
Lucas gets in trouble when he accuses the foreman of a neighboring ranch of rustling some of his cattle.