Customer Reviews

The Rifleman, Boxed Set 1

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There's something very zen-like about this show. I've loved it since I was a kid. The dialogue is brilliant in its simplicity at times. Very aware people were writing this, I think. Directors include Sam Peckinpaw, other luminaries. The extent of the affection tough Lucas shows Mark is quite incredible for the 50's. This is like no other 1950's show, that's for sure. Chuck Connors managed to perfectly balance drama with a tongue-in-cheek sensibility. Some episodes are light, others most profound. Lucas McCain is the toughest hombre ever, and yet he is as wise as a sage and plants marigolds all around the ranch-house and actually holds and kisses his son (remember Jim Anderson? I loved Father Knows Best too but Jim reserved his hugs and kisses for Princess and Kitten, poor Bud had to be content with shaking hands). At other times Lucas is funny and mischievous- Chuck Connors did a really fantastic job of making this guy seem staightforward and yet complex. But best of all are the outtakes with the cast cussing, playing practical jokes, etc. I love this set and intend to get more volumes as they come out.

These are extremely well written shows from a time when television portrayed the good guy as the winner and the bad guy the loser (and usually dead in this series). There are 2 reasons why I cannot give this DVD set 5 stars:

1) MPI Home Video is not releasing the episodes in order. Obviously the earlier shows are better so they have decided to pack representative shows from all 5 seasons in Boxed Set 1.

2) There are quality control problems with disk 1. At 21 minutes into the episode the picture pixilates then skips to the end of the episode. Amazon sent me out another Set of DVDs and I found a similar problem at the exact same time (though only pixilating not skipping). I was able to repeat this on several DVD players.

Negatives aside I still recommend These DVDs.

The Rifleman was the popular television western series starring Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, a widower who raised his son (Johnny Crawford) on a ranch in New Mexico in the late 1880s. Every episode portrayed an old fashioned sense of morality, courage, and justice as Lucas McCain was called upon to defend the local town, his ranch, his son, and a number of ordinary men and women who were threatened by the villains and outlaws of the Old West. Lucas signature weapon was a specially modified rifle that could should bullets faster, with more accuracy and at a greater distance than any of the bad guys. Now in a four-volume boxed set containing more than nine hours of these memorable black & white western adventure series from television's early days, The Rifleman Box Set #1 is an enthusiastically recommended addition to community library Video and DVD collections, as well as a popular choice for nostalgia buffs with found memories for one of the more wholesome and "family values" oriented shows of television's "Golden Age".

Chuck Connors, Johnny Crawford and the Chuck's rapid-fire long gun are the featured performers of these episodes. I watched this show five days a week when I was a grade-schooler and I'm delighted to find it holds up pretty well. Naturally some episodes are more worthwhile than others (in those days they knocked out thirty episodes or more per year), but overall quality is high for half-hour weekly fare. It's family entertainment that won't bore the not-so-young'uns.

Sam Peckinpah created this before moving on to feature films, and he utilized his youth on a California ranch to add realism to the show's atmosphere. Recommended viewing, especially the first couple seasons.

For the show itself I give 5 stars.
For picking episodes (based on guest stars who later became big ?) from the first 5 seasons and putting them out as set one I give 0 stars. So it can only get 4 overall.

It seems all the sets follow the same process, and that will make for some interesting continuity jumps from set to set. Young Mark is going to grow up, AND down!

A pity, but never mind, I am glad to be able to see rifleman again. I remembered it for two things; the relationship between father and son and of course THAT really nifty rifle!

Set one at least, is well worth its purchase price.

My husband grew up watching this show with his father and loves the rifleman so much that his mother bought him the first boxed VHS set for Christmas 10 years ago.

5 years later we now have another fan,our son who we named Lucas McCain. He loves the rifleman and has asked Santa for more videos. Boxed set 2 is on the way.

Good show to teach kids right and wrong but may seem corney for some. We love the show!

if you like "the rifleman" this is the way to watch it. this set is great and the extras are just what a collector would want. the transfers are top grade and look like they may have been remastered.
this is the story of a father and son in the 1870's new mexico,as they start a life together after the death of the mans wife. a real change of pace western series,and one of the 50's better t.v. westerns.

Are you tired of watching men on TV who act more like children than men? Are you tired of watching effeminate male figures portrayed as buffoons whose only purpose in life is to be ridiculed by their wives and mocked by their children? Are you fed up with seeing fathers who lack logic, intelligence, and courage? If you said yes to any of these questions than the Rifleman is a show you will be interested in. Chuck Connors plays Lucas McCain, a single parent who is raising his young son in the rugged Southwest during the later part of the nineteenth century. McCain embodies many of the characteristics that we used to admire in American men: courage, leadership, sacrifice, loyalty, chivalry, fairness, and the ability to remain calm amidst tragedy and difficult circumstances. The McCain character reminds me of the World War II vets I knew growing up. These men reflected the old-fashioned male persona that made America the greatest country in the world. Every episode of the Rifleman contains a very complex situation which necessitates the need for Lucas McCain to demonstrate incredible courage and clear-thinking in order to bring about the best resolution. McCain's main goal in life is to "bring up his boy right" and to model for his son Mark the most desirable traits needed to make good moral decisions and to understand the difference between right and wrong. On an entertaining note, you have to love his Winchester rifle. This gun could fire something like 8 rounds in 2 and half seconds. McCain is more precise and deadly with his rifle than any other man is with a pistol. The show was on 5 seasons from 1958 through 1963. During its first year, the Rifleman finished fourth in the TV ratings, which is pretty good for a first season. By the second season it dropped to fourteenth place. The remaining three seasons did not finish in the top 25. I'm not sure why this is because all the episodes seem pretty good to me. I have two complaints about the product. First of all, I think it is ridiculous the way the distributor packaged the episodes. Each volume set is a mixture of all five seasons. Rather than release a complete set of all the seasons separately, they selected a handful of episodes from each season and packaged them into a volume set. My next problem is with the availability of the product. These DVDs are near impossible to obtain. Volumes 1 and 2 are no longer available. You might be able to get Volumes 3 and 4 if you are lucky and Volumes 5 and 6 can be obtained if you look hard enough. I'm not sure if this is due to the shows popularity or if the distributor did not anticipate active sales and only burned a limited number of copies. That being said, I highly recommend The Rifleman and I encourage you to try to purchase any of the volume sets. Let's face it, The Rifleman would never be on TV today because it stands for everything the contemporary cultures despises.

Here's the deal, Lucas McCain is incredible with a rifle. In fact, he has rigged his rifle so he can twirl it around and get off repeated shots in a very short amount of time.

A man of peace, Lucas moves to New Mexico to start a new life after his wife dies, and he is left with his son, Mark, to raise in what he hopes will be a new and better kind of world, one with less violence. Unfortunately, that's not the world he and his son live in. They live in a violent world, a dangerous world, a world where a repeating rifle is an absolute necessity.

This is a great series. I watched it in real time when I was a child. I've been watching it again now, these many years later.

The first episode is courtesy of that wonderful Western director Sam Peckinpah. The first episode alone is worth the cost of the box set.

Hi: Most of us 50's and 60's kids love these shows. Especially the Rifleman. These sets would sell better if they were in season order. Take my word for it. I definitely would buy the whole set like I did for Branded another Great Chuck Conners show.
Steven E. Pereira.