The Flip Special
Back in the day when I was a lad, I remember you could get a toy replica of the rifle that Chuck Connors used in The Rifleman. For those of you who don't remember it was called the Flip Special. As the show was popular so was the toy gun.Come to think of it Chuck Connors invented the automatic weapon before anyone else did. Instead of a standard trigger, Connors had that exaggerated big ring to cock the weapon and fire repeatedly at the same time. He was pretty deadly with it too.
But Connors as Lucas McCain wanted to forget his hell-raising past, he was interested in settling down as a single father with his son, Johnny Crawford who grew into his young teen years during the show's run. The only other regular on the show was Marshal Paul Fix who seemed to get in a fix and needed Connors and his rifle to help preserve law and order in the town of North Fort.
What made the The Rifleman special was Chuck Connors and his strong presence as a father to young Crawford. This was the western frontier and not Fifties suburbia in which Hugh Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley raised the Beaver and Wally. He was a single dad that dad's could identify with and emulate. Connors and Crawford were something special on the small screen.
Several women came and went in Lucas McCain's life, but when the show's run ended he was still a widower. As a show The Rifleman had good values and lots of action. Who could ask for more.
score 7/10
bkoganbing 8 May 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2063269/14280
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