# The Rifleman - Did they ever explain his backstory? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286 "2012-06-25T20:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![OtisCampbellWasRight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@OtisCampbellWasRight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtisCampbellWasRight)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/61 "2012-06-29T19:23:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > You got most of it. > > “Stranded/Stuck on the toilet bowl/What do you do when you’re stranded/and you can’t find the roll?/Wherever you go for the rest of your life/you must prove/you’re a man/Use your hand.” I too remember this song! Apparently, it made it’s way all across the country; I grew up in Jersey and you’re in So Cal. And prior to the interwebs, even! Kids who never had the chance to go to summer camp missed out on lotsa cool and funny stuff. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/62 "2012-06-30T13:04:15Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Lot’s of great guest stars on the show. The first episode had Dennis Hopper, and he was in at least one other. Many 50s and 60s character actors and future stars appeared on the show. Just last weekend I saw an episode with the late **Don Grady** playing a whiney kid. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/63 "2012-06-30T14:01:26Z")
I only ever saw the show in late night repeats, but I remember an early “WTF?!” moment with one episode that begins withwhat appears to be a knock down drag out fight with Lucas losing but turns out to be spirited but friendly wrestling match. It’s a double misdirect, because once you realize “it wasn’t a fight, just friends horsing around”, Lucas’s opponent reaches his hand down to help him up and you notice the guy looks like Lincoln, which you know it can’t be of course, until Lucas takes his hand and calls him “Mr. President”. Roll credits. I remember as a kid thinking “But… but… but… NO! The show takes place _after_ the Civil War, and Lincoln never went to New Mexico, and if he did New Mexico was Confederate during the war…”. After the commercial break it’s revealed that the man is a harmless but mentally ill neighboring rancher who happens to believe he is Abraham Lincoln. (That week’s special guest villain introduces himself to the man as John Wilkes Booth, and Lincoln2 has no idea who Booth is.) I watched a lot of episodes of the show, but that’s the one that stuck with me. Well done, at least seemed so when I was a kid. Can somebody tell me if Micah died during the series? I seem to remember seeing him shot and killed on an episode and being surprised that they did that to a regular. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/64 "2012-06-30T15:07:31Z")
That was one of the episodes written by six year-old Charlie Kaufman. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/65 "2012-06-30T15:54:11Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I only ever saw the show in late night repeats, but I remember an early “WTF?!” moment with one episode that begins withwhat appears to be a knock down drag out fight with Lucas losing but turns out to be spirited but friendly wrestling match. It’s a double misdirect, because once you realize “it wasn’t a fight, just friends horsing around”, Lucas’s opponent reaches his hand down to help him up and you notice the guy looks like Lincoln, which you know it can’t be of course, until Lucas takes his hand and calls him “Mr. President”. Roll credits. > > I remember as a kid thinking “But… but… but… NO! The show takes place _after_ the Civil War, and Lincoln never went to New Mexico, and if he did New Mexico was Confederate during the war…”. After the commercial break it’s revealed that the man is a harmless but mentally ill neighboring rancher who happens to believe he is Abraham Lincoln. (That week’s special guest villain introduces himself to the man as John Wilkes Booth, and Lincoln2 has no idea who Booth is.) > > I watched a lot of episodes of the show, but that’s the one that stuck with me. Well done, at least seemed so when I was a kid. > > Can somebody tell me if Micah died during the series? I seem to remember seeing him shot and killed on an episode and being surprised that they did that to a regular. That episode was my holy grail. The guy playing the guitar in the saloon was Pick Temple, a TV cowboy I used to watch as a kid. I saw the end of the series not long ago, I think Micah was still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/66 "2012-06-30T17:39:52Z")
Some quick googling shows that the episode was called _Honest Abe_ and starred Royal Dano, who in addition to several appearances on _Rifleman_ (only once as the Lincoln wannabe) portrayed “the real” Abraham Lincoln many times on stage and screen over the course of his career and provided the voice of Lincoln for Disney’s animatronic Abe. A bit of a chameleon: [here are pictures](http://www.riflemanconnors.com/royal_dano.htm) from his five _Rifleman_ appearances. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/67 "2012-06-30T18:01:28Z")
The lightning rod salesman from _Something Wicked This Way Comes_! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/68 "2012-06-30T18:02:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Some quick googling shows that the episode was called _Honest Abe_ and starred Royal Dano, who in addition to several appearances on _Rifleman_ (only once as the Lincoln wannabe) portrayed “the real” Abraham Lincoln many times on stage and screen over the course of his career and provided the voice of Lincoln for Disney’s animatronic Abe. > > A bit of a chameleon: [here are pictures](http://www.riflemanconnors.com/royal_dano.htm) from his five _Rifleman_ appearances. I remember that “Lincoln” episode well. He also played the minister in _The Right Stuff_ who delivers bad news to the wives of the test pilots. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/69 "2012-06-30T18:12:50Z")
Dano was on, I think, every TV western from their golden age at least twice. He was equally adept at playing bad guys or saintly homesteaders. Too bad he never got a chance to play John Brown in a serious biography. He’d have rocked the role. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/70 "2012-06-30T18:22:14Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Dano was on, I think, every TV western from their golden age at least twice. He was equally adept at playing bad guys or saintly homesteaders. Too bad he never got a chance to play John Brown in a serious biography. He’d have rocked the role. Our cultural image of itinerant preachers, dirt farmers, sod busters, misanthropic cattle ranchers, and many other popular roles might be based more on Royal Dano than reality. His [IMDb page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0200455/)has 190 entries over 44 years. And many of them have multiple entries, 5 for the Rifleman, and 13 episodes of Gunsmoke. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/71 "2012-06-30T21:56:35Z")
Of course we know who Royal Dano was, and sneer at the noobs who’d confuse him with Victor Jory or John Dierkes. (my grandmother was a bit-player in the '40’s and dated a lot of movie cowboys, but hopefully not the one who’d date-raped Carole Lombard and put the scar on her face) ---
**Author:** ![Hazel\_Schnickelfritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Hazel\_Schnickelfritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel_Schnickelfritz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/72 "2014-01-10T03:18:59Z")
> [@astro](#): > > He was booted out of the army, branded a coward and they broke his calvary sword so all he had left was a rifle and he made the best of it with his crazy mods of the cocking system… no wait You’re getting 2 shows confused as 1. Chuck Conners also starred in a show called “Branded” where he was marked as a coward and fought to clear his name. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DKmJPnAGUJk/hqdefault.jpg "Branded") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk) ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/73 "2014-01-10T03:42:02Z")
I remember the rifle can be set two ways: first was the rapid fire mode with the lever tripping the trigger with each pull, and the second was regular firing using the trigger. For the second mode, he had to spin the rifle over like a six shooter. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/74 "2014-01-10T03:45:20Z")
> [@Hazel\_Schnickelfritz](#): > > You’re getting 2 shows confused as 1. Chuck Conners also starred in a show called “Branded” where he was marked as a coward and fought to clear his name. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk) You bumped an old thread to “correct” an obvious joke. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/75 "2014-01-10T07:36:05Z")
There were a few really good episode that didn’t involve bad guys and shooting. There was one where Mark and Lucas are putting up a barbwire fence. Mark falls into a role of it and gets torn up. Lucas doesn’t trust doctors because his wife had died in a doctor’s care. mark develops a fever and gets delirious. Lucas has to overcome his distrust and take him to the doctor. A really good episode. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/76 "2014-01-10T08:34:36Z")
> [@Hazel\_Schnickelfritz](#): > > You’re getting 2 shows confused as 1. Chuck Conners also starred in a show called “Branded” where he was marked as a coward and fought to clear his name. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk) That whooshing sound over your head wasn’t a round from Lucas McCain’s rifle. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/77 "2014-01-10T09:03:24Z")
I recently saw Micah’s first appearance… the town sheriff had been killed? and McCain wanted Micah, who’d been a sheriff elsewhere but had since fallen on hard times, to take on the position except the other men didn’t want “that old drunk”. Of course, it was also my understanding that McCain was a former gunslinger who’d settled down with the help of a pretty woman who then died in childbirth. Could be mixing up my westerns. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/78 "2014-01-10T09:12:57Z")
> [@toast\_pakora](#): > > I recently saw Micah’s first appearance… the town sheriff had been killed? and McCain wanted Micah, who’d been a sheriff elsewhere but had since fallen on hard times, to take on the position except the other men didn’t want “that old drunk”. > > Of course, it was also my understanding that McCain was a former gunslinger who’d settled down with the help of a pretty woman who then died in childbirth. Could be mixing up my westerns. I don’t think McCain’s wife died in childbirth, because if I do remember correctly, Mark remembered his mother from his early childhood. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/79 "2014-01-10T15:45:07Z")
Wiki says that she died when Mark was 6. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286/80 "2014-01-10T15:47:33Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I don’t think McCain’s wife died in childbirth, because if I do remember correctly, Mark remembered his mother from his early childhood. This is explained earlier in this zombie - she died of smallpox when Mark was a small child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rifleman-did-they-ever-explain-his-backstory/626286.md?page=5)