Where To Watch
The Rifleman cast wanted to make sure that ''death'' on TV never became casual
"We have never killed just for the sake of killing," Connors said.
Chuck Connors, in his role as Lucas McCain on The Rifleman, was one of the quintessential Western heroes everyone talked about for years during the TV Western era and decades after it ended.
It's been noted before that he was one of the best Western heroes on TV, with a knack for bringing people together both through the hit series and beyond it as well.
In a 1961 interview with The Courier-Journal, Connors once again showed why he was worthy of his "hero" status, both on-screen and off.
At the time of this interview, Connors talked about the episode "Face of Yesterday," which aired during season three of the series. The episode dealt with Lucas McCain's reaction to his memory of the first experience he had in dealing with a death.
According to the interview, many television critics, educators, and parents agreed that death was a serious subject that should not be taken lightly.
Connors agreed, too—so much so that it became part of his personal Western code.
"I cannot understand the casual treatment of death on many television shows," Connors said. "Even a lawman in the performance of his duty remembers a killing of his dying day."
Of course, even Connors admitted that The Rifleman had its fair share of corpses lying around the set.
"But," Connors said. "We have never killed just for the sake of killing; and, in fact, we have had many episodes with no killing whatsoever."
In the episode, Connors had a close-up where he had to cry on camera, a rare moment for him. He said most actors would "kill" (no pun intended) for the chance at a close-up, but he treated it as a teaching moment. "You gotta act with your thoughts," he said.
With all the death, crime, and killing in the real world, he wanted to set an example that killing for fun was never acceptable. While he said his close-up in the episode was challenging, he noted it wasn’t the most important part of the script.
"The important part is that it expresses what we think should be the attitude of a television program toward death," Connors said. "Indiscriminate killing never should be the substitute for entertainment."
Related
1 Comments
