There are few television intros that are super memorable. The Rifleman was one of those intros…
Yup, Chuck Conners was pretty cool rockin’ the Winchester 1892 and not taking guff from nobody.
Of course that was waaaaaay back in 1958 (to 1963), and most of us have probably never seen a single episode, but that isn’t stopping CBS from digging into the vault and resurrecting the property as a new series. Chris Columbus is set to executive produce and direct the series.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
7 Comments
NEVER would I watch a revamp of this series. That would be like trying to bring back Daniel Boone or Gunsmoke. In the words of Steve Martin: “Sorry, My mind is closed!”
ONLy if they can get someone to look that cool and shoot that fast. In other words, ain’t gonna happen.
Urban legend
has it that the person he’s shooting at is his wife! :P joking!
Of course, I am old enough that I DID watch the show when it was first broadcast. It was cool because of Chuck Conners – who could out Norris Chuck Norris any day of the week – and also (when I was a kid) the sidekick was a kid but the show didn’t stupidify itself and write down to kids like show such as “Lassie” or “Roy Rogers”. It was a little confusing because for a brief while “Rifleman” was on television at the same time “Branded” – also starring Chuck Connors – was airing. Speaking of which, does anybody see the early Fox series “Werewolf” in which Chuck Connors played the heavy? I liked that show, also.
lol @ Steve A :nP Well before JJ Abrams redid Star Trek I would’ve said ‘Nay’ (or ‘neigh’, since it’s a western). Especially since finding someone with enough ego to pull that off would be tough, even today. Still, the reruns are pretty popular and it was a kind of “family value” type show. Maybe they could give Lucas a daughter instead of a son (or make it ‘Rifle-Girl’ instead?). Who knows?
For what I know there’s been one other successful western series from the late 90’s and that was the Magnificent Seven, but at that time CBS put together a good cast with Michael Biehn, Eric Close, Anthony Starke,Ron Perlman,Rick Worthy,Dale Midkiff, and Andrew Kavovit. The episode stories were well written and ran for 2 seasons from 1998-2000. Not bad for a western especially when westerns usually aren’t that popular with today’s public. If they do resurrect it I hope they get some good actors and writers for it cause it would be hard to replace Chuck Conners.
I’ve seen Rifleman again on the Western Channel and despite being written awhile ago – it still stands up to the test of time. My fear is that in our more ‘PC’ oriented way of viewing westerns alot of what made Rifleman – Rifleman – is gonna get ‘scrubbed’ clean.
Hey, don’t get me wrong, some of the Mexican stereotypes (even with white actors playing Hispanics) I can see gone but if they (the producers) try to muck with the heart of the show, which is essentially about a widower/rancher with an Old Testament way of dispensing justice – lethal with a rifle but only when he HAS to use it – and his close relationship with his son – then I can’t see it lasting too long. But I can be wrong.
Oh, and thanks for the mention of “Branded” – oldcomicfan – can’t get the damn theme song out of my head now. LOL!