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34 Episodes 1960 - 1961
Episode 1
Tue, Sep 27, 196030 mins
A gang of bank robbers gets the drop on Lucas at his ranch, and the ringleader tells him that they're going to use him to help rob the North Fork bank and keep Mark at the ranch as a hostage, and will kill him if something goes wrong. The robbery goes off as planned, but Mark is accidentally hurt in a fall back at the ranch. When Lucas discovers this, he becomes enraged and sets out after the gang, determined to make them pay for injuring his son.
Episode 2
Tue, Oct 4, 196030 mins
Lucas and Mark interrupt two young men stealing horses. Lucas is forced to defend himself and shoots and kills one of the men. He is one of Ma Boyle's sons. The Boyles are a mountain family who live by their own laws and Micah foresees trouble. When the clan arrives in town they are set on hanging the man responsible for the killing.
Episode 3
Tue, Oct 11, 196030 mins
Seven convicts are being transferred from the Mexico State Penitentiary to Yuma. They escape, but their leader, Dorf, garners a severe response from Lucas when he tries to grab Mark. The escapees rampage through North Fork and take Sweeney, the bartender, hostage. A vindictive Dorf demands that Lucas surrender himself, or they will kill Sweeney. Sweeney's wife begs Lucas to help. Lucas must either agree to walk into the middle of the street unarmed, or risk Dorf carrying out his threat to murder Sweeney.
Episode 4
Tue, Oct 18, 196030 mins
Mark unknowingly cons a boy out of most of his belongings when Lucas invites a traveling tonic salesman and his son to stay at the ranch. Things get more complicated when two sons of a victim of the salesman show up with hanging on their mind -- plans that may include Mark, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Episode 5
Tue, Oct 25, 196030 mins
Micah stumbles onto Lucas' ranch badly wounded by an escaped prisoner who tied him up in a barb wire fence. Known as a "backshooter", Bletch Droshek holes up in a mining settlement called Droshek Town - run by his brother Ott who has no intention of letting the deputized Lucas leave town alive.
Episode 6
Tue, Nov 1, 196030 mins
Pedro Sanchez, a local rancher, is murdered and his place set afire. A local bully named Hadley is suspected of the crime. Soon afterwards a Mexican gunfighter named Baranca comes to North Fork, determined to exact revenge for Sanchez's murder.
Episode 7
Tue, Nov 8, 196030 mins
Cavalry captain Josiah Perry, a man with a taste for discipline, discovers that one of his two disobedient sons, Lon, has been killed in a gunfight with Lucas in North Fork. He visits his other son, Ben, who has become an ordained minister without his father's knowledge. Captain Perry goes on to North Fork determined to punish Lucas for Lon's death. Ben follows his father to North Fork hoping to prevent his father from meeting the same fate as his brother. Lucas likewise tries to find a way to avoid any further tragedy.
Episode 8
Tue, Nov 15, 196030 mins
Old-time resident Hattie Denton, needed by her sister in Denver, feels obliged to suddenly and shockingly betray North Fork by selling the only general store to the first person with an offer, a naïve, beautiful woman totally ignorant of business, who immediately proceeds willfully if confusedly to agree with a shady, violent newcomer on a collection scheme for accounts receivable. The economy of the town is imperiled and numerous injuries to townspeople are soon noted by Lucas and Micah.
Episode 9
Tue, Nov 22, 196030 mins
According to the stipulations in a bizarre will, the citizens of North Fork will divide $100,000 if Lucas McCain dies within seven days of Sarah Caruthers. The vicious old woman has hated Lucas ever since he killed her husband during a robbery.
Episode 10
Tue, Nov 29, 196030 mins
Mr. Griswald is the new schoolmaster at the Northfork school. He is a strict disciplinarian who rules his class as total dictator. His harsh style of dealing with the students clashes with their more relaxed lifestyles. When he and Mark clash one time too many Mark and a friend play hooky and get in trouble in an abandoned mine shaft. Mr. Griswald must find his compassion and help Lucas find Mark.
Episode 11
Tue, Dec 6, 196030 mins
Jack Scully is something of a con man using his young friend, Reuben Miles, as a means of getting money. Reuben is a very fast gun but has something of a temper, particularly if he's told someone is saying anything nasty about him behind his back. When most people see the amiable and dim-witted Reuben, they can't quite see the fast gun Scully talks about and happily bet money against him. When they get to North Fork, Scully decides that Reuben should go against Lucas McCain, who has just won the annual sharpshooting contest. It's left to Lucas to show both Scully and Reuben a lesson.
Episode 12
Tue, Dec 13, 196030 mins
Hannah Shaw is all excited as a New York artist, Jeremiah Crowley, is arriving on the stage. He's come all this way just to paint her portrait but when the stage pulled into town, Crowley rolls out, falling down drunk. She's shocked at what she sees and her father Jake Shaw won't have anything to do with him. Much has happened to Crowley in the three years since Hannah Shaw first met him during a trip back East. He's lost confidence in himself and his abilities and has looked for redemption in the bottom of a bottle. Lucas McCain is acting Marshal and decides to try and help him out.
Episode 13
Tue, Dec 20, 196030 mins
Mark meets a young man who likewise is named Mark. This Mark is mute, showing Mark McCain a scar on his throat, showing that he has long ago had his ability to speak cut out of him. Since then, Mark learns, his friend Mark has let his knife speak for him. A town bully mocks his buckskin-clad Indian appearance, and goads him into several fights. Lucas must find a way to help the young man move past his silent but potentially deadly rage bottled up inside.
Episode 14
Tue, Dec 27, 196030 mins
Heading home on a stagecoach, Mark and Lucas are entertained by a little old lady's stories of gunslingers and her scrapbook of wanted posters. Little do they know she's a bounty hunter with her sights set on Duke Jennings, who's headed to Northfork.
Episode 15
Tue, Jan 3, 196130 mins
Mark and Lucas are trying to help the Marstons who are in dire need of medical help. Sarah Marston is about to give birth and it isn't going to be easy. When Mark goes to North Fork to fetch Doc Burrage, he learns that he is out of town and won't be back until the next morning. Two men follow Mark back to the McCain ranch and take everyone prisoner. They mean them no harm but it's clear that they want North Fork's doctor dead and plan on waiting until he arrives the next morning. Lucas wants to get a midwife to help out but can't leave and it's not clear that Sarah will last until morning.
Episode 16
Tue, Jan 10, 196130 mins
Lucas McCain is helping a neighbor whose husband is away for a while, when Marshal Micah Torrance arrives. He's there to warn her that a woman alone at home was attacked and that she should be extra cautious until her husband returns. Meanwhile, traveling book salesman Jason Gowdy stops at the McCain ranch and has a good chat with Mark. He's quite interested in hearing that Lucas is off helping a woman is who is all alone.
Episode 17
Tue, Jan 17, 196130 mins
Lucas McCain and Marshal Micah Torrance are escorting a prisoner by the name of Stanley. After they're well into the desert, Stanley spooks their horses and they find themselves continuing the journey on foot and without water. Stanley tells them he knows where water is to be found but has no intention of sharing that with them. The men are soon dehydrated and one of them of them may not be able to continue.
Episode 18
Tue, Jan 24, 196130 mins
With friend and neighbor Jacob Black on his death bed, Lucas sets out to fulfill his one dying wish, that he be reunited temporarily with his wife Elizabeth. Lucas sets off on his journey and finds her working as a singer in a saloon. She's quite pretty but has little interest in Jacob's dying wish. Lucas forces her to come along hoping she may soften her views by the time they get to North Fork.
Episode 19
Tue, Jan 31, 196130 mins
Hank Clay has recently moved to North Fork with his wife Nancy and his stepson Simon Lee. He's something of a drunk and seems to go out of his way to pick fights that always seem to end with Simon defending him. Simon is a very fast shot and has gunned down many men who insulted his step dad. His next 'victim' however is Lucas McCain who, no matter how he tries to avoid Clay, ends up in a fight. When Simon calls him out however, he is genuinely shocked as the young man is the spitting image of a Confederate officer he killed during the Civil War. It's a death that has haunted Lucas ever since.
Episode 20
Tue, Feb 7, 196130 mins
After his herd is wiped out by hoof-and-mouth disease, McCain agrees to serve as an undercover detective for the U.S. government in order to raise enough cash to buy more cattle. He travels to Wyoming to learn the source of the repeating rifles that have fallen into the hands of rebellious Cheyenne Indians.
Episode 21
Tue, Feb 14, 196130 mins
Still working undercover, Lucas has made contact with the local Indian agent, the source of the gun-running. His life is put in danger however when the town drunk, Finny, learns of Lucas' real purpose in being there. In his drunken state, he lets the secret out. Back in North Fork, a despondent Mark is convinced his father will never be coming back. It's been two months since he left and Mark has decided to move back to their ranch and try to make a go of farming.
Episode 22
Tue, Feb 21, 196130 mins
Marshal Micah Torrance has lost all confidence in his own abilities and is now convinced that any success he's had since he gave up drinking and became Marshal in North Fork is thanks to Lucas. He gives Lucas a hard time about it and soon starts hitting the bottle again. Lucas' attempts to convince him otherwise falls on deaf ears so when he hears that Micah's tormentor from years ago is in the area, he decides that the solution is for the Marshal to face his fears.
Episode 23
Tue, Feb 28, 196130 mins
Returning home to North Fork Lucas, Mark and Marshal Micah Torrance take a slight detour so Micah can visit the town in which he grew up. At one time it was a thriving mining community but as the ore was mined out, people moved away and it's not much more that a ghost town now. He's surprised to run into old Mr. Newman and his son Herbert who remember Micah from when he was young. They're staying on in town and are the only ones left. There is something odd about the mines however and Mark keeps seeing shadows that his father initially puts down to an active imagination but soon prove to be something else.
Episode 24
Tue, Mar 7, 196130 mins
After placing a keg of dynamite in the buckboard, Lucas accidentally creates a spark leading to an explosion. The flash in particular has affected his eyesight. He is blind and the Doc doesn't hold out much hope that he will recover. With Mark's help, he becomes more adept at getting around but when a gunslinger from his past shows up in North Fork, his life is in real danger as the man is out to kill him.
Episode 25
Tue, Mar 14, 196130 mins
The arrival in North Fork of an ex-Confederate Major and his aide spell trouble for Lucas. Major King and Cpl. Troc recognize Lucas as soon as they see him in Millie's store. As a young Lieutenant, it was Lucas who took them into custody after the Major's regiment was defeated in battle. What Lucas now learns is that the captured men spent two and a half years in a notorious Union prison. Both men suffered greatly and are now somewhat unstable. They kidnap Lucas and force him into a small wooden cage where they say they intend to keep him for the next two and a half years.
Episode 26
Tue, Mar 21, 196130 mins
Lucas and Mark welcome back Speed Sullivan and his son Swifty. Speed is still selling lightning rods but this time is not only taking deposits but actually delivering the merchandise. Speed's problems arise when a young woman, Vashti, accused him of physically assaulting her. He did find her unconscious in her house when he made a sales call but he didn't hit her as she claimed. She's obviously lying and it's up to Lucas to get her to tell the truth and get Speed out of Marshal Torrance's jail.
Episode 27
Tue, Mar 28, 196130 mins
Lucas and Mark are on a trip out of town and after buying two horses learn that Ben Crown has had some of his horses stolen. The town Marshal is away and Crown let's it be known that he is going to catch the horse thieves and they will pay the price for what they've done. Crown's son George catches up with Lucas and Mark on the trail and the two horses they've bought are part of those stolen. When Ben Crown arrives he makes it clear that as far as he is concerned, Lucas is guilty and will hang the next morning.
Episode 28
Tue, Apr 4, 196130 mins
Clarence Bibs is a simple man who does odd jobs such as mopping up Millie's store. He also cleans guns for a quarter and in his daydreams, he likes to imagine himself a gunslinger. After getting into an altercation with a known gunslinger he falls and the gun he is wearing goes off, killing the man. Lucas is acting Marshal and he's satisfied that it was all an accident but a couple of the town's troublemakers decide to have a little fun with Clarence getting him drunk and puffing up his ego. Soon after, the dead man's partner, George Tanner, rides into town.
Episode 29
Tue, Apr 11, 196130 mins
A two-days ride from North Fork, Lucas comes to the aid of a stranger and is shot in the temple for his troubles. When the shooter thinks he and Mark are both dead, a ride to the border with stolen cash and horses may seem like a fiesta, but they don't know a now bleeding Rifleman on foot is after them.
Episode 30
Tue, Apr 18, 196130 mins
After a Mescalero Indian is found guilty of murder and hanged, a Mescalero medicine man places a curse on Lucas, who was the jury foreman. Lucas thinks nothing of it but soon after a rider with shining eyes rides through North Fork on a black stallion running over and killing someone on the street. After a second person is killed, everyone believes that Lucas is next.
Episode 31
Tue, Apr 25, 196130 mins
Lucas and Mark are in the barn. Outside a snowstorm is raging and the wind is howling. After they reach the house, they hear Scotty, the driver on a stagecoach. He asks to spend the night. The stagecoach passengers are also invited into the McCain home.
Episode 32
Tue, May 2, 196130 mins
SPOILER: Determined to get back at Lucas McCain for scolding them in public, brothers Charv and Kelly Banner contact a marriage bureau in St. Louis to arrange for the agency to send Lucas a prospective bride. After Mary Woodson steps off the stagecoach in North Fork, word spreads quickly that Lucas is to be married. Everyone in town is taken aback including Mark, Micah, and Milly Scott who can't quite believe it. Neither can Lucas for that matter. For the Banners it's all a big joke, but for Mary Woodson, who spent her last dime to get to North Fork, it may mean a life of poverty or worse.
Episode 33
Tue, May 9, 196130 mins
Lucas and Mark McCain find a wounded man just outside of town and bring him into North Fork for treatment. The man who shot him, Spicer, is in the saloon drinking with his buddies and is none too pleased with the news. The Doc is at least an hour's ride away but a stranger Simon Battle, along with his daughter Carrie, is traveling through town. Lucas knows Battle from ten years before as a gunslinger and is dubious of his medical qualifications. With Spicer in the saloon Battle will need his skills both as a doctor and a gunman if he is to save the wounded man.
Episode 34
Tue, May 16, 196130 mins
When a Chinese laundry man Wang Chi and his young son Wang Lee come to town, they are immediately bullied by Vince Fergus who clearly doesn't want them around. Despite the less than warm reception Micah, Lucas and Millie convince them to stay in North Fork and open a laundry. Despite Lucas' warnings to leave them alone Fergus however won't relent and it leads to an inevitable showdown.