Lucas (Chuck Connors) and Mark McCain (Johnny Crawford) finally find the ranch they have been looking for, but the ranch comes with a price, and Lucas may have to decide between the ranch and his son's life.

Guest stars: Dennis Hopper, Leif Erickson, Sidney Blackmer, R. G. Armstrong as Marshal Fred Tomlinson, Charles Arnt, Mickey Simpson, Kathleen Mulqueen, Virginia Aldridge, Mathew McCue (uncredited), Howard Wright (uncredited), Archie Butler (uncredited), Bobby Somers (uncredited), Jesse Wayne (uncredited) and Paul Fix (uncredited).

Note: This episode was originally an episode from Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre and became the pilot for The Rifleman which began September 30, 1958.

After two of Oat Jackford's cowhands burn the McCain house, drag Lucas, and steal his rifle, Lucas goes to hunt Jackford (Harold J. Stone) and his men to inform them that he and his boy are there to stay.

When Mark gets caught on a mountain ledge, a young outlaw (Michael Landon) risks his life to rescue him and breaks his leg doing so.

The notorious Shelton brothers (Robert J. Wilke, Warren Oates) ride into North Fork to take revenge on Micah Torrance (Paul Fix), an ex-lawman who is now crippled with alcoholism. When Marshal Fred Tomlinson (R. G. Armstrong) is killed by the Sheltons, Micah is called upon to take his place.

Johnny Gibbs (Jerome Courtland), Lucas McCain's fugitive brother-in-law, visits the McCain ranch.

A bitter judge (George Macready) kidnaps Mark and plans to kill him to avenge his own son's hanging while Lucas watches.

A stagecoach breaks down and Italian nobleman Count Di Montova (Cesare Danova) is stranded overnight in North Fork. He accepts a challenge for a gun duel after being insulted by Sim Groder (Jack Elam).

The first bank in North Fork is opening, and a Texas gunfighter (Claude Akins) is hired to guard the safe, but a gang of bank robbers that used to include him arrives in town.

Mark tries to set Lucas up with a woman (Sherry Jackson) he thinks would make a perfect wife. Lucas soon finds himself contending with the woman's two brothers as well as some outlaws intent on killing him.

A New Orleans gambling czar (Akim Tamiroff) and his men stop at the McCain ranch and decide to take it from Lucas.

Lucas tries to help a young West Point reject (Robert Vaughn), who is filling in as marshal, just as the town erupts into a gunfight.

Lucas and Mark return from a cattle sale when their stagecoach is robbed by three outlaws led by sharpshooter Johnny Cotton (Vic Morrow). Lucas sends Mark on with the stagecoach while he goes after the outlaws on foot without his rifle.

Lucas accuses the young foreman of a neighboring ranch of rustling one of his calves.

Lucas helps an Argentinian family who are new to North Fork when they are ridiculed by others.

Lucas allows Mark to take in a homeless horse after its owner is killed in a gunfight. Lucas soon discovers the truth about the horse and has to fight a gunman who does not want his secret to be exposed.

Wanting to teach Mark about tolerance and acceptance, Lucas hires an injured and bitter confederate soldier (Royal Dano) to work on his ranch, only the Union army also arrives at the farm.

A famous gunman (Robert Webber) promises his new bride that he will retire from gunfighting and settle in North Fork, but five outlaws try to make him break his promise.

When Abel Goss (John Carradine), a photographer friend of the McCains, is accused of murder, father and son take opposing views on the matter.

A young couple (Paul Carr, Luana Anders) is forced to marry after they hide the fact that one of them is a girl, and Lucas helps them hide; but a rowdy crowd calls for a Shivaree.

Lucas and Mark protect a witness (Kip King) wrongfully accused of murder.

U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart (Michael Ansara) arrives in North Fork to look for Indians who are suspected in the brutal murder of a Ranger and his family. Guest Stars: Herbert Rudley, Lewis Charles, Mickey Simpson, Frank DeKova, Robert Chadwick, Eddie Little Sky and Bill Quinn

Julia Massini (Katy Jurado), a reformed gambler, runs a respectable boarding house in North Fork, but her old boss (Alan Baxter) shows up and tries to force her to turn her place into a gambling house.

After the witness in a murder case is killed, Lucas agrees to testify in order to convict a murderer, but someone wants the prosecution stopped. Mark and the townsfolk try to talk Lucas out of testifying.

After falling in love with a sick young woman, fugitive Sam Morley (Paul Richards) asks his friend Lucas to turn him in and use the reward money to pay for the woman's medical needs.

Lucas' friend and renowned bank robber Tom Birch (Richard Anderson) comes for a surprise visit, upsetting Mark. Neither know the man has plans to rob the North Fork bank.

Released from Yuma prison, Dan Maury (Lee Van Cleef) arrives in North Fork intent on getting even with Marshal Torrance, who helped send him to jail.

A crooked marshal from another territory intentionally kills an innocent man to collect the bounty money.

An escaped killer holds Hattie and Micah hostage at the General Store to prove that he is still good with a gun.

The McCains befriend a stranger (Patrick McVey) after he saves Mark from a rattlesnake, but they soon discover that he is not who he says he is.

Lucas takes in an orphaned teen (Dennis Hopper) being raised by his abusive uncle after trouble is caused at the school.

A neighboring rancher (George Mathews) refuses medical assistance when his son is seriously hurt in an accident because he blames doctors for the death of his wife.

After a boy (Paul Carr) admits to his father that he and the school teacher (Patricia Barry) are in love, his rancher father (James Westerfield) chases the teacher, an advocator for women's rights, out of town. Lucas wants to learn the truth.

Bookkeeper Asa Manning (William Phipps) hires a professional gunman (John Dehner) to provoke Oat Jackford (Bert Freed), a bully rancher who suspects him of embezzlement, into a gunfight. Lucas is forced to assist Jackford, the man he once hated.

A drought has forced local cowhands to seek work on a railroad construction project and railroad executives are afraid that their workers will desert them when an old man (Royal Dano) claims to have found a way to make rain.

Lucas is surprised when Micah wishes death on a dying man (Max Wagner) he brings into North Fork, then Lucas discovers that Micah holds a big secret.

Mark stumbles across a dead man and the only clue to his identity is a belt with the initials RM.

A renegade band of Indians captures Mark and disappears into the hills of New Mexico. Guest Stars: Michael Forest, Pat Hogan, Hope Summers, Robert Foulk, Clancy Cooper, Robert Dix, Mark Goddard and Michael Ansara

The townspeople question the reputation of Lucas when he is named in a will of a notorious outlaw.

Lucas takes in an orphaned boy (Lee Kinsolving) and teaches him how to use a gun, not knowing that the boy plans on killing the banker (Harlan Warde) he believes is responsible for his father's death.

Accused of a murder he did not commit, a young man (Michael Landon) is finally cleared by the accidental discovery of a "mind reader" (John Carradine).

Three gunfighters (John Anderson, Steven Marlo, Dennis Cross) use a cowardly barber (Whit Bissell) and his son to talk Lucas into a gunfight so they can kill Lucas and take over the town.

After Lucas is blamed for killing a young man, an outlaw father and his two sons attempt to kill Lucas.

An ailing gunfighter (John Dehner) comes to North Fork to die under a doctor's care in order to spare his family. But the gunfighter is being pursued by bank robbers (John Milford, Howard Ledig) from whom he stole robbery money.

After Lucas accuses a newspaper writer's (Alexander Scourby) misleading articles of causing an innocent man's death, the writer begins writing articles about Lucas.

After a wanna-be bounty hunter (Harry Dean Stanton) kills a man (Gregory Walcott) wanted for a crime committed long ago, Lucas and Mark try to protect the widow (Sydna Scott) from learning about her husband's criminal past.

Eddie's daughter (Gloria DeHaven), who is withholding criminal information and stolen money, comes to meet her father (John Harmon) and causes trouble for Lucas.

Lucas discovers a young married couple (William Joyce and Enid Janes) with yellow fever and cares for them at his house, but Mark lets out the secret which causes panic in town.

A series of events leads to Lucas and Mark being stranded in the middle of a desert with very little food or water, and after Lucas is injured, Mark becomes the only hope for their survival.

An unarmed outlaw (Richard Devon) robs the stage of a lot of money after the outlaw informs Lucas that his son, Mark, is being held hostage at the McCain ranch and will be killed within the hour unless Lucas cooperates.

Lucas makes a life-and-death decision when Micah is held hostage and the kidnappers demand the release of a notorious outlaw (Vic Morrow).

Lucas respects a dying man's (James Barton) wishes by telling the son (James Franciscus) that his father is a partner in the McCain ranch in order to get him to North Fork, but Lucas finds trouble when the man dies before telling his son the truth.

A singer (Phyllis Avery) asks Lucas to care for her daughter in an effort to hide the child from its bigoted father (John Dehner).

Lucas becomes involved in a battle between a recently fired cook (Carleton Carpenter) and a cocky trail hand (Steve Rowland) who finds it fun to attack those weaker than himself.

Mark overhears two surveyors (Mike Kellin, Lin McCarthy) arguing and his surveying friend (Ted Otis) suddenly disappears, but Lucas will not believe him and he runs away from home.

Lucas refuses a shooting competition with wandering buffalo hunter Cass Callicott (John Anderson) and then becomes his new target.

Shortly after his arrival to marry Isabelle (Alice Backes), John Jupiter (Peter Whitney) is taunted and beaten.

A man (Royal Dano) hires two private detectives to find his long-lost son. They presume him to be dead and try to take Mark to pass him off as the son in order to collect the money.

Anne Dodd (Christine White), a pretty young widow of a man who was once Lucas' good friend, visits.

The body of a notorious outlaw, the Domino Kid, is brought in by Colly Vane (Robert Culp), who doesn't get the reward for he shot the man in the back.

Lucas and Mark try to help out a friend (Chubby Johnson) who has been cheated in a horse trading deal.

The Averys (Chubby Johnson, Ellen Corby), Lucas' new elderly neighbors live under an assumed name to keep the town from knowing they are the parents of a vicious wanted killer (Skip Homeier).

Teenaged Heller (Gigi Perreau) and her brother (Don Grady) are badly mistreated by their drunken stepfather (Peter Whitney).

Lucas and Mark find themselves held at gunpoint by a prisoner (Richard Devon) being transported on a train, which becomes stranded from a plague of grasshoppers.

Mark learns a new preacher (Robert Knapp) is an impostor.

Lucas learns why a young soldier (Ron Hagerthy) deserted.

While ill with typhoid fever, Mark has a vision of his mother (Marian Seldes).

An old friend (Richard Anderson) of Lucas' arrives in North Fork to open a gambling casino.

The daughter (Jennifer Lea) of a prosperous rancher (Douglas Kennedy) is found murdered.

Lucas receives a series of mysterious threatening notes from an ex-convict (John Anderson) with a grudge.

Andy Moon (George D. Wallace) and his young son (Eugene Mazzola) take shelter at the McCain ranch.

A bank-robbing gunman (Kevin Hagen) decides to hide out at the McCain ranch.

A neighbor (Whit Bissell) has bet his whole year's farm crop on a horse race.

A convict (Dabbs Greer) is released from prison and returns home to North Fork.

Lucas helps an old friend (Claude Akins), a federal agent, infiltrate a gang of robbers.

Lucas helps a woman (Julie Adams) who is being harassed by a rough gambler.

An ex-convict (Whit Bissell) is accused of robbing and killing his employer.

Three robbers hold Mark hostage, forcing Lucas to help them rob the North Fork bank.

A matriarch seeks revenge for her sons' deaths.

A prison wagon carrying seven criminals stops over in North Fork for supplies.

A con man and his son want Lucas' mineral rights.

Lucas trails an escaped prisoner (Claude Akins) to a mining town in the mountains.

A Mexican bandit and his gang ride into North Fork.

Lucas helps a young minister who had problems with his father.

A store owner hires con men as collection agents.

Before she dies, the widow of a bandit Lucas shot arranges for his death.

Mark is trapped in an old mine.

A con man makes his living by provoking and then betting on gunfights.

A hard-drinking painter is accused of murder.

A desperate, mute man steals from the stagecoach.

A sprightly elderly lady arrives in North Fork and announces that she plans to capture a bandit.

Lucas helps alcoholic former doctor Jack Cooke (John Larch) regain his self-respect.

Lucas unmasks a book salesman as a killer.

Lucas and Micah are beset with troubles while bringing a killer to trial.

A dying friend asks Lucas to fetch his wife.

Lucas begins to believe in ghosts when he sees someone he thinks he killed.

Lucas goes undercover as a federal agent.

Lucas is sent to Wyoming to investigate the sale of guns to Indians.

Micah is terrorized by an old enemy and resigns from his job.

Lucas, Mark and Micah learn the secret of a town's 20-year-old mystery of a lost gold mine.

Lucas, temporarily blind, faces a gunfight.

A former POW imprisons Lucas for his role in the Civil War.

A traveling salesman is accused of forcing his attentions on a local woman.

Lucas faces lynching for unwittingly buying stolen horses.

A slow-witted handyman gets into trouble when he accidentally kills a skilled gunfighter.

Lucas and Mark stumble across a robbery in progress.

After Lucas receives a curse while attending then hanging of a murdering Indian, he goes on a hunt to find out who or what is behind the so-called curse.

Lucas allows troublesome snowed-in stagecoach passengers to stay with him until the roads are passable.

Lucas almost finds himself at the altar when two drunken cowboys play a joke on him.

An ex-gunfighter from Lucas' past, now a doctor, comes to his aid when a dying man is brought in, but Lucas and the new doctor have unresolved anger toward each other.

Lucas helps a Chinese man settle into town after townspeople try to force him out because of his race.

Lucas subdues a gang of bandits singlehandedly.
Guest stars: Martin Landau, Roberto Contreras, Ziva Rodann, Vladimir Sokoloff, Than Wyenn, Pepe Hern .

Mark takes a job against his father's wishes.

Stagecoach robbers take Mark and Milly hostage.

A prison wagon carrying a condemned killer passes through North Fork.

A new neighbor of the McCains' gives Mark a job on his ranch.

A killer's rich father tries to bribe witness Lucas.

An eccentric old friend of Lucas' arrives in North Fork.

A kindly neighbor (Royal Dano) of Lucas' believes he is President Lincoln.

The North Fork Town Council feels that an old man is incapable of raising his grandson.

Mark Twain visits North Fork.

The townspeople leave Lucas to face killers alone.

Lucas is accidentally responsible for the death of a young mountain boy.

Lucas is stunned when Mark is kidnapped and a $5,000 ransom is asked.

Outlaws force Lucas to help with a prison break.

A young girl seeks refuge at the McCain ranch for herself and her ill brother.

A gang comes to town to free a jailed member.

A drifter forces his attentions on a deaf girl.

A dapper man arrives on the stage and announces that he has come to kill Lucas.

Mark falls head-over-heels in to his first puppy love.

A young man arrives in North Fork to claim the body of his dead brother.

A young gunman with a killer's reputation comes to town and threatens to kill Micah.

Lucas is accused of cold-blooded murder by a man who claims to have been an eyewitness.

Mark deliberately disobeys his father for the first time when he allows a convicted prisoner to escape.

Lucas suddenly develops the habit is playing all-night poker in the local saloon.

A banjo-playing wanderer, hunting the man who caused his blindness, befriends Mark.

Jake Owens and his beautiful young wife buy the ranch adjoining the McCains'.

An aging Southern belle and her teenage son arrive in North Fork and immediately identify Micah as her long-lost husband and father of the boy.

North Fork welcomes a new minister (Royal Dano), but Lucas knows he is a former outlaw and an ex-convict.

The McCains return from a trip to learn Micah has been voted out as marshal and a stranger now has the job.

A handsome gambler moves into town and begins wooing Milly Scott, claiming to have known her deceased brother.

Lucas develops temporary amnesia from a head injury while visiting a strange town and mistakenly assumes the identity of a wanted criminal.

A former friend of Lucas', out to recover some stolen money he had hidden on the McCain ranch, is released from prison and asks Lucas for a job.

The McCains and Micah enter a "ghost town" and are taken prisoners by a group of bandits.

One of the bandit's wives (Enid Jaynes) is about to give birth and Lucas must deliver it rather than escape.

Red-headed Lou Mallory (Patricia Blair) arrives in North Fork and buys a hotel.

Lucas, Lou Mallory, Doctor Burrage and two innocent bystanders are trapped in the hotel with dangerous outlaw Lee Coyle (Ed Ames) after a smallpox epidemic.

A former gunfighter friend of Lucas (Lee Van Cleef) arrives in town intent on settling down and living quietly.

A charming Irishman (Sean McClory) comes to town announcing that he is there to claim Lou Mallory as his bride.

A group of assassins disguised as cavalry soldiers try to murder an influential visiting senator (Edward Platt).

Mark befriends a young man (Mark Goddard) who arrives in town to promote a circus and then quickly becomes a robbery suspect.

Wade Randall (Sammy Davis, Jr.) appears in town, bragging of his gun battles with notorious bad men, until one of them (Richard Devon) shows up to challenge him.

An unscrupulous land buyer (Gerald Mohr) tries to purchase the McCain ranch for a railroad eminent domain.

Mark develops an intense aversion of his father's rifle after a shooting accident takes the life of his friend (Jimmy Carter).

Outlaws, who had elected not to rob North Branch due to its heavily-armed reputation, change their minds upon learning of a new policy disarming the citizenry.

While out on a cougar hunt, a frightening incident causes Lucas to lose faith in his ability as a rifleman.

A murder occurs at a railroad camp near town, and a young Indian friend of Lucas' is accused of the killing.

Lucas and Mark find Winslow Quince (Kevin McCarthy) stranded in the desert with a broken wheel on his wagon and help him to get to town. Quince is later blamed for a series of murders and robberies.

Grid Maul, a boy not much older than Mark, confronts Lucas with the announcement that he intends to kill him to avenge his father's death.

North Fork welcomes the arrival of the first train on the new railroad and with it, visitors that include a royal cousin of the Emperor of Japan (John Fujioka).

Lucas' faith in his son's honesty is shaken when he hears rumors that Mark may be mixed up with some thieves.

Lucas, ordinarily a patient and reasonable man, turns vengeful after learning an old enemy (Jeff Morrow) is in town.

Away on a trip for the Cattleman's Association, Lucas rescues a man and is drawn into a fight with the crooked owner of a gambling establishment (Richard Anderson).

Mark is injured in an accident, which leaves his legs paralyzed. The doctor suggests mineral baths at Mission Springs to help. There, a gang of Yuma Prison escapees are hiding.

A charming stranger (Cesare Danova) arrives at the McCain ranch and identifies himself as an acquaintance of an old friend of Lucas.

An old man (John Anderson) appears in North Fork asking for Micah's protection from a gang of criminals who are after him.

The hillbilly Jackman family are installed as peace officers in a town near North Fork.

The recluse Old Tony (Stefan Schnabel) helps Lucas rescue Mark and his girlfriend Lorrie from quicksand. (Trent was injured in the quicksand scene, which led to her decision to retire from filmmaking.)