The last episode of the series is a disappointment. Two old codgers are feuding. Mark and his girlfriend Lorrie visit Old Tony, one of the feuding pair. Mark plays his guitar and sings "Greensleeves." Mark and Lorrie get trapped in quicksand. Will Lucas get there in time to save them?
Karen Sue Trent plays Lorrie. She had previously appeared in 14 episodes of Leave it to Beaver, playing Beaver's classmate and sometimes nemesis, Penny Woods. Karen Sue was actually injured during the filming of the quicksand scenes in this episode. The incident so soured her on acting that this Rifleman appearance was her last time in front of the camera.
This turned out to be the last episode of the series. Most of the accepted reasons are that Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford both wanted to go on to other projects. However, in an interview that appeared on MeTV, Patricia Blair stated that the producers had already planned a sixth season expanding to hour long episodes. The opening episode was to start off with Lucas and Lou getting married and the three of them all living on the ranch together (like Bonanza) and enjoying many new adventures. Patricia, Johnny Crawford, and Paul Fix had already signed contracts for the sixth season. But Chuck had just married an actress from India named Kamala Devi. She felt that Chuck was above being in a western series and wanted him to portray a sophisticated, educated, character who wore a suit and tie. So, he opted out and immediately signed to do a new police/crime series called "Arrest and Trial." Chuck played John Egan, a criminal defense attorney where he could definitely be an educated character wearing a coat and tie. But the series fizzled and was canceled after one season. Patricia Blair remarked that once you took Chuck out of his tight-fitting western shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he lost all his sex appeal. However, he went back to westerns two years later when he signed to play Jonas McCord in the series "Branded." At least in that series he got to play a West Point graduate, so maybe Kamala was a little bit happy with it. Anyway, so ended a great western series that was destined to be another "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza," but didn't quite make it.
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