User reviews

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.

Even though I found this episode to be better than another reviewer, I do have to agree that the 'quicksand' scene was not one of the best moment in the series run. With Mark running around like he could not tell where the sounds of 'help' were coming and then acting like he fell into the sand by accident- this was painful. Yet the rest of the episode was interesting enough to make for an enjoyable watch.

Mark, with his girlfriend Lorrie, asks for permission from an angry German man, Tony, to look for arrow heads on his land. After Mark sings 'Greensleeves' it softens the old man's heart and he lets the kids on his property. That is when the quicksand scene comes into play and we can only hope that help arrives in time to save Mark and Lorrie from certain death.

This was an episode designed for the teens that featured Mark (Johnny Crawford) at his best. Mark gets into a conversation about marriage and gets to hold the girl during the episode which was pushing Mark for more of an adult role. It was just too bad that this was the last show of the series.

I love The Rifleman. Loved Lucas and Mark. Loved Micah. But this is simply an awful episode and a terrible way to end the series. If someone were to discover this series and watch this episode first, they'd never watch another. No part of this makes any sense Mark singing Greensleaves? Why? The quick sand scene? Please no. It's unwatchable.

"...and the series ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper." This pointless and plot less episode seems to be a mishmash (the crossword-puzzle term is "olio") of story ideas that couldn't be worked into other episodes.

There are two old codgers who fight -- for no obvious reason. Mark and a girl search for arrow heads -- for no obvious reason. Mark sings "Greenfleeves" -- /for/ an obvious reason, that of promoting Johnny Crawford's singing career. The show ends with Mark and the girl getting caught in quicksand -- for no obvious reason, other than that there's ten minutes of air time to fill up.

How low has a series sunk when it has to borrow from "Lassie"?

Shows are not always broadcast in the order filmed. The producers could have chose a far-better episode -- such as "Incident at Line Shack Six" -- to end the series.

If you're a classical listener -- Yes, Stefan Schnabel's father is Artur.