The Rifleman Six Years and a Day (1958–1963) Online

Lee and Sarah Marston end up at the Lucas ranch and Sarah is in a bad way with a baby. She had fallen off a wagon and now it having problem with the baby and it does not look good for the baby or Ms Marston. They need a doctor but Doc Burrage is out of town and will not be back till morning and a neighbor will send him out to the McCain ranch when he gets back.

It just so happens that two men, Jack Cooke (John Larch) a former surgeon and a hired gunman named Bruce, are also waiting on the doctor and will now go to the McCain house and wait for Burrage in order to kill him. Jack Cooke lost his license to practice medicine when he was drunk during a procedure. Doc Burrage testified against the former surgeon and now Cooke is out for revenge. With Ms Marston nearly at death, there is only one doctor that can help but only if Lucas can sober the former surgeon up before she loses the baby or her life.

A nice show that was made better by the performance of John Larch. Mr Larch was excellent as the drunk doctor that felt the entire world was against him. His performance turned an otherwise routine script into a nice show. Good watch.

John Larch guest stars as an embittered boozing doctor holding a six year grudge against North Fork's chief (and only for miles) physician, Doc Burrage (Ralph Moody; mentioned a lot but not even in one scene although his life is actually in jeopardy!). A concerned man, Lee (James Gavin) worries that unless he can get a doctor his pregnant wife (Regina Gleason) could perish. Her pain has increased every hour but Burrage is away and won't be back until the following morning. It will be up to Lucas to convince the slobbering drunk, Jack (Larch) to escape from his self-pity and stupor so he can "be a doctor again" while trying also to talk a kid wannabe hired gun (Ron Hayes) from killing Burrage when he arrives. Significantly isolated to one location (Lee's home), this is mostly Larch's showcase as a pathetic shell of a man who was once a great surgeon but let his taste for liquor perhaps cause the death of a patient. Burrage's testimony against Jack had him barred from practicing in the town he was a surgeon. So for six years he has been fuming and awaiting the day he would get his revenge on the one who cost him his dignity and career as a surgeon. Lucas attempts to drag him out of his morass, but it won't be easy. For a while the kid with a gun always pointing is a nuisance, but Lucas reaches him thanks mostly to the agonizing woman in the other room in so much pain. Lucas tossing around Jack, trying to wake him up, and Mark calling Jack doctor are nice highlights. Not a lot of meat on the bones (a man's defining himself by past's failures instead of dusting himself off and starting over, and a young man with few prospects picks up the gun and offers himself out a gunfighter willing to murder for the right price unless convinced otherwise are the two key plot points of the episode), but good work by the cast and a pleasant turn of events helps to make this episode a winner. Unique is the fact that the episode places one particular character in danger even though he never makes an appearance due to Lucas' interference in the plans of those that want the missing person dead.

I've checked the "contains spoiler" box, but that isn't really necessary, as this episode is utterly predictable. It's an outstanding example, not only of this series' bad episodes, but of TV in general, where stories pander to the viewers' tastes (and the networks' censors), rather than presenting challenging ideas or situations.

A husband and wife -- the wife experiencing a tough delivery (not surprising, as she fell off the wagon the day before) -- have conveniently landed at the McCains' door. Doc Burrage is away, and Mark tells the Doc's neighbor to tell him come on over quick when he shows up, as help is desperately needed.

Not coincidentally, two men -- a defrocked physician and his hired gun -- are standing around to hear this. The ex-surgeon wants to kill kindly Doc Burrage for having testified against him in a hearing that cost him his license. (I don't remember an explanation of why he hires a hired gun. I suspect it has something or other to do with the Hippocratic oath.)

Unlike the better "Rifleman" episodes, this one plays out /exactly/ the way you'd expect. The hired gun (who's a virgin, killing-wise) decides he doesn't want to kill anyone, and the ex-surgeon saves the woman and her child, redeeming himself in his own eyes.

The whole thing is wrapped up with a Lucas McCain homily, in which he explains that, no matter how many bad things a man has done, he needs to do only one good thing to get his life back on track. (I think that was it. Maybe.) Lucas is starting to sound like a frontier Mary Worth.

I've never understood why obstetricians need hot water, but the writer can't resist the temptation of including "I need hot water!".

Though the third season started off with two outstanding episodes, it's in this season that "The Rifleman" starts losing its hard edge. It's easy to see why Sam Peckinpah had left, over creative differences with the producers. The relationship between Lucas and Mark is starting to turn sitcom-cute, and Lucas's homilies are getting pretty shallow.