Jr., Ellen Corby, John Dehner, Jack Elam, Med Flory, Dabbs Greer, Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr., L.Q. Jones, John Milford, Agnes Moorehead, Denver Pyle, Lee Van Cleef, Royal Dano and Adam West, most appearing multiple times in different roles. Several then-newcomers also appeared in the series, including Claude Akins, James Coburn (credited as "Jim"), Mark Goddard, Dan Blocker, James Drury, Dennis Hopper, Michael Landon, Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Vaughn, Robert Culp (who starred in Four Star Productions' "Trackdown" from 1957 to 1959), Martin Landau and Richard Kiel. Other notable guest stars & character actors who made cameo appearances were Sammy Davis, Jr., future baseball Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Don Drysdale, comedian Buddy Hackett, George Macready, Pernell Roberts (who starred on Bonanza at the time), Bobby Crawford Jr. (the brother of series star Johnny Crawford; himself a star on Laramie from 1959-1960) and writer/director/producer Paul Mazursky. Episodes Production The Rifleman was partially filmed in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California. Development The series was created by Arnold Laven and developed by Sam Peckinpah, who became a director of Western movies. Peckinpah, who wrote and directed many early episodes, based many characters and plots on his own childhood on a ranch. His insistence on violent realism and complex characterizations, as well as his refusal to sugarcoat the lessons he felt the Rifleman's son needed to learn about life, put him at odds with the show's producers at Four Star. Peckinpah left the show and created a short-lived series, The Westerner, with Brian Keith. Opening credits The opening theme at the beginning of each episode depicted McCain walking down the street of a town while rapid-firing his Winchester 44-40 1892 model rifle that had been modified at the trigger and lever. The rifle's modification allowed McCain to fire the rifle only by hand pumping the lever, which had a setscrew imbedded in it to trip the weapon's trigger. At various points during the series, episodes would show McCain deftly handling and shooting the rifle ambidextrously. When Connors auditioned for the show, the director suddenly threw a rifle at him; the former Major League Baseball player caught it and got the job. Rifle Westerns were popular when The Rifleman premiered, and producers tried to find gimmicks to distinguish one show from another. The Rifleman'''s gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle, with a large ring lever drilled and tapped for