Chuck Connors played the Rifleman. And you don't mess with the Rifleman if you want to live to see the sunrise tomorrow. Vic Morrow played Sgt. Saunders on Combat and, if you were a German soldier and wanted to see the sunrise tomorrow, you prayed on your knees not to run into Saunders.
A few years before becoming Sgt. Saunders, Vic Morrow twice guest-starred on The Rifleman. In both cases, he played an outlaw who had the same toughness that Saunders would have, but without Saunders' strong moral center. In both cases, my mind connects the characters he's playing with black sheep ancestors of Saunders. Toughness runs in the family, but not all of them recognize right from wrong. It's a silly and unnecessary connection, but I'm going to go with it anyways.
[By the way, I found it impossible to write about thess episodes without including spoilers. The Rifleman streams for free on IMDB TV, so you might want to pause here and watch the two episodes before reading on.]
In the first season episode "The Angry Gun" (12/23/58--written by Samuel A. Peeples), Morrow is Johnny Cotton. Lucas McCain and his son Mark are heading back to North Fork after selling some cattle. Cotton is a prisoner being transported on the same stagecoach. When two friends of Cotton stop the stagecoach and free him, he steals both the money and McCain's unique rifle.
So McCain pursues. Cotton, we find out, is utterly rotton and perfectly happy to see the two men who rescued him die so that he doesn't have to divide the loot. Eventually, McCain catches up with Cotton, only to get pinned down by gunfire from his own rifle. Cotton knows he's out of range of the six-gun McCain has acquired off the corpse of one of the other outlaws, so he takes the time to gloat before taking that final shot. And that gives McCain time enough to improvise a way to get Cotton first. I have no idea if McCain's plan makes real-life sense, but it sure looks cool.
In "Letter of the Law" (Season 2, 12/1/59--written by George W. and Judy George), Morrow plays Brett Stocker, a wanted killer who is identified and captured by North Fork's marshal because he carries easily-identifiable custom-made pistols. Marshal Micah Torrance has to take Stocker to federal authorities in another city, so he deputizes McCain to watch the town. But Stocker's gang kidnaps Micah, telling McCain they'll kill the marshal unless Stocker is released.
The episode is exceptionally good on several levels. First, it deals effectively with the morality of the situation. McCain knows he is sworn to uphold the law and that the letter of the law is important. But if he does this, Micah will die. Of course, McCain knows he's likely to be killed anyways even if Stocker is released, but shouldn't that chance be taken? McCain's conversation about this with the town banker is intelligent, fits into the episode contextually without being preachy and adds to the overall tension.
Also, there's a mini-drama involving the captured Micah and a young outlaw who is shying away from the idea of actually committing murder. Paul Fix, the excellent character actor who played Micah, really shines in this scene, building a sincere rapport with the young man. This ends with a mini-tragedy within the story, as the outlaw ends up giving his life to allow Micah to escape.
And, finally, those hand-crafted guns of Stocker's work as an effective "Chekov's Gun," as McCain is able to use them to lure Stocker back into a trap after letting him go. Overall, "Letter of the Law" is one of The Rifleman's strongest episodes.
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