Winner, winner chicken dinner. It is indeed Johnny Crawford, who played Mark McCain on the “Rifleman.”
I watched a few reruns of the show recently and it occurred to me that Lucas McCain was portrayed as a wonderful single father on the show. Yet, nearly every episode ended with him nearly being killed in front of Mark before getting his hands on his trusty rifle and shooting dead one or more bad guys, while his terrified boy looked on in horror. In reality, Mark would have been traumatized beyond repair. Instead, the episode would end with a dinner table scene with Lucas offering up a moral lesson and ruffling the boy’s hair.
Where was CPS when the old West needed them. LOL. What a great era for television.