Hawaii Steve, I've had a hard lesson in "Skimming" vs "Technical" reading yesterday. Saturday morning I quickly read your post, then at 8:15 (EST) turned on AMC-TV to try and catch the episode with Victor Sen Yung. I watched episodes of "The Rifleman" till 12:30. At that time, I switched to another local channel that was airing it also. Then around 2:30, when it was nowhere to be found, I turned on "Cowboys Vs Aliens". All-in-all, I saw Lucas McCain, beaten, kidnapped, almost hung, fight with around 50 folks, and kill around twice as many. I saw him teach his son Mark everything there is to know in life, from how not to reject people who have scars on their faces to knowing that sometimes lying to a person is OK if you love them and are doing it for the right reasons. I even saw Lucas deliver a baby to the wife of a Mexican Bandito he just killed--and he did it with his hat on! I saw Ms. Millie continuously try to get some "Sugar" from Lucas over 12 episodes or so, with nothing more to show for it than a smile from the big guy! The only thing I didn't see was a Chinaman with a queue (pigtail). This morning (Sunday) I reread your entry and saw I was about an hour to late when I turned on the tube! Well, I'm now the biggest "Rifleman" fan in Ohio! TXS. Lou
Watching a five-hour block of 'Rifleman' episodes, on AMC, is similar to attending a Charlie Chan movie marathon. How many life lessons can Lucas McCain teach his son Mark in this series? The series originally aired from 1958 to 1963 on ABC-TV, coming in with 168 episodes in total.
In Hawaii, I woke up at 4:15 AM in order to record/watch this episode. It's one of the better ones.
If you missed this episode, not to worry, AMC will rerun the entire series again. Oh boy, 168 episodes of The Rifleman.
Steve, thanks for the link and I finally got to see the episode. Ya know, it may seem far fetched, but this episode of Rifleman had a similar ring to it of E.D.B.'s second novel "The Chinese Parrot"(T.C.P.)! Not a lot, but it wouldn't be far fetched to say they borrowed from it. And we find the tellplay and writers all lived in Los Angeles, not far from Earl Derr Biggers...bet they read the novels! And of course there's the Victor Sen Yung's connection.
In T.C.P. Charlie masquerades as a Chinese cook out west, while here Victor Sen Young is a Chinese Laundry man "out west". And then there's the "Aphorism" that Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) says during the beginning of the episode to Sheriff Micah: Ya know Micah, I remember hearing an old Chinese saying once, "He who makes trouble gets more than his share". The most famous aphorism from The Chinese Parrot is "Man who rides tiger, cannot dismount"! Same meaning if you think about it, yes? Perhaps they revised it to better fit Lucas McCain pontificating it?
But really, the true mystery of this episode is what happened to the "Other bad guy", the tall one, Les Foster, played by actor Paul Wexler? After all he was the one who manhandled the kid, Wang Lee! He helped the main baddie, Noah Ferguson, push over Vic's wagon and everything else. AND, he was the one who cut off Vic's "Queue". But we only find the big guy, Noah Ferguson and his son, run outta town!
OK, I'm done. Let it be a lesson to us all, this is what happens when Charlie Chan fans, veer off the course and watch to many Rifleman (or other) shows. T.Y.S.M. Lou
One would suspect that the writers of "The Queue" episode had a little fun with the Charlie Chan references.
The Chinese aphorisms and the boy referring to his father, played by Victor Sen Yung, as "pop" are nice touches. Even Mr. Yung's character is humble, just like Charlie Chan. The acting is first-rate is this little 25 minute drama.
The message that people are different from one another is the point that impressed me the most about this episode. This was a heavy topic in the early 1960s. 54 years after its original TV broadcast, the message from "The Queue" is as important today as it was in 1961.
