Paul Fix was cast in this episode (uncredited) as a doctor, but would return to join the cast as Micah Torrance, and he would remain a major cast member for the show's run.
2
2
"Home Ranch"
Arnold Laven
Sam Peckinpah
October 7, 1958 (1958-10-07)
After two of Oat Jackford's cowhands burn the McCain house, drag Lucas, and steal his rifle, Lucas goes to hunt Jackford (Harold J. Stone) and his men to inform them that he and his boy are there to stay.
The notorious Shelton brothers (Robert J. Wilke, Warren Oates) ride into North Fork to take revenge on Micah Torrance (Paul Fix), an ex-lawman who is now crippled with alcoholism. When Marshal Fred Tomlinson (R. G. Armstrong) is killed by the Sheltons, Micah is called upon to take his place.
A stagecoach breaks down and Italian nobleman Count Di Montova (Cesare Danova) is stranded overnight in North Fork. He accepts a challenge for a gun duel after being insulted by Sim Groder (Jack Elam).
The first bank in North Fork is opening, and a Texas gunfighter (Claude Akins) is hired to guard the safe, but a gang of bank robbers that used to include him arrives in town.
Mark tries to set Lucas up with a woman (Sherry Jackson) he thinks would make a perfect wife. Lucas soon finds himself contending with the woman's two brothers as well as some outlaws intent on killing him.
Lucas and Mark return from a cattle sale when their stagecoach is robbed by three outlaws led by sharpshooter Johnny Cotton (Vic Morrow). Lucas sends Mark on with the stagecoach while he goes after the outlaws on foot without his rifle.
Lucas allows Mark to take in a homeless horse after its owner is killed in a gunfight. Lucas soon discovers the truth about the horse and has to fight a gunman who does not want a secret to be exposed.
Wanting to teach Mark about tolerance and acceptance, Lucas hires an injured and bitter confederate soldier (Royal Dano) to work on his ranch, only the Union army also arrives at the farm.
A famous gunman (Robert Webber) promises his new bride that he will retire from gunfighting and settle in North Fork, but five outlaws try to make him break his promise.
A young couple (Paul Carr, Luana Anders) is forced to marry after they hide the fact that one of them is a girl, and Lucas helps them hide; but a rowdy crowd calls for a Shivaree.
Julia Massini (Katy Jurado), a reformed gambler, runs a respectable boarding house in North Fork, but her old boss (Alan Baxter) shows up and tries to force her to turn her place into a gambling house.
After the witness in a murder case is killed, Lucas agrees to testify in order to convict a murderer, but someone wants the prosecution stopped. Mark and the townsfolk try to talk Lucas out of testifying.
After falling in love with a sick young woman, fugitive Sam Morley (Paul Richards) asks his friend Lucas to turn him in and use the reward money to pay for the woman's medical needs.
Lucas' friend and renowned bank robber Tom Birch (Richard Anderson) comes for a surprise visit, upsetting Mark. Neither know the man has plans to rob the North Fork bank.
A neighboring rancher (George Mathews) refuses medical assistance when his son is seriously hurt in an accident because he blames doctors for the death of his wife.
After a boy (Paul Carr) admits to his father that he and the school teacher (Patricia Barry) are in love, his rancher father (James Westerfield) chases the teacher, an advocator for women's rights, out of town. Lucas wants to learn the truth.
Bookkeeper Asa Manning (William Phipps) hires a professional gunman (John Dehner) to provoke Oat Jackford (Bert Freed), a bully rancher who suspects him of embezzlement, into a gunfight. Lucas is forced to assist Jackford, the man he once hated.
A drought has forced local cowhands to seek work on a railroad construction project and railroad executives are afraid that their workers will desert them when an old man (Royal Dano) claims to have found a way to make rain.
Lucas takes in an orphaned boy (Lee Kinsolving) and teaches him how to use a gun, not knowing that the boy plans on killing the banker (Harlan Warde) he believes is responsible for his father's death.
Accused of a murder he did not commit, a young man (Michael Landon) is finally cleared by the accidental discovery of a "mind reader" (John Carradine).
Three gunfighters (John Anderson, Steven Marlo, Dennis Cross) use a cowardly barber (Whit Bissell) and his son to talk Lucas into a gunfight so they can kill Lucas and take over the town.
An ailing gunfighter (John Dehner) comes to North Fork to die under a doctor's care in order to spare his family. But the gunfighter is being pursued by bank robbers (John Milford, Howard Ledig) from whom he stole robbery money.
After Lucas accuses a newspaper writer's (Alexander Scourby) misleading articles of causing an innocent man's death, the writer begins writing articles about Lucas.
After a wanna-be bounty hunter (Harry Dean Stanton) kills a man (Gregory Walcott) wanted for a crime committed long ago, Lucas and Mark try to protect the widow (Sydna Scott) from learning about her husband's criminal past.
Eddie's daughter (Gloria DeHaven), who is withholding criminal information and stolen money, comes to meet her father (John Harmon) and causes trouble for Lucas.
Lucas discovers a young married couple (William Joyce and Enid Janes) with yellow fever and cares for them at his house, but Mark lets out the secret which causes panic in town.
A series of events leads to Lucas and Mark being stranded in the middle of a desert with very little food or water, and after Lucas is injured, Mark becomes the only hope for their survival.
An unarmed outlaw (Richard Devon) robs the stage of a lot of money after the outlaw informs Lucas that his son, Mark, is being held hostage at the McCain ranch and will be killed within the hour unless Lucas cooperates.
Lucas respects a dying man's (James Barton) wishes by telling the son (James Franciscus) that his father is a partner in the McCain ranch in order to get him to North Fork, but Lucas finds trouble when the man dies before telling his son the truth.
Lucas becomes involved in a battle between a recently fired cook (Carleton Carpenter) and a cocky trail hand (Steve Rowland) who finds it fun to attack those weaker than himself.
A surveying party camps near North Fork. Mark carries a milk supply to their campsite. No one is there, and Mark falls asleep in a tent while reading a surveying book. Meanwhile, two of the surveyors (Mike Kellin, Lin McCarthy) have murdered a third (Ted Otis), and are planning a crime in North Fork. Mark awakens when they return. He hears just a little of their talk; just enough for him to think that something bad is going to happen. He tells Lucas, but Lucas is not convinced. Mark must persist, and Lucas must consider and reconsider, before deciding what to do.
A man (Royal Dano) hires two private detectives to find his long-lost son. They presume him to be dead and try to take Mark to pass him off as the son in order to collect the money.
The Averys (Chubby Johnson, Ellen Corby), Lucas' new elderly neighbors, live under an assumed name to keep the town from knowing they are the parents of a vicious wanted killer (Skip Homeier).
Guest stars: Malcolm Cassell, Ralph Moody, and Max Wagner
Lucas and Mark find themselves held at gunpoint by a prisoner (Richard Devon) being transported on a train, which becomes stranded from a plague of grasshoppers.
After Lucas receives a curse while attending the hanging of a murdering Indian, he goes on a hunt to find out who or what is behind the so-called curse.
An ex-gunfighter from Lucas' past, now a doctor, comes to his aid when a dying man is brought in, but Lucas and the new doctor have unresolved anger toward each other.
Lucas, Lou Mallory, Doctor Burrage and two innocent bystanders are trapped in the hotel with dangerous outlaw Lee Coyle (Ed Ames) after a smallpox epidemic.
Wade Randall (Sammy Davis, Jr.) appears in town, bragging of his gun battles with notorious bad men, until one of them (Richard Devon) shows up to challenge him.
Outlaws, who had elected not to rob North Branch due to its heavily-armed reputation, change their minds upon learning of a new policy disarming the citizenry.
Lucas and Mark find Winslow Quince (Kevin McCarthy) stranded in the desert with a broken wheel on his wagon and help him to get to town. Quince is later blamed for a series of murders and robberies.
North Fork welcomes the arrival of the first train on the new railroad and with it, visitors that include a royal cousin of the Emperor of Japan (John Fujioka).
Away on a trip for the Cattleman's Association, Lucas rescues a man and is drawn into a fight with the crooked owner of a gambling establishment (Richard Anderson).
Mark is injured in an accident, which leaves his legs paralyzed. The doctor suggests mineral baths at Mission Springs to help. There, a gang of Yuma Prison escapees are hiding.
The recluse Old Tony (Stefan Schnabel) helps Lucas rescue Mark and his girlfriend Lorrie (Karen Sue Trent) from quicksand. (Trent was injured in the quicksand scene, which led to her decision to retire from filmmaking.)