Waiting for Speedway Fowler

It's hard not to love this show. Simple moral tales with lots of good-old American violence. Chuck Conners plays the archtypal square-jawed hero. Paul Fix is Micah, the well-meaning but useless sheriff. And Johnny Crawford is McCain's sensitive son, Mark. The tales are all one-dimensional, but never cartoonish. McCain's rifle is incredibly cool. But the best part... the part I never tire of, is that one moment at the end of every episode where the theme song rises to a western crescendo.. then, for just a second, it stops, suspended momentarily in time, before jaunting to its finale. It's my second-favorite all-time musical moment, after the very slight piano flourish that follows the line "I'm no prophet" in Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" "Anticipation". Anyways, Encore's Western Channel is showing "The Rifleman" all day today. Enjoy!