Richard Anderson

Lariat Jones from The Rifleman Oscar Goldman from The Bionic Woman

Ah, Richard Anderson. Another of the people whom I encountered years ago without really realizing who he was. Dad inadvertently introduced him to me by playing The Student Prince. I immediately liked Richard and his character Lucas, even though I didn't yet know him by name.

My next major encounter was probably on Perry Mason. I remember seeing the Steve Drumm episodes years ago, and I'm pretty sure I liked them, especially The Sausalito Sunrise, one of my favorite Perry episodes in general. When my interest in Perry was renewed thanks to Simon Oakland, I rediscovered the awesomeness of Steve Drumm and Richard, and I set out to see many things Richard was in.

Richard's acting style has been described as wooden by some Perry fans especially, but I have never felt that way. I find Richard excellent at whatever part he plays, perfectly believable as good guys and bad. As for Steve, even though he doesn't seem to be popular with Perry fans and they usually default to feeling like Lieutenant Anderson was the most personable and friendly, I fail to agree. Through my studies of the episodes of both characters, I determined that it's actually Steve Drumm who is the most friendly. I have expounded on that subject in great detail in many posts at my Perry blog, http://parkavenuebeat.blogspot.com, so I won't go into that here.

Richard is one of those actors who's been in just about everything. As with many character actors, Westerns were a big category for him. He appeared in every season of The Rifleman and his performances are always exceptional even when the episodes themselves are below par. I enjoy all of his guest-spots on that series except his final turn in The Bullet, which really wasted the chance to have him back and largely focused instead on the fledgling procedure of ballistics.

While I love seeing Richard as good guys the most, he has turned out some really chilling bad guys. One of the nastiest would be the murderous salesman in The Rifleman episode Flowers by the Door. The character is comparable to two of Simon Oakland's Bonanza characters. I was surprised they had such a dark script for an episode of the very family-oriented The Rifleman, honestly! But it's very well-done.

Richard's most famous and best-received good guy is arguably Oscar Goldman, from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. It took me a while to get around to trying those series, but when I did, I instantly adored Oscar. I tend to like characters' bosses and root for them. They're unsung heroes sometimes, since people usually focus on the first leads. But my favorite bosses are friends as well as employers of said first leads, and there would be a lot of bad things happening to the first leads without their bosses around.

Richard has an autobiography just out this year, which I have been most eagerly waiting for ever since the rumors started circulating that he was writing a book. Being one of the most prominent of the darlings (there are even action figures of him/Oscar!), interviews with him are a lot easier to find. I'll probably focus more on sharing older ones lost in old newspaper archives, rather than recent ones that are easier to find. That's not to say I won't share some recent ones too, though, especially some particular favorites.