In the 1950s, MacLane began to appear regularly on television. Between 1953 and 1967, he guest starred on such programs as Conflict, Lux Video Theatre, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Laramie, The Monkees, and Gunsmoke. In 1958 he played Sen. Harriman Baylor in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll." In 1960 he played Eugene Norris, Perry's friend and small-town sheriff, in "The Case of the Violent Village." In 1964 he played Archer Osmond in "The Case of the Ruinous Road".