The High Chaparral is an American Western action-adventure drama television series that aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971, starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell. The series was made by Xanadu Productions in association with NBC Productions, and was created by David Dortort, who had previously created Bonanza for the network. The theme song was written and conducted by Bonanza scorer David Rose, who also scored the two-hour pilot.
The show is set in the 1870s, and revolves around "Big John" Cannon (Erickson), a rancher living in the dry desert of the southern Arizona Territory, near the Mexican border, in Apache Indian country. John runs a ranch, called "The High Chaparral" (named for a local plant/brush), with his brother Buck (Mitchell) and his own son Billy Blue (known as "Blue Boy") (Mark Slade). Blue Boy's mother, Anna-Lee Cannon (Joan Caulfield), is killed in the first episode by an attacking Apache Indian arrow. John then marries a beautiful Mexican woman named Victoria (Linda Cristal), 30 years his junior, the daughter of powerful neighboring Mexican rancher Don Sebastián Montoya (Frank Silvera). In what is initially a marriage of convenience, she soon appreciates his strength and character, falls in love with him and becomes very supportive. John's marriage to Victoria also brings her brother Manolito (Henry Darrow) to live with the American "gringo" family on the extensive ranch.
The two-hour opening episode establishes the background to the action, bringing "Big John" Cannon and his family and brother Buck to the frontier high desert scrubland in the southern Arizona Territory near the border with Mexico, where they buy a run-down hacienda and establish a cattle ranch on it. The Apaches, under the leadership of Cochise, are hostile; John's wife Anna-Lee is killed in an early attack, and to survive, the Cannons are compelled to enter into an alliance with a rich and powerful neighboring rancher, Don Sebastian Montoya, who owns a huge estate on the Mexican side of the border adjoining the "High Chaparral".
Part of the price for the alliance is the sealing of the pact by the marriage of John Cannon to Montoya's beautiful, dark-haired, sophisticated daughter, Victoria, 30 years younger. Montoya's reckless son, Manolito, whose relationship with his father is strained, accompanies his sister to get away from Don Sebastian. John's son, Blue, is vehemently opposed to the strange "mixed marriage", coming so soon after Anna-Lee's death.
Reinforced by Montoya's men, the Cannons are able to fight off the Indian attacks, and with the services of Manolito as interpreter, manage to negotiate a truce, albeit a fragile one, with the Apache leader. The main reason for its fragility is that the U.S. Cavalry refuses to recognize Cannon's right to negotiate a private peace with the Apaches, and continued Army interference constantly threatens the unofficial treaty. Problems also frequently occur between the Cannons and the arrogant, resentful Don Sebastian, usually concerning the terms of their alliance.
Big John's brother, Buck, notionally the ranch's head cowhand, was a hard-bitten former soldier, who fought in the American Civil War, 10 years previously, on the side of the Confederacy. From time to time, Buck's past comes back to haunt him, usually in the person of other Confederate soldiers drifting through the territory, forever unable to return to their homes in the defeated South. Occasionally, friction occurred because foreman Buck's brother Big John had also fought in the war, but on the other side, as a captain in the Union Army.
The series gradually evolved to make Manolito and Buck the most prominent characters, as they were the ones who tended to get into trouble; both were somewhat irresponsible, particularly under the influence of drink. For what was generally regarded as a serious Western television series, their scenes provided "comic relief" for the show. The other characters were gradually marginalized. Cattle ranching almost never featured in the storylines, which, whenever Mexican bandit or Indian troubles were not imminent, were much more likely to revolve around personal issues of drama with Manolito or Buck and some form of hell-raising – gambling, fighting, women, or whiskey (or a combination of them).
Mark Slade (Blue Boy) did not appear in the final season, and Frank Silvera (Don Sebastian Montoya) had died while the series was still in production (but he did appear in a few episodes). Blue Boy was replaced by Wind (played by Rudy Ramos), a passing, mysterious cowhand who was half-Pawnee and of a similar age to Blue, and who sometimes acted as a go-between for the ranchers and the Indians. Gilbert Roland guest starred as Don Sebastian's younger brother, Don Domingo, who inherits Rancho Montoya near the end of the series. This final season had new opening titles and a rearranged version of the popular theme music.
Name of the ranch
The name was explained by the following dialog in episode one:
Anna-lee Cannon: Isn't it beautiful, John? It should have a name.
Big John Cannon: You name it.
Anna-lee: What is that bush called — that green one?
Anna-lee: That's it — Chaparral. I christen thee "The High Chaparral" — the greatest cattle ranch in the whole territory ... the whole world!
In the true sense of the word, "chaparral" is not a single species of shrub, but a bionomic community of desert flora located near a coast, especially that in coastal southern California. The name comes from the Spanish word for scrub oak, chaparro, which is seldom found further east in Arizona as native flora. Some colloquial use of the term in Arizona describes the low-growing sage, mesquite, and palo verde, which are native to the area, especially in the higher desert, but the high Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona plant community is more properly called a "xeric" shrublands biome.
Production
The High Chaparral was producer Dortort's new brainchild, and he left the day-to-day running of his earlier success Bonanza (1959–1973) in the spring of 1967 so he could focus all of his energies on The High Chaparral.
All the exterior filming was done at the Old Tucson Studios near Tucson, Arizona (site of frequent movie-making for several decades), and in the nearby Saguaro National Park, although in a few later episodes some filming was done in California, and (in season three) in the Coronado National Forest south of Tucson. The interiors were generally filmed at the NBC television studios in Burbank.[1]
On May 20, 2010 the first worldwide release of season one on DVD occurred in Germany (Kinowelt, now Studiocanal), with the original soundtrack in English and an optional soundtrack dubbed into German. Season two was released on December 9, 2010. Season three was released June 9, 2011. The final season was released on February 16, 2012. On disc one, episode one starts with some scenes shown on German TV that were not in the original, thus dubbed German instead of English for a few minutes.
Art-S Home Entertainment (www.art-s.nl) in the Netherlands released the first box with season one (28 episodes) on May 2, 2012. Season two released on January 28, 2013. Season three released on September 3, 2013, and the final season released January 26, 2014.
The High Chaparral is also released in Sweden with each season in two boxes. In Australia, they have also released The High Chaparral in four boxes.
The first and second seasons has been released by Shout! Factory in the United States. The third season was released in April 2019.
Leif Erickson was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, Bonanza is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on U.S. network television, and one of the longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. The show is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas.
The Apache–Sitgreaves National Forests is a 2.76-million-acre (11,169 km2) United States National Forest which runs along the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains in east-central Arizona and into the U.S. state of New Mexico. Formerly two forests, it is currently managed as one unit by USDA Forest Service from the Forest Supervisors Office in Springerville, Arizona. Apache–Sitgreaves has over 400 species of wildlife. With its high elevation and cool summer breezes it is a popular weekend destination from the hot desert for Phoenix, Arizona, residents. The forest is divided into 5 Ranger Districts that span almost 300 miles (480 km) from Clifton, Arizona in the east-central portion of Arizona to the eastern boundary of the Coconino National Forest in north-central Arizona. The Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest borders the western and northern borders of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. It is located in parts of Greenlee, Apache, Navajo, and Coconino counties in eastern and east-central Arizona, and Catron County in western New Mexico. The more northwesterly Sitgreaves National Forest portion lies adjacent to the north side of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and is located entirely in Arizona, within Navajo, Apache, and Coconino counties. It has a total area of 818,651 acres (3,313 km2). The more southeasterly and much larger Apache National Forest portion lies adjacent to the east side of the Fort Apache and the San Carlos Indian Reservations. It lies on both sides of the border with New Mexico, in Greenlee, Catron, and Apache counties. It has a total area of 1,813,601 acres (7,339 km2).
Bobby Dan Davis Blocker was an American television actor and Korean War veteran, who played Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western television series Bonanza.
Henry Darrow was an American character actor of stage and film known for his role as Manolito "Mano" Montoya on the 1960s television series The High Chaparral. In film, Darrow played the corrupt and vengeful Trooper Hancock in The Hitcher. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was seen in numerous guest starring television roles. Darrow replaced Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Zorro's father Don Alejandro de la Vega in the 1990s television series Zorro.
Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, known professionally as Gilbert Roland, was a Mexican-born American film and television actor whose career spanned seven decades from the 1920s until the 1980s. He was twice nominated for the Golden Globe Award in 1952 and 1964 and inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
The Cowboys is a 1972 American Western film starring John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Bruce Dern, and featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Slim Pickens. It was the feature film debut of Robert Carradine. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr., and Jennings, and the film was directed by Mark Rydell.
Frank Alvin Silvera was a Jamaican-born American character actor and theatrical director.
Mark Van Blarcom Slade is an American actor, artist, and author, particularly remembered for his role of Billy Blue Cannon on the NBC Western television series The High Chaparral.
Robert Donner was an American television and film actor.
The Bascom Massacre was a confrontation between Apache Indians and the United States Army under Lt. George Nicholas Bascom in the Arizona Territory in early 1861. It has been considered to have directly precipitated the decades-long Apache Wars between the United States and several tribes in the southwestern United States. War was coming with the Chiricahua Apache. The affair led to an open break and open hostilities, but Cochise had previously been peaceful, he had been prudent and avoided raiding Americans. He had, however, stolen livestock from the Overland Mail, from Fort Buchanan and had twice been forced to return stolen stock by Capt. Richard S. Ewell, who swore that if he had to deal with Cochise again, he would strike a blow.
Ronald R. Foster was an American actor.
Lane Bradford was an American actor. He appeared in more than 250 films and television series between 1940 and 1973, specializing in supporting "tough-guy" roles predominantly in Westerns but also in more contemporary crime dramas such as Dragnet, The Fugitive, and Hawaii Five-O.
Doña María Eulalia Elías González Romo de Vivar was a Mexican American rancher who established the first major cattle ranch in Arizona. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.
Donald Mounger Collier was an American actor best known for Western films and NBC television shows such as The High Chaparral, Bonanza,Gunsmoke, and Outlaws as Marshal Will Foreman.
The Pecos War, also known as the War of the Pecos and the Chisum War, was a range war fought by cattle baron John Chisum against neighboring small ranchers, farmers, and Native Americans from 1876-1877 along the Pecos River in New Mexico. The conflict was caused primarily by competition: Chisum believed that his livestock and other resources were being depleted upon by people he alleged to be rustlers. At the same time, Chisum was also fighting Mescalero Apaches from the nearby reservations who were said to prey on his herds.
The first season of the American Western television series Bonanza premiered on NBC on September 12, 1959, with the final episode airing April 30, 1960. The series was developed and produced by David Dortort, and season one starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon. The season consisted of 32 episodes of the series's total 431 hour-long episodes, the entirety of which was produced in color. It aired on Saturdays from 7:30pm–8:30pm on NBC and placed at number 45 in the Nielsen ratings.
The second season of the American Western television series Bonanza premiered on NBC on September 10, 1960, with the final episode airing June 3, 1961. The series was developed and produced by David Dortort, and season two starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon. The season consisted of 34 episodes of the series's total 431 hour-long episodes, the entirety of which was produced in color. It aired on Saturdays from 7:30pm–8:30pm on NBC and placed at number 17 in the Nielsen ratings.
The fifth season of the American Western television series Bonanza premiered on NBC on September 22, 1963, with the final episode airing May 24, 1964. The series was developed and produced by David Dortort, and season five starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon. The season consisted of 34 episodes of a series total 431 hour-long episodes, the entirety of which was produced in color. Season five was aired on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. It ranked #2 in the Nielsen ratings, the highest rated Western for the 1963-1964 season.
References
↑ Pippins, Jan; Delgado, Henry Darrow (September 30, 2015). Henry Darrow: Lightning In the Bottle (First; Hardcovered.). BearManor. ISBN978-1593938826.
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