The High Chaparral: Still Riding High After All These Years

The cast of The High Chaparral.

By the mid-1960s, Western family sagas--spurred by the popularity of Bonanza--dominated the U.S. television landscape. In addition to the Cartwrights, there were the Barkleys (The Big Valley), the Lancers (Lancer), the Shermans (Laramie), the McCains (The Rifleman), and many others. Most of these families were headed by a single parent, usually a widowed father. An exception was The High Chaparral, which was created late in the cycle by David Dortort, a producer-writer who hit the jackpot with Bonanza in 1959. By 1967, Dortort had ceded the reins of Bonanza to his associates so he could focus on his new Western.

The pilot episode of The High Chaparral follows the journey of the Cannon  family en route to a new beginning in the Arizona Territory in the 1870s. The family includes: "Big John" Cannon (Leif Erickson); his wife Annalee (Joan Caufield); young adult son Billy Blue (Mark Slade); and John's brother Buck (Cameron Mitchell). Along with the usual perils of frontier travel, the Cannons discover that a Mexican landowner covets their new ranch and that the local Apaches are hostile. During an Apache raid, Annalee is killed and John's strained relationship with his son comes to a head.


John and Victoria looking formal.

With future Apache attacks a certainty, John reaches a truce with neighbor Don Sebastian Montoya and--to seal their deal--marries Don Sebastian's daughter Victoria (Linda Cristal). Victoria's rakish brother Manolito (Henry Darrow) joins his sister at the High Chaparral--Annalee's name for the Cannon ranch--and a new "family" is formed.
What sets The High Chaparral apart from other 1960s Westerns is its evolving family relationships. The Big John-Victoria relationship progresses from one of mutual respect to genuine love. Buck's relationship with Blue evolves from supportive uncle to de facto father at times (e.g., when Blue decides to leave the High Chaparral, it's Buck that goes after him and convinces him to return). Buck and Manolito--two kindred spirits when it comes to having a good time--act more like brothers than Buck and John.

"Brothers" Buck and Mano.

The concept of "blended families" in TV Westerns was nothing new in the 1960s. The brothers in Bonanza each had a different mother. Heath Barkley was the illegimate son of Victoria's husband in The Big Valley. The two brothers in Lancer are stepbrothers and one of them was half-Mexican. However, The High Chaparral went further than its predecessors by creating a blended family of different cultures. Hispanic characters such as Victoria, Manolito, and Don Sebastian simply don't play supporting roles; they are major characters that frequently drive the plot lines. Likewise, their cultural values and their passion for their native Mexico plays an important part in episodes such as "A Good Sound Profit" (about equipping an army to overthrow Mexican leader Benito Juarez).

The High Chaparral debuted in 1967 in the Sunday 10 P.M. timeslot, immediately following Bonanza on NBC. The next year, it moved to Fridays, where it remained for the rest of its four-year run. While The High Chapparal scored decent ratings, it never cracked the Nielsen Top 20 shows for a season. Western dramas had also begun to fade from the television landscape. Less than two years after High Chapparal's cancellation  in 1971, even Bonanza came to the end of its 14 seasons.

Over the last four decades, The High Chaparral has attracted a loyal following (click here to visit an in-depth web site created by its fans). Surprisingly, the series has never been released on DVD in the U.S., although the show's fans rave about a region-free DVD set produced in the Netherlands. And if you've never seen The High Chaparral and want to sample it, you can watch it currently on the INSP cable network.

Making the Leap from Small Screen to Big Screen

Television has long provided both a training ground for would-be film stars and a second life for former film stars. The road from little screen to big screen has been travelled successfully by the likes of Steve McQueen (Wanted: Dead or Alive) and Clint Eastwood (Rawhide). Other TV performers have achieved spotty silver screen success (e.g., Chevy Chase)… and then there were those who never should have given up a good television gig (e.g., David Caruso in NYPD Blue, Hugh O’Brien in Wyatt Earp). Below are three actors who left hit series, at the height of their popularity, to take a crack at movie stardom.
By 1963, George Maharis had played the cool, likable Buz Murdock for almost three seasons on Route 66. During that time, he had earned an Emmy nomination for playing Buz, scored a Top 25 hit record with “Teach Me Tonight,” and was generally regarded as a TV heartthrob. He left Route 66 in the middle of the third season, stating that the constant traveling was causing health problems (the series was shot on location throughout the U.S). The producers claimed it was just an excuse to try his hand at movie stardom. Whatever the reason, it was moot—Maharis’s film career never took off. The Satan Bug, despite being an entertaining thriller about a germ warfare and global blackmail, was a flop. Quick, Before It Melts (1964), The Happening (1967), and other efforts tanked, too. By 1970, Maharis was back as a TV series regular in the short-lived detective series The Most Deadly Game.

James Garner was so popular as easygoing Bret Maverick in the 1957-62 Maverick TV series that he starred in films while concurrently acting in his hit show. Admittedly, Darby’s Rangers (1959) and Cash McCall (1960) weren’t huge successes (though the latter is a fun flick). Still, Garner had greased the proverbial skids by the time he left Maverick in 1960 after a contract dispute with Warner Bros. He quickly racked up impressive performances in The Children’s Hour, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, Support Your Local Sheriff, and many others. NBC lured Garner back to television in 1971 for Nichols, which was basically a reworking of Support Your Local Sheriff. When the show flopped, NBC decided it was because of the offbeat lead character, so the original Nichols was killed off and Garner then played his twin. That didn’t work either and the show was cancelled after a year. Garner rebounded nicely, returning to television three years later as private eye Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files, which ran for six years and earned Garner an Emmy. Post-Rockford, Garner returned to the screen in some of his biggest hits, Victor/Victoria and Murphy’s Romance. Few stars have floated back & forth between the small and big screen so effortlessly.

Pernell Roberts had it made in the early 1960s. As Adam Cartwright, he was arguably the most popular star on TV’s powerhouse Western family drama Bonanza…but Roberts was unhappy. He famously argued that Adam, the eldest Cartwright son and an architect, wouldn’t call his father “Pa”. At the height of his popularity, Roberts left Bonanza in 1966 to focus on the stage, music (he had recorded an album in 1962), and theatrical films. He starred in the famously panned stage musical Gone With the Wind (originally titled Scarlett) with Lesley Ann Warren. He made a couple of forgettable, low-budget foreign films (e.g., Four Rode Out). Mostly, he stayed busy by guest starring on a number of TV series such as Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, Mission: Impossible, and Ironside. Finally, in 1979, he found success again as the title character in the belated M*A*S*H spinoff Trapper John, M.D.

OK, Café patrons, what other TV stars tried to make the leap from TV to film—either successfully or unsuccessfully?