The High Chaparral
Encyclopedia
The High Chaparral is a Western
-themed television series starring Leif Erickson
and Cameron Mitchell
which aired on NBC
from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort
, who had previously created the hit Bonanza
for the network. The theme song was also written and conducted by Bonanza scorer David Rose
.
), a rancher who lived in the Arizona Territory
in the 1870s. He ran the ranch with his brother Buck (Cameron Mitchell
) and son Billy (Blue Boy) (Mark Slade
). Blue Boy's mother Annalee (Joan Caulfield
) was killed in the first episode by an Indian arrow through the window, and to ensure his future, John Cannon courted and later married Victoria (Linda Cristal
), the daughter of the powerful Don Sebastián Montoya. His marriage to Victoria Montoya brought her brother Manolito (Henry Darrow
) into the picture, and he also came to live with the family. Cameron Mitchell was offered the part of Buck following an airline flight to Tucson where he had sat next to the series originator and his wife.
Among the guest stars were Anthony Caruso
, Roberto Contreras
, Dennis Cross
, John Dehner
, Paul Fix
, Ron Foster
, Ron Hagerthy
, Ron Hayes
, Myron Healey
, Don Keefer
, Dan Kemp
, Robert Loggia
, Tyler McVey
, Ricardo Montalban
, Ned Romero
, Chief Dan George, Frank Silvera
, Barry Sullivan
, Dub Taylor
, and Morgan Woodward
.
in the spring of 1967 so he could focus all of his energies on The High Chaparral. After the show's cancellation in 1971, Dortort did not return to Bonanza, but retired instead. All exterior and most interior filming was done at Old Tucson Studios.
On disc 1 - episode 1- it is an error with dubbed German instead of English for only some few minutes. Quality is superb.
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
-themed television series starring Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...
and Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (actor)
Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
which aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort
David Dortort
-Further reading:*"David Dortort." The Complete Marquis Who's Who. Marquis Who's Who, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. Retrieved 22 Sept. 2010. Fee, via Fairfax County Public Library...
, who had previously created the hit Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
for the network. The theme song was also written and conducted by Bonanza scorer David Rose
David Rose
David Rose was a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist, and orchestra leader. His most famous compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings", and "Calypso Melody"...
.
Cast and characters
The show revolved around "Big" John Cannon (Leif EricksonLeif Erickson
Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...
), a rancher who lived in the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
in the 1870s. He ran the ranch with his brother Buck (Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (actor)
Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
) and son Billy (Blue Boy) (Mark Slade
Mark Slade
Mark Van Blarcom Slade is an American actor.In 1956, he enrolled in the Worcester Academy with intention of becoming a cartoonist. After he filled in for a sick classmate, playing the role of an English professor in the play, The Male Animal, he decided to enter acting...
). Blue Boy's mother Annalee (Joan Caulfield
Joan Caulfield
Joan Caulfield was an American actress and former fashion model. After being discovered by Broadway producers, she began a stage career in 1943 that eventually led to signing as an actress with Paramount Pictures....
) was killed in the first episode by an Indian arrow through the window, and to ensure his future, John Cannon courted and later married Victoria (Linda Cristal
Linda Cristal
Linda Cristal is an Argentine actress. She is currently retired....
), the daughter of the powerful Don Sebastián Montoya. His marriage to Victoria Montoya brought her brother Manolito (Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow is a prolific Puerto Rican-American character actor of stage and film. Darrow is probably best remembered for his role as Big John Cannon's teasing brother-in-law, and Buck Cannon's favorite ranch hand, and best friend, Manolito Montoya, in the 1960s television series The High...
) into the picture, and he also came to live with the family. Cameron Mitchell was offered the part of Buck following an airline flight to Tucson where he had sat next to the series originator and his wife.
Among the guest stars were Anthony Caruso
Anthony Caruso (actor)
Anthony Caruso was an American character actor in over 100 American films, usually playing villains, including the First Season of Walt Disney's Zorro as Don Juan Ortega...
, Roberto Contreras
Roberto Contreras
Roberto Contreras is an American actor best known for playing Pedro in the TV western series The High Chaparral. His film and television career spanned nearly 40 years from 1954 to 1993. He is also the father of actor Luis Contreras....
, Dennis Cross
Dennis Cross
Dennis Cross was an American actor who was the lead star of the syndicated television series The Blue Angels, fictional stories of daredevil United States Navy pilots which aired from 1960-1961...
, John Dehner
John Dehner
John Dehner was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs. Prior to acting, Dehner had worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, and later became a radio...
, Paul Fix
Paul Fix
Paul Fix was an American film and television character actor, best known for his work in westerns. Fix appeared in more than a hundred movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career spanning from 1925 to 1981...
, Ron Foster
Ron Foster (actor)
Ronald R. Foster, known as Ron Foster , is an American actor, whose longest-running role was as Dr. Charles Grant from 1991-1995 in the defunct CBS soap opera The Guiding Light....
, Ron Hagerthy
Ron Hagerthy
Ronald F. "Ron" Hagerthy is a former American actor known primarily for his guest-starring and supporting roles on television westerns. In 1952, he portrayed Clipper King in the modern western series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant in the title role of Clipper's uncle, Schuyler "Sky" King, pilot of...
, Ron Hayes
Ron Hayes
Ronald G. Hayes was an American television actor who, as an activist in the environmental movement, worked for the establishment of the first Earth Day, observed on April 22, 1970. He was a member of the Sierra Club and a founder of the ecological interest group Wilderness World...
, Myron Healey
Myron Healey
Myron Daniel Healey was an American actor. He began his Hollywood, California, career during the early 1940s in bit parts and minor supporting roles at various studios.-Early years:...
, Don Keefer
Don Keefer
Donald "Don" H. Keefer is a retired American actor known for the versatility of his roles. He was born in Highspire in Dauphin County near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Keefer's first role was as Bernard in the 1951 film, Death of a Salesman, based on the Arthur Miller play...
, Dan Kemp
Dan Kemp
Daniel "Dan" Kemp was an American actor best known for his guest-starring roles in several television westerns between 1969 and 1971....
, Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...
, Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...
, Ricardo Montalban
Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles...
, Ned Romero
Ned Romero
Ned Romero is an American actor and opera singer who has appeared in television and film.Romero was born in Franklin, the seat of St. Mary Parish in South Louisiana, the son of Anna and Sidney Romero. His ancestry is Chitimacha Native American, as well as Spanish and French...
, Chief Dan George, Frank Silvera
Frank Silvera
Frank Alvin Silvera was an American actor and theatrical director.-Career:Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Spanish Jewish father and Jamaican mother. His family later emigrated to the United States, settling in Boston where Silvera attended English High School and Northeastern Law School...
, Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
, Dub Taylor
Dub Taylor
Walter Clarence Taylor, Jr. , better known as Dub Taylor, was an American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.-Early life:...
, and Morgan Woodward
Morgan Woodward
Morgan Woodward is an American actor.He is probably best known for his recurring role in Dallas as Marvin "Punk" Anderson...
.
Name of the ranch
- Annalee Cannon: Isn't it beautiful, John? It should have a name.
- Big John Cannon: You name it.
- Annalee Cannon: What is that bush called — that green one?
- Big John Cannon: Chaparral.
- Annalee Cannon: That's it — Chaparral. I christen thee "The High Chaparral" — the greatest cattle ranch in the whole territory ... the whole world!
Production
The High Chaparral was Dortort's brainchild, and he left the day-to-day running of BonanzaBonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
in the spring of 1967 so he could focus all of his energies on The High Chaparral. After the show's cancellation in 1971, Dortort did not return to Bonanza, but retired instead. All exterior and most interior filming was done at Old Tucson Studios.
DVD
No information yet about when it will be released on DVD in the US or all over Europe. But on May 20, 2010 the first worldwide release of season 1 were in Germany. Subtitles English and dubbed to German. Season 2 were released on December 9, 2010. Season 3 were released June 9, 2011. The final season 4 is scheduled to be released at the beginning of 2012.On disc 1 - episode 1- it is an error with dubbed German instead of English for only some few minutes. Quality is superb.
| Season DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Episodes DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Region 1 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Region 2 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Region 4 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Information DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 28 | May 20, 2010 | Region 2, Germany only. English, subtitle German (dubbed) | ||
| Season 2 | 26 | December 9, 2010 | Region 2, Germany only. English, subtitle German (dubbed) | ||
| Season 3 | 26 | June 9, 2011 | Region 2, Germany only. English, subtitle German (dubbed) | ||
| Season 4 | 18 | First quarter 2012 | Region 2, Germany only. English, subtitle German (dubbed) | ||