Thursday, February 21, 2013

Classic TV: The High Chaparral (1967)

There are some Westerns where you can pretty much figure out the location the show is set. For example, Gunsmoke is set in Dodge City, Kansas. Bonanza was set in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada. NBC, home to Bonanza, added a second Western set in the Southwest.

The High Chaparral tells the story of the Cannons, who settled in Arizona, and had to deal with the Apaches on a regular basis. The series lasted four seasons (1967-71), and reruns are currently airing on INSP on a daily basis. However, INSP has adopted the sickening practice of removing the closing credits as they originally appeared, and run the credits across the bottom of the screen, a practice also adopted by the Nickelodeon family of networks, largely for maximizing content rather than adding extra commercials, and so the only way to see the show as it was meant to be is via DVD.

Here is the intro:



Co-star Henry Darrow moved on after the series ended, and would later resurface as the voice of Zorro in Filmation's animated adaptation of the Western hero in 1981, then joined the cast of the live-action version that aired on the Family Channel in the early 90's. The rest of the cast were hardly heard from, but prior to Chaparral, Cameron Mitchell had appeared in a few movies, including Mario Bava's "Blood & Black Lace".

Rating: B.

6 comments:

magicdog said...

I've caught a few eps of High Chaparral and it's not bad. It's defiinitely different than most other TV westerns up to that point as not only was the family under constant threat (from Indians and bandits) but everyone on the show looked like they were living on the frontier. Unlike the Cartwrights and the Barkleys, the folks at High Chapparrel looked as dirty and dusty as pioneers did at that time.

BTW - The show's exteriors were shot at "Old Tuscon" which is a sprawling western set in which tons of westerns were shot over the decades. Even today, filming occurs there. Tourists are allowed to roam certain areas and you can't help but recognize famous streets and buildings from movies and TV shows of the past. The High Chaparrel ranch house is still there on the far edge of the property. It looks so small when you see it in person.

It's definitely worth a visit.

hobbyfan said...

Considering that some of the production team also worked on Bonanza, I'm surprised that there was never a crossover between the two shows. Imagine if they did that....

Samuel Wilson said...

I watched the first cycle of the series through INSP, though for some reason they were missing a few first-season episodes. I second magicdog's observation that Chaparral was scruffier and better for that than the other ranch-family westerns. There were more goofy comedy episodes in the run than I'd like but it kept up a pretty high standard over four years.

Cameron Mitchell came from the original cast of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and had been a top-billed star in Hollywood during the 1950s before relocating to Europe. Chaparral marked his return to the US, where he made such cult items as Nightmare in Wax in the offseason. Afterward, he did mostly guest roles on TV and cameos in increasingly bizarre B to Z grade movies. In short, he was a national treasure.

hobbyfan said...

Ok, so "Blood & Black Lace" was done while Mitchell was living in Europe. Got it, Sam, thanks. Seems to me that INSP hasn't acquired the entire series, or that certain episodes don't fit their standards and are being held off the air (INSP, after all, is a Christian channel).

Samuel Wilson said...

INSP does censor the show slightly, eliminating "hell" and the word "jackass." I'm not familiar enough with the "lost" episodes to know whether content is a factor in their exclusion.

hobbyfan said...

I'm guessing that content may exactly be what is behind the exclusion of those 1st season eps.