Production
Production
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The High
Chaparral was filmed for NBC primarily in Hollywood,
California and in |
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Sept. 1967-Sept. 1968 Sunday
10:00-11:00 PM |
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Executive Producer/Creator . . Production Manager . . . . . . Producers . . . . . . . . . . . Story Consultants . . . . . . . Music By . . . . . . . . . . . . Cinematography . . . . . . . . Stunt Coordinator . . . . . . . |
David Dortort Kent McCray William F. Claxton, Buck Houghton, James Schmerer Don Balluck, Walter Black David Rose, Harry Sukman Harkness Smith, Kenneth T. Williams, Haskell Boggs Henry Wills |
Some of the following biographical material is from The High Chaparral Songbook (ca.
1969),
from the All
Movie Guide and other sources.
David Dortort's long interest in the West, from boyhood to the present, stood him well in his dual roles as executive producer and creator of both NBC's popular Bonanza series and The High Chaparral. Dortort began as a part-time magazine writer, became a successful novelist, came to Hollywood as a film writer, and stayed to become one of television's top producers.
While Dortort was writing for the Western series, Restless Gun, the series star, John Payne, was so impressed with his work that he asked Dortort to take over the producing reins. Following that series, Dortort created and produced the Bonanza pilot, leading to a series that has made television history.
Dortort graduated from the New York City College in 1938 with a B.A. in English and Philosophy. While working for a radio station (WNYC) he wrote for magazines in his spare time. At the conclusion of a four-year hitch in the Army, he again put his spare time to good use by writing his best-selling novel, "Burial of the Fruit." Over 2 million copies were sold. the Hecht-Lancaster film company purchased the film rights to the book in 1949 and hired Dortort to write the screenplay. He has been twice nominated for TV's Emmy Award for the Best Dramatic Writing of the year --- once for his TV version of The Ox-Box Incident, and again for his adaptation of William Faulkner's, An Error in Chemistry.
Dortort served as President of the Television-Radio branch of the Writers' Guild for three consecutive terms. He taught creative and screen writing at UCLA, and is also the former President of the Producer's Guild of America. The busy producer formed his own company, Xanadu Productions, to develop projects exclusively for NBC-TV. The first project was The High Chaparral, which premiered in 1967.
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Kent McCray
Production Manager
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Born in Connecticut, Kent
McCray developed his skills nationally, having majored in Theater Arts
at the Julius Hart College of Music before moving on to be the only
pupil of the legendary Dr. Nagy (formerly of Yale). He began his
career at NBC in 1951 with work on the Colgate Comedy Hour during
television’s Golden Age. He later worked on The Red Skelton Show,
The Ralph Edwards Show, and This is Your Life. He
also worked as an associate producer with Bob Hope, accompanying the
comedian on many of his overseas USO trips to entertain the troops. Kent McCray has worked in all phases of
filmmaking: production, post-production, scoring, and supervising the scoring and dubbing sessions.
McCray joined Bonanza as Associate Producer and then went on to
produce The High Chaparral. He ran Michael Landon’s
production team for Little House on the Prairie at the behest
of Mr. Landon. He later produced Movies of the Week: The Loneliest
Runner, Killing Stone and two seasons of the NBC series,
Father Murphy. Other activity included the feature film Sam’s
Son, the Emmy nominated Where Pigeons Go to Die and the
CBS/Columbia pilot Us. After Michael Landon’s death, Kent
and his partner/wife, Susan McCray, produced the highly acclaimed
tribute to Michael Landon, Memories with Laughter and Love. He
is also Co-Partner and Co-Executive Producer of Adobespaceship
Productions.
William
F. Claxton
1914 - 1996
Producer, Director
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American director William F. Claxton started out as a film editor with Edward Small Productions in 1940. Claxton's first directorial effort was 1951's All That I Can Have. He spent much of the 1950s with 20th Century-Fox's Regal Pictures subsidiary, turning out such worthwhile medium-budget efforts as God is My Partner (1956) and Desire in the Dust (1960); occasionally, as in the cast of Rockabilly Baby (1957), he produced as well as directed. Though his film credits are extensive, he is best known for his TV work, beginning with his producer/director stint on the religious anthology This is the Life (1951-1980). A favorite of the late Michael Landon, Claxton directed Landon in such weekly TV series as Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven. William F. Claxton also directed the feature-length series pilot Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988). From Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Bill Claxton was a producer for The High Chaparral for the first two seasons and he directed a total of 22 episodes during the course of the series, twice as many as the next most prolific HC director, Leon Benson.
Buck Houghton
1915 - 1999
Producer
Buck Houghton was most readily known as the producer of the first one hundred-plus episodes of The Twilight Zone. His career included work as a story editor for David O. Selznick and MGM Studios, production work on feature projects at RKO Studios, innumerable television series production including Yancy Derringer, Hawaii Five-O, and The High Chaparral, and feature film production for Zoetrope Studios and New Century, Hawaii Five-O.
James Schmerer, producer of the NBC series, The High Chaparral, at thirty-one years old was one of the youngest producers in television production at the time.
A graduate of New York University with a B.S. Degree in Motion Picture Production, he moved to Hollywood in 1961. In that short span of two years, he became Supervising Editor and Associate Producer of Hollywood and the Stars, the first network documentary series for Wolper Productions on NBC. In 1964, as a Screen Writer, he co-wrote, World Without Sun, winner of that year's Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Before becoming a producer of The High Chaparral series for Executive Producer David Dortort in 1969, Schmerer served as Head of Creative Development for Dortort's Xanadu Productions.
Among his other production credits are: Associate Producer on The Silencers and the CBS-Television series, Dundee and the Culhane, as well as serving as Story Editor on the long running NBC-TV series, "Daniel Boone" for 20th Century Fox.
