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The two brothers in Lancer are stepbrothers and one of them was half-Mexican. Heath Barkley was the illegimate son of Victoria's husband in The Big Valley. The brothers in Bonanza each had a different mother.
THE HIGH CHAPARRAL THE HOSTAGE TV
The concept of "blended families" in TV Westerns was nothing new in the 1960s.
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Buck and Manolito-two kindred spirits when it comes to having a good time-act more like brothers than Buck and John. 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). 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. 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. 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). During an Apache raid, Annalee is killed and John's strained relationship with his son comes to a head. 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. 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). 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. By 1967, Dortort had ceded the reins of Bonanza to his associates so he could focus on his new Western. 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. Most of these families were headed by a single parent, usually a widowed father.
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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. By the mid-1960s, Western family sagas-spurred by the popularity of Bonanza-dominated the U.S.