Want to See a Virtuouso Stage Performance, and for Free?! Then Watch the Late, Great, John Vernon, on TV’s The High Chapparal: “No Irish Need Apply” (Originally Aired on January 17, 1969; Catch It before the KK Kill It Yet again!)

Re-posted by N.S.

I had re-posted this episode many years ago, in a tribute to Vernon upon his passing, but the KK (Kopyright Kops) had forced it to be removed. Well, someone re-posted it to google/youtube, so for a limited time, until the KK strike again, here it is. In a role that I'm sure was expressly written for him, Vernon (1932-2005) gave a tour de force performance as heroic but bullheaded Irish miner Sean McLaren, who leads an increasingly violent strike against a murderous, crooked, coal mine owner.

Vernon’s overpowering performance reminded me of the two times I’d watched James Earl Jones in the legitimate theater, both times in Fences (1987 and ‘88). The booming bass baritone voice, the electricity, the intimacy, the power of a man bestriding the stage like a colossus. Filmed plays for TV and theatrical release rarely have that sort of power. I believe it’s because the plays are filmed with medium and long shots, when the only way to recapture the intimacy of live theater is through intense, even claustrophobic close-ups.

Vernon deserved, at the very least, an Emmy nomination. But he never had a chance.

Although westerns like Gunsmoke (1955-75), Bonanza (1959-73), and The Virginian (1962-1971), if no longer dominant, were still popular, and The High Chaparral had graced the cover of TV Guide, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ powers that be rarely nominated performers from Westerns, no matter how good they were. (Ditto for the war story that was one with the original Twilight Zone, one of the two greatest dramatic series ever, Combat!) In a twenty-year run that, for instance, made Gunsmoke the most successful prime-time series of all time, the show was only nominated for six Emmys, winning but two.

And so, in the Emmy categories for which Vernon qualified, “Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” and “Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role,” only three and four (of a possible five) actors were nominated, respectively. The Academy left nominations vacant! In the supporting role category, no one was apparently awarded an Emmy, and in the lead category, the award went to Paul Scofield for Male of the Species.