MovieChat Forums > The High Chaparral (1967) Discussion > Why was Blue so 'slow?'

Why was Blue so 'slow?'

posted 10 years ago by SuCue
12 replies | jump to latest

When I was a kid, I thought he was slightly mentally "challenged." I wondered if he had a difficult birth or something, and that's why he was always so emotional and so slow on the uptake. I remember that there were several other young men on TV who were dumb or slightly handicapped in some way during the late 60s TV era: Peter Tork on "The Monkees" and Bobby Sherman on "Here Come the Brides," for example. Maybe it was a trend that appealed to teenyboppers of the time.

I always felt sorry for Blue and wished he could have been as smart as his dad. Like I felt sorry for "Fredo" from "The Godfather."

[–] slackersmom 10 years ago

Interesting, I never thought of any of those characters as "slow."

[–] SuCue 10 years ago

Hmm. . .I just watched a few episodes on Youtube--maybe "childlike" is a better descriptive word than "slow."

[–] kjackson106 10 years ago

Yes I thought so too.

[–] JaneDanton 9 years ago

I thought so too, although it made him likeable, just hard work if you were to socialise with him

[–] skohl632001 9 years ago

I don't think they were meant to be slow-more like shy and innocent-socially awkward due to inexperience, etc.

[–] mlbroberts 9 years ago

I never thought of him as slow, just overprotected by his parents. He wasn't given the chance to have life experiences and to grow until they came west and his mother died, and even then it took some time for John to give him the chance to grow up.

[–] merh 9 years ago

It was an endearment thing.
Ad men like easy identifiers like The Beatles. John was the smart one. Paul was the cute one. George was the quiet one. Ringo was the dumb/slow/etc one. The Monkees were a copy of the Beatles.

So yeah, conventional wisdom in TV scriptwriting.
not unlike the dumb dad stereotype in comedy.

[–] makesmewantoholler 9 years ago

When I was a kid, I thought he was mentally challenged too. I was a small child when I first saw this show and that was my opinion even then. He had nothing on a small child. LOL.

He looked like a full grown man too and not the teen that they tried to portray him as being. Either way, he would've been slow as a grown man or a teen.

[–] puterkatz 8 years ago

I never thought of Billy Blue as slow. He was young, naïve, sentimental, emotional and thrown into an existence which challenged him. His father didn't give him much encouragement or responsibility either.

[–] skiddoo 8 years ago

I agree. He was sensitive and artistic. Slade was a cartoonist in real life and that was used in the show. By the mid 60s it was okay for a man to be portrayed that way. It made a change from the macho male stereotype and felt like a safe choice for a teen-aged girl who was his fan because he seemed cute, respectful, and shy. I don't know if that brought out the "mothering instinct" in women but it was in no way threatening.

Spoiler Alert.

(It was hard on the poor guy to travel 1000 miles only to have his mother rubbed out as a guest star with her unseen replacement being given permanent billing. Westerns were dangerous places for wives and fiancees of lead actors. His mother was doomed as the opening credits rolled.)

[–] wildbillharding 8 years ago

It was terrible having his mother rubbed out so cruelly, but at least his Pa could act, unlike that Marshal who served Dodge for twenty years. The folks drinking in the Long Branch picked up splinters whenever Dillon came in through the swing doors.

[–] libertysanders 8 years ago

I had the impression that he was gay.