To reduce the physical and chemical complexity of the oxide coated cathode, the support metal and interface were eliminated by applying the (BaSr)O layer to a MgO ceramic which is electrically and chemically inert to (BaSr)O. The three interacting chemical phases of the usual oxide coated cathode are thereby reduced to a single phase—the oxide coat alone. At 1000°K, thermionic emission, measured by a pulse technique, is about 1 order of magnitude less than from modern commercial cathodes but considerably greater than from any other cathode system. The emission capability is unaffected by treatment in either atomic hydrogen or methane, which reduce BaO to Ba metal and thereby increase the Ba content of the oxide. The experiments were an attempt to test the usual assumption that emission in conventional oxide coated cathodes is determined by the composition of the (BaSr)O phase. The results suggest strongly that much of the complexity of practical cathodes is in the oxide layer itself and that factors other than the content of excess Ba are decisive for thermionic emission.