Somtimes things go wrong....

I've just come across a great video on You Tube of bloopers from the long running western series, Bonanza- the clip can't be embedded so here's the LINK

Bonanza Ride the Wind

"Bring the mail in on time or bring yourself in - dead."

This season 7 two parter was released as a cinema movie in much of Europe and it's now available in a special issue of DeAgonstini's Bonanza part work.

The story loosely based on the real Pony Express sees Little Joe taking on the job of rider with the mail service and Ben Cartwright becoming a major share holder in the company. It's a grand dream to see the post being delivered rapidly across the West but a war with the Piute's make things more than a little tricky. And soon the venture is having to fight Indians across a thousand mile line.

Doc McCoy turns up as a scheming journalist and the rest of the supporting cast is also made up of familiar TV faces - Stewart Moss and Victor Jory head up an impressive ensemble.

In reality the short lived Pony Express was a troubled venture from the start but it was extremely efficient and only one mail package was ever lost. And the service has become on of the true legends of the American West.


To minimise the amount of time it took a rider to change horses at a way station a special mail bag known as a mochilla was developed -it was up of a light leather cover with a purse like compartment called a cantina in each side into which the mail was padlocked. Each mochilla could hold 20ib of mail.

The Bonanza special edition is on sale now - a magazine and the DVD for £7.99. The DVD doesn't contain the movie version but instead opts for the two full episodes that made up the story. However it's a great transfer of what is a splendid couple of episodes of the long running and now legendary western series.

Mark Twain, The Paiute's and Little Joe in love

I remember Bonanza as a twee western, kind of The Waltons out West, but I was impressed with the second disc in Deagostini's Bonanza collection - these are episodes 4, 5 and 6 of the first season. And during this period the show was anything but twee.

The Paiute War is a great story which is also presented well - the indian battles are above the standard of most B-western movies of the period, as the Cartwrights try and prevent a full scale Indian war. There are several surprisingly gruesome battle scenes - men are torn from their horses and driven through with lances, cowering miners are shot at point blank range and stunt men leap about every which way.

The second episodes sees Mark Twain come to Virginia City and take up a job with the local newspaper. Of course he hadn't adopted the Twain name by this point and signs his byline as Josh. It doesn't take long before Josh angers corrupt politicians and the Cartwrights have to come to his aid. The episode end with an old style western shoot-em-up which is still genuinely exciting.

The third episode is one of those family driven dramas that the series would become famous for. This time Little Joe, looking more like Elvis than ever, falls for a beautiful older woman who reminds him of his mother - make what you will of that one. This sets son off against father and to my mind it was the weakest episode in this selection. That's not to say it's bad mind, only that the previous two episodes were absolutely excellent.

The Disc comes with issue 2 of The Bonanza DVD collection part-work, and the magazine contains episode guides and a profile of Pernell Roberts. There is also a brief article on silver mining in Nevada that looks at the primitive methods used by miners in the Old West,. The magazine also comes with a bonus disc that contains episodes 7, 8 and 9 of the first season, making it a steal at only £7.99

RIP PERNELL ROBERTS

The Archive is saddened to learn actor, Pernell Roberts, the last surviving Cartwright from Television's Bonanza died yesterday (Sunday) evening. The actor was 81 years old.

Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western's cast, died of cancer Sunday at his Malibu home.

Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene's patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his "Bonanza" character was given.

"They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. "None of it ever happened."

It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father.

"Doesn't it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father's permission for everything they do?" he once asked a reporter.

Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away.