Bonanza: The complete episode guide part 3- season 1, eps 11-15

Episode 11, The Truckee Strip, is a great episode even if it does repeat an earlier theme of Little Joe falling in love. This time though it's Romeo and Juliet out west. The episode starts with the Cartwrights in a spin because Luther Jessup (a young James Coburn) has chopped a tree down on the Truckee Strip, a beautiful piece of land whose ownership has long been the subject of a feud between the Cartwrights and the Bishops.That we have never seen the Bishops in Bonanza before, doesn't matter and the history of the fued is told within this episode - apparently years previously a judge had ruled in the Cartwrights favour. The problem is that things get even more complicated when Little Joe falls for Bishops daughter, Amy. It's an all action western with a great climax and James Coburn is excellent as the scheming Pete Jessup.

The following episode - The Hanging Posse must rate as among the top episodes of the first season . It starts with the killing of a rancher's wife by a trio of drifters. The rancher Flint Johnson comes into Virginnia City with his dead wife and immediately a posse is formed to track the men down. The Cartwrights are in town and there' some nice comedy when Hoss buys a dimes worth of jelly beans, these brightly coloured sweets had become very popular following the Civil War and it's nice to see authentic little details like this, which help to colour things out. Fearing that the posse will become a lynch party, Little Joe and Adam decide to go along to keep things legal.

Away from the Ponderosa, the story opens out and this is a brilliant example of western television at its best.

The Vendetta episode came next and followed a string of strong episodes, but this retelling of High Noon, with Hoss in the Gary Cooper role trumps them all. Little Joe and Adam have departed from Sacramento to buy some cattle and Hoss and his father, Ben are in town to conduct some business. They become involved in a bank robbery by the feared  Morgan gang, and together the two men stop the attempted hold up. Hoss draws and shoots Billy Morgan but Ben has been wounded too. The Morgans grab their own wounded man and ride off.

Ben is patched up by the town doctor but it is decided he is not fit enough to travel back to the Ponderosa and he has to rest in a room in the town hotel until he is able to ride. Billy Morgan later dies of his wounds and the Morgans swear revenge. Then the posse who had gone out after the Morgans all return, dead, slung over their horses -the tension now builds as Hoss finds nobody in town is willing to help in the coming fight with the Morgans. Ben, still recovering, is unable to help his son but as far as he knows the town is behind them.

A truly excellent episode

The Sisters (episode 14) is less successful. It starts off with Adam fighting an old style duel to protect the honour of a lady who has been insulted. Adam wins but doesn't kill the other man, one John Henry but tells him that if he ever again says one wrong word to Sue Ellen Terry, he will kill him. Ben Cartwright is furious at his son for, what he sees, as a foolish and risky fight. Buddy Ebsen guest stars as a sheriff in this episode and whilst it doesn't live up to the quality of the previous three, it is nevertheless fine entertainment.
It is worth pointing out that this episode is considered a fan favourite, especially by those who favour Adam Cartwright.

The Last Hunt (episode 15) may be light on action but it is nevertheless an excellent story -Little Joe and Hoss are away on an hunting trip when they come across a highly pregnant squaw who is trying to escape her tribe. The woman may be due to give birth at any time and the Cartwrights know they can't leave her alone, nor though can they take her back to the Ponderosa as she is far too delicate for the trip.

The problem is that the snows are due to start and if the trio are still on the mountain when the storm starts, then all ways off will be blocked until the spring. However because of the squaw's condition they have no option but to remain on the mountain until she gives birth and is fit enough to travel. There is some great comedy in this episode as Joe and Hoss attempt to make the girl comfortable and survive off the land.



THE CARTWRIGHTS - HOSS.

Dan Blocker could have been a professional boxer - he won several amatuer fights but decided against turning professional. His trainer stated that he had all the skills needed except one - the killer instinct. He was just too soft hearted. Given his size, he was six foot before he was sixteen pro football seemed an option for the hulking boy, but Blocker turned his back on sport and decided to concentrate more on academic subjects. He served in the Korean war and saw action when his squad was pinned down.

"I tasted real mortal fear, "Blocker later told a friend.

After the army Blocker had to decide between acting and teaching. With a young family to support, teaching seemed more stable but acting could be more lucrative. The young actor found himself cast in episodes of Cheyanne and Wagon Train, but he always seemed to play the heavy. Blocker was cast in The Restless Gun by future Bonanza creator, David Dortort but after Blocker played the part of Tiny in Cimmaron City he decided to give up acting and return to Texas and a teaching post. Dortrot then offered him the part in Bonanza and the rest is history.

On May 13, 1972, in Los Angeles, Blocker died suddenly following routine gall bladder surgery, of a pulmonary embolism. The cast and crew of Bonanza were shaken by his death, and the writers took the then-unusual step of referencing a major character's death in the show's storyline that autumn. Bonanza lasted another season, but the final season in which Blocker did not appear is the least-requested in reruns.

Bonanza: The complete episode guide part 2- season 1, eps 6-10

Season 1, episode six - The Julia Bulette story. After a run of good episodes I found this one slightly disappointing. It's not that it's a particularly bad episode but its short on action and features a storyline that sees Little Joe fall for saloon girl Julia Bulette. Joe gets into a fight to defend Julia's honour and even although he comes off second best, Julia Bulette is touched by the way he tried to defend her.

"They snub you on Sunday and come to your place on Monday,' Little Joe, annoyed by the hypocritical attitude of the townsfolk.

The following episode, The Saga of Annie O'Toole is much more entertaining and features the Cartwright's involved in settling land disputes between miners. Into the mix comes Annie O'Tool who claims she has inherited a good section of land from her recently deceased father. Initially and with Adam Cartwright's help she sets up a cafe to feed the miners with her speciality Mulligan stew going down a treat. However unscrupulous  Gregory Spain claims to be the real owner of Annie's land and a battle takes place with Ben Cartwright in the middle to adjudicate.

Next we have the Phillip Deidesheimer Story - Philip Deidesheimer  was a German mining engineer who invented a system of supports for mines, using heavy timber "cubes" now known as square set timbering, that enabled skilled miners to open three-dimensional cavities of any size underground. Deidesheimer created the system for the Ophir Mine in Virginia City, Nevada in 1860. The system, which was inspired by the structure of honeycombs, enabled mining of the large silver ore bodies of the Comstock Lode. Deidesheimer refused to patent the innovation. And it is the invention of this new mining system that is fictionalised for this great episode of Bonanza.

Bonanza often used real historical characters in its stories - earlier in the season there had been the Mark Twain story and after the Deidesheimer episode  the series again mixed fiction and fact for an episode entitled, Mr Henry Comstock. The Cartwrights are met by an old coot with a gun who claims they're on his land; he even has a deed signed by Henry Comstock to prove it. They explain that the paper is worthless because Comstock was a con-man always on the run and perpetrating a scam. The episode flashes back to how Comstock accidentally found the huge silver deposit while trying to pull a swindle, and how Virginia City got its name

By episode ten we had already had storyline involving both Little Joe and Adam falling in love and now it was time for old Ben to take his turn. The Magnificent Adah - Famous actress Adah Isaacs Menken visits Virginia City with her popular play. She and Ben go way back and the two begin to renew their friendship -- much to the chagrin of Adam, Hoss and Joe. Ben's sons believe that Adah has plans to become the next Mrs. Cartwright so they set out to stop her. However, Menken's boyfriend, John Regan, a professional fighter, has plans of his own for the beautiful actress. This is a great episode with some excellent and dignified acting from Lorne Greene. Michael Landon also shines as he goes up against one time prizefighter, John Regan (loosely based on John C Heenan) who is a one time lover of the actress his father is so smitten with.

Bonanza had by now found its feet and the rest of the first season was made up of a run of episodes that rate amongst the best western television ever made - next we will look at episodes 11 - 15  and the appearance of a young James Coburn.`

Bonanza: The complete episode guide part 1- season 1, eps 1-5

I've been collecting the excellent Bonanza part work from DeAgosti Publications, for a good few months now, the series is currently up to season two with more arriving each fortnight - so there should be a bunch waiting when I get home. It may work out an expensive way to collect the series, box sets are cheaper, but each issue comes with a detailed full colour magazine with some great articles and rare photographs - I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Eventually I'll have the complete set, fourteen seasons, in a nice looking uniform edition. I used to love the series as a kid. And if I remember correctly it was shown on Sunday afternoon on BBC 1 over here, and I'm enjoying revisiting the saga of the Cartwrights. Finding myself away from home for a few months I took a bunch of the DVD's with me so I could watch the show whenever I was in the mood for some western adventure. And so here is the first part of the Archive's complete Bonanza guide.

Cue rousing theme tune - right from the off Bonanza was going to be a different kind of western. Creator, David Dortort said when pitching the series to the network, that our stories would delve into character, deal with human relationships, which is where the best stories are. The series was also to be filmed largely on location and in colour which meant that the stunning scenery would rival any of the big screen westerns. At this point in time most TV westerns had concentrated on the standard western themes - gunfights, good bad men and Indian attacks with little real character development. Bonanza set out to change all that. It transformed the western from being about the lonely gunfighter to the loving family.

The first episode, A Rose for Lotta features Yvonne De Carlo as guest star (a coup for this new series to get such a high profile guest star) and right from the start the family theme is set. There is now conflict between eldest Cartwright boy, Adam and Little Joe because Adam doesn't think Joe is showing enough maturity to help run the family business. This leads to fists being thrown with middle brother Hoss acting as peacemaker between his two fueding siblings. However tensions are soon eased as the Cartwright's have to pull together to fight off mine owners who want to ravage the timber on the Cartwright land and have enlisted famous actress, Lotta Crabtree (De Carlo) to woo the Cartwright boys. As a pilot its a good enough episode and shows how tough the Cartwright clan were initially depicted - they are positively antisocial and shoot at anyone who ventures onto their land. This was followed up by a particularly strong episode, The Sun Mountain Herd and finds the Cartwright's going up against several braves from the Paiute tribe who have been stealing cattle. Ben Cartwright and his sons visit the Indians and discover that the cattle have been stolen to feed the tribe, since the hordes of prospectors in the area are killing the antelope the Indians depend on for their food. They had not option but steal the cattle - either that or starve. This episode features a powerhouse performance from Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright as he tries to avoid an all out war with the Indians.

Episode three, titled The Newcomers gives a chance for Dan Blocker as the mammoth Hoss Cartwright to shine as he falls in love amongst hostilities between his family and the unscrupulous Blake McCall.

"Nobody's gonna destroy the Ponderosa. I'll fight for what's mine, what I believe in." Ben Cartwright.

MCcall has brought hydraulic mining into the area, a process will result in thousands of acres of virgin timber uprooted and entire mountains washed away. The Cartwright's are not going to stand for this and conflict is guaranteed, but the problem is that Hoss has fallen in love with McCall's fiancée. This is a great episode with some wonderful scenes between Hoss and Emily, played by seasoned actress Inger Stevens.

It's non stop action for episode four, The Paiute War - this episode displays how Bonanza always treated the Native American characters as real people which was something of a rarity for TV westerns who previously had depicted Indians in one or two ways - as savages of for comedic affect. But not Bonanza and Ben Cartwright finds himself doing his utmost to avoid an all out war. There are some great action scenes in this episode and it really does have a cinematic feel to it.

Five - Enter Mark Twain - plays mostly for humour but there is a backdrop involving scheming politicians and an illegal land grab. Right from the off Twain causes problems for the Cartwright when he writes a story for the local newspaper about a huge wild man living on the Ponderosa. The story results in hundreds of people trespassing on Cartwright land.

Bonanza was an immediate ratings success - TV was starting to overtake the cinema in the hearts of audiences everywhere, and each week thousands of Americans would settle down to watch Bonanza and soon the Cartwright family became household names. The series was just as successful abroad, particularly in the UK where it was the most successful  westerns TV series ever in terms of ratings.

When David Dortort was developing Bonanza he was at a party given for the cast of Wagon Train when Lorne Greene walked in. He recalls turning to his then wife Rose, and saying: "I think Ben Cartwright just walked in." They had found the actor to play the patriarch of the Cartwright clan. Purnell Roberts was cast next as Adam Cartwright and Dan Blocker came next as Hoss. Finding someone to fill Little Joe's boots was much more difficult and the producers considered several actors before settling on Michael Landon who was known to audiences for his role in I was a Teenage Werewolf.

And thus TV history was made.

BOYHOOD IDOLS - BONANZA

During the 70's Bonanza was shown regularly on BBC television and for young kids like myself it represented a thrilling recreation of the wild west.



Course years later I have matured as a viewer (least, I hope I have) and now demand a more realistic and gritty version of the west but it doesn't matter and Bonanza will always have a special place in my heart.




QUOTE:

"Bonanza got its name from the Comstock Lode which was "an exceptionally large and rich mineral deposit" of silver. Virginia City was founded directly over the lode and was mined for 19 years. Ponderosa was an alternative title of the series, used for the broadcast of syndicated reruns while "Bonanza" was in first-run on NBC. Ponderosa is also the name of a series prequel airing on PAX-TV from 2001-02.
The Bonanza pilot, "Rose for Lotta", was written by David Dortort, who also produced the series. Dortort's other creations include The Restless Gun, The High Chaparral, The Cowboys, and the Bonanza prequel, Ponderosa. For most of its 430 episode run, the main sponsor of Bonanza was Chevrolet and the stars occasionally appeared in commercials endorsing Chevrolet automobiles. All of the regular cast members had appeared in numerous stage, television and film productions before Bonanza, but none was particularly well-known.
In 1959, the series aired on Saturday evenings opposite, "The Perry Como Hour". Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color. RCA owned NBC (and the series) and wanted to use it to spur sales of color receivers. However, the Saturday night ratings were dismal and Bonanza was soon targeted for cancellation. Given one last chance it was moved to Sunday nights at 9:00 PM. The new time slot caused the series to soar, and it eventually reached number one by the mid-'60s; by 1970, it had become the first series to ever wind up in the Top Five for nine consecutive seasons (a record which would stand for decades) and thus established itself as the single biggest hit TV series of the 1960s; it remained high on the Nielsen ratings until 1971, when it finally fell out of the top ten.
The opening burning map of the Ponderosa Ranch was illustrated with incorrect bearings. David Dortort, choosing not to redo the map, altered the compass points. The original painting was done by artist Robert Temple Ayres "

END QUOTE


Running for 14 years on it's native NBC network, 'Bonanza' was set on the vast Ponderosa timber and cattle ranch in Nevada in the 1860's. The ranch was inhabited by three times widowed Ben Cartwright (Canadian actor Lorne Greene, later to become 'Battlestar Galactica's' Commander Adama) and his three sons, all from different deceased mothers. Old man Cartwright was a devil with the ladies but would end up a lifelong widower after the death of his third wife. Adam, Hoss (Norwegian for 'good luck' in tribute to his Scandinavian mother), and the youngest of the trio, Little Joe. A number of other characters to feature regularly included Virginia City Sheriff Roy Coffee, and the Cartwright's Chinese chef Hop Sing. There were few cast changes over the series run, but the most notable was Pernell Roberts, eldest son Adam, who left the series after six years.

The show was notable for being the first TV western to be shot in colour and was filmed in the Lake Tahoe area. A major success on both sides of the Atlantic and sold to over fifty other countries, 'Bonanza' was finally bought down by the untimely death of the immensely popular Dan Blocker, the last show, the 430th in the series, aired on 23rd January 1973. Re-runs can still be seen today and a British Cable network launched the Bonanza channel and began running the series starting with the first episode.

Along with 'Gunsmoke', 'Bonanza' stands as the quintessential embodiment of US television's long-standing affair with America's most enduringly romanticised historical period.