In the twelfth season, Mitch Vogel joined the cast as Jamie Hunter, a teenage orphan who is adopted by Ben Cartwright. Dortort was impressed by Canary’s talent, but the character vanished in September 1970, Bonanza City after Canary had a contract dispute. He returned two seasons later after co-star Dan Blocker’s death, reportedly having been approached by Landon.
- Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
- In the twelfth season, Mitch Vogel joined the cast as Jamie Hunter, a teenage orphan who is adopted by Ben Cartwright.
- A coda to the episode reveals that Michelson went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
- The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses, is one of the most recognized television scores.
- The show set the bar for character development and explored themes that resonate to this day.
- The family lived on a thousand-square-mile (2,600 km2) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range.
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Bonanza (
Ben and his sons then continued west, reaching Nevada, and through much hard work established the Ponderosa Ranch. Sheriff Coffee was occasionally the focus of a plot as in the episode “No Less a Man” (broadcast March 15, 1964). Teal was a bit-part player in western films for several years before landing a substantial role in Northwest Passage (1940) starring Spencer Tracy. However, the unexpected death of Blocker in 1972 left a bigger hole, and Bonanza ended one season later.
S1.E2 ∙ Death on Sun Mountain
The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured (at various times) Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. However, Roberts was persuaded to complete his contract, and remained through season six. In the ninth season, David Canary was added to the cast as ranch hand/foreman Candy Canady. After four years with the series, Canary left due to a contract dispute.
Behind the Scenes of Bonanza’s Success
- Did you know that Bonanza was one of the first television series to be shot in color?
- Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that the character of Hoss was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast.
- The Cartwrights are not just characters; they’ve left an indelible mark on our screens and our hearts.
- The show broke down barriers set by earlier series, proving that TV could be both entertaining and meaningful.
- Landon began to develop his skills in writing and directing Bonanza episodes, starting with “The Gamble”.
- This penchant for storytelling created discussions that resonated with audiences far beyond the frontier, showcasing its importance in television history.
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According to David Dortort, sponsor General Motors was anxious about the episode. As producer, Dortort ensured that the episode re-aired during the summer rerun seasons, though two TV stations in the South refused to air it. In 1968, a slightly revamped horn and percussion-heavy arrangement of the original score introduced the series, which was used until 1970. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast (sans Dan Blocker, who had died by this point).
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- Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973.
- After his wife’s death, he and his son traveled to Illinois, where he married his second wife, Inger Borgstrom, and continued west.
- VE AG released the first seven seasons on DVD in Germany between 2008 and 2010.
- Bonanza creator David Dortort approved PAX TV (now Ion TV)’s decision to hire Beth Sullivan, formerly of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which some believe gave the series more depth as well as a softer edge.
- Early in the show’s history, he recalls each of his late wives in flashback episodes.
- Any time one of the Cartwrights seriously courted a woman, she died from a malady, was abruptly slain, or left with someone else.
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Season 2 (1960–
Starting in September 2009, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has to date released the first eleven seasons on DVD in Region 1. All episodes have been digitally remastered from original 35 mm film elements to yield the best picture and sound quality possible with current technology. At the beginning of the episode, Adam is shown to be outraged at the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (placing the time as 1857), which he discusses with his father.
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Despite the show’s success, Roberts departed the series after the 1964–65 season (202 episodes) and returned to stage productions. The Bonanza theme song opens with a blazing Ponderosa map and saddlebound Cartwrights. The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses, is one of the most recognized television scores. Although there were two official sets of lyrics (some country-western singers, avoiding royalties, substituted the copyright renditions with their own words), the series simply used an instrumental theme. Three of the cast members bellowed out the original lyrics, unaccompanied, at the close of the pilot (Pernell Roberts, the sole professional singer of the quartet, abstained and untethered the horse reins).
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Bonanza: The Legendary Show That Shaped TV History
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The opening scene for the first season was shot at Lake Hemet, a reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, and later moved to Lake Tahoe. During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, Mannix and The Brady Bunch.