Bonanza

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This article is about the television program. For other uses, see Bonanza (disambiguation).
Bonanza
Genre Drama
Starring Lorne Greene
Pernell Roberts
Dan Blocker
Michael Landon
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 430
Production
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run 1959 – 1973

Bonanza was an American western/cowboy television series which aired on NBC from September 12, 1959 until January 16, 1973. Bonanza was the first network television series to film all of its episodes in color. The main sponsor of Bonanza was Chevrolet and the stars appeared endorsing their vehicles. All four of the series stars had appeared in film before joining the cast of Bonanza, and have stage credits to their names.

From 1961 to 1972 it aired on Sunday nights. This timeslot was crucial to the success of the show: from 1964 until 1967, the show was #1 in the yearly Nielsen ratings. In terms of longevity, the show was NBC's longest-running western, and the second-most popular western in the history of television, behind Gunsmoke.

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[edit] The "Bonanza" name

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, often used for the broadcast of syndicated reruns in the 1970s and 1980s.

[edit] Premise

The show chronicled the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by wise widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (played by Lorne Greene). He had three biological sons, each by a different wife: the oldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable Eric, better known by his nickname: "Hoss" (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe" (Michael Landon). The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung).

The family lived on a thousand-square-mile ranch called "The Ponderosa", on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada; the name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell). Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were equal stars. The opening credits rotated among four versions, with each of the four being shown first in one version (in the order above).

An accidental running gag (which also occurs in the TV western The Big Valley), was that every time one of the Cartwright sons became seriously involved with a woman, she was killed off or died gruesomely in the same episode. This also occurred in the case of the patriarch, Ben Cartwright, whose sons were each born to a different wife, and when shown in flashback episodes, each wife died in the same episode, except for the wife who gave birth to Hoss who lasted two episodes. As with other shows of the time the male characters had love interests but usually the storylines lasted only for one episode then the girl was never seen again.


[edit] The Cast

The Cast of Bonanza
The Cast of Bonanza

The cast was very popular with viewers. Lorne Greene, known as the "Voice of Canada", was a fairly successful announcer, actor and drama coach in his native land. Ben Cartwright, as Green once described him, was "suede leather", as he was both a strong and soft patriarch. Greene recorded several record albums in character as Ben Cartwright, scoring a #1 hit with his dramatic spoken word performance of "Ringo". Pernell Roberts, considered the best singing voice among the cast, recorded an album "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" which contains folk ballads.

Pernell Roberts, was a familiar face in 1959 Hollywood, but preferred the legitimate stage. He left the series in 1965 after a long running dispute with series writers (Roberts argued that a 33 year old Eastern educated Adam would not call his dad, "Pa") and creator David Dortort. Attempts to replace him were made by introducing Ben's stepson, Clay, (played in one episode by Barry Coe) and a nephew Will (played by Zorro star Guy Williams), but neither lasted. In 1967, David Canary joined the cast as "Candy" Canaday, a confident army-brat turned cowboy, who became the Cartwrights' foreman. The character vanished in 1970 after Canary himself had a contract dispute with Dortort.

In 1970, 14-year-old Mitch Vogel joined the series as Jamie Hunter, the orphaned son of a rainmaker. Ben adopted Jamie in a 1971 episode.

In 1972, after the sudden death of Dan Blocker from a post-op blood-clot, the show was moved to Tuesday nights against a new CBS sitcom, Maude. Both events signaled the end of the program. Canary returned to his former role of Candy (to make up for Blocker's absence), and a new character named Griff King (played by Tim Matheson) was added. Griff, accused of killing his heavy-handed step-father, was paroled into Ben's custody and got a job as a ranch hand; several episodes were built around his character, one Matheson never had a chance to fully develop before the show's sudden demise in January 1973. Many fans felt that the Hoss character was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul that brought some balance to the all male cast.

During the later years of the series, Michael Landon began writing and directing episodes of Bonanza.

From the third season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode! This was done to cut the cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes), as previously-shot stock footage could be reused.

  • Ben Cartwright: Blue shirt, Brown patent leather vest, Green Pants, creme colored hat, occasional green scarf
  • Adam Cartwright: Black Shirt, Black Pants, Black hat. Occasional Yellow trail coat.
  • Hoss Cartwright: White shirt, Brown, suede vest, Brown pants, White Hat.
  • Little Joe Cartwright: Creme colored shirt, Green courdouroy jacket, Brown pants, Tan hat. Black leather gloves from 10th season on.
  • Candy Canaday: Crimson shirt, Black pants, Black leather vest and hat, Green scarf.
Bonanza's credits were names superimposed over charcoal drawings. This card was a rendition of creator/producer David Dortort, portrayed here as an overseer in mines.
Bonanza's credits were names superimposed over charcoal drawings. This card was a rendition of creator/producer David Dortort, portrayed here as an overseer in mines.


[edit] After cancellation

For 14 years, the Cartwrights were the premier western family on American television and have been immensely popular on cable networks such as TV Land, i (formerly PAX), and the Hallmark Channel. In the UK the show is aired on the Bonanza channel on skyTV.

Following the program's cancellation:

[edit] TV Movies

Bonanza was brought back as several made-for-television movies featuring Cartwright offspring. These include Bonanza: The Movie (1988), Back to Bonanza (1993), Bonanza: The Return (1993), Bonanza: Under Attack (1995), and Bonanza: The Next Generation (1995).

[edit] The Prequel

In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the series' ideas with a prequel, Ponderosa, with a pilot directed by Kevin James Dobson and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, it lasted 20 episodes. The prequel had less gunfire and brawling than the original. Bonanza creator David Dortort approved PAX TV's decision to hire Beth Sullivan, a producer from Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, which some believe gave the series a softer edge.

[edit] Theme Song

Bonanza also featured a memorable theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that is often parodied. Lorne Greene and the cast recorded versions of the song with lyrics. Although the Bonanza theme is one of the best known pieces of made-for-television music, it was not used for the entire run of the series. A new theme song was written in 1970 by episode scorer David Rose and replaced the oft-remembered tune for seasons twelve and thirteen. A new arrangement of the original theme returned for the fourteenth and final season. The Little House on the Prairie theme (also by Rose), can be heard first in a 1971 episode of "Bonanza". The overture for The High Chaparral composed by Harry Suckman can be heard briefly at the start of the 1966 episode "Four Sisters from Boston".

[edit] Set

The program's Nevada set, the Ponderosa Ranch house, was recreated in Incline Village, Nevada, in 1967, and remained a popular attraction world-wide until its sale in September 2004.

[edit] Bonanza on VHS and DVD

A handful of episodes of the series are in the public domain, and some TV showings of these episodes on low-budget stations and networks (and also on low-budget public domain DVDs and VHS tapes) substitute the familiar theme music for generic music.

In the 1970s, NBC licensed the syndication rights to the series to National Telefilm Associates, which changed its name to Republic Pictures in the 1980s (by then part of the Spelling Entertainment organization). Select episodes ("The Best of Bonanza") were officially released in North America in 2003 on DVD via then-Republic video licensee Artisan Entertainment (which was later purchased by Lionsgate Home Entertainment). Today CBS Paramount Television handles television distribution, while Paramount Home Video (whose parent company Viacom purchased Republic in 1998) now has home video rights via CBS DVD, though an official DVD reissue has yet to be announced.

Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. One of its licensees is the magazine, Bonanza Gold, which features detailed information about the show, including interviews with actors and other production personnel, articles about historical events and people depicted in the series, fan clubs and fan fiction.

[edit] Trivia

  • On an episode of The Simpsons, two of the characters playing the Indians put on a show at the Springfield mall, and one of them makes a joke about how they always tried to kill the Cartwrights but "it looks like Father Time did our work for us!". They then start doing an embarrassed jig to the theme tune, and Homer has to drag Marge away as she wonders "weren't there three Indians last year?"
  • On an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, the theme tune was played when then-host Mark Lamarr jokingly compared Bill Bailey's efforts to recreate a completely different song, much to Lamarr's delight.
  • On The Simpsons episode, Rome-old and Juli-eh the Bonanza opening scene is parodied in the couch gag.
  • An animated version of the Cartwrights (as the "Cartrocks") appear on The Flintstones whereby they manage save Fred and Barney from the Slatery Brothers in "Sheriff for a Day" (Season 5, Episode 21).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Fan Sites

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