![]() ![]() Finally, Little Joe Cartwright (Michael Landon), the youngest son, gets his smoldering dark looks and equally tempestuous nature from his beautiful half-Creole mother, whom Ben met during a trip to New Orleans' French Quarter. Hoss, who may seem rather dim or naïve at times when he's not killing a bear with only his hands, or knocking down a tree, is in reality quite sensitive to his surroundings, and to the sufferings of others. Middle son Eric "Hoss" Cartwright (Dan Blocker) gets his massive physique from his mother, a six-foot tall Swede who could punch like a mule. His mother the daughter of a New England sea captain, Adam was schooled back East as an architect and engineer. Eldest, Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts), is the most serious of the three siblings, and the one who works most directly under Ben in running the Ponderosa. ![]() Overseeing this operation is voice-of-God Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene), the thrice-widowed land baron who watches over his spread as fiercely - and as tenderly - as he does his three grown sons. And butting right up against Virginia City is the massive Ponderosa ranch, a thousand-square mile New World Eden filled to the brim with pine and beef. Virginia City, Nevada, sitting right on top of those millions of dollars' worth of ore, is bustling with miners, settlers, businessmen, rustlers, con artists, and killers. It's the late 1850s, and gold and silver fever are sweeping through the hills and valleys of the celebrated Comstock Load. Solid bonuses for the fans bolster this clean DVD presentation from Paramount. And most importantly for viewers today, it plays just as well as it did 50 years ago. Telling the story of the powerful Cartwright clan and their fabulous thousand-square mile Nevada timber and cattle ranch, the fabled Ponderosa, Bonanza may not have been an originator in concept or design like Gunsmoke or Frontier or The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, but it did continue TV's late-50s trend towards more adult-oriented western drama, with solid, challenging scripts put over by the charismatic central cast and veteran supporting players, while providing a splash of big-screen allure with all those spectacular California backdrops filmed in saturated color. Bonanza the hostage episode series#Certainly one of the most beloved TV series of the boomer generation, this iconic, epic-scaled Western - the first weekly Western ever to be televised in color - starred household names Lorne Greene as the patriarch of the Cartwright family, and Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, and massive Dan Blocker as his intriguingly mismatched sons. Ben is taken hostage by Perkins' employer, with threats to hang Ben if Farmer is not released.Bonanza, the single most successful television series of the 1960s (and second only to Gunsmoke for network TV's longest-running Western, at thirteen and a half seasons), celebrates its 50th anniversary today by premiering on DVD for the first time in a fully authorized season release: Bonanza: The Official First Season, Volume 1 (I'll be reviewing Volume 2 later this week). When a local merchant is gunned down for refusing to pay protection, Farmer Perkins is tried and sentenced to hang. The town is being run by bad guys and the Cartwrights decide it has to stop. ![]() Filmed by the National Broadcasting Company at Paramount Studios. Nearby Virginia City helped populate the episodes with guest starring characters from all over America.īroadcast between September 1959 and January 1973. The second was the warm and lovable giant Eric, better known by his nickname "Hoss." And the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe." They all lived and worked on The Ponderosa. The widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright had three sons, each by a different wife: the oldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright, who built the ranch house. Ben Cartwright and his three sons, Adam, Hoss, and Joe fought for what was just and decent in a time where lawlessness was common. Set in Nevada in the 1860's, Bonanza chronicled the adventures of the Cartwright family who owned a large ranch called The Ponderosa. ![]()
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