"high in the Sierra Nevada, with a large ranch house in the center of it. Ben Cartwright was said to have built the original, smaller homestead after moving from New Orleans with his pregnant third wife Marie and his two sons, Adam and Hoss. The grown Adam, an architect/engineer, designed the later sprawling ranch house as depicted on TV (""Bonanza, The Philip Diedesheimer Story"", Oct. 31, 1959, NBC-TV; ""Bonanza: The Return"", April 1993, NBC-TV). The fictional ranch was roughly a two-hour horse ride from Virginia City, Nevada. (Note: There are slight variations as to the origin of the Ponderosa Ranch,"
"the Cartwrights longtime Chinese chef (Hop Sing) and a white woman (Missy). ""Bonanza"" has had a highly profitable merchandising history. Currently, Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. The original series has spawned several successful novelty western/folk albums from 1962–1965; three dozen Dell and Gold Key comic books from 1962 through 1970; a short-lived comic book adaptation by Dutch comics artist Hans G. Kresse between 1965-1966, Jim Beam Whiskey Ponderosa Ranch decanters 1964–1966; a series of ""Big-Little"" books from 1966–1969; Revel Bonanza model character sets from 1966–1968; a chain of Bonanza and Ponderosa steakhouses from 1963–present; the Lake"
"Bonanza Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ""Bonanza"" is NBC's longest-running western, and ranks overall as the second-longest-running western series on U.S. network television (behind CBS's ""Gunsmoke""), and within the top 10 longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family that 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"
"Dan Blocker Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (December 10, 1928 – May 13, 1972) was an American television actor and Korean War veteran. He is best remembered for his role as Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western television series ""Bonanza"". Blocker was born Bobby Dan Davis Blocker in De Kalb, Texas, United States, son of Ora ""Shack"" Blocker (1895–1960) and his wife Mary Arizona Blocker, née Davis (1901–1998). The family moved to O'Donnell, south of Lubbock in West Texas, where they operated a store. As a boy, he attended Texas Military Institute and in 1946 played football at Southern Baptist-affiliated Hardin–Simmons"
"was accessible from the Pacific Electric Red Car San Fernando line, a route from Downtown Los Angeles to the ranches, orchards, and towns of the northwestern San Fernando Valley. Shaded by coast live oaks (""Quercus agrifolia"") and California two-petal ash (""Fraxinus dipetala""), major products were citrus, eggs, whiteface cattle, quail, truck produce, and gladioli. According to local history, Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright of the hit show ""Bonanza"") owned a ranch-house here, off Aqueduct Avenue west of the San Diego Freeway. Mission Acres, California Mission Acres was a historic rural community in the northern San Fernando Valley. Its historic boundaries correspond"
"The initial story was first introduced in 1973, when depiction of fornication courted protests, so CBS insisted their hero Matt have the encounter when he had amnesia.) In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the ""Bonanza"" concept with a prequel, ""Ponderosa"" – not to be confused with the 1972 summer reruns under the same title – with a pilot directed by Simon Wincer and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam was a teenager and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling"
"a chance to fully develop before the show's abrupt cancellation in November 1972 (with last episode airing January 16, 1973). Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that the Hoss character was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast. 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, INSP, Family Channel, and the Hallmark Channel. The series currently airs on Me-TV, TV Land, INSP, and Encore Westerns. TV Land airs ""Bonanza"" from only the"
"O'Donnell Heritage Museum The O'Donnell Heritage Museum is a local history repository in O'Donnell in Lynn County in West Texas. A part of the museum includes a room of exhibits on the actor Dan Blocker, who portrayed the Hoss Cartwright character for thirteen years on NBC's ""Bonanza"". Blocker was reared in O'Donnell though born in DeKalb in East Texas. Because of the Blocker room and memorabilia, the facility is sometimes called ""The Dan Blocker Museum."" O'Donnell, south of Lubbock, began in 1910 as a stop on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa"
"""Bonanza"" starts, the Cartwright family moves onto some scrub land. In this new land Ben Cartwright, a new widower, tries to raise his three young sons – at their late teens Adam and Hoss, and a pre-teen Joseph, commonly known as Little Joe. A number of minor (or perceived) inconsistencies exist between ""Ponderosa"" and ""Bonanza"", and a few glaring retcons are present. Shortly after the series first aired, four episodes were released on two DVDs. The first DVD featured both parts of the pilot episode, while the second featured ""Brother vs. Brother"" and ""Treasure"". On May 25, 2004, The ""Ponderosa:"
"equipment, blacksmith shop, schoolroom, post office, legal and doctor offices, formal parlor, and restored church congregation at worship. Museum website O'Donnell Heritage Museum The O'Donnell Heritage Museum is a local history repository in O'Donnell in Lynn County in West Texas. A part of the museum includes a room of exhibits on the actor Dan Blocker, who portrayed the Hoss Cartwright character for thirteen years on NBC's ""Bonanza"". Blocker was reared in O'Donnell though born in DeKalb in East Texas. Because of the Blocker room and memorabilia, the facility is sometimes called ""The Dan Blocker Museum."" O'Donnell, south of Lubbock, began"
"with a scale replica of the Cartwright ranch house and barn similar to the ones seen on television. A replica of Virginia City was later added. The original plan was to open the set to tourists once filming had wrapped. However, shuttling cast and crew up to Incline Village on a weekly basis became cost-prohibitive. Thus, only 15 episodes of ""Bonanza"" were shot there. A majority of ranch-specific scenes were shot on a sound stage at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Outdoor scenes were filmed on location at nearby Big Bear Lake, Red Rock Canyon, Mojave, or eastern Kern County, California."
"became the Cartwright's foreman. Initially, ""Bonanza"" aired on Saturday evenings opposite ""Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show"" and ""John Gunther's High Road"" on ABC, and ""Perry Mason"" on CBS. ""Bonanza""s initial ratings were respectable, often coming in behind Mason but ahead of the ABC line-up. Ironically, executives considered canceling the show before its premiere because of its high cost. NBC kept it because ""Bonanza"" was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color, including scenes of picturesque Lake Tahoe, Nevada, although most of the episodes were obviously filmed on soundstages until the seasons near the end"
"series's long run. In 2002, ""Bonanza"" was ranked No. 43 on ""TV Guide""s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 ""TV Guide"" included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time. The time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 (Season 1) and 1867 (Season 13) during and shortly after the American Civil War. During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967–1970 period in prime time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa. The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the"
"Chinese immigrant Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung). Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were billed equally. The opening credits would alternate the order among the four stars. The family lived on a thousand square-mile (2,600 km) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range]. The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to ""half a million acres"" (2,000 km) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, ""Saga of the Ponderosa."" The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to"
"the opposing southern Confederacy, John's son ""Blue Boy"" and new beautiful dark-haired sophisticated Latino/Mexican wife Victoria, thirty years his junior, daughter from a neighboring Mexican cattle baron across the border that he has forged an alliance against his opposition. It was produced by David Dortort, who also created the earlier hit American TV series also on NBC. """"Bonanza"""" (1959-1973) about the Cartwright family - a father and three sons by successive wives on a huge ranch named ""The Ponderosa"" near Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border at the edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains chain by the rich silver strike"
"American Western named Lone Ranger. He was also fighting in the name of justice and was normally accompanied by his Native American friend Tonto. Abahachi's homosexual twin called Winnetouch is a persiflage on Winnetou. His beauty farm called ""Puder Rosa Ranch"" (“Powder Rose Ranch”) is a play on the name of the ranch in the Western TV series ""Bonanza"" that was owned by the Cartwright family and was called Ponderosa Ranch. The seductive beauty called Uschi is named after Uschi Glas, the actress that played the Native American girl Apanatschi in Winnetou and the Crossbreed. The grandfather is called ""Grauer"
"as ""Bonanza"". In the fall of 1972, off-network episodes were released in broadcast syndication to local stations by NBC under the ""Ponderosa"" name. After the series was canceled, the syndicated reruns reverted to the ""Bonanza"" name. From the fourth season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode. The reason for this is twofold: it made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles (Hal Burton, Bob Miles, Bill Clark, Lyle Heisler, Ray Mazy) and it cut the cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes),"
"location. The plaque was reinstated next to a bench in a safer location the following summer. Michael Landon Michael Landon (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in ""Bonanza"" (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in ""Little House on the Prairie"" (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in ""Highway to Heaven"" (1984–1989). Landon appeared on the cover of ""TV Guide"" 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball. Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz on October 31, 1936, in Forest Hills, a neighborhood of"
"thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric ""Hoss"" Cartwright (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or ""Little Joe"" (Michael Landon). Via exposition (S01:E01 – ""Rose for Lotta"") and flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ancestry: English (S02:E65 – ""Elizabeth My Love""), Swedish (S03:E95 – ""Inger My Love"") and French Creole (S04:E120 – ""Marie My Love"") respectively. The family's cook was the"
"""Cartwright"" instead of ""Costanza"" was a subtle allusion to the classic western show ""Bonanza"". ""Bonanza"" rhymes with ""Costanza"" and the show's main characters are the ""Cartwright"" family. ""The Chinese Restaurant"" was first read by its cast on December 5, 1990, and it was filmed on December 11. Filming took place at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, where all filming for the second season took place. As only one location was used, it took roughly half of the time it usually took for an episode to be filmed. Cast members have remarked that the filming was shorter"
"is a movie ranch in Sonora, California, which served as a location for ""Bonanza"", ""The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr."", ""Little House on the Prairie"" and other productions. The outdoor sets built for ""Back to the Future Part III"" (1990) and used in ""Bad Girls"" (1994) were destroyed by a lightning strike wildfire in 1996. LINKS: The former Republic Pictures Movie Ranch off Soledad Canyon became the Walt Disney Golden Oak Ranch in 1959. The ranch is located in central Placerita Canyon near Newhall, California in the northern San Gabriel Mountains foothills. It was named for the Gold discovery by"
"Alan Herschell-Spillman Company of North Tonawanda, New York, created a 38-animal carousel adorned with dogs, frogs, zebras, and roosters as well as horses. In 1959, Bob Anderson of California erected the Herschell-Spillman carousel at Incline Village amusement park near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, better known as Ponderosa Ranch where the 1960s television western ""Bonanza"" was filmed. By 1959 the carousel had undergone significant wear, and many of the original animals were switched for less elaborate ones. The carousel continued to operate in Nevada until 1983, when it was dismantled and the animals were sold at auction. The frame was sold to"
"Michael Landon Michael Landon (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in ""Bonanza"" (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in ""Little House on the Prairie"" (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in ""Highway to Heaven"" (1984–1989). Landon appeared on the cover of ""TV Guide"" 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball. Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz on October 31, 1936, in Forest Hills, a neighborhood of Queens, New York. His parents were Peggy (née O'Neill; a dancer and comedian) and Eli Maurice"
"of Bacchus King of Mardi Gras. Greene was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2015. Lorne Greene Lorne Hyman Greene, (born Lyon Himan Green; February 12, 1915 – September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor, radio personality, and singer. His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western ""Bonanza"", and Commander Adama in the original science fiction television series ""Battlestar Galactica"" and ""Galactica 1980"". He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series ""Lorne Greene's New Wilderness"", and in television commercials. Greene was born Lyon Himan Green in Ottawa, Ontario, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Dora (née Grinovsky) and"
"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). ""Bonanza"" was considered an atypical western for its time, as the core of the storylines dealt less about the range but more with Ben and his three dissimilar sons, how they cared for one another, their neighbors, and just causes. ""You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but ""Bonanza"" was the first series that was week-to-week about a family and the troubles it went through. ""Bonanza"""
"Lorne Greene Lorne Hyman Greene, (born Lyon Himan Green; February 12, 1915 – September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor, radio personality, and singer. His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western ""Bonanza"", and Commander Adama in the original science fiction television series ""Battlestar Galactica"" and ""Galactica 1980"". He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series ""Lorne Greene's New Wilderness"", and in television commercials. Greene was born Lyon Himan Green in Ottawa, Ontario, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Dora (née Grinovsky) and Daniel Green, a shoemaker. He was called ""Chaim"" by his mother, and his name is shown"
"San Rafael Ranch The San Rafael Ranch, formerly known as the Greene Ranch, is a historic cattle ranch located in the San Rafael Valley about a mile and a half north of Lochiel, Arizona, near the international border with Sonora, Mexico. The land that is now the San Rafael Ranch was originally an old Mexican land grant called San Rafael de la Zanja, which was sold to the cattle baron Colin Cameron and a few of his partners in the 1880s. Cameron built a two-story house to live in soon after, but it burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances"
"she died from a malady, was abruptly slain, or left with someone else. Greene appeared in all but fourteen ""Bonanza"" episodes. Greene was 44 years old at the beginning of the series while Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker, who portrayed two of his sons, were both 31, only thirteen years younger. In 2007, a ""TV Guide"" survey listed Ben Cartwright as television's #2 favorite dad. Pernell Roberts played eldest son Adam, an architectural engineer with a university education. Adam built the impressive ranch house. Roberts disdained the assembly-line mindset of serial television (a rigid 34 episode season), and fought with"
"Dos Lomitas Ranch The Dos Lomitas Ranch, also known as the Rattlesnake Ranch, Blankenship Well and the Gray Ranch, was the first of fifteen ranches and line camps in the Gray family cattle business in the Sonoran Desert country north of the US-Mexico border in Arizona. The ranch is now part of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The period of significance begins for the district with the purchase of the water rights for the ranch in 1919 and ends with the death with the last of the three Gray sons, Robert, Jr., in 1976, and the subsequent removal of the"
"Pernell Roberts Pernell Elven Roberts, Jr. (May 18, 1928 – January 24, 2010) was an American stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest-starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western television series ""Bonanza"" (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on ""Trapper John, M.D."" (1979–1986). Roberts was also known for his lifelong activism, which included participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and pressuring NBC to refrain from hiring whites to portray"
"under the Metromedia Restaurant Group. The names of the restaurants were derived from the classic TV series ""Bonanza"", which was set at a place called Ponderosa Ranch. In 1963, Dan Blocker, who played Eric ""Hoss"" Cartwright on ""Bonanza"", started the Bonanza Steakhouse chain. The first Bonanza opened in Westport, Connecticut. Sam Wyly and his brother Charles Wyly bought the small Bonanza restaurant chain three years later. The company grew to approximately 600 restaurants by 1989, when the Wylys sold it to Metromedia. In 1965, Dan Lasater, Norm Wiese and Charles Kleptz founded Ponderosa in Kokomo, Indiana, moving the headquarters to"
"convalescence because the first time that Blocker swung up into the saddle on his return, the horse collapsed under his weight and the cast and crew collapsed in fits of laughter. The role of ""Little Joe"" was given to Michael Landon, who had earlier played the title role in ""I Was a Teenage Werewolf"". He portrayed the youngest Cartwright son, whose mother (Felicia in the pilot, and later changed to Marie) was of French Creole descent. Landon began to develop his skills in writing and directing ""Bonanza"" episodes, starting with ""The Gamble."" Most of the episodes Landon wrote and directed"
"role in this film, arguably the greatest of the B-movies starring Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher. Roberts recognized the film's classic structure; his engaging outlaw, Sam Boone, counterpoints Scott's granite-faced Ben Brigade, maintaining the tension of whether they will work together or clash. He similarly played off James Coburn, who was making his film debut as Boone's quiet sidekick, Whit."" The same year, he was cast in ""Bonanza"". Roberts played Ben Cartwright's urbane eldest son Adam, in the Western television series ""Bonanza"". Unlike his brothers, Adam was a university-educated architectural engineer. Roberts, having largely been ""a stage actor,"