The West Old & New Vol. III Issue IV April 2014 | Page 12

The Ponderosa & Cartwright Family
1959 - 1973
Bonanza an NBC television western series that ran from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430
episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series (behind Gunsmoke), and within the top 10 longest running, liveaction American series. It continues to air in syndication.
The show centers on the Cartwright family, who live in the area of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series
stars Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, and later, David Canary.
The title "Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of ore, and commonly refers to The Comstock
Lode. 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) to
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 Sunday evening under
the title Ponderosa.
The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch "Ben Cartwright". He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect "Adam Cartwright" who built the ranch
house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss" Cartwright ; and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous
Joseph or "Little Joe".
Via exposition Bonanza, "Rose For Lotta", premiere September 12, 1959 and included flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ethnicity: English (Bonanza, "Elizabeth My Love"; episode #65) Swedish (Bonanza, "Inger My Love", episode
#95) and French Creole (Bonanza, "Marie My Love", episode #120) respectively. The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant
Hop Sing played by 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 600,000+ acre ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The vast size
of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" on Lorne Greene's 1964 song,
"Saga of the Ponderosa." The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The near- The West Old & New Page 12