70 Fun Facts About Bonanza

On which network did Bonanza originally air from 1959 to 1973?

It became the network's longest-running Western, and NBC's parent RCA used its color broadcasts to sell color TV sets.

What is the name of the Cartwright family ranch?

The name comes from the ponderosa pine common across the West.

Who played patriarch Ben Cartwright?

Greene later played another patriarch, the fleet commander in the original Battlestar Galactica.

Which real Nevada town was the closest to the Cartwright ranch?

The show's title itself refers to the Comstock Lode silver strike beneath the town.

The Cartwright ranch sat on the eastern shore of which body of water?

The famous opening sequence was filmed in a meadow on the lake's east side near Round Hill, Nevada.

What was Hoss Cartwright's real first name?

His Swedish mother named him after her father; the nickname was a mountain-country term for a big, friendly man.

How many sons did Ben Cartwright have on the show?

Each son had a different mother; Ben was widowed three times.

Which Cartwright son was the architect who built the ranch house?

Adam was written as a university-educated architectural engineer, unlike his brothers.

Who played the family's cook, Hop Sing?

He was already familiar to film audiences as Jimmy Chan, the number two son in the Charlie Chan movies.

Where was Bonanza's title term borrowed from?

It refers to the 1859 Comstock Lode strike under Virginia City.

How many episodes of Bonanza were made?

Only Gunsmoke ran longer among network Westerns.

Which Western is the only one that ran longer than Bonanza on American network TV?

Gunsmoke ran on CBS for 20 seasons.

The Cartwrights' three mothers were given three different ancestries. Which set is correct?

Flashback episodes filled in each wife's story: Elizabeth Stoddard, Inger Borgstrom and Marie.

Why did NBC keep Bonanza despite talk of cancelling it before it premiered?

RCA, NBC's parent, was also the primary sponsor for the first two seasons.

Which sponsor took over when Bonanza moved to Sunday nights for its third season?

The Sunday 9 pm slot sent the ratings soaring, and the show reached number one by 1964.

Between which years was Bonanza the number one show in the Nielsen ratings?

It appeared in the top five for nine consecutive seasons, a record at the time.

Which sitcom was Bonanza scheduled against in the fall of 1972, hastening its cancellation?

The move to Tuesday nights and Dan Blocker's death sent ratings plunging.

Under what title did NBC air Bonanza reruns in prime time in the summer of 1972?

The syndicated reruns kept that name until the series ended, then reverted to Bonanza.

Who wrote Bonanza's famous theme song?

The pair also wrote 'Que Sera, Sera' and 'Mona Lisa'; David Rose orchestrated their theme for TV.

What happened to the scene of the Cartwrights singing the theme song at the end of the pilot?

Pernell Roberts, the only trained singer among them, refused to join in and fiddled with the reins instead.

Whose orchestra took an instrumental Bonanza theme to No. 19 on the Hot 100 in 1961?

A country legend later cut a vocal version with his own lyrics that barely scraped the chart.

Which country star recorded a version of the Bonanza theme with rewritten lyrics for a 1962 single?

He co-wrote the words with Johnny Western; the series never used his version.

The actor who played Ben Cartwright had a 1964 spoken-word number one about which Old West outlaw?

Greene also cut a spoken-word tribute to the family ranch, which quietly shrank it to half a million acres.

In which country was Ben Cartwright's actor born?

As a CBC newsreader during the war his grim delivery earned him the nickname 'The Voice of Doom'.

What role did Ben Cartwright's actor later play in the original Battlestar Galactica?

TV Guide in 2007 ranked Ben Cartwright the nation's second-most popular TV father, behind only Cliff Huxtable.

Which sport did Dan Blocker star in at Sul Ross State in Texas?

He graduated in 1950 with a degree in speech and drama and later taught school before acting.

In which war did Dan Blocker serve as an infantry sergeant, earning a Purple Heart?

He served with the 45th Infantry Division from December 1951 to August 1952.

Which restaurant chain did Dan Blocker part-own and promote in character as Hoss?

He agreed to be spokesman and make franchise appearances in exchange for a stake.

What caused Dan Blocker's death in May 1972?

He was 43; Robert Altman had just cast him in The Long Goodbye and dedicated the film to him.

Bonanza's writers made TV history in the autumn of 1972 by doing what?

A later sequel film finally explained that Hoss had drowned trying to save someone.

Little Joe's actor was born under what name?

His javelin throw in 1954 was the longest by any US high schooler that year and won him a USC scholarship.

Which 1957 horror film made Little Joe's actor a teen sensation before Bonanza?

A 1957 single he cut was even credited on some copies to 'the Teenage Werewolf'.

How old was the actor playing Little Joe when Bonanza began in 1959?

He got more fan mail than anyone else in the cast and used that leverage to write and direct episodes.

Which series did the actor playing Joe Cartwright star in the year after Bonanza was cancelled?

He played Charles Ingalls opposite nine-year-old Melissa Gilbert.

Little Joe's 1972 two-hour wedding episode was originally written with which character as the groom?

Landon's script was reworked after Dan Blocker's death; TV Guide later listed 'Forever' among TV's most memorable specials.

Pernell Roberts left Bonanza at the end of which TV season?

He fulfilled but refused to extend his six-year contract, unhappy with the scripts and Adam's deference to his father.

Which later series gave Pernell Roberts its title role as a chief surgeon?

He played John McIntyre from 1979 to 1986, and remained the last surviving original Cartwright until 2010.

How was Adam's absence explained after Roberts left the show?

Later episodes variously put him at sea, in Europe or on the East Coast; a 1993 TV movie finally settled him in Australia.

Which former TV Zorro was added in 1964 as Ben's nephew Will Cartwright?

He was slated to become a permanent lead but was written out after five episodes when Roberts decided to stay another year.

What was the name of the ranch foreman played by David Canary from 1967?

Producer David Dortort cast him after seeing him in the Paul Newman Western Hombre.

David Canary later won five Daytime Emmys for playing Adam Chandler on which soap opera?

He also played Adam's meek twin Stuart, and left the show in 2010.

Red-haired orphan Jamie Hunter, adopted by Ben in the final seasons, was played by which child actor?

Vogel had earned a Golden Globe nomination for The Reivers before joining the cast at 14.

Which future Animal House star played parolee Griff King in Bonanza's final season?

Griff was paroled into Ben's custody in a bid to attract younger viewers, but the show was cancelled before the character developed.

Who played Sheriff Roy Coffee?

He appeared in 98 episodes and had played sheriffs on screen for decades, including in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole.

The actor who played Deputy Clem Foster was the father of which Hollywood star?

Bing later played Vernon Presley opposite his son's Elvis in the 1979 TV film.

In 1972 the actor who played Hop Sing was shot in the back during what incident?

He survived the FBI's storming of the plane and later recounted it on To Tell the Truth, where no panelist recognized him.

Hop Sing's actor, a skilled chef, published which book in 1974?

He also ran a mail-order Chinese pottery business in his later years.

Which studio backlot held Bonanza's original town set from 1959 to 1970?

The same street turned up in Have Gun – Will Travel, Mannix and The Brady Bunch.

How did the 1970 season-12 premiere allow the show to switch to a cheaper studio?

It echoed a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City.

From the third season, why did the Cartwrights wear the same clothes in nearly every episode?

Little Joe's kelly-green jacket and Hoss's brown suede vest later hung on display at the Ponderosa theme park.

Which original cast member was the only one who never wore a hairpiece on the series?

Blocker began wearing a toupee in 1968 as he neared 40, joining Roberts and Greene.

In which Nevada community was the Bonanza theme park located?

It opened in 1968 and drew tourists until 2004, selling an estimated three million Hoss Burgers.

How many Bonanza episodes were actually filmed at the Nevada theme park?

Shuttling cast and crew to Lake Tahoe every week proved too expensive, so most ranch scenes were shot on a Paramount sound stage.

Bonanza creator David Dortort also produced which other NBC Western that ran from 1967 to 1971?

His attention shifted to the newer show, leaving Bonanza largely to his associates for its last five years.

What was the first of the three reunion TV movies, aired in 1988?

Michael Landon Jr. played Little Joe's son Benji, and Lorne Greene's daughter Gillian played a love interest.

In the 1993 film Bonanza: The Return, Adam is revealed to have emigrated to which country?

His son A.C. visits the Ponderosa and explains that recurring malaria kept his elderly father from travelling.

The 2001 prequel series about the young Cartwrights was filmed in which country?

It ran 20 episodes on PAX TV and cast Hop Sing as a family counsellor and herbal healer as well as cook.

A 1972 author claimed Bonanza was watched weekly by 400 million people in how many countries?

Ethiopian TV aired it without dubbing or subtitles because the story was simple enough to follow anyway.

Which future Nobel physicist appears as a bullied Jewish schoolboy in the episode 'Look to the Stars'?

The real Michelson grew up in Virginia City; a coda notes his later Nobel Prize.

Where was Hoss born, according to the family backstory?

His mother Inger was killed by an arrow at Ash Hollow station soon after.

What did Ben Cartwright do for a living before heading west?

He sailed under Abel Stoddard and married Stoddard's daughter Elizabeth, Adam's mother.

Which company made the saddles the Bonanza cast rode?

The show's horses were rented from Idyllwild Stables during the first season.

The series is set roughly from 1861 to 1867, a period that coincides with Nevada becoming what?

The stories unfold during and just after the American Civil War, as the Nevada Territory joined the Union.

Who played Little Joe's son Benji in the reunion TV movies?

Lorne Greene's daughter Gillian played a love interest, and Dirk Blocker co-hosted a retrospective before the second film.

Which CBS legal drama did Bonanza face on Saturday nights in its first season?

Bonanza usually came in behind it but ahead of ABC's lineup, until a move to Sundays sent the ratings soaring.

In 'Enter Thomas Bowers', the Cartwrights help a freedman working in what profession?

Bowers is arrested as a fugitive slave; the episode's sponsor General Motors was reportedly nervous about it.

In which year was the Ponderosa Ranch tourist attraction in Nevada finally sold?

The recreated ranch house had drawn visitors for 37 years since opening in 1967.

Where did TV Guide rank Bonanza on its 2002 list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time?

In 2013 the magazine also named it among the 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time.

At which California reservoir was the opening scene for the first season shot?

The reservoir sits in California's San Jacinto Mountains, where extra horses were also rented from stables in Idyllwild.

To which company did NBC sell the rights to Bonanza, along with its pre-1973 library, in 1973?

NTA renamed itself Republic Pictures in 1984 and later became part of Spelling Entertainment.