Bonanza
The Cartwrights' one-thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is located near Virginia City, Nevada, site of the Comstock Silver Lode, during and after the Civil War. Each of the three sons was born to a different wife of Ben's; none of the mothers are still alive. Adventures are typical Western ones, with lots of personal relationships/problems thrown in as well.
- 1959-1973
- 14 seasons
- NBC
- Action & Adventure
- TV-PG
The Cartwrights' one-thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch is located near Virginia City, Nevada, site of the Comstock Silver Lode, during and after the Civil War. Each of the three sons was born to a different wife of Ben's; none of the mothers are still alive. Adventures are typical Western ones, with lots of personal relationships/problems thrown in as well.
Season 10 Episode Guide
30 Episodes 1968 - 1969
Episode 1
Different Pines, Same Wind
Sun, Sep 15, 1968 60 mins
Little Joe devises a mission to claim some government land that would impede deforestation by a timber baron. He encounters a cantankerous old lady living on the land and Joe finds she is reluctant to file a claim.
Episode 2
Child
Sun, Sep 22, 1968 60 mins
While visiting a remote town to await the arrival of Ben, Little Joe and Candy, Hoss is wrongly arrested for the murder and robbery of a hermit miner. When a lynch mob starts to gather, cowboy Child Barnett breaks Hoss out of jail. Both are chased by a posse whose interest is not justice, but the retrieval of the money that the miner was thought to have stashed away.
Episode 3
Salute to Yesterday
Sun, Sep 29, 1968 60 mins
Candy relives his past when he and the Cartwrights help a Cavalry unit that is pinned down by bandits. In that Cavalry unit is Candy's ex-wife, who he still has feelings for. Her new husband is the Captain of the unit.
Episode 4
The Real People of Muddy Creek
Sun, Oct 6, 1968 60 mins
Only a few brave souls remain in Muddy Creek to help Ben and Little Joe defend a town jail and its occupant from the Harper outlaw gang.
Episode 5
The Passing of a King
Sun, Oct 13, 1968 60 mins
Ben sells a prize bull to an old friend, whose unscrupulous son has taken charge of the ranch from his father. The son double-crosses Ben over the agreed price of the bull, only offering to pay well below the selling price. Upset over the deal, Ben stays in town to seek proper compensation.
Episode 6
The Last Vote
Sun, Oct 20, 1968 60 mins
Hoss and Little Joe turn two old friends against each other and the town upside down when they become competing campaign managers in Virginia City's mayoral race.
Episode 7
Catch as Catch Can
Sun, Oct 27, 1968 60 mins
While in small town Tin Bucket to sell Ponderosa cowhides, Candy is accused of cheating in a card game and the Cartwrights are dogged by a mysterious rumor that claims they have fallen on hard times and are desperate for money.
Episode 8
Little Girl Lost
Sun, Nov 3, 1968 60 mins
Ben receives a "package" shipped via Wells Fargo Express. It is a little girl. She is the daughter of a cousin of Ben. The Cartwrights soon find she is a firebrand who doesn't want to stay on the Ponderosa.
Episode 9
The Survivors
Sun, Nov 10, 1968 60 mins
A white woman, abducted by the Paiutes and thought to be dead, is brought back to Virginia City and reunited with her husband. When it is found she has an Indian baby with a Paiute chief, she is outcast by the townspeople and her husband alike. Only the Cartwrights remain her friends.
Episode 10
Sound of Drums
Sun, Nov 17, 1968 60 mins
Recent U.S. citizen and vintner, Georgio Rossi, riles his neighbors and risks government wrath when he allows an Indian family to break treaty and camp on his land; meanwhile, Candy woos pretty Regina Rossi, stirring up some trouble of his own when she and her mother try to take over the smitten ranch hand's life...and Hop Sing's kitchen.
Episode 11
Queen High
Sun, Nov 24, 1968 60 mins
Candy and Little Joe are in a poker game and Candy (with Joe's help) wins 40% of an old stamp mill.
Episode 12
Yonder Man
Sun, Dec 1, 1968 60 mins
Ben's friend Beaudry visits the Ponderosa, meets Noreen, a beautiful girl at the Virginia City saloon, gets into a roust, ends up in jail but Ben gets the instigators to own up and pay for the damages, so he is free. He asks Ben Cartwright for help starting a cattle ranch, without revealing his rustling and political crimes. Deputy Stryker comes to Virginia City from Montana with a warrant looking for Beaudry.
Episode 13
Mark of Guilt
Sun, Dec 15, 1968 60 mins
A town bully humiliates Hop Sing by cutting off his ponytail. Joe goes to deal with the bully. Later the bully ends up dead and Joe is charged with the murder. Hop Sing clears Joe of the murder charges by using an ancient Chinese method for identifying a person's finger prints.
Episode 14
A World Full of Cannibals
Sun, Dec 22, 1968 60 mins
At an old friend's request, Ben agrees to shelter a witness in a government case. He's a witness to several felonies and they've tried to kill him several times already. When he asks to see his wife, he puts them all in danger since she is being watched.
Episode 15
Sweet Annie Laurie
Sun, Jan 5, 1969 60 mins
A beautiful young woman running from a sinister gunman brings danger to the Ponderosa when she hides in Hoss' wagon while he's in Virginia City getting supplies.
Episode 16
My Friend, My Enemy
Sun, Jan 12, 1969 60 mins
To prove Candy's innocence when he is accused of murder, Little Joe and Hoss must track down the only eye-witness to the incident... the Paiute Indian who was trying to steal Candy's horse.
Episode 17
Mrs. Wharton and the Lesser Breeds
Sun, Jan 19, 1969 60 mins
A stubborn British widow hires Candy as an escort, then foils his attempts to retrieve her valuables from thieves.
Episode 18
Erin
Sun, Jan 26, 1969 60 mins
Hoss is rescued from a band of hungry Paiutes rustling Ponderosa cattle after a hard winter by Erin O'Donnell, an Irish woman who was raised by the Sioux and revered by the tribes as a medicine woman and mystic.
Episode 19
Company of Forgotten Men
Sun, Feb 2, 1969 60 mins
Candy is kidnapped by retired Army Sergeant Mike Russell and his band of fellow former soldiers when he uncovers their plan to blast their way into the Carson City Mint to steal the pension they believe they deserve, but never received, from their long years of Army service.
Episode 20
The Clarion
Sun, Feb 9, 1969 60 mins
Ben Cartwright's effort to help friend Ruth Manning defend her ownership of nearby Gunlock's town newspaper, The Clarion, earns him the wrath of a corrupt, powerful judge who wants The Clarion for himself and will do anything to get it.
Episode 21
The Lady and the Mountain Lion
Sun, Feb 23, 1969 60 mins
Ben and the other ranchers are having trouble with a mountain lion killing cattle. Ben and Roy go in hunt of the lion because Hoss and Joe think they both are sparking the magician's daughter. It's causing rivalry and confusion, unaware they're sparking twins.
Episode 22
Five Candles
Sun, Mar 2, 1969 60 mins
Ben is researching county records in the basement of the court house when a mine below collapses. Ben is trapped with a man accused of murder, the chief witness against him, and two others. The accused man insists he's innocent.
Episode 23
The Wish
Sun, Mar 9, 1969 60 mins
Hoss takes two months of leave. He sees a little black boy steal a candle. He learns the boy wants the candle to make a wish. As he gets to know the boy and his family, he decides to try to help the family.
Episode 24
The Deserter
Sun, Mar 16, 1969 60 mins
A seasoned Army sergeant escapes from the stockade accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy. A man helps him escape and is killed; the sergeant is shot. Candy stumbles on him and his squaw wife; he believes him and decides to help, but an Army search party isn't far behind.
Episode 25
Emily
Sun, Mar 23, 1969 60 mins
Little Joe catches a glimpse in town of an old love, not knowing she's now a married woman--and willing to lie Joe into a hangman's noose if he doesn't give her what she wants.
Episode 26
The Running Man
Sun, Mar 30, 1969 60 mins
Candy and Little Joe grapple with a land baron who rules the town of Butlerville. Calvin Butler and his men have been burning out homesteaders - now murder has been added to their list of crimes.
Episode 27
The Unwanted
Sun, Apr 6, 1969 60 mins
An old friend of Ben's, a U.S. Marshal recently retired, is still trying to fix loose ends at the expense of his relationship with his teenage daughter.
Episode 28
Speak No Evil
Sun, Apr 20, 1969 60 mins
Coley Claybourne is a young boy whose father's a prospector who spent all of his time looking for gold that he didn't know or care that his other son was sick. His wife would get fed up, left him and took their son and daughter with her. Coley would come to town looking for help but everyone even his father's cousin, Caleb, shuns him away cause his father has been borrowing so much from him that they don't want to help him. Getting fed up with what they are saying about his father, he shows them the gold he and his father found. He also says that his father died. Hoss tells him that his father's will names, Caleb, a judge and Ben as executors. Till Ben comes back, Hoss has him stay at the Ponderosa. Caleb is approached by someone who wants him to get Coley to let him work the mine. Eventually Ben comes back and just as he and the other executors are about to discuss Coley's situation, his mother returns saying she came back for Coley. Caleb says she's after the mine.
Episode 29
The Fence
Sun, Apr 27, 1969 60 mins
Ben and Hoss are brought under siege with their friend, Sam Masters, and his daughter, Ellen, in an isolated miner's cabin by a former Union Army officer and his men who claim that Sam is really Confederate prisoner of war camp Commander Thomas Andrews who is guilty of Civil War crimes and on the run.
Episode 30
A Ride in the Sun
Sun, May 11, 1969 60 mins
Hoss and Little Joe chase a team of con-artists into the desert. There is not enough water for both to continue. Joe pursues while Hoss goes for help.
