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 5 Episode Guide
34 Episodes 1963 - 1964
Episode 1
She Walks in Beauty
Sun, Sep 22, 1963 60 mins
Hoss falls under the spell of a beautiful shady lady from San Francisco and asks her to be his wife, believing his love can change her even after she tries to seduce his brother Adam.
Episode 2
A Passion for Justice
Sun, Sep 29, 1963 60 mins
At Ben's invitation, Charles Dickens comes to Virginia City to give a reading from "Oliver Twist" while on a reading / lecture tour in America. While there, he stays at the Ponderosa. He becomes enraged by the townsfolk's casual attitude toward distribution of copies of his stories published without protection of copyright laws. After confronting the local newspaper publisher, the newspaper's office is destroyed. Already having lost the esteem of the townsfolk, Dickens now finds that the townsfolk blame him for the violence.
Episode 3
Rain from Heaven
Sun, Oct 6, 1963 60 mins
The territory is suffering from a drought. Tulsa Weems, a rainmaker from the Tennessee hill country, comes to help. Tulsa brings his impoverished family and sick daughter with him. Ben refuses to pay for something he doesn't believe will work, but offers to help Tulsa and his family. Tulsa refuses, saying "hill people don't take charity." Ben finds that Tulsa's daughter has typhoid fever, and the doctor is away. The Cartwrights must find a way to help a family that doesn't want "charity." Tulsa in turn resolves to bring rain to end the drought, and finds in his faith a way forward in his time of trial.
Episode 4
Twilight Town
Sun, Oct 13, 1963 60 mins
Little Joe is knocked unconscious and his horse is stolen by an outlaw. He wanders through the desert until he comes to a ghost town. He collapses in the street. When he comes to, finds himself being nursed back to health by a beautiful girl in Martinville, a quiet place full of friendly if mysterious townsfolk. After his recovery, Joe is surprised to be offered the position of Sheriff by the town's leaders. They tell him they need him to save them from a band of marauding outlaws. A woman attired in black warns Joe of the town's previous shameful betrayal of her husband, the town's previous sheriff. Still, Joe organizes resistance against the outlaws. In the end, Joe is forced to face the outlaws as the townsfolk grow increasingly diffident; and he is forced to come face to face with the final dark mystery of Martinville.
Episode 5
The Toy Soldier
Sun, Oct 20, 1963 60 mins
Adam follows a lost herd of Ponderosa cattle to a town where McDermott is the boss. McDermott hates and oppresses the Piute Indians in the area. Adam meets James Callahan, a talented but alcoholic who is artist married to a beautiful Piute Indian woman. McDermott has been buying Callahan's paintings in exchange for meager provisions for the impoverished Piute. Adam encourages Callahan, his wife, and a sympathetic saloonkeeper, to develop a plan to let President Lincoln know of the plight of the Piute. McDermott learns of the plan and a confrontation is inevitable.
Episode 6
A Question of Strength
Sun, Oct 27, 1963 60 mins
On business for Ben, Hoss takes the stagecoach to Denver. He joins two nuns in the same coach. Bandits attack the stage, which overturns, killing the driver and leaving the passengers at the mercy of the bandits. They rob Hoss and the nuns, who must trek their way on foot to the next way station. There they are surprised to find one of the robbers, badly wounded. Hoss finds that both of the nuns show a special kind of strength with the robber in their power.
Episode 7
Calamity Over the Comstock
Sun, Nov 3, 1963 60 mins
Trouble with a capital "T" that rhymes with "C" comes to Virginia City when Little Joe brings young Calamity Jane home to the Ponderosa after rescuing her from a deadly prairie raid.
Episode 8
Journey Remembered
Sun, Nov 10, 1963 60 mins
Ben finds Hoss in the barn waiting for a mare to give birth. Ben can't help but remember that's how Hoss' mother (Inger) was. He then finds an old journal wherein he wrote down their trek West. While Hoss waits, Ben reads it and recalls how their trek was arduous. And Inger was pregnant with Hoss and they had to deal with Indians and a drunken wagon master.
Episode 9
The Quality of Mercy
Sun, Nov 17, 1963 60 mins
Little Joe struggles with his conscience, trying to believe that his friend, Seth Pruitt, did the right thing after Seth admits to the mercy-killing of his fiancée's father when the man was in agony from a broken back and begging for death.
Episode 10
The Waiting Game
Sun, Dec 8, 1963 60 mins
When Frank Dayton is thrown from his horse and killed, his wife Laura tells their daughter, Peggy, that he went on a long trip, preferring to let the little girl hold onto the hope that her daddy would come home again someday. But Laura's plan to shelter Peggy from her father's death is soon challenged when Adam Cartwright comes to call and the pretty widow finds herself falling in love.
Episode 11
The Legacy
Sun, Dec 15, 1963 60 mins
Three men newly released from Huntsville prison make their way across the Ponderosa. When Ben and Little Joe see someone is poaching their cattle, Ben goes after them. When he comes upon those responsible, he is ambushed and left for dead. When only his horse returns to the ranch, the sons set off to find Ben's missing rifle at best or at the worst his killers.
Episode 12
Hoss and the Leprechauns
Sun, Dec 22, 1963 60 mins
Hoss scares a bear that has treed a green-clad little man, subsequently finds a buried strongbox filled with bags of gold dust and, when both the treasure and its owner disappear, unsuccessfully tries to convince his skeptical family that he'd discovered a leprechaun's hoard. But the whole town goes searching for the mythical men after a newly arrived Irish professor confirms the presence of multiple leprechauns...and their gold!
Episode 13
The Prime of Life
Sun, Dec 29, 1963 60 mins
Ben Cartwright doubts his fitness to run the Ponderosa when his impatience results in a logging camp accident that causes serious injury to himself and an old friend's death.
Episode 14
The Lila Conrad Story
Sun, Jan 5, 1964 60 mins
Adam and Little Joe try to find a fair trial for a saloon girl accused of theft and murder, hiding her from a corrupt sheriff's lynch mob after she stows away in the back of their supply wagon, all while escorting a self-righteous, hard-nosed judge to Virginia City.
Episode 15
Ponderosa Matador
Sun, Jan 12, 1964 60 mins
While Adam relies on his charm and guitar to impress a visiting senorita, Hoss and Little Joe scheme to win her heart in a more south-of-the-border way...a bull fight!
Episode 16
My Son, My Son
Sun, Jan 19, 1964 60 mins
Ben's plans to wed widow Katherine Saunders are jeopardized after her son is accused of murder.
Episode 17
Alias Joe Cartwright
Sun, Jan 26, 1964 60 mins
A stubborn, career army sergeant appears to be his only hope when Little Joe is arrested after being robbed and knocked unconscious by a look-a-like escaped army prisoner and is unable to convince the fort commander that he isn't the man who has been sentenced to face the firing squad.
Episode 18
The Gentleman from New Orleans
Sun, Feb 2, 1964 60 mins
Gullible Hoss meets a flamboyant, cutlass-brandishing drunk claiming to be none other than the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte. Believing Lafitte is who he says he is and remembering that history considered him a patriot for his aid at the Battle of New Orleans, Hoss chooses to treat Lafitte like a hero and invites him to the Ponderosa. While skeptical Ben contacts old friends in New Orleans to try to verify his identity, Lafitte is accused of murder and Hoss must try to find not only the real killer but the answer to the question: who is Jean Lafitte?
Episode 19
The Cheating Game
Sun, Feb 9, 1964 60 mins
Angry with Adam Cartwright for constantly criticizing her decisions and refusing to take the next step in their romance, Laura Dayton becomes easy prey for a handsome grifter.
Episode 20
Bullet for a Bride
Sun, Feb 16, 1964 60 mins
Joe blames himself after a ricocheting bullet from his pistol blinds a young woman and decides that the only way he can atone for the accident is to make her his wife.
Episode 21
King of the Mountain
Sun, Feb 23, 1964 60 mins
Hoss finds himself smack dab in the middle of a mountain family feud when he agrees to be the best man at ornery Big Jim Leyton's wedding.
Episode 22
Love Me Not
Sun, Mar 1, 1964 60 mins
Ben's Pygmalion-like efforts to 'civilize' a young, white woman, raised by a neighboring Paiute Indian tribe, have an unintended result when, instead of choosing a husband from among the eligible young men he has rounded up for her, she falls in love with him.
Episode 23
The Pure Truth
Sun, Mar 8, 1964 60 mins
When Hoss is set up to take the fall for a bank robbery in another town, the help of an eccentric gold prospector appears to be all that stands between him and the real bandit's bullet.
Episode 24
No Less a Man
Sun, Mar 15, 1964 60 mins
Certain that he is too old to stand against a notorious gang of bank robbers when news arrives that Virginia City will soon be next in a long string of successful raids, the terrified townsfolk demand Sheriff Coffee's resignation to make way for a younger lawman.
Episode 25
Return to Honor
Sun, Mar 22, 1964 60 mins
Ben gets word that his nephew Will has been murdered in nearby Pine City. As it turns out, Will has been shot and wounded while on the run from a counterfeiting gang that wants back the engraving plates Will has "appropriated" from them.
Episode 26
The Saga of Muley Jones
Sun, Mar 29, 1964 60 mins
Hoss gets into a fight with a young drifter. When the sheriff breaks up the fight, the stranger introduces himself as Muley Jones, a distant cousin, and bear-hugs Hoss in friendship. The handsome, childish Muley loves to sing and does it at every opportunity. Unfortunately, his singing voice is so booming that it shatters glass with impunity and rattles ANYTHING more solid. Meanwhile, the sheriff is looking for a couple of moonshiners (Jesse White, Strother Martin) who are selling their own liquor to various drinking establishments. Though Muley is just about as dumb as he looks, he provides help to the sheriff in a fashion ... well, just listen to it.
Episode 27
The Roper
Sun, Apr 5, 1964 60 mins
An Army lieutenant comes to the ranch with a wounded prisoner. When Will gets the town doctor, the prisoner's gang shows up and takes them all prisoner. With the promise of a lot of gold, Will tries to delay their departure in the hopes he can save everyone's life including his relatives, Ben Cartwright and his sons.
Episode 28
A Pink Cloud Comes from Old Cathay
Sun, Apr 12, 1964 60 mins
A mix-up in his request for mail-order Chinese fireworks brings Hoss instead a feisty mail-order bride whose militant ideas ignite a workers' rebellion and threaten the completion of a Virginia City railroad project.
Episode 29
The Companeros
Sun, Apr 19, 1964 60 mins
Mateo Ybarra travels to the Ponderosa in the hopes he can enlist the aid of his old friend, Will Cartwright. Little do either know that there are those who are after him to take him back to Mexico for trial and others who don't want to wait that long.
Episode 30
Enter Thomas Bowers
Sun, Apr 26, 1964 60 mins
A famous Italian opera singer is invited to sing at the local Virginia City opera house. One snag: he may resemble on paper a runaway slave they were just notified about; and some of the townspeople want him arrested or worse.
Episode 31
The Dark Past
Sun, May 3, 1964 60 mins
Dev Farnum's horse goes lame. He's near the Ponderosa and stops for some help. He gets another horse from the Cartwrights but hasn't enough money to pay them. He offers to work for it but when he develops a lot of blisters, they find out he's not just a preacher's son. He's also a bounty hunter.
Episode 32
The Pressure Game
Sun, May 10, 1964 60 mins
Virginia City gossip and meddling Aunt Lil combine with unexpected attention from another Cartwright to complicate Laura Dayton's already fragile romance with Adam, especially when his preoccupation with Ponderosa business appears to be hiding an unwillingness to marry her.
Episode 33
Triangle
Sun, May 17, 1964 60 mins
Laura's and Adam's wedding plans begin to derail when another man's kiss puts doubt in Laura's heart. And a bad fall from the roof of the house Adam is secretly building for their new life together lands Adam in a wheelchair.
Episode 34
Walter and the Outlaws
Sun, May 24, 1964 60 mins
Hoping the clever canine will lead them to his master's gold, a trio of hapless outlaws plans to dog-nap Walter, Obie the prospector's best friend, after the old man goes on a brief vacation and temporarily leaves the pup with Hoss at the Ponderosa.