Bonanza, even with all of its flaws, is the best TV show ever made. All four actors are perfect for their characters. It is the only show(western), that one minute can be totally serious and the next uproariously funny. To anyone who might be new to the show- I'm not sure how but i guess its possible, the comedic episodes for the most part are the must see episodes. #1 has to be Ponderosa Matador(1963), #2 is the episode Woman of Fire(1965)-loosely based on Taming of the Shrew, which also happens to have my Great Uncle as the father- Don Miguel(played by Jay Novello)#3 would be Hoss and the Leprechauns(1963),#4 is the hilarious-The Wooing of Abigail Jones(Pernell Roberts sings extensively, in the unedited version.) There are also many fine dramatic episodes- including the Legacy(1963), and the War comes to Washoe. Also a must see is the pilot episode, where you get to see the characters as they were originally intended to be, by creator David Dortort. It has no actual title but goes by the title "a Rose for Lotta"- guest starring Yvonne Decarlo of Munsters fame. Some interesting tidbits are that Michael Landon was the only one with a full head of hair- He colored his though because his went gray by age 20. Both Lorne Greene and Pernell Roberts wore hair pieces that were constantly changing(from the very beginning), and Dan Blocker wore a partial and or sprayed his head starting in 63 or 64. I never get tired of watching my favorite episodes(I have about 200 or so on tape). My uncle also appeared on an episode from 1969 entitled A lawman's Lot is not a Happy one.- also a very funny episode- He plays a con man pretending to be a butler/valet. It is really to bad that the shows bosses could not make Pernell happy, because the show was not the same without him. Thats all- by the way after Bonanza my favorite and the best shows are #2 MASH, #3 Star Trek, #4 I Love Lucy, and #5 The Twilight Zone. Anyone one would be hard pressed to come up with better shows, Seinfeld is #14 for me. 6-10- Northern Exposure, Star Trek TNG, Quantum Leap, Cheers, and The Avengers(long live Emma Peel and Tara King(38/25/36) whoa! T. Part 2-It is 7 years later, and I am adding more- MASH is the only other show to be able to have equal parts humor and drama. Unfortunately, after Pernell left, the comedy episodes became more ridiculous and were a lot more infrequent. Pernell actually wanted to leave after the first season. He was the most liberal of the group(which is ironic because he was from Georgia), and he didn't like many stereotypical aspects of the show, that he thought could be vastly improved. The show started in 59', several years before the civil rights movement really took hold of the country. Also, unlike today where seasons are 8-16 episodes; back then it was 32. It was extremely grueling on everyone-They would film for 5 and a half days; usually 16 hr days. Then process and edit etc...There was no time for a break. Plus episodes back then were 47-50 min.vs 40-42 now. Pernell was not ready for the hard core assembly line of TV back then. He was mostly a stage and movie actor. Not only that, but the actors also did commercials for Chevy and promo appearances, and even records. All of that was part of their contracts. He felt( and deservedly so), like cattle. The money was not that important to him vs. everyone else, and he just got burned out. That coupled with what he thought was NBC and the producers ignoring his quality script ideas for the show, made him increasing dissatisfied. Now, in reality , they did listen somewhat-they even hired Lee Marvin for an episode where Adam has a nervous breakdown, after Marvin's character goes insane and treats Adam like a pack mule..Def. one of Pernell's best performances. They continued to try and make him happy by giving him many episodes where he didn't appear or only briefly, but it wasn't enough for him, because he felt trapped by his contract. Back then, a star of a show was not allowed to do anything else. Today that doesn't exist, as star TV actors basically control everything. The show had a big lull in it after he left, and even though the show lived for 8 more seasons, it was clearly lacking. Had the show been made a decade later, things would have been much different. Lastly, both MASH and Bonanza had many, many back story and historical errors, including years and time constantly changing, and back story characters dying and living etc...It seems completely ridiculous to think that they could get away with that, and I don't think they could now-of course the worst is got to be DAllAS when an entire season was a dream!! Still, there are so many great Bonanza episodes to watch, that it trumps all the errors. Everyone has to see my list of the top 5!!!!
Review of Bonanza
