hackraytex Bonanza. A well made family oriented western that hit all of the marks allowed at that time. If we were not in church on Sunday night for some reason, we watched Bonanza.Having said that, I do not wish to speak ill of the dead but I cannot bring myself to watch it now. More than then, I enjoy programs that promote family values. There was a remake of it a few years ago called "Ponderosa" that only lasted two years and should still be going but that is fodder for another review.I cannot watch Bonanza for the same reason Pernell Roberts left the series. He said it could have been a lot better if the bean counters were not totally focused on wringing every dollar out of it. They could have replaced him after a couple of years but the three remaining stars did not want to divide the pie in four pieces again. His leaving disrupted the rhythm of the show and the hole was never filled successfully. Also, it looks like about that time, Michael Landon was running everything. It was on for 14 years and none of the sons (before Dan Blocker's tragic death) grew or progressed in their characters. The show was stuck in a time warp and such a path for a show would not succeed today. In other words, after 5+ years, three adults sons would not still be living in the home place with their father and still acting like they were not quite adults yet. Like Pernell Roberts said, he felt that Adam should marry and have his own house, maybe on another part of the Ponderosa and start his own family.It was not safe to be a woman who fell in love with a Cartwright. She would either die or fall in love with someone else, or one of them would change their mind. Also, I would not write Adam as they did in that he was a bit stuck on himself. It was a given that Hoss was not as smart as Adam but today, that would not be a source of amusement as it often was then. He certainly was not stupid. By the time 12 years had arrived: Adam, Hoss, and Joe would have married and started families. Remember, they got there around the time of the Mexican-American war and people got married and started families a lot earlier then than they do now. By that time, Ben would have probably taken a fourth try at marriage. If anyone wants to try to do Bonanza again, hopefully they will take these things into consideration.

northernlightstm I love Bonanza the bits. Every episode seems like a film. Hoss Cartwright and Joe Cartwright are my favourite characters. Although Ben Cartwright is cool too. I love the time Bonanza plays in. It describes Virginia City in it's prime. Some characters in the series are real and got honored in this show. I like the friendship between Joe Cartwright and Hoss Cartwright. Alsow in almost every episode there is a girl, who falls in love with one of the Cartwright's boys. It doesn't matter in which episode you begin. Every episode has it's own special story. I also like The Ponderosa. It is beautiful. Although too many people get hanged. Though I believe that's how it was back then.

rhklwk-1 My comment is limited generally to the first season, 1959-60.This superb series was one of the first to be televised in color, and it was highly influential in persuading Americans that they had to buy a color television set, which was about $800 in 1959, the equivalent of more than $3,000 today. How many of us would pay that much for the privilege of watching a show transmitted by a cathode ray picture tube on a 17-inch screen? I was eleven when the series began, and I watched it from the beginning.Watching it now, 50 years later, several things come to mind. First, many of the story lines involve the Comstock Lode and the heyday of silver mining, which dates to 1859. For 1859, the weapons and clothes are, for the most part, not authentic. (The haircuts are left out of the discussion.) That's basically a nitpick.And, it would have been impossible for Ben to have arrived in the Lake Tahoe area in 1839 and to have amassed a 100-square mile ranch in the next twenty years. Pioneers were still trying to solve the Sierra Nevada problem as late as 1847, and the Gold Rush did not even begin until two years later.Indians are not played by Native American actors. John Ford was using Native American actors in the 1920s. The Bonanza producers could have easily done so thirty years later. That is a major nitpick for me.There are other time-line problems. In Season 1, Mark Twain appears, and he is depicted as a middle-aged man. Mark Twain was 24 years-old in 1859. The stories also vacillate between 1859-1860 (pre-Civil War) and what was more suitable for an 1880 time-frame. There are continuity problems, over and over.It is somewhat off-putting, too, that there is so much killing in the first season. In time, the killing was reduced.Many of the episodes take a socially liberal slant, which would be hard to believe, given the time-line, but give the writers credit for anticipating the seismic shifts in the Nation's attitudes beginning in the 1960s.Having said all that, the acting is good, and I have come to conclude in my latter years that Adam's character was drawn better than any other's. I don't think Pernell Roberts ever got the credit he deserved. Also, Season 1 reinforces the fact that Dan Blocker (Hoss) was a good actor.Many of the stories trace real historical events. The guest stars were interesting.This was great family entertainment, and the series stands up very well by any measure.

darkangel_1627 I know this sounds odd coming from someone born almost 15 years after the show stopped airing, but I love this show. I don't know why, but I enjoy watching it. I love Adam the best. The only disappointing thing is that the only place I found to buy the seasons on DVD was in Germany, and that was only the first two seasons. That is disappointing, but that's OK. I'll keep looking online. If anyone has any tips on where to buy the second through 14th seasons, please email me at [email protected]. I already own the first one. The only down side is that the DVDs being from Germany, they only play on my portable DVD player and my computer. Oh well. I still own it!