77-731: Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou , the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache . He is the main character in the Eurowestern by the same name from 1964, starring Lex Barker , as well as in six more films of the Winnetou film series . Old Shatterhand
154-476: A different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright ( Pernell Roberts ), who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss" Cartwright ( Dan Blocker ); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph, or "Little Joe" ( Michael Landon ). Through exposition and flashback episodes, the viewer learns that each wife was accorded a different ancestry: English, Swedish, and French Creole, respectively. The family's cook
231-472: A highly profitable merchandising history. Currently, Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. The original series has spawned several successful novelty western/folk albums from 1962 to 1965 including "Bonanza, Christmas on the Ponderosa" which charted at #35 on Billboard ' s Christmas Record album chart; three dozen Dell and Gold Key comic books from 1962 through 1970;
308-422: A hit song. Only instrumental renditions, without Ray Evans 's lyrics, were used during the series's long run. In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide ' s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time , and in 2013 TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time. The time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 (Season 1) and 1867 (Season 13) during and shortly after
385-720: A hyperbolic reference to the Henry rifle . Old Shatterhand rode a horse called Hatatitla (Lightning), which he got from Winnetou, who rode the horse's brother, called Iltschi (meaning Wind). The tales may have been an influence on the creation of the Lone Ranger media franchise. Christian Tramitz parodied Shatterhand as a character called Ranger in the "Apahachi and Ranger" sketches for Michael Herbig's comedy show Bullyparade and their cinematic adaptation Der Schuh des Manitu . In some early stories ( Old Firehand (1875), Im fernen Westen (1879), Der Scout (1888/89)) there
462-469: A major character in Heath, who was presented as illegitimate.) The Gunsmoke movies of the early 1990s employed a similar theme when Marshal Matt Dillon learned he had sired Michael Learned 's character's daughter in a short-lived romance. The initial story was first introduced in 1973, when depiction of fornication courted protests, so CBS insisted their hero Matt have the encounter when he had amnesia. As
539-554: A number of Western titles, including Hopalong Cassidy from 1948 to 1953. They also published comics starring actors known for their Western roles, including Tom Mix Western (1948–1953) and Gabby Hayes Western (1948–1953). Similarly, Dell Comics published Roy Rogers comics from 1948 to 1961, and Magazine Enterprises published Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid from 1949 to 1955. The Franco-Belgian comic-series Lucky Luke by Morris (cartoonist) and René Goscinny
616-462: A one-hour retrospective was done to introduce the drama. It was hosted by both Michael Landon Jr. and Dirk Blocker , who looks and sounds almost exactly like his father, Dan Blocker, albeit without his father's towering height. According to the magazine TV Guide , producer David Dortort told Blocker he was too old to play the Hoss scion, but gave him the role of an unrelated newspaper reporter. Clips of
693-658: A reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, and later moved to Lake Tahoe. After moving to Lake Tahoe, the opening sequence with theme music was filmed on the east side of Lake Tahoe in Bourne's meadow near Round Hill, Nevada. During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set
770-400: A series of Hamilton collector plates in 1989–1990; and most recently, Breyer Fiftieth Anniversary Ponderosa Stable sets, with horses and Cartwright figures in 2009–2011. Fourteen Bonanza novels have been published: There is also a collection of Bonanza stories: The Best of Bonanza World: A Book of Favorite Stories, published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2012), and in
847-646: A short-lived comic book adaptation by Dutch comics artist Hans G. Kresse between 1965 and 1966, Jim Beam Whiskey Ponderosa Ranch decanters 1964–1966; a series of "Big-Little" books from 1966 to 1969; Revel Bonanza model character sets from 1966 to 1968; a chain of Bonanza and Ponderosa steakhouses from 1963–present; the Lake Tahoe -based "Ponderosa" theme park from 1967 to 2004; a line of American Character action figures in 1966–1967; Aladdin lunch buckets and thermos bottles in 1966–1968; View Master slide sets in 1964, 1971; Ponderosa tin cups from 1967 to 2004;
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#1732798415390924-551: A switch to the less expensive Warner studios from September 1970 through January 1973. The script was initially written for the departing David Canary's Candy, but was rewritten for actors Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee) and Bing Russell (Deputy Clem Foster), who rarely appeared together on the show. The program's Nevada set, the Ponderosa Ranch house, was recreated in Incline Village, Nevada , in 1967, and remained
1001-414: A toupee on the series, as he was approaching age 40 and his hair loss was becoming more evident. He joined the ranks of his fellow co-stars Roberts and Greene, both of whom had begun the series with hairpieces. (Greene wore his modest frontal piece in private life too, whereas Roberts preferred not wearing his, even to rehearsals/ blocking .) Landon was the only original cast member who was wig-free throughout
1078-728: A tourist attraction until its sale thirty-seven years later in September 2004. It was partially filmed in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California . From the third season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode. The reason for this is twofold: it made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles (Hal Burton, Bob Miles, Bill Clark, Lyle Heisler, Ray Mazy) and it cut
1155-454: A trilogy of Western novels: The Englishman's Boy , The Last Crossing , and A Good Man . Other more recent Western authors include Ivan Doig and William Kittredge . The genre has seen the rumblings of a revival, and 2008 saw the publication of an all-Western short story magazine Great Western Fiction which was published by Dry River Publishing in Colorado . Nevertheless, the magazine
1232-492: Is an anonymous first-person narrator, who was changed to Old Shatterhand during revision for compiling Winnetou II . The character of Old Shatterhand was played in the German Karl May movies of the 1960s by American actor Lex Barker . In contrast to the stories in the movies Unter Geiern (1964) and Der Ölprinz (1965) Old Surehand (starring Stewart Granger ) was the hero instead of Old Shatterhand. Old Surehand
1309-490: Is another character created by Karl May. Karl May dedicated three volumes to him, who, like Old Shatterhand, is a renowned Western hero and best friends with the Native Americans. Unlike Old Shatterhand, Old Surehand is a half-blood Native himself, though raised in a white family. In the 1990s British writer B. J. Holmes produced two sequels featuring the character: A Legend Called Shatterhand , and Shatterhand and
1386-574: Is depicted not only as a cook but also a family counselor and herbal healer . The series takes place in Nevada Territory in 1849, which is actually an anachronism. The Nevada Territory did not split from the Utah Territory until 1861, meaning that until at least the 5th season (the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers" establishes that year as 1857), Bonanza is also set in what in real life would have been Utah Territory. Bonanza has had
1463-570: Is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas. The title "Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of silver ore, from Spanish bonanza (rich ore body) and commonly refers to the 1859 revelation of the Comstock Lode of rich silver ore mines under the town of Virginia City, not far from the fictional Ponderosa Ranch that the Cartwright family operated. The show's theme song, also titled " Bonanza ", became
1540-457: Is one of the most famous and estimated Western-comics in Europe. The popular Western comic strip Red Ryder was syndicated in hundreds of American newspapers from 1938 to 1964. In the 1970s, the work of Louis L'Amour began to catch hold of most western readers and he has dominated the western reader lists ever since. George G. Gilman also maintained a cult following for several years in
1617-408: Is one of the most recognized television scores. Variations of the theme were used for 12 seasons on the series. Although there were two official sets of lyrics (some country-western singers, avoiding royalties, substituted the copyright renditions with their own words), the series simply used an instrumental theme. Three of the cast members bellowed out the original lyrics, unaccompanied, at the close of
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#17327984153901694-639: Is shown to be outraged at the Supreme Court 's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (placing the time as 1857), which he discusses with his father. According to David Dortort, sponsor General Motors was anxious about the episode. As producer, Dortort ensured that the episode re-aired during the summer rerun seasons, though two TV stations in the South refused to air it. In the episode "The Wish", directed by Michael Landon , Hoss protects an African-American former slave's family when confronted with racism after
1771-566: Is the alter ego of Karl May, and May himself maintained that he experienced all the adventures in person, even though in fact he did not visit America until after he wrote most of his well-known Western stories, and never traveled west of Buffalo, NY. Most of the stories are written from a first person perspective, and Winnetou often calls Old Shatterhand my brother Scharli ('Scharli' being a German phonetic approximation of 'Charlie', and ultimately meaning Karl in German). May also wrote stories about
1848-400: Is the name, fortune smiled the day we filed the Ponderosa claim" ("Bonanza", Bear Family Boxed set, Disc #2). In 1968, a slightly revamped horn and percussion-heavy arrangement of the original score introduced the series, which was used until 1970. A new theme song, called "The Big Bonanza" was written in 1970 by episode scorer David Rose, and was used from 1970 to 1972. Action-shot pictorials of
1925-684: The Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine), common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City , where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal ), or his deputy Clem Foster ( Bing Russell ). Bonanza was considered an atypical Western for its time, as the core of the storylines dealt less about the range but more with Ben and his three dissimilar sons, how they cared for one another, their neighbors and just causes. "You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but Bonanza
2002-478: The American Civil War , coinciding with the period Nevada Territory became a U.S. state. During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967–1970 period in prime time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa . The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright ( Lorne Greene ). He had three sons, each by
2079-655: The American Civil War . In "The Fear Merchants", discrimination against Chinese immigrants who attempt to assimilate in American society is addressed. "The Lonely Man" presents the controversial interracial marriage between the Cartwrights' longtime Chinese chef (Hop Sing) and a white woman (Missy). Initially, Bonanza aired on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, opposite Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show and John Gunther's High Road on ABC , and Perry Mason on CBS . Bonanza ' s initial ratings were respectable, often coming in behind Mason but ahead of
2156-552: The Spelling Entertainment organization in 1994 through Worldvision Enterprises . Select episodes ("The Best of Bonanza") were officially released in North America in 2003 on DVD through then-Republic video licensee Artisan Entertainment (which was later purchased by Lionsgate Home Entertainment ). Republic (through CBS Media Ventures , which holds the television side of Republic's holdings) still retains
2233-411: The "Best Western Writer of All Time". Early in the 1970s Indiana novelist Marilyn Durham wrote two popular Western novels, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing and Dutch Uncle . Western readership as a whole began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s. A partial exception was an innovation, the so-called "adult western". As Robert J. Randisi puts it, "it's a western novel with sex in it. That's right,
2310-702: The 1920s, Western fiction greatly benefited (as did the author Max Brand , who excelled at the western short story). Pulp magazines that specialised in Westerns include Cowboy Stories , Ranch Romances , Star Western , West , and Western Story Magazine . The simultaneous popularity of Western movies in the 1920s also helped the genre. In the 1940s several seminal Westerns were published, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter van Tilburg Clark , The Big Sky (1947) and The Way West (1949) by A.B. Guthrie Jr. , and Shane (1949) by Jack Schaefer . Many other Western authors gained readership in
2387-468: The 1950s, such as Ray Hogan, Louis L'Amour , and Luke Short . The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the tremendous number of Westerns on television . The burnout of the American public on television Westerns in the late 1960s seemed to have an effect on the literature as well, and interest in Western literature began to wane. In 1968 Charles Portis published True Grit , which became
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2464-604: The 1967–1970 period had been broadcast the previous summer under the title The Ponderosa —opposite the All in the Family spinoff show, Maude , which was a virtual death sentence for the program. The scheduling change, as well as Dan Blocker's death in May 1972, resulted in plunging ratings for the show. David Canary returned to his former role of Candy (to offset Hoss' absence), and a new character named Griff King (played by Tim Matheson )
2541-467: The 1970s and 1980s. Larry McMurtry 's and Cormac McCarthy 's works remain notable. Specifically, McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and McCarthy's Blood Meridian (both published in 1985) are recognized as major masterpieces both within and beyond the genre. Elmer Kelton , mostly noted for his novels The Good Old Boys and The Time it Never Rained , was voted by the Western Writers of America as
2618-451: The ABC lineup. Ironically, executives considered canceling the show before its premiere because of its high cost. NBC kept it because Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color , including scenes of picturesque Lake Tahoe, Nevada . NBC's corporate parent, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), used the show to spur sales of RCA-manufactured color television sets (RCA
2695-428: The Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam and Hoss were teenagers and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling than the original. Bonanza creator David Dortort approved PAX TV (now Ion TV)'s decision to hire Beth Sullivan , formerly of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman , which some believe gave the series more depth as well as a softer edge. The Hop Sing character
2772-602: The People . Western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza . Readership began to drop off in
2849-594: The Top Five list for nine consecutive seasons (a record that would stand for many years) and thus established itself as the most consistent strong-performing hit television series of the 1960s. Bonanza remained high on the Nielsen ratings until 1971, when it finally fell out of the Top Ten. During the summer of 1972, NBC broadcast reruns of episodes of the show from the 1967–1970 era on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. under
2926-515: The White Hunter is considered the first dime novel. These cheaply made books were hugely successful and capitalized on the many stories that were being told about the mountain men , outlaws , settlers, and lawmen who were taming the western frontier. Many of these novels were fictionalized stories based on actual people, such as Billy the Kid , Buffalo Bill , Wyatt Earp (who was still alive at
3003-524: The best picture and sound quality possible with current technology. CBSHE has released each season in two-volume sets (available together and separately). On May 23, 2023, the remaining seasons 12, 13 and 14 were released on DVD, as well as a box set of the complete series containing all 431 episodes on 112 DVDs. In Region 2, AL!VE AG released the first seven seasons on DVD in Germany between 2008 and 2010. These releases are now out of print as AL!VE has lost
3080-417: The cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation. The order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week. This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least one season of the series. The opening scene for the first season was shot at Lake Hemet ,
3157-477: The cast replaced the galloping trio with the order of the actors rotating from episode to episode, resulting in Blocker or Landon often getting top billing over Greene. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast (sans Dan Blocker, who had died by this point). In the fall of 1972, NBC moved Bonanza to Tuesday nights—where reruns from
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3234-494: The character of Hoss was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast. For 14 years, Bonanza was the premier Western on American television. Reruns of the series have aired on several cable networks such as TV Land , INSP, Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel and Great American Faith & Living . Episodes ranged from high drama to broad comedy and addressed issues such as
3311-553: The cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes), as previously shot stock footage could be reused. Below is a survey of costumes employed: It was not unusual for Little Joe Cartwright and Candy Canaday to appear shirtless in various scenes involving manual labor. The horse saddles used by the Bonanza cast were made by the Bona Allen Company of Buford, Georgia. In 1968, Blocker began wearing
3388-415: The cowboy has sex with women. A new idea? Probably not, but heretofore this had not been seen in western novels (certainly not by Max Brand, Zane Grey, Owen Wister or Louis L'Amour). What these books actually showed was that men and women really did have sex in the old west. (Back when I started the series a rigidly traditional western writer of my acquaintance insisted to me that "women did not have orgasms in
3465-523: The day. One of the most famous pulp works of the era was Johnston McCulley 's first Zorro novel, The Curse of Capistrano (1919). Popularity grew with the publication of Owen Wister 's novel The Virginian (1902) and especially Zane Grey 's Riders of the Purple Sage (1912). The first Hopalong Cassidy stories by Clarence Mulford appeared in 1904, both as dime novels and in pulp magazines . When pulp magazines exploded in popularity in
3542-401: The environment, substance abuse , domestic violence , anti-war sentiment, and illegitimate births . The series sought to illustrate the cruelty of bigotry against Asians, African Americans , Native Americans , Jews , Mormons , the disabled , and little people . Bonanza is uniquely known for having addressed racism , not typically covered on American television during
3619-461: The founding members were mostly western fiction writers, the organization began getting a number of other members from other backgrounds such as historians, regional history buffs, and writers from other genres. Western Fictioneers, founded in 2010, is a professional writers' group that encourages and promotes the traditional Westerns. It is the only professional writers' organization composed entirely of authors who have written Western fiction. Fans of
3696-477: The genre may join as patron members. The Western Fictioneers' annual Peacemakers competition awards prizes in many categories of Western writing. Bonanza Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, Bonanza is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on U.S. network television (behind CBS's Gunsmoke ), and one of
3773-445: The late 1960s and early 1970s, Whitman Books published several hardcover novels aimed at young readers, such as Killer Lion by Steve Frazer (1966). Bonanza Gold (2003–2009), a quarterly magazine, featured detailed information about the show, including interviews with guest actors and other production personnel, articles about historical events and people depicted in the series, fan club information and fan fiction . All 14 seasons of
3850-457: The longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication . The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada , bordering Lake Tahoe . The series initially starred Lorne Greene , Pernell Roberts , Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured (at various times) Guy Williams , David Canary , Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson . The show
3927-575: The mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books. The predecessor of the Western in American literature emerged early with tales of the frontier . The most famous of the early 19th-century frontier novels were James Fenimore Cooper 's five novels comprising the Leatherstocking Tales . Cooper's novels were largely set in what
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#17327984153904004-452: The most successful work of the era. Western novels, films and pulps gave birth to Western comics , which were very popular, particularly from the late 1940s until c. 1967 , when the comics began to turn to reprints. This can particularly be seen at Marvel Comics , where Westerns began c. 1948 and thrived until 1967, when one of their flagship titles, Kid Colt Outlaw (1949–1979), ceased to have new stories and entered
4081-430: The old west.")." Readership of western fiction reached a new low in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and most bookstores, outside a few western states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books. Nevertheless, several Western fiction series are published monthly, such as The Trailsman , Slocum , Longarm and The Gunsmith ; these are all "adult westerns". Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe wrote
4158-517: The pilot (Pernell Roberts, the sole professional singer of the quartet, abstained and untethered the horse reins). Before the pilot aired (on September 12, 1959), the song sequence, deemed too campy, was edited out of the scene and instead the Cartwrights headed back to the ranch whooping and howling. In a 1964 song, the Livingston-Evans lyrics were revised by Lorne Greene with a more familial emphasis, "on this land we put our brand, Cartwright
4235-529: The public domain. These episodes have been released by several companies in different configurations, with substandard picture and sound quality, edited, and by legal necessity with the copyright-protected Evans–Livingston theme song replaced with generic western music. In 1973, NBC sold its NBC Films syndication division, and with it the rights to the series, along with the rest of its pre-1973 library, to National Telefilm Associates , which changed its name to Republic Pictures in 1984. Republic would become part of
4312-553: The reprint phase. Other notable long-running Marvel Western comics included Rawhide Kid (1955–1957, 1960–1979) Two-Gun Kid (1948–1962), and Marvel Wild Western (1948–1957). DC Comics published the long-running series All-Star Western (1951–1961) and Western Comics (1948–1961), and Charlton Comics published Billy the Kid (1957–1983) and Cheyenne Kid (1957–1973). Magazine Enterprises ' Straight Arrow ran from 1950 to 1956, and Prize Comics ' Prize Comics Western ran from 1948 to 1956. Fawcett Comics published
4389-654: The rights. In 2011, StudioCanal acquired the rights to the series and have begun re-releasing it on DVD, and all seasons have now been released but have not been remastered. Episodes of the series have also been officially released as part-works on DVD in France and the United Kingdom. Bonanza "the official first season" was released in Scandinavia during 2010. The first season is released in 4 volumes. The first two volumes were released on October 20, 2010, and
4466-539: The same character traveling the Orient , where he is known as Kara Ben Nemsi . May attached the prefix Old to the names of several of his characters, considering it to be typically American and a sign of the characters' great experience. In the stories, Old Shatterhand is given the name by his friend Sam Hawkens (who also originates from Germany but is already an old-timer in the American West), as Old Shatterhand
4543-533: The school teacher vows to reform. A coda to the episode reveals that Michelson went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics . In the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers", the Cartwright family helps the opera singer Thomas Bowers , an African-American freedman , after he encounters prejudice while in Virginia City to perform. Bowers winds up arrested as a fugitive slave. At the beginning of the episode, Adam
4620-415: The second two volumes on April 27, 2011. Bonanza was revived for a series of three made-for-television movies featuring the Cartwrights' children: Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988), Bonanza: The Return (1993) and Bonanza: Under Attack (1995). Michael Landon Jr. played Little Joe's son Benji while Gillian Greene, Lorne Greene's daughter, played a love interest. In the second movie, airing on NBC,
4697-593: The series, as even Sen Yung wore an attached rattail- queue . Bonanza features a memorable theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that was orchestrated by David Rose and arranged by Billy May for the television series. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The Bonanza theme song opens with a blazing Ponderosa map and saddlebound Cartwrights. The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses,
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#17327984153904774-498: The show (as of 5/2023) are available on DVD, as well as 31 non-successive public-domain episodes (without original theme music). The public domain episodes consist of the last 14 episodes of season one, and the first 17 episodes of season two. Additionally, the prequel series, The Ponderosa , as well as the three sequel movies (see below), are all available on DVD. In the TV series Maverick episode "Three Queens Full", Bart ( Jack Kelly )
4851-467: The syndication distribution rights to the series. CBS Home Entertainment (under Paramount Home Media Distribution ) is the official home video rights distributor at present. Starting in September 2009, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount ) has to date released the first eleven seasons on DVD in Region 1. All episodes have been digitally remastered from original 35 mm film elements to yield
4928-543: The time period, from a compassionate , humanitarian point-of-view. Bigotry , including antisemitism , was the subject of the episode "Look to the Stars". A bigoted school teacher Mr. Norton (oblivious to his prejudice) routinely expels minority students. When he expels the brilliant Jewish student Albert Michelson , a scientific genius whose experiments on the streets of Virginia City often cause commotion, Ben Cartwright steps in and confronts Norton on his bigotry. Ashamed,
5005-412: The time), Wild Bill Hickok , and Jesse James . By 1900, the new medium of pulp magazines helped to relate these adventures to easterners. Meanwhile, non-American authors, like the German Karl May , picked up the genre, went to full novel length, and made it hugely popular and successful in continental Europe from about 1880 on, though they were generally dismissed as trivial by the literary critics of
5082-521: The title Ponderosa while also rerunning more recent episodes on Sunday evenings in the show ' s normal time slot as Bonanza . In the fall of 1972, off-network episodes were released in broadcast syndication to local stations by NBC under the Ponderosa name. After the series was canceled in 1973, the syndicated reruns reverted to the Bonanza name. A handful of early episodes have fallen into
5159-418: The younger Blocker's appearance and voice were heavily used in advertisements promoting the "second generation" theme, perhaps misleading audiences to believe that Blocker was playing Hoss' heir. Hoss' son Josh was born out of wedlock, as it is explained that Hoss drowned without knowing his fiancėe was pregnant. Such a storyline might have been problematic in the original series. ( The Big Valley , however, had
5236-551: Was Chinese immigrant Hop Sing ( Victor Sen Yung ). The family lived on a thousand-square-mile (2,600 km ) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range. The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" (2,000 km ) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa". The ranch name refers to
5313-651: Was able to knock his opponents unconscious with a single punch from his fist aimed at the head (specifically the temple). Old Shatterhand owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter (Bear Killer) and the Henrystutzen ( Henry carbine ), both made by a fictional gunsmith called Henry in St. Louis (based on gunsmith Benjamin Tyler Henry 1821–1898). The Henrystutzen was able to fire 25 shots without reloading, probably
5390-494: Was added in an attempt to lure younger viewers. Griff, in prison for nearly killing his abusive stepfather, was paroled into Ben's custody and given a job as a ranch hand. Several episodes were built around his character, one that Matheson never had a chance to fully develop before the show was abruptly cancelled in November 1972 (with the final episode airing January 16, 1973). Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that
5467-410: Was also the primary sponsor of the series during its first two seasons). For Season 3, NBC moved Bonanza to Sundays at 9:00 pm Eastern with new sponsor Chevrolet (replacing The Dinah Shore Chevy Show ). The new time slot caused Bonanza to soar in the ratings, and it eventually reached number one by 1964, an honor it would keep until 1967. By 1970, Bonanza was the first series to appear in
5544-634: Was approached by fur magnate John Jacob Astor , who convinced him to write a history of his fur trading colony in Astoria, Oregon . Irving made quick work of Astor's project, shipping the fawning biographical account Astoria in February 1836. The Western as a specialized genre got its start in the " penny dreadfuls " and later the " dime novels ". Published in June 1860, Malaeska; the Indian Wife of
5621-615: Was at the time the American frontier : the Appalachian Mountains and areas west of there. As did his novel The Prairie (1824), most later westerns would typically take place west of the Mississippi River . The notable writer Washington Irving was inspired by Cooper and wrote tales of the American frontier beginning with A Tour on the Prairies which related his recent travels on the frontier. In 1834, he
5698-475: Was short-lived and folded after only two issues. One of the most successful Western novels in recent times was The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt . Western authors are represented by the Western Writers of America , who present the annual Spur Awards and Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement. The organization was founded in 1953 to promote the literature of the American West. While
5775-457: Was the first series that was week-to-week about a family and the troubles it went through. Bonanza was a period drama that attempted to confront contemporary social issues. That was very difficult to do on television. Most shows that tried to do it failed because the sponsors didn't like it, and the networks were nervous about getting letters," explains Stephen Battaglio, a senior editor for TV Guide magazine. Though not familiar stars in 1959,
5852-467: Was the style of television Westerns, gunfights played a major role in the movies which featured notoriously inaccurate shooting as well as unlimited ammunition. In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the Bonanza concept with a prequel, Ponderosa —not to be confused with the 1972 summer reruns under the same title —with a pilot directed by Simon Wincer and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when
5929-424: Was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel , Mannix and The Brady Bunch . In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12th season titled "The Night Virginia City Died", Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires (reflecting a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City). This allowed for
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