Bonanza Episode Rating Graph
Sep 1959 - Jan 1973

Sep 1959 - Jan 1973
6.8

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Browse episode ratings trends for Bonanza. Simply click on the interactive rating graph to explore the best and worst of Bonanza's 431 episodes.

S2 Ep22
8.4
18th Feb 1961
The kindness Hoss extends to shiftless Jock Henry is not exactly repaid when Henry becomes an assistant assessor and raises the Ponderosa's annual tax bill from $375 to $1700.

S5 Ep5
8.3
20th Oct 1963
Adam encounters drunken artist James Callan, branded a "squaw man" because he is married to an Indian, and whose talent is going to waste in the town of Sheep Head.

S2 Ep16
8.3
7th Jan 1961
Hoss plans to marry the widow of one of Ben's friends, not knowing she is a compulsive gambler and refusing to believe it when the other Cartwrights confront him with the truth.

S2 Ep23
8.2
25th Feb 1961
The Cartwright boys are concerned that Ben might be getting on in years, yet it is he who saves them from cattle rustlers.

S2 Ep25
8.1
11th Mar 1961
Hoss takes on The Duke Of London, an arrogant, abusive bare-knuckle fighter, though his brawn is no match for the Duke's agile skills.

S2 Ep17
8.1
14th Jan 1961
Joe becomes the target of a tough and vengeful Kentucky family, after he kills one of them who almost sets the Ponderosa on fire and the Cartwrights take in the dead man's daughter.

S2 Ep19
8.1
28th Jan 1961
When they "rob" the bank in Virginia City to save depositors from being cleaned out by its president, Hoss and Joe wind up wanted by the law.

S5 Ep12
8.1
22nd Dec 1963
In what is arguably the best comedy of the series, Hoss swears he has seen green elves running around the Ponderosa and a smooth-talking Irishman complicates matters even worse.

S4 Ep10
8.1
2nd Dec 1962
The Ponderosa becomes a war zone when it is invaded by a detachment of Mexican mercenaries under General Diaz. The general is furious when one of his men, Forsythe, disobeys his orders to get a hostage peacefully, and instead shoots Little Joe in the back. Diaz forces Ben to lead his men over the back roads of the Ponderosa, so they can ambush a gold train led by Emperor Maximilian's men.

S2 Ep3
8.1
24th Sep 1960
Adam's life is saved by an enigmatic U. S. Marshal who has come to Virginia City to arrest a friend of the Cartwrights.

S9 Ep24
8.1
17th Mar 1968
The Ponderosa ranch hands are at Riverbend during a cattle drive. While there, Candy meets an old friend, Lilah Holden, working in a saloon. When the cattle drive is ready to move on, Candy resigns to stay and help Lilah. It is not long before Ben, Hoss, and Joe are involved.

S1 Ep29
8.1
9th Apr 1960
Len Keith, a miner, wants to purchase some land adjacent to the Ponderosa from rancher Andy McKaren. Andy's son, Tod, is anxious to sell. Keith has offered him a partnership,and more importantly, he is in love with Keith's daughter. When Ben warns Andy that a mine on the property would foul up Ponderosa water, Andy agrees not to sell the land. Len Keith, determined to get that land, plants tick infested cattle in a Ponderosa herd to turn Andy against the Cartwrights.

S9 Ep10
8.1
19th Nov 1967
A career robber who claims to be a lumber man, and his gang plan to use Ben's new freight paddleboat to haul a $1 million currency shipment to San Francisco.

S1 Ep28
8.1
2nd Apr 1960
In this comic episode, the first to take place far from the ranch, Ben, Hoss, and Joe deliver a herd to San Francisco. Although he warns his sons to be careful in the big city ("This is not the Ponderosa!"), Ben is the one who is shanghaied and must be rescued.

S5 Ep7
8.0
3rd Nov 1963
Joe has a run-in with Calamity Jane, and takes her home with him after promising her dying father to take care of her. At first the Cartwrights (besides Joe) think ""Cal"" is a boy, but they soon find out differently. Cal begins to fall in love with Joe, but Joe finds her attentions unwanted...especially when Cal's boyfriend, Doc Holliday, has it in for Joe.

S14 Ep9
8.0
14th Nov 1972
The moving tale of Little Joe and his beloved black stallion, which Ben purchases for his son as a birthday gift.

S11 Ep28
8.0
19th Apr 1970
Little Joe stays back at the Ponderosa to tend to its operation as Ben, Hoss, Candy and Hop Sing leave for a cattle drive, who leave as a severe thunderstorm approaches. Joe goes to the barn to calm a horse that was spooked by the thunder and lightning. But just when it seems like the horse has settled down, the horse goes wild, knocking down Joe and crushing his left arm and breaking his leg. Joe goes in and out of consciousness and, after struggling against driving rain and winds to get into the house, treats his wounds. However, the arm is infected and Joe, fearing gangrene has set in, debates whether to amputate the wound.

S11 Ep1
8.0
14th Sep 1969
An Englishman with a passion for challenging ridiculous laws shows up on the Ponderosa grazing in a land-rowing boat mounted on a wagon.

S6 Ep8
8.0
8th Nov 1964
A conman heads into town and takes advantage of the Cartwrights with a fake land deal. The conman ends up staying in Virginia city to run an orphanage.

S6 Ep3
8.0
4th Oct 1964
Lafe Jessup doesn't really want to be married, and now he's about to be a father! The horse wrangler finds a fight with Hoss at his reluctance to perform his duties.

S5 Ep14
8.0
5th Jan 1964
Joe and Adam protect a saloon girl, who has killed in self-defense, from an angry lynch mob. The accompanying Judge, along with his wife, takes a liking to Lila, and before it is all over, he and Lila discover much more about themselves.

S3 Ep11
8.0
3rd Dec 1961
Joe wins a card game and an unexpected prize...a young lady. She goes to the Ponderosa and serves them, not wanting to be set free. Meanwhile, an army is looking for her and the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep26
8.0
19th Mar 1960
A restaurant owner whom Ben and Adam have confronted over stolen Ponderosa beef ends up dead one night. His daughter, Sally Byrnes runs the cafe and in her resentment, wrongfully accuses Ben and Adam of murdering her father and they are sentenced to hang. A rancher by the name of Hawkins is also jealous of the Cartwrights and has hired his men to stop the town from helping Ben and Adam, ensuring they hang. Hoss and Joe are willing to stop them, but Ben insists they stay within the limits of the law.

S1 Ep32
8.0
30th Apr 1960
Virginia City is plagued by organized crime, Sam Bryant and his gang. One of his men, Farmer Perkins, kills a storekeeper, and at his trial, the wife of the store owner is afraid to testify. When Perkins is sentenced to hang, Bryant kidnaps Ben and wants to exchange Ben for Perkins, which leaves Adam with the most difficult decision of his life. A stellar cast.

S2 Ep11
8.0
26th Nov 1960
On a cattle drive back to Nevada from Texas, Ben hires a young man who is both an outlaw and the son of the sheriff whose town the Ponderosa cowhands are entering.

S5 Ep6
7.9
27th Oct 1963
Hoss and a pair of nuns, the younger one having a difficult time training for the order, are robbed and stranded at a way station.

S5 Ep11
7.9
15th Dec 1963
Adam, Hoss and Joe mistakenly believe their father was murdered. They split into 3 different directions to confront the supposed killers. In his heart, Ben knows his sons will not act outside the law; but he is not 100% sure that Joe will behave correctly.

S3 Ep2
7.9
1st Oct 1961
A friend of Ben's (Mr. Milbank) arrives at the Ponderosa at a bad time...when the Cartwright boys are fighting in the mud. Mr. Milbank, who is injured by a flying log during the fight, gives an assignment to each of the three boys. Can they fulfill the assignments, or has Springtime gotten to them all?

S2 Ep18
7.9
21st Jan 1961
The Cartwright boys are surprised to find that a woman, claiming to have recently married their father, shows up on their doorstep. When Ben gets home, he is just as surprised as they are. Has the lady been swindled by a con-man, or is she something of a con-woman herself?

S2 Ep21
7.9
11th Feb 1961
Hoss accidentally kills a drunk he was trying to disarm. The man's brother bushwhacks Hoss, who has lost the will to live. Joe makes a promise to Hoss that he will kill Red Twilight, the vengeful brother who bushwhacked Hoss, no matter what happens, and will not let Adam stand in his way.

S2 Ep30
7.9
29th Apr 1961
With Virginia City on the verge of economic ruin, out of work miners put their hopes in word of a strike at a mine everybody believed was played out. Ben suspects the new owners have been stealing silver from an adjoining mine also thought dry, and resolves to prove it.

S2 Ep13
7.9
10th Dec 1960
Captivated by the pretty, deaf-mute daughter of a reclusive mountain man, Little Joe teaches the young woman sign language. Thrilled with her newfound ability to communicate, Annie mistakes her gratitude to Little Joe for love, much to the chagrin of Albie, who is determined to have her for his own.

S14 Ep2
7.9
12th Sep 1972
Little Joe learns of the tragic and savagely brutal circumstances of Alice's death and is determined to bring her killers to justice. While a good part of this episode focuses on the pursuit of the thugs that killed Alice, what made this episode was a moving scene where Ben comforts Joe over the death of his new wife. Sitting in the smoldering ruins of what was Joe's new home, Ben (who rarely gets emotional) and the ever-emotional Joe really grieve for Alice.

S9 Ep13
7.9
17th Dec 1967
An anguished Hoss discovers that his testimony helped hang an innocent man accused of murder. As he struggles to bring the real killer to justice, Hoss must also combat the cowardice of another witness and the jury foreman, an influential banker.

S2 Ep31
7.9
6th May 1961
Joe is the victim of an elaborate frame-up, accused of murdering a pregnant girl. When Ben is asked if Joe is telling the truth, he replies, "If I were to start doubting my son at this point, everything I've lived and worked for would be lost".

S8 Ep34
7.9
14th May 1967
The Ponderosa is in danger of being overrun by gold hunters.

S4 Ep34
7.9
26th May 1963
When a Italian immigrant comes to the Ponderosa, he decides he wants to give up the guitar to become a cowboy.

S2 Ep10
7.9
12th Nov 1960
Gunnar Borgstrom is the leader of a vicious band called the Commancheros. They burn houses, kill people and steal anything of value. When the Commancheros get to Nevada, Gunnar decides to visit his relatives, the Cartwrights. Meanwhile the gang capture Little Joe and his girlfriend. When Gunnar returns to the gang, he has no idea who Joe is because he'd never met his nephew before.

S3 Ep7
7.9
5th Nov 1961
Hoss and Joe become involved when "Bullethead" Burke vows revenge on an old man he claims cheated him in an investment deal.

S2 Ep27
7.9
1st Apr 1961
While crossing the desert to Yuma, Arizona with a white stallion intended as a birthday present for Ben, Joe runs into a pack of merciless comancheros. His companion, a former comanchero, Emiliano, who raised the horse, must get he and Joe through safely.

S2 Ep26
7.9
18th Mar 1961
When freight company detective Jed Trask is fired after a decade of service, he joins the thieves preventing supplies from reaching Virginia City.

S8 Ep1
7.9
11th Sep 1966
The Cartwrights' friendship with a neighboring rancher is threatened by his mentally unstable daughter.

S1 Ep25
7.9
5th Mar 1960
After Adam is bushwhacked by three army deserters, Ben tracks them down, and tackles the brutal Captain Bolton who is pursuing them.

S4 Ep5
7.8
21st Oct 1962
An Indian-hating officer, Colonel Edward J. Dunwoody, comes to the Ponderosa looking for army deserter Bill Winters, who is a good friend of the Cartwrights. Bill happens to be his son and is married to an Indian. It seemed Bill deserted when he was ordered to massacre the Shoshone, by poisoning their food and water, genocide. The Shoshone find out and abduct Bill's father.

S5 Ep30
7.8
26th Apr 1964
After a triumphant tour in Europe, a famous Negro singer encounters racial prejudice in Virginia City when he arrives for a concert.

S3 Ep26
7.8
18th Mar 1962
A young genius, Albert Michaelson, vies for a scholarship. Adam assists Albert in the boy's experiments. Albert only needs the school teacher's approval to be granted a scholarship-which will be very difficult to get considering Albert was expelled from school.

S1 Ep9
7.8
7th Nov 1959
In a flashback, the legendary prospector arrives on the Ponderosa and participates in the founding of Virginia City. Coincidentally, guest star Jack Carson played a teller at the Comstock Bank and Trust in the 1942 film, "Gentleman Jim". This early classic was the second episode filmed.

S1 Ep2
7.8
19th Sep 1959
Greedy opportunist Mark Burdette and his accomplice Early Thorne stir up trouble between the Paiute tribe and the citizens of Virginia City. Ben discovers Burdette and Thorne are selling antelope beef to the miners and finds the price too high. He offers the miners beef at a more reasonable price. Burdette and Thorne retaliate by framing the Paiute's for attacks, by dressing as them and killing ranchers. Based on a factual accounting. Lorne Greene's first voice-over narration, and no landing constructed yet for the Ponderosa stairway.

S4 Ep12
7.8
16th Dec 1962
Hoss is seriously injured internally and Ben seeks help from the only doctor within 50 miles, who happens to be in prison for murder. Ben talks to the judge, and with some convincing, talks him into letting the doctor look at Hoss. Danny, who works for the Doctor, tells Ben what he saw about the murder. Ben discovers what really happened and proves to the judge that the doctor really is innocent. The judge stops the hanging and Hoss survives.

S4 Ep2
7.8
30th Sep 1962
Determined to prove he can succeed at something without the help of his Pa, Hoss, and Adam, Joe sets out on his quest and wins a timber contract for Ponderosa timber, and later discovers that having a family to rely on can definitely be an asset.

S3 Ep21
7.8
11th Feb 1962
The Cartwrights dig a well, build a rig and a windmill for a drought-stricken farm family.

S3 Ep8
7.8
12th Nov 1961
Joe befriends and takes responsibility for an ex-convict named Danny. Danny loves horses and is not used to people's ways on the outside of jail. Will his rough jailhouse upbringing mar any hopes of friendship?

S2 Ep14
7.8
17th Dec 1960
Hoss becomes friends with dull-witted Arnie Gurnie, who is a brute of a man with the mentality of a child. His temper scares everybody, including the Cartwrights.

S2 Ep2
7.8
17th Sep 1960
Filmed almost entirely outdoors, this is more like a feature than a series. Captain Pender is looking for a scout to lead him and his company of men across the desert, along with a currency shipment they are carrying to another army fort. Charlie Trent, a former scout and now a drunk, still blames himself for his troops being led to massacre. Hoss sees that this is Charlie's opportunity to redeem himself and win back his honor. Meantime, Captain Pender is having trouble with Cutter, another scout who is a devious and cunning bear of a man, who agreed to lead him across the desert, but Pender lets him go and with Hoss' suggestion, Captain Pender agress to have Charlie be their scout.

S1 Ep23
7.8
20th Feb 1960
When a tough U.S. Marshal from California arrests a Ponderosa hand, Dave Walker, for murder, Adam and Hoss go along to make sure their employee reaches Los Angeles alive. In one scene, Adam is dressed in black for the first time. In another, Hoss, upon seeing Southern California for the first time, remarks, "It sure ain't never gonna amount to much". Later, Adam makes an amusing reference to the chow Joe says he was forced to eat in "The Last Hunt".

S4 Ep24
7.8
10th Mar 1963
Adam takes a shine to Rebecca Kaufman, the daughter of a Jewish peddler, and bandits are convinced the Kaufman wagon is worth robbing.

S2 Ep6
7.8
15th Oct 1960
While celebrating the return of his daughter Connie, former lawman McKee is asked to assist in the capture of an outlaw gang. While Joe is courting Connie, no one realizes that McKee is involved with the outlaws.

S1 Ep1
7.8
12th Sep 1959
Lotta Crabtree is hired by mining tycoon Alpheus Troy to lure one of the Cartwrights into town and hold him for ransom in exchange for Ponderosa timber rights.

S1 Ep16
7.8
2nd Jan 1960
Ben sends Hoss and Joe to Monterey to purchase an expensive seed bull. The first of Blocker and Landon's many comic misadventures, although the casual use of violence, as in the rapier fight, is oddly uncharacteristic for the series. Hoss reveals his real name to be Eric for the first time.

S3 Ep14
7.8
24th Dec 1961
In this Christmas story, inspired by Johanna Spyri's "Heidi", Hoss and Joe come across a blind girl whose family has been killed in a wagon wreck, learning later that her grandfather is a bitter hermit who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

S6 Ep2
7.8
27th Sep 1964
Outlaws capture Ben and hide him in an abandoned mine, holding him for a ransom. The boys must come up with a plan to save him before it's too late.

S4 Ep21
7.8
17th Feb 1963
For a change, it is Adam rather than Joe who becomes mixed up in one of Hoss' funny exploits. Together they purchase a thoroughbred horse, and end up competing against their little brother in the big Virginia City race. This is Pernell Robert's favorite comedy episode.

S8 Ep14
7.8
18th Dec 1966
The Cartwrights protect a woman and her deaf-mute little son from the boy's outlaw stepfather.

S9 Ep25
7.8
7th Apr 1968
When a horse steps on Candy's hand out on the trail, he and Joe go to Angelus to find a doctor. When they arrive, Joe sees his friend, Steve Regan, an Angelus miner. Steve tells Joe that the miners have gone on strike at his suggestion; the timber supports in the tunnels are rotting away. Joe offers him a day's wages to help him drive the wild horses, since Candy's hand is injured.

S5 Ep15
7.8
12th Jan 1964
Adam, Hoss, and Joe vie for the attention of a pretty young lady named Dolores. Hoss talks Joe into entering a bull fight, but it doesn't work out quite as planned.

S1 Ep27
7.8
26th Mar 1960
Adam takes Ben's friends, Lord Marion Dunsworth and Lady Beatrice, on a hunting expedition, and they are captured by a gang of crude thieves and murderers. During one early scene, after listening to Ben reminisce, Hoss says, "Always like to hear Pa get wound up. He don't do it often."

S1 Ep30
7.8
16th Apr 1960
Hoss takes Billy Allen, the young son of a convicted felon under his wing, then is forced to kill his father and Billy will not forgive him. The most emotional Hoss story since "The Newcomers" and one of Blocker's best.

S2 Ep28
7.8
15th Apr 1961
Jim Applegate, Hoss' rival for the affections of Cameo Johnson, is a member of a vigilante group who lynched an innocent man and his wife.

S1 Ep8
7.8
31st Oct 1959
Adam and Hoss assist a German engineer in developing the concept of "square set timbering" in the mines. Based on fact, and the first episode not to include all four Cartwrights. Hoss refers to the character, Emily, with whom he was in love with in, "The Newcomers".

S11 Ep10
7.8
23rd Nov 1969
A Virginia City store clerk decides to take advantage of his co-worker's paralyzing sensitivity to bright light.

S10 Ep8
7.8
3rd Nov 1968
A bratty 10-year-old girl named Samantha, whose mother is Ben's cousin and is a third cousin of Hoss and Little Joe, comes to the Ponderosa. While she proves to be a handful, Ben (who tracks down the girl's mother) really has his hands full when her grandfather comes to the Ponderosa demanding custody.

S6 Ep9
7.8
15th Nov 1964
When Joe and his friend Mitch go after a puma, Joe climbs a big peak and throws his gun up higher, intending to crawl up after it. But as he looks down, things begin to spin. He realises he can't go any higher, and he retreats down the hill. Needing to prove himself, Joe spars against Mitch.

S3 Ep5
7.8
22nd Oct 1961
In this comic episode involving a precious emerald and the sweet widow, Clemantine Hawkins who is attracted to Ben, turns the tables on a pair of land swindlers.

S2 Ep15
7.8
31st Dec 1960
Ben feels responsible for the son of a man he was forced to kill, but the young man is determined to get even. A professional gunman offers to do the job for him.

S1 Ep24
7.8
27th Feb 1960
Nevada Territory is awaiting statehood, and Ben considers running for governor until he learns he is wanted for murder in New Orleans. Inspector Charles Leduque arrives and says Ben is wanted for commiting the murder 20 years earlier, and after Joe kills his bodyguard in self-defense, Inspector Leduque makes it appear the other way around. Ben has no choice but go with Leduque, to clear his name in a very suspense-filled episode. Once again, there are several references to Joe's mother, and viewers are shown Marie's grave near the shore of Lake Tahoe.

S4 Ep14
7.7
30th Dec 1962
When Hoss is responsible for causing a hung jury, Ben tells him, "a man is never wrong doing what he thinks is right", and Adam attempts to validate his brother's reasonable doubt.

S4 Ep17
7.7
20th Jan 1963
A stranger, Bob Jolly, arrives in Virginia City to accuse a drunken Judge Harry Whitaker of sending his innocent father, Carl, to the gallows. Adam defends the judge's honor because of his long friendship with the Cartwrights. After Adam talks with Jolly, he begins to believe his story. Upon further investigation, Adam discovers that Senator Cal Prince and Hobie Klinderman as well as the judge might have had a lot to gain from Carl Jolly's murder. In an attempt to learn what really happened, Adam organizes an informal meeting in the saloon.

S2 Ep12
7.7
3rd Dec 1960
Adam's life is saved by a woman known to the Indians as White Buffalo Woman, but who is actually the daughter of Norwegian immigrants.

S10 Ep3
7.7
29th Sep 1968
When on a cattle drive on Ponderosa land, the Cartwrights and Candy find a dying cavalry officer on the trail. With his last breath, he asks them to go help his commanding officer, Captain Harris. Riding atop a slope, they see Captain Harris and his soldiers fighting off Mexican bandits who are trying to steal the four kegs of gold hidden in the Army ambulance. The Cartwrights and Candy cut right between the soldiers and the Mexican bandits, in a spectacular chase through a little valley and wind up at a high and rocky outcrop, taking cover and assisting the soldiers.

S8 Ep29
7.7
9th Apr 1967
The foreman of a neighboring ranch frames Joe for murder as part of a scheme to get his employer's property.

S3 Ep3
7.7
8th Oct 1961
The Cartwrights and a bigoted army captain are pinned down by Cochise and his braves, who claim the officer poisoned 30 of their people.

S2 Ep7
7.7
22nd Oct 1960
Prejudice erupts on both sides when Ben gives an Indian named Matsou and his wife, some of his land, after saving Ben's life from a renegade Indian who almost killed him on the Ponderosa. An intense and magnetic performance by Ricardo Montalban.

S9 Ep8
7.7
5th Nov 1967
Driving horses to Utah, the Cartwrights and Candy discover only two people left in a town wiped out by rampaging Paiute Indians. Together, Mary Burns and Josh Tanner must travel through hostile territory, along with the Cartwrights and Candy.

S6 Ep4
7.7
11th Oct 1964
After inadvertantly falling into the river, Adam is rescued by Tom Wilson. Wilson has feelings for Sue Miller, which bring him into trouble after her father is killed.

S4 Ep28
7.7
7th Apr 1963
While hunting for a wolf, Joe is attacked by the wolf. Adam also hunting for the wolf, hears Joe struggling with the wolf comes to Joe's aid. He fires his rifle but the bullet hits Joe. Adam hurries over knocks the wolf off Joe, shoots, and then kills the wolf. The damage has already been done with the wolf bite and Adam's bullet in Joe. Adam has to rush his little brother back to the Ponderosa. Will he make it back to save Little Joe's life, since the wolf's bite is fatal?

S4 Ep25
7.7
17th Mar 1963
Ben's attempt to rehabilitate an alcoholic singer he knew in better days are complicated by her involvment with a former prize fighter.

S1 Ep19
7.7
23rd Jan 1960
In the first all-out comic episode of the series, Hoss and Joe travel to Kiowa Flats, Texas, where they are mistaken for the notorious Slade Brothers, also played by Blocker and Landon.

S5 Ep10
7.7
8th Dec 1963
Adam becomes involved with the recently widowed Laura Dayton and her little girl, Peggy.

S4 Ep31
7.7
5th May 1963
Little Joe's 19-year old girlfriend is killed by a good samaritan, an explosives expert who had stopped to render aid to the woman's uncle after he suffers a stroke. Unable to talk, the only clue he can offer the investigating Cartwrights is a scrawled title of the song the assailant was whistling — ""New Orleans Woman.""

S4 Ep16
7.7
13th Jan 1963
Adam's guitar-strumming friend, ranch hand Danny Morgan, is arrested on suspicion of murdering and robbing the Widow Baker. Someone had reported hearing Danny singing outside her place at the time of the murder. More, importantly, Morgan has bad scratches on his arm, and the widow was found with human skin under her fingernails. Adam is thoroughly convinced that Danny couldn't have done it; the two became friends after Danny saved Adam's life a few years ago.

S6 Ep6
7.7
25th Oct 1964
Hoss hires Waldo as a ranch hand after keeping Waldo from killing himself. Hoss soon learns that Waldo is lousy at his job and only causes problems for everyone else due to his clumsiness. Although Hoss is willing to defend him, he soon finds out a secret about Waldo.

S2 Ep20
7.7
4th Feb 1961
Adam goes to Mexico to find out how the son of a family friend was killed, only to learn the man is still alive.

S2 Ep9
7.7
5th Nov 1960
Joe's friend Dolly Kincaid is the daughter of the sheriff and she's always getting caught up with the wrong crowd. When she gets close to Vince Dagen, Joe gets worried and tries to intervene.

S2 Ep4
7.7
1st Oct 1960
The Cartwrights construct a grist mill to provide income for a crippled rancher who blames Ben for his predicament. Ben has to contend with the man's depraved caretaker, and finds himself attracted to his wife. "Sons can't be everything," Ben tells her.

S9 Ep28
7.7
5th May 1968
While the others are away, Ben and Candy are lured by an old friend of Ben's to go somewhere. The ""friend"" traps them in a deep pit. He comes back to give them food, but how long will he be feeling ""generous""?

S2 Ep32
7.7
20th May 1961
To finance his dream of constructing an airship capable of crossing the Atlantic, Ben's old friend plans to rob the Virginia City bank while diverting the citizens' attention with a hot air balloon.

S1 Ep22
7.7
13th Feb 1960
A shiftless sheepherder, Jeb Drummond, encroaches his herd of sheep on the Ponderosa and refuses to budge. He resists all of Ben's attempts to throw him off his land and finally resorts to taking Adam prisoner in exchange for ownership of the ranch.

S4 Ep15
7.7
6th Jan 1963
Frank Medford, a figure from Ben's "wild, misspent youth", shows up in Virginia City, and though down on his luck, creates troubles for the Cartwrights by claiming to be a successful businessman.

S5 Ep4
7.7
13th Oct 1963
Joe is bushwhacked in the desert and awakens to find himself in Martinville, a town that may or may not be populated by ghosts. An errie, surrealistic and well-produced episode.

S9 Ep20
7.7
18th Feb 1968
A band of outlaws enact a scheme to rob the Ponderosa, by tricking Hoss and Little Joe away from the ranch and leaving a wounded Ben alone at home.

S9 Ep7
7.7
29th Oct 1967
Most people consider Mark Cole a coward, but he does not hesitate to step forward when his brother attempts to break a horse by torturing it.

S5 Ep3
7.7
6th Oct 1963
A destitute rainmaker and his family arrive in drought-stricken Virginia City. While Ben tries to help him make rain, Hoss tends to the man's seriously ill little girl.

S4 Ep26
7.7
24th Mar 1963
Classic comedy in which Hoss first meets prospector Obie and his lazy but allegedly brilliant mongrel dog, Walter.

S2 Ep24
7.7
4th Mar 1961
Adam is confused by the sudden behavior of his good friend, Ross Marquette. He beats up his wife, Delphine, after accusing her of having an affair with Adam. He also joins a group of rustlers and killers and helps rob a gold shipment. Adam thinks Ross is suffering from insanity, in this highlight of season two.

S1 Ep12
7.7
28th Nov 1959
Adam and Joe reluctantly join a group of vengeful townsmen, who are out to lynch the three men who supposedly killed Vannie Johnson. The posse is run by Paiute Scroggs and Flint Johnson, the dead woman's husband. When Adam and Joe clash with them, they both separate and try to reach the three men before the posse does. This episode's storyline is a variation of the 1943 film "The Ox-Bow Incident".

S1 Ep3
7.7
26th Sep 1959
John Pennington and his crew want to mine the Ponderosa land by hydraulic means. Ben is totally against this method and evicts them in short order. Hoss is given the task of telling Pennington's men to leave, but soon has a moral dilemma on his hands when he meets Pennington's beautiful sister, Emily. He soon discovers a heartbreaking secret...she's terminally ill; but their relationship soon leads to plenty of trouble for the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep13
7.7
5th Dec 1959
In a variation of "High Noon", Ben and Hoss must face a gang of outlaws practically all alone when most of Virginia City's citizens go into hiding. The most action-filled episode since "The Paiute War".

S5 Ep9
7.6
17th Nov 1963
Joe struggles to understand whether his friend was right in killing a dying man who pleaded to put out of his misery.

S3 Ep25
7.6
11th Mar 1962
Ben supports the appointment of Asa Moran as Virginia City's temporary sheriff, but Moran goes overboard with his authority, jailing Adam in the process and pistol-whipping a Ponderosa hand.

S1 Ep4
7.6
3rd Oct 1959
Trader Mike Wilson attempts to escape punishment by the Paiute Indians after mistreating two of their women, by placing the blame on Adam. A fierce war between the Paiutes and the California militia follows, and the Paiutes seize Adam as hostage. Very impressive battle scenes in the this first mini-epic of the series. This episode did all it could to stage the real thing; 50 Indians were used and 50 cavalry actors and extras were used, and the production involved three days of shooting on location. This episode encompassed both the biggest cast and most costly stunts. This episode is based on the factual accounting that occured in May and June of 1860.

S10 Ep20
7.6
9th Feb 1969
Ben's friend is struggling to keep her newspaper going in the face of harrassment by the town boss of Gunlock, so without telling her, Ben buys the business.

S3 Ep6
7.6
29th Oct 1961
Adam tries to help a reformed gunman who wants only to live peacefully near Virginia City. Good story without a tidy ending. Pernell's first chance to sing on the series.

S1 Ep20
7.6
30th Jan 1960
The Cartwrights encounter racial bigotry in Virginia City and end up protecting a Chinese boy from mob violence. Victor Sen Yung, in his largest role to date, speaks normally in the presence of his fellow countrymen, but reverts to broken English when with the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep14
7.6
12th Dec 1959
This episode begins with Adam defending the honor of Sue Ellen Terry in a duel. No one gets shot because the other man misses Adam and Adam generously shoots in the air to end the duel. Sue Ellen lives with her sister, who seems nice but turns out to be fairly evil, consumed with jealousy because she's getting older and her sister is a young beauty. When Adam drops Sue Ellen off after a date one night, half way through this episode, someone shoots her dead, and Adam becomes a suspect and is thrown in jail. When the sheriff suggests that Adam escape, he does it, but when he walks out, someone tries to shoot him. He chases after them but doesn't find them, and soon after hears Sue Ellen's sister scream. He runs up the stairs to find her dead, and of course, is then suspected of that murder as well. Of course, his family helps him during the last half hour, and it all turns out that someone we should not have suspected did all the murders, but that he actually wasn't trying to hit

S9 Ep21
7.6
25th Feb 1968
Hoss stands alone in refusing to convict Johnny Mule, a ""slow"" ranch hand who is accused of robbing and murdering his boss. So when Johnny Mule - fearing he'll be lynched, regardless of the verdict - escapes from jail during jury deliberations, it's Hoss who takes the heat.

S8 Ep19
7.6
22nd Jan 1967
In the town of Chiso, Joe encounters a former Ponderosa cowhand who is now a gunfighter and expecting to be killed on Friday the 13th. John Saxon makes the first of his three appearances in the series, in this episode as Steven Friday.

S3 Ep34
7.6
20th May 1962
Hoss blames himself when a young woman is crippled in a wagon accident, and hopes a faith healer can help her walk again.

S4 Ep11
7.6
9th Dec 1962
Hoss helps Charlie and Will (Charlotte and Willomina), two young girls who just lost their father. They go on a journey to find their only nearby relative, Aunt Cloe. Charlie takes with her a stolen sack of money that her father gave her and tries her best to lose Hoss. Four bandits show up looking for the loot Charlie has. In the end, Hoss finds out about the stolen money and talks the girls into giving it back. He puts them in dresses and sends them off to Boston on a stage, telling them they did the right thing and will probably get the money back as a reward for helping capture the bandits!

S13 Ep4
7.6
10th Oct 1971
Hoss becomes a judge in a contest--he has to pick the perfect/prettiest baby. The parents of the babies nearly all try to influence Hoss, so he has a hard time deciding. There is one quite hilarious part (though odd).

S5 Ep8
7.6
10th Nov 1963
Ben finds an old journal that he kept while in a wagon train travelling from St. Joseph, Missouri to Ash Hollow. As he is reading it Ben remembers the journey he undertook with his wife Inger and a young Adam. During the trip Hoss is born and they have trouble with some Indians.

S4 Ep19
7.6
3rd Feb 1963
A vain outlaw murders a man in front of witnesses, including Joe, but a clever lawyer is able to get him acquitted. Though enraged, Joe has to convince the dead man's son it is wrong to take the law into their own hands.

S4 Ep1
7.6
23rd Sep 1962
Clay Stafford signs on to work for the Cartwrights and shortly afterwards shoots and kills a man who accuses him of cheating at poker. The miners warn Clay to leave town, but it appears he killed in self-defense. Surprisingly, he tells Little Joe that he is his half-brother, and Marie was his mother. Ben listens to his story and takes his word for it, but Adam and Hoss think he should wire the judge in New Orleans to confirm Clay's real identity. Meanwhile, Clay and Joe develop a close relationship, but the vengeful miners still want Clay out of Virginia City and their first warning, is when Joe is beaten up by them. Ultimately, Clay decides life on the ranch is not for him.

S3 Ep33
7.6
13th May 1962
Joe promises a dying sheepman he will make sure the old man's granddaughter gets her rightful inheritance from a wealthy San Francisco family. This episode was filmed immediately after "Inger, My Love", which explains why Blocker's arm is still in a sling.

S3 Ep32
7.6
6th May 1962
Ben, Joe and Adam travel to Bowleg to pay the yearly taxes on the Ponderosa. After the transaction is completed, Ben and Joe ride over the summit to join the cattle drive. Adam is on his way to Genoa and is carrying a $10,000 bank draft his father has given him. A prison guard rides into town and announces two hombres have broke out and escaped who are holdup men and killers. Elmer Trace and his partner Poindexter were assisted by a guard in escaping prison and they betray him on the trail. Trace takes his clothes, horse and firearms, leaving Poindexter with only a rifle and rides off. Meanwhile, the Sheriff of Bowleg organizes a posse immediately.

S1 Ep18
7.6
16th Jan 1960
As the Civil War approaches, Adam and Joe clash over which side to support. The situation is complicated by the arrival of Frederick Kyle, a Southern sympathizer. He was an old friend of Joe's mother and viewers also discover that Joe's middle name is Francis.

S1 Ep21
7.6
6th Feb 1960
In "The Spanish Grant", a young bargirl, Rosita Morales is pretending to be a Spanish noblewoman named Isabella Marie Inez de la Cuesta and at the end of the story, it's revealed she is really Rosita Morales, but on the other hand, is she really Rosita Morales? This little twist at the end is simply entertaining everytime it's viewed, with the viewer able to determine the young woman's real identity at the end of act four.

S1 Ep15
7.6
19th Dec 1959
Hoss and Joe come across a pregnant Indian woman while hunting bighorn sheep and must deliver her baby. Despite touches of humor, including a scene in which Joe refers to a meal as "cattle fodder", the story does not have an altogether happy ending.

S1 Ep5
7.6
10th Oct 1959
Samuel Clemens arrives in Virginia City to write for the Territorial Enterprise at the same time a crooked politician tries to lay claim on the Ponderosa.

S2 Ep5
7.6
8th Oct 1960
Adam guides a wagon train of Quakers and falls for the leader's daughter, Regina. The force Adam must employ to protect them, conflicts with their passive philosophy of life.

S6 Ep33
5.5
16th May 1965
Ben invites opera singer Angela Bergstrom to perform at Virginia City's anniversary celebration. She accepts, but does not tell him that her famous singing voice is long gone

S13 Ep1
5.9
19th Sep 1971
Jamie deliberately disobeys Ben's order not to drive the supply wagons. During his recklessness, the wagon goes out of control on a sharp curve and is wrecked. Nobody is hurt but a badly injured horse has to be put to sleep. Fearing punishment, Jamie decides to run away, until Ben decides to take him on a tour of the Ponderosa, namely to see how others handle their mistakes in positive and negative ways.

S6 Ep22
6.0
21st Feb 1965
The Cartwrights play host to Guido Borelli, a world renowed aerial acrobat who once saved Ben's life in Italy. Borelli's troup is beset by internal strife, and is performing in Virginia City.

S6 Ep28
6.0
11th Apr 1965
First Ben's sons are making lots of noise, so he goes into town to sleep in the hotel. Then, various noises and things interrupt Ben's sleep. Will he ever get his desired good night's rest?

S13 Ep19
6.0
6th Feb 1972
All about Joe and Hoss' visit to a small Mexican town named Agua Santos, which seems to have some rather peculiar laws. The two Cartwright boys soon find them in pretty deep trouble for breaking ""laws"" that barely would pass without notice stateside.

S13 Ep25
6.0
26th Mar 1972
Ben's ability to close a lucrative livestock contract with a conspicuous widow hinges on the sale of a dilapidated saloon in Upright that Hoss and Joe had impulsively purchased. However, the boys put off the sale when the town drunk (who acts as ""saloon keeper"") insist the crumbling Trails End Saloon may house a fortune. Things get even more complicated when a woman, claiming to be the daughter of the deceased former owner, envisions turning the Trails End into a booming saloon, hotel and restaurant.

S13 Ep26
6.0
2nd Apr 1972
While the Cartwrights are away to Carson City, ruthless land baron Bradley Meredith (Lorene Greene in a dual role) poses as Ben in a scheme to get control of the Ponderosa ... by pretending ""Ben"" is seriously ill and selling his holdings to friends.

S13 Ep23
6.1
12th Mar 1972
A comic tale of mistaken identity, as Hoss (and eventually Ben and Joe) are held in connection with a series of road gang robberies by the bumbling Younger Brothers.

S6 Ep11
6.1
6th Dec 1964
Hoss relies on clever attorney Whitney Parker, who has a drinking problem, to clear him of a murder charge.

S14 Ep15
6.1
9th Jan 1973
A serious game of ""let's pretend"" begins when Griff and government agent Theodora Duffy pose as husband and wife to capture a gang of war criminals.

S6 Ep31
6.1
2nd May 1965
No one in Virginia City is happy to see ex-con Trace Cordell, especially the man he crippled in a gunfight, now married to Cordell's former girlfriend.

S6 Ep27
6.2
4th Apr 1965
Adam tries to find the good in Howard Mead, a talented troubadour who refuses to stay on the right side of the law. Dramatic debut of singer/songwriter Hoyt Axton. Last episode Pernell Roberts worked on, although he appears in the next two, that were made prior to this episode and aired afterwards.

S5 Ep28
6.2
12th Apr 1964
A headstrong Chinese girl (Marlo Thomas) visiting the Cartwrights incites labor unrest among local workers.

S6 Ep23
6.2
28th Feb 1965
Hoss' latest acquaintance, an Englishman named Professor Poppy, is actually Percival Alexander Mundy, M.D., who has given up the practice of medicine. However, when Hoss is shot in the back, only Mundy's skill can save his life.

S7 Ep4
6.3
3rd Oct 1965
A mule skinner and his two sons are hired by Ben to transport nitroglycerin to California.

S6 Ep18
6.3
24th Jan 1965
Kellie Conrad dances and her father plays the fiddle to earn a living. Hoss feels a sense of guilt after he unintentionally hurts the arm that Kellie's father uses to play the fiddle, in a saloon fight with some roughnecks. He gets them to stay at the Ponderosa while the girl's father recuperates. While there, Ben introduces Kellie to his friend Paul Mandel, a ballet star before an explosion cut his dancing career short. Kellie persuades Paul to help her learn ballet. She soon comes to the realization that she loves both the ballet and Paul. She struggles inwardly to make a choice between her love of ballet and giving it all up for the love of her father.

S13 Ep17
6.4
16th Jan 1972
Fired ranch hand, Cactus, suggests that Ben is too old to put in a real work's week and challenges Ben to take a job as a ranch hand under the name "Ben Brown". He takes the job to prove himself better than Cactus.

S13 Ep16
6.4
9th Jan 1972
Hoss enlists the aid of Judith Coleman, a clairvoyant woman who has the gift of "second sight" to find Jamie. He has been missing in the high country and cannot be found by anyone. Judith's gifted psychic abilities have had a long history of men casting her off as a witch, so at first she is reluctant to help the Cartwrights search for Jamie, then changes her mind since she owes them a great deal. Her fiancee, Jess Avery, who is a minister, doesn't look with favor as to her abilities and she may face the consequences of losing him unless she finds Jamie. Hoss refers to Jamie as his "little brother" for the first time.

S6 Ep26
6.4
28th Mar 1965
One of Joe's old girlfriends thinks he killed her husband so they could come together. Unfortunately, that is what her husband's twin brother also believes.

S7 Ep27
6.4
3rd Apr 1966
Hoss chooses a difficult path when he decides to rehabilitate a famous poet, Will Smith, who is really William Warlock Evans, who spends too much time drinking and eventually his wife arrives at the Ponderosa.

S10 Ep22
6.4
2nd Mar 1969
The floor of the Virginia City courthouse collapses, trapping Ben in the basement with three other people, one of whom may or may not be guilty of murder.

S5 Ep2
6.5
29th Sep 1963
Renowned English novelist Charles Dickens comes to Virginia City. In short order, he is accused of a crime he didn't commit. The problem then becomes how to convince the stubborn author to defend himself.

S6 Ep25
6.5
21st Mar 1965
Cousin Muley Jones returns to the Ponderosa, along with a pack of noisy hound dogs, in this funny sequel to "The Saga Of Muley Jones".

S6 Ep30
6.5
25th Apr 1965
Ladies' man Lothario Larkin creates havoc whenever he hits Virginia City, so Roy Coffee orders him out of town. Naturally, Hoss takes him in.

S6 Ep32
6.5
9th May 1965
The Ponderosa hands are upset when new hand George Whitman is hired on, it is rumored he is a jinx. Hoss tells George to ignore such foolishness, but a gypsy fortune teller says otherwise.

S7 Ep9
6.5
7th Nov 1965
Virginia City's newest preacher is an ex-gunfighter who wants only to build a new church, but the brother of one of his victims has other ideas. The blueprints for the church are said to be a gift from Adam.

S13 Ep9
6.5
21st Nov 1971
A veteran blinded by the last battle of the Civil War, returns to Virginia City, to solve the mystery surrounding who killed his brother.

S11 Ep16
6.5
18th Jan 1970
Candy has inherited a fortune from an Indian he helped. He quits his job on the Ponderosa and becomes a vice president for a land promotor who is selling beautiful, fertile land. When it is discovered that the land promotor is selling barren desert land, Candy and the Cartwrights set out to expose the land promotor as a fraud.

S13 Ep8
6.6
14th Nov 1971
Neta, a teen-age girl who is a friend of Jamie's, witnesses an assault and robbery. The victim - Mr. Trumbull, a man who is about to inherit a fortune - dies. The culprit, a drifter named Griff Bannon, gets a glimpse of Neta and, after fleeing the scene, plots to assume his victim's identity and stalk the witness. Her father, meanwhile, is no help, since he raises her by ""traditional values"" and forbids her to socialize with the Cartwrights. Meanwhile, the imposter - now working for the Cartwrights - begins to track Neta's every move and plans to seal her silence, unless she can summon the courage to tell Jamie and the others about the crime she witnessed and identify the baddie.

S7 Ep15
6.6
2nd Jan 1966
After sitting on a jury that has convicted Terrence O' Tool of murder, Joe has second thoughts about the verdict and decides to do some investigating of his own.

S12 Ep23
6.6
7th Mar 1971
A racist and his henchmen steal a Gatling gun, with plans to massacre everyone - including the Cartwrights - involved in a peace treaty signing between the U.S. Army and the Paitues in Virginia City. The man's hope is that the tragedy will spark another war and eventually lead to the genocide of all Native Americans.

S13 Ep3
6.6
3rd Oct 1971
Joe is shot and wounded while he is on a cattle drive in the Nevada desert. Two ranchers find him, delirious from thirst and the heat, and take him to their home to recover. While the ranchers summon a doctor, Joe struggles for life, mumbling incoherently and having surrealistic nightmares about a teepee and a wagon wheel. Ben and Hoss try to dechipher Joe's ramblings to piece together what happened.

S13 Ep12
6.6
12th Dec 1971
When Luke Calhoun loses all his money in a stock scheme, he and his daughter Meena stay at the Ponderosa with disruptive consequences. Luke turns the ranch into a casino and Meena continues her frantic search for a husband, where she left off in season eleven's "Meena".

S14 Ep14
6.6
2nd Jan 1973
An elderly business associate of Ben's is killed after a man, posing as Candy, tries to rob her; the woman suffers a fatal heart attack, which - since it happens during the commission of a felony - is considered to be the same as if the assailant had pulled the trigger. The real Candy, who had been assaulted at a hotel by the same man, is held in connection with the old woman's death. A woman named Kate is the only one who can back up Candy's alibi, but she has left town with her husband, who is the thief. Griff agrees to go after Kate and have her provide a statement. Only thing is, he discovers - as Ben and Joe do later - that she, too, has a past that, if revealed at trial, could do serious harm to Candy's defense. Meanwhile, Ben is unsure about the young defense attorney's ability to defend Candy, particularly since the state's attorney has a nearly spotless conviction record. But the budding lawyer is determined to play David to the prosecutor's Goliath.

S3 Ep4
6.6
15th Oct 1961
Little Joe pays a visit to the widow Lee Bolden, and brings her a bank draft for her husband's investments with Ben. Actually, the investments were losing propositions. Ben just wanted to help out his friend. During his visit, a wounded man stumbles into the house, and Joe recognizes him as Trock, who had just robbed the local bank. Lee Bolden was a nurse to her husband physician, and removes the bullet from Trock. Joe soon learns that Lee is in love with Trock, and that is the only thing standing between him and an early grave.

S10 Ep9
6.6
10th Nov 1968
A white woman abducted years before by the Paiutes is reunited with her husband, who is less than pleased to learn she has given birth to an Indian baby.

S11 Ep13
6.6
21st Dec 1969
Joe agrees to help the man who tried to steal his horse, Abner Willoughby, who has returned to claim the box of gold he hid years ago, before going to sea.

S12 Ep20
6.6
14th Feb 1971
An English couple comes to Nevada to learn why a ranch owned by the British investment firm is the only company holding not showing a profit.

S12 Ep21
6.6
21st Feb 1971
Ben is shocked to learn the Army general he is backing as governor, advocates a policy of genocide towards all Indians.

S12 Ep25
6.6
21st Mar 1971
While visiting the Ponderosa, Ben's friend, April Christopher, is bitten by a rabid wolf. Ben and April and her daughter must come to terms with her illness as they all realize the terrible fate that awaits April.

S13 Ep18
6.6
30th Jan 1972
Ben helps shepherd a young family, the Kosovos (Nick; his wife, Anna; and his son, Sandor), who had recently immigrated from Serbia. Nick soon finds he can't handle the pressure needed to become successful in America and, one evening while Ben is visiting, his mind snaps. He goes on a rampage, trapping Ben (who becomes injured) and a terrified Anna and Sandor inside their home. Ben must do all he can to keep Nick at bay and try to reason with the mentally ill rancher.

S9 Ep2
6.6
24th Sep 1967
Ben, Hoss and Little Joe help the Virginia City militia escort a renegade Indian, who believes he is the Almighty, through hostile Indian territory to prison.

S4 Ep6
6.6
29th Oct 1962
With a storm brewing, Adam takes refuge at a way station, run by cantankerous Jesse and his young grandaughter Marty, who yearns to see what exists away from the way station. The station is also visited by Luke Martin, a killer who is running from a posse. He makes Marty an empty promise to take her with him and see the world together, but Adam steps in and suggests Luke let her alone. Everybody but Marty is relieved to see him go, but he quickly returns and holds everyone hostage to protect himself from the posse.

S11 Ep27
6.7
12th Apr 1970
Hoss meets two men. He forms a rapport with them and they tell him that they plan to rob the bank in the town they are going to. Hoss tries to stop them but he fails. Hoss decides to go into the town to warn the sheriff but is too late. The sheriff then arrests Hoss.

S7 Ep6
6.7
17th Oct 1965
Ben is attracted to Sarah Reynolds, a member of a religious order led by her fanatical uncle. When she is accused of being a witch, the Cartwrights step in.

S13 Ep21
6.7
20th Feb 1972
Sid Langley is a real estate broker who is not well liked in Nevada, thanks to his shady ways of doing business. An irritable Ben is barely polite with Langley when closing a land transaction. However, things soon get worse than that headache and blurred vision Ben suffers from when he learns that Langley has been critically wounded by an unknown assailant. Ben, who somehow can't remember the past 24 hours, fears he may have been the gunman and tries to reconstruct the activities of the past day to prove his innocence.

S12 Ep9
6.7
8th Nov 1970
A dying woman and her son are rejected by her father because she had a child out of wedlock.

S12 Ep12
6.7
13th Dec 1970
Hoss and Joe pretend to be stage robbers' partners in order to recover stolen Cartwright money. All goes well until the wife of one of the thieves shows up.

S6 Ep29
6.7
18th Apr 1965
One of the wealthiest men in the world, Charles Augustus Hackett, offers to buy the Ponderosa, price no object. Ben says the ranch is not for sale and Hackett refuses to give up.

S14 Ep13
6.7
26th Dec 1972
Jamie becomes friends with the wife of an unpopular schoolmaster, who often browbeats her.

S7 Ep3
6.7
26th Sep 1965
Juan Ortega claims he has a land grant which gives him ownership of the entire Nevada Territory.

S11 Ep25
6.7
29th Mar 1970
""Here comes Hoss Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail... "" That's what the folks of Virginia City were probably thinking when a Quaker woman talks a reluctant Hoss into dressing as the Easter Bunny for the orphanage's children. While hippety-hopping and waiting for Easter to be its way, Hoss - while dressed in the Easter Bunny costume - contends with a group of inept outlaws, who commit a comedy of errors in their attempts to rob stagecoaches.

S13 Ep13
6.7
19th Dec 1971
Just as Ben begins to formally adopt Jamie, his grandfather shows up to take him away. Ben tells the gentleman, "He's a young man with his roots in Ponderosa soil. This is the life he knows, the life he loves, the life he wants".

S3 Ep19
6.8
28th Jan 1962
Joe plans to marry Laura White, daughter of a man Ben once sailed with, but she is fatally ill. Ben consoles him with words spoken years before, by the father of Adam's mother.

S7 Ep8
6.8
31st Oct 1965
Ben must determine who is the rightful heir to a fortune that includes water rights vital to the Ponderosa.

S7 Ep32
6.8
8th May 1966
Ben and Hoss unwittingly aid a vengeful army colonel who plans to wipe out every Indian he can with a Gatling gun.

S3 Ep30
6.8
22nd Apr 1962
When two feuding families argue over the custody of two orphaned children, a reluctant Ben is called upon to straighten out the situation before real trouble erupts.

S10 Ep24
6.8
16th Mar 1969
Candy comes upon a soldier who is running from charges of desertion, and with Joe's help they foil a plan to sell rapid-fire rifles to the Indians.

S11 Ep22
6.8
1st Mar 1970
En route to San Francisco, actress Lotta Crabtree arrives in Virginia City for a special performance. Hoss is smitten by the beautiful actress, which makes her leading man jealous. When he is killed during a performance, Lotta and then Hoss are suspected of the death. It is up to Ben to set things straight.

S6 Ep34
6.8
23rd May 1965
Hoss befriends a self-demeaning recluse named Patch, who makes the best apple pie Hoss has ever tasted. Hoss is so impressed with him, especially his pie, that he hires him to work on the Ponderosa. Ben, however, is unimpressed with Hoss' new friend when the Cartwrights get into a gunfight with a mining outfit, and Patch cowers. He has a deepseeded fear of violence stemming from an incident in his teen years, but he knows in order to survive in the West, he must overcome it.

S7 Ep5
6.8
10th Oct 1965
A judge awards itinerant horse breeder Jim Acton's beloved mare to rancher Sam Whipple. Jim tries to buy her back, but Whipple refuses his offer, after which a fight ensues and Jim kills Whipple in self-defense. The Cartwrights want to bring Jim in to make sure he receives a fair trial, but an ambitious and overzealous deputy doesn't care how he brings him in.

S13 Ep10
6.8
28th Nov 1971
Hoss takes the blame when a visiting actress kills her former boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend's father, a senator, sets out to destroy the Cartwrights and the Ponderosa as retaliation, for the killing of his son.

S14 Ep1
6.8
12th Sep 1972
Little Joe finds true love in newcomer Alice Harper. Following a courtship, the two are engaged. Unlike most of the Cartwrights' previous girlfriends, Alice makes it to the altar. Joe and Alice are starting their new life together, and she soon becomes pregnant. All appears well, as Joe and Alice start their new life together in their new home ... until one day Joe is out. Alice's indolent brother owes money to a ruthless businessman and has not yet paid, so they find Alice instead. When she can't pay the debt, they brutally kill her and burn Joe's house down.

S14 Ep12
6.8
19th Dec 1972
Jamie obtains an Irish setter pup and forms a special bond between dog and man. The dog's owner learns the puppy is at the Ponderosa and arrives to claim it ... so he can put it to sleep (since it was a runt and, according to the master, an inferior example of the breed. The dog is soon in a trial for its life.

S10 Ep1
6.8
15th Sep 1968
The 10th season opens as Joe helps a widowed mountain woman, a recluse who is suffering from an infection that has become serious, in a battle to save her land from an unscrupulous timber baron.

S5 Ep26
6.8
29th Mar 1964
The Cartwrights are visited by their second cousin, Muley Jones of Weedville, Missouri who sings with a window-shattering voice and stirs up trouble with Indian negotiations that Ben is trying to ensure.

S12 Ep24
6.8
14th Mar 1971
Blinded by an explosion, Joe wallows in self-pity, and at first resists the efforts of a woman trying to teach him to live without sight, not knowing she is also blind.

S8 Ep15
6.8
25th Dec 1966
Warbling Andy Walker returns to Virginia City a big success, along with his shifty Uncle Thaddeus.

S10 Ep18
6.8
26th Jan 1969
A neighbor of the Cartwrights threatens Hoss' fiancé, Erin - a beautiful young woman who has been raised by Indians since her childhood - when Ben allows the Paiutes to camp on Ponderosa land.

S11 Ep21
6.8
22nd Feb 1970
Ben gambles the future of the Ponderosa when a convincing meat packer from Chicago, sets out to ruin the local cattle industry.

S12 Ep27
6.8
4th Apr 1971
Ben, Hoss and Joe, along with Candy and a fellow rancher, are jailed on false trespassing charges by a greedy mining tycoon. The despot runs a gold mine (i.e., a thinly-veiled prison camp) and acquires slave labor by pressing phony criminal charges against the unfortunate inmates.

S5 Ep22
6.9
1st Mar 1964
While talking with an Indian, Ben is given an unexpected present...a woman. She is a young white woman named Joan who has lived with the Indians since she was a little girl. Through a humorous learning experience, Ben tries to teach Joan how to behave like a white woman. In the process, Ben finds himself in an awkward situation.

S6 Ep20
6.9
7th Feb 1965
Professor Klump and Amanda pull Hoss into their flying machine scheme. The ""Hoss-mobile"" doesn't seem to be destined for a great take-off.

S13 Ep11
6.9
5th Dec 1971
Jamie and three teen-agers - a girl and two boys - are kidnapped by Doyle, a hardened criminal with nothing to lose, and his gang of outlaws. The desperate outlaws use the youths as bargaining tools to make their escape from a trip to prison.

S12 Ep2
6.9
20th Sep 1970
Dusty takes in orphaned Jamie Hunter, the son of a recently-deceased rainmaker. Jamie is determined to carry on his father's tradition by using drought-stricken Virginia City to prove his talents.

S6 Ep19
6.9
31st Jan 1965
Adam becomes involved with a quick-triggered range detective hired by the Virginia City Cattleman's Association to find out who is responsible for all the rustling going on in the area.

S8 Ep23
6.9
19th Feb 1967
Mary Wharton, an old friend of the family, comes to live on the Ponderosa with her shiftless husband. When Ben learns Mary is the victim of domestic abuse, he sends Russ packing.

S9 Ep4
6.9
8th Oct 1967
Candy is arrested for committing murder in the town of Olympus. He is accused of killing Jed Wheelock, the son of wealthy A. Z. Wheelock. He insists on finding his son's killer but he wants a fair trial for Candy. Joe accompanies Candy to make sure things go smoothly, but when Joe is accused of killing a witness who claims he saw Candy kill Jed, Joe is locked up for murder with Candy, and it is up to Hoss to find the killer.

S12 Ep10
6.9
15th Nov 1970
Ben and Hoss come to the rescue of Mexican farmers who are forced off their land by the greedy mine owner who runs the town of Prince River.

S7 Ep10
6.9
14th Nov 1965
Hoss and Joe find a woman abandoned by a wagon train because her gift of prophecy is considered a curse. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," says Ben, "if eveybody made a real effort to understand whatever's strange and unfamiliar rather to fear it and try to destroy it?"

S7 Ep16
6.9
9th Jan 1966
Hoss finds a wounded young Indian on the prairie, who is torn between accepting the ways of the white man or returning to his old life.

S7 Ep28
6.9
10th Apr 1966
Everyone feels Andy Walker is an outstanding singer but his father, who feels the boy should concentrate on ranch work instead. Joe mentions receiving a letter from Adam, currently in Paris.

S11 Ep19
6.9
8th Feb 1970
When the daughter of a friend declares her love for him, Ben agonizes over what to do.

S11 Ep26
6.9
5th Apr 1970
In this second episode to feature Meena Calhoun and her father, Hoss and Joe's plans to sell horses from the livery stables in town is thwarted. Virgil and his two brothers also go into the livery business which creates troubles for Hoss and Joe.

S13 Ep20
6.9
13th Feb 1972
A band of ex-Confederate soldiers demands $25,000 from Ben. When Hoss resists their demands and tries to fight them, their leader, Shanklin, shoots Hoss in the abdomen. Hoss lingers near death, and when the doctor is unable to complete the surgery, a nearly inconsolable Ben persuades Shanklin (a confident, competent doctor) to save his son's life. Meanwhile, Jamie - who had witnessed the shooting and nearly got shot himself - searches high and low for Joe, who is involved with a beautiful starlet and intently focused on a poker match.

S7 Ep11
6.9
21st Nov 1965
The Generation Gap, Western-style, as Hoss tries to bring a young man and his father closer together.

S9 Ep32
6.9
2nd Jun 1968
Joe reluctantly takes a job as a substitute teacher and must contend with two older students who have no use for an education.

S11 Ep15
6.9
11th Jan 1970
Ben needs to haul three beams that are 30 feet long and the Cambeau Freight Company will not do it. A new, independent freight hauler may be the answer. However, when Ben meets Gunny, he orders him off the Ponderosa. Ben and Gunny served together in the Mexican war, and chose opposite sides. Ben puts his differences aside with Gunny and helps him win the government contract away from Cambeau Freight Company.

S14 Ep16
6.9
16th Jan 1973
In what turned out to be the series finale, Little Joe is making a delivery for Ben when he meets Bill Tanner, a psychotic killer that is posing as a soldier he has killed. His delivery wagon stolen and sans supplies, food or water, Joe - whom Tanner has called his ""prey"" - tries to evade the well-stocked madman, who takes sadistic pleasure in his role as a predator.

S3 Ep24
6.9
4th Mar 1962
In order to keep peace on the ranch, Hoss and Joe try to help ranch hand, Hank Meyers woo the the plain-looking schoolteacher, Abigail Jones. When their first plan backfires, they convince Adam (who doesn't want to get involved) to help and this makes things worse because Abigail believes it is Adam who is wooing her and Hank Meyers believes Adam wants to steal her away.

S2 Ep29
7.0
22nd Apr 1961
Hoss believes in his friend's primitive version of the automobile in this lighthearted, yet sad episode. When the "car" uses up the last of its fuel, Hoss remarks, "Dadburn it, I still say it woulda worked".

S3 Ep10
7.0
26th Nov 1961
A professional wrangler working for the Cartwrights is paralyzed when thrown by a particularly mean bronco. The woman nursing him was once engaged to the late son of a neighboring rancher out to get Ben.

S5 Ep16
7.0
19th Jan 1964
Ben's plans to marry Katherine Saunders are upset when her son Eden is accused of killing his former girlfriend.

S5 Ep24
7.0
15th Mar 1964
The town council feels Roy Coffee can no longer do his job, and with the notorious Wagner gang on their way to rob the bank, everyone is in a panic. Ben and Adam disagree with the town council and do what they can to help Roy out.

S5 Ep31
7.0
3rd May 1964
Moody bounty hunter, Dev Farnum, shows up on the Ponderosa, where the Cartwrights are harboring the wife of the man he is after.

S6 Ep21
7.0
14th Feb 1965
Adam sets out to track down the man who has been impersonating him to clear his reputation.

S6 Ep24
7.0
7th Mar 1965
While working as a substitute teacher, Adam uncovers an ugly secret about the territory's past that others prefer remain hidden.

S7 Ep1
7.0
12th Sep 1965
Wiley and Annie Kane arrive at the Ponderosa to work off their father's debt to Ben. It seems as though the elder Kane once swindled the Cartwright patriarch.

S7 Ep12
7.0
5th Dec 1965
The mother of a young outlaw condemned to hang, threatens to have her gang's hostages killed if her son is not set free. One of the hostages is Joe.

S7 Ep17
7.0
16th Jan 1966
The Pony Express sets up office in Virginia and Joe is one of the first to join up. Ben also decides to invest in the fledgling enterprise. However, troubles soon plague the Pony Express with the Paiutes and a newspaper reporter, both trying to get their own agendas across.

S7 Ep31
7.0
1st May 1966
A sailor, claiming to be one of Adam's closest friends, is given a warm welcome by the Cartwrights, who have no way of knowing the man and his accomplice plan on robbing them.

S8 Ep6
7.0
16th Oct 1966
Hoss is engaged to Carol Attley, a troubled woman with a past darker than he imagines.

S8 Ep10
7.0
13th Nov 1966
A young troubadour, who blames Ben for the death of his father, returns to Virginia City. In one scene, Ben says the young man is welcome to use Adam's guitar.

S8 Ep12
7.0
27th Nov 1966
When the woman he was planning to marry is strangled, Joe forces the only suspect to come forward, in a very tense-filled episode.

S8 Ep17
7.0
8th Jan 1967
When the woman he was planning to marry is strangled, Joe forces the only suspect to come forward.

S8 Ep32
7.0
30th Apr 1967
The Cartwrights' cousin, Clarissa visits. Her assertive, snobbish ways result in nothing but trouble for Ben and his sons.

S9 Ep5
7.0
15th Oct 1967
A sadistic outlaw named Dibbs along with his gang, take siege of the Ponderosa, holding Joe, Hoss, and Candy prisoners. Their foreman, Donny Buckler, has stashed $60,000 dollars and Dibbs will stop at nothing short of murder to get his hands on it.

S9 Ep19
7.0
4th Feb 1968
When a young woman inherits her late father's salt mine, a greedy rancher wants to buy all the salt for himself. Ben, standing for the smaller ranchers who cannot afford to pay the heiress' prices, bids against the wealthy rancher to get a fair price for all.

S10 Ep2
7.0
22nd Sep 1968
While Hoss is in a remote town on business, he is arrested for murder and robbery. The town's richest man has just been killed, and the townspeople are less concerned with justice, rather the old man's money. They are convinced that if they threaten Hoss, he'll break down and tell them where he hid the fortune. A few of the town's top citizens, including the mayor, form a lynch mob, but only hang Hoss "part of the way". But when cowboy Child Barnett sees the lynch mob coming, he breaks Hoss out of jail, and the two men form a friendship on the run.

S10 Ep15
7.0
5th Jan 1969
Hoss offers to help Annie Laurie, a beautiful young woman who is running away from her abusive husband, a career criminal who is determined to keep his wife under his control and travel with her throughout the southwest, any which way he can.

S11 Ep20
7.0
15th Feb 1970
Ben seriously doubts an angry young man committed several murders to which he has confessed to.

S12 Ep11
7.0
22nd Nov 1970
Pepper Shannon is a dime novel hero and outlaw. Ben gives a job to Pepper Shannon on the condition the one-time outlaw stays away from Jamie, who happens to admire him.

S12 Ep28
7.0
11th Apr 1971
The only person who can get Dusty out of jail is a professional fighter who will not return to Virginia City, so Joe stays on the man's heels no matter where he goes.

S13 Ep5
7.0
17th Oct 1971
Joe volunteers to help an old lawman escort a slick outlaw to jail, but when their prisoner kills the sheriff and wounds Joe, he must face the task alone.

S13 Ep22
7.0
5th Mar 1972
A 7-year-old boy is killed after he walks into a bank during a robbery by the ruthless Springer gang. Joe and Jamie help the boy's angrily grieving grandfather track down Springer.

S14 Ep6
7.0
10th Oct 1972
In what was essentially the second part of a two-part episode centering on Griff King, the young parolee arrives at the Ponderosa and is hired as a ranch hand. Ben, Joe and the others exercise patience as they tries to help an arrogant, resentful Griff adjust to society and life an honest life.

S14 Ep8
7.0
31st Oct 1972
Mark Twain ruffles dangerous feathers in Virginia City with accusations of claim-jumping and murder.

S14 Ep10
7.0
28th Nov 1972
Dr. Will Agar is Virginia City's new town doctor, and brings with him new skills and expertise to treat area residents' health maladies. Only thing is, Dr. Agar is seriously addicted to morphine, and it results in serious trouble for everyone.

S5 Ep23
7.1
8th Mar 1964
Hoss is suffering from spring fever, goes to the wrong town and is accused of bank robbery.

S5 Ep33
7.1
17th May 1964
Adam and Laura are finally engaged. Adam is secretly building a house and planning for the future. Laura realizes that it's Will she is in love with. Adam is then confined to a wheelchair after falling from a ladder and out of guilt, Laura and Will deny their feelings.

S4 Ep9
7.1
25th Nov 1962
Billy Horne is a white man who was captured by the Shoshone when he was six. He comes into Ben & Joe's campsite one night uninvited. They capture him and take him to town. Roy Coffee wants to put him in jail for safekeeping, but Ben says he'll take him to the Ponderosa. They buy Horne clothes and become friends to him. A guy named Milton Tanner says the deed to the Ponderosa is weak and tries to take a third of it. Billy goes to Tanner's ranch and warns him that he will kill him if he tries to take the land. Tanner turns his dog loose on Billy. Billy kills the dog and then Tanner, who is going for a gun. Billy pleads guilty, but breaks out. Eventually he goes back with Joe and tells what really happened.

S10 Ep7
7.1
27th Oct 1968
The residents of Tin Bucket claim the Cartwrights and Candy are dealing in stolen cattle hides. With most of the town accusing Joe, Hoss and Candy of various crimes, it is Ben who faces the most serious trouble when he determines who is actually responsible for the hide thefts.

S3 Ep20
7.1
4th Feb 1962
The Cartwrights pretend the Ponderosa belongs to the town lush, when his aging mother from Ireland arrives.

S7 Ep13
7.1
12th Dec 1965
Hoss finds a kindred spirit in Skeeter Dexter, a lonesome young man who feels closer to animals than most people.

S12 Ep16
7.1
10th Jan 1971
An insecure Jamie is unsure of his place in the family, having trouble adjusting at his new school and keeps getting harassed by a bully. When he takes Ben's prized gold-plated rifle and breaks it, he runs away, sending Ben to go looking for him.

S5 Ep18
7.1
2nd Feb 1964
The new stranger in town claims to be the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, and Hoss believes him.

S9 Ep3
7.1
1st Oct 1967
A band of Mexican kidnaps Little Joe for a $25,000 ransom. A group of cowboys plan to rescue Joe, kill him and claim the gold for themselves.

S10 Ep17
7.1
19th Jan 1969
Candy sets out to help a feisty and elderly British woman recover the jewels stolen from her in a stage holdup.

S11 Ep24
7.1
22nd Mar 1970
Ben and Joe stop in Los Robles for a couple of beers and a night's rest. Ben sees the town boss, John Walker, bullying the saloon waitress, and he comes to her defense. When Ben steps outside of the saloon, Walker shoots him in the back. Badly wounded, Ben shoots back, killing Walker just before he falls unconscious. While Joe keeps a vigil at Ben's bedside, the priest tells him Los Robles had always been ruled unquestionably by John Walker and his son Jed. Now Jed will certainly want revenge. Sure enough, he tells Joe if he doesn't hand Ben over in 24 hours, he will kill every citizen in Los Robles, one an hour. To complicate matters more, Walker's foreman, Garth, deliberately tells Jed that Ben shot his father in the back, in hopes that Joe will kill Walker, so he can run the Walker ranch. When Joe tries to mobilize a few citizens to fight Walker and his army of men, he finds a town full of cowards. The biggest coward of all is the doctor. He purposely left the bullet in Ben's back, hoping that he'd die within 24 hours. Jed and Garth make final plans to blow up Los Robles with dynamite, unless Joe surrenders Ben to him.

S1 Ep1
7.8
12th Sep 1959
Lotta Crabtree is hired by mining tycoon Alpheus Troy to lure one of the Cartwrights into town and hold him for ransom in exchange for Ponderosa timber rights.

S1 Ep2
7.8
19th Sep 1959
Greedy opportunist Mark Burdette and his accomplice Early Thorne stir up trouble between the Paiute tribe and the citizens of Virginia City. Ben discovers Burdette and Thorne are selling antelope beef to the miners and finds the price too high. He offers the miners beef at a more reasonable price. Burdette and Thorne retaliate by framing the Paiute's for attacks, by dressing as them and killing ranchers. Based on a factual accounting. Lorne Greene's first voice-over narration, and no landing constructed yet for the Ponderosa stairway.

S1 Ep3
7.7
26th Sep 1959
John Pennington and his crew want to mine the Ponderosa land by hydraulic means. Ben is totally against this method and evicts them in short order. Hoss is given the task of telling Pennington's men to leave, but soon has a moral dilemma on his hands when he meets Pennington's beautiful sister, Emily. He soon discovers a heartbreaking secret...she's terminally ill; but their relationship soon leads to plenty of trouble for the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep4
7.6
3rd Oct 1959
Trader Mike Wilson attempts to escape punishment by the Paiute Indians after mistreating two of their women, by placing the blame on Adam. A fierce war between the Paiutes and the California militia follows, and the Paiutes seize Adam as hostage. Very impressive battle scenes in the this first mini-epic of the series. This episode did all it could to stage the real thing; 50 Indians were used and 50 cavalry actors and extras were used, and the production involved three days of shooting on location. This episode encompassed both the biggest cast and most costly stunts. This episode is based on the factual accounting that occured in May and June of 1860.

S1 Ep5
7.6
10th Oct 1959
Samuel Clemens arrives in Virginia City to write for the Territorial Enterprise at the same time a crooked politician tries to lay claim on the Ponderosa.

S1 Ep6
7.4
17th Oct 1959
Little Joe is infatuated wih saloon owner Julia Bulette, whom he imagines is like his late mother. First episode to reveal backround details concerning Marie Cartwright, and inspired by the true story of a Virginia City madam. Also, the first episode to showcase Michael Landon.

S1 Ep7
7.5
24th Oct 1959
Adam defends the mining claim of Annie O' Toole in a court presided over by Judge Ben Cartwright. Annie comes to the Washoe Diggings with a claim to a mine filed by her beau, Swede Lundberg. Swede has two claims and sold one to an acquaintance of theirs named Gregory Spain, creating confusion, that only Judge Ben Cartwright can make a ruling on.

S1 Ep8
7.8
31st Oct 1959
Adam and Hoss assist a German engineer in developing the concept of "square set timbering" in the mines. Based on fact, and the first episode not to include all four Cartwrights. Hoss refers to the character, Emily, with whom he was in love with in, "The Newcomers".

S1 Ep9
7.8
7th Nov 1959
In a flashback, the legendary prospector arrives on the Ponderosa and participates in the founding of Virginia City. Coincidentally, guest star Jack Carson played a teller at the Comstock Bank and Trust in the 1942 film, "Gentleman Jim". This early classic was the second episode filmed.

S1 Ep10
7.5
14th Nov 1959
Virginia City is visited by actress Adah Issacs Menken, who happens to be an old acquaintance of Ben's. Joe is badly beaten by Adah's jealous suitor, John C. Regan, who is bested in a fight with an enraged Hoss.

S1 Ep11
7.2
21st Nov 1959
Luther Bishop and Ben Cartwright have had an ongoing land dispute for a number of years, over a small tract called the Truckee Strip. One of Bishop's employee's has a grudge against the Cartwrights and wants to stir up the feud again, while also harboring designs on Bishop's pretty daughter, Amy. Joe meets and falls in love with Amy, in spite of the family differences and the two want to marry. Just when it looks like the feud will end with the union of the two young people, Bishop's man attacks Amy and Joe must come to the rescue.

S1 Ep12
7.7
28th Nov 1959
Adam and Joe reluctantly join a group of vengeful townsmen, who are out to lynch the three men who supposedly killed Vannie Johnson. The posse is run by Paiute Scroggs and Flint Johnson, the dead woman's husband. When Adam and Joe clash with them, they both separate and try to reach the three men before the posse does. This episode's storyline is a variation of the 1943 film "The Ox-Bow Incident".

S1 Ep13
7.7
5th Dec 1959
In a variation of "High Noon", Ben and Hoss must face a gang of outlaws practically all alone when most of Virginia City's citizens go into hiding. The most action-filled episode since "The Paiute War".

S1 Ep14
7.6
12th Dec 1959
This episode begins with Adam defending the honor of Sue Ellen Terry in a duel. No one gets shot because the other man misses Adam and Adam generously shoots in the air to end the duel. Sue Ellen lives with her sister, who seems nice but turns out to be fairly evil, consumed with jealousy because she's getting older and her sister is a young beauty. When Adam drops Sue Ellen off after a date one night, half way through this episode, someone shoots her dead, and Adam becomes a suspect and is thrown in jail. When the sheriff suggests that Adam escape, he does it, but when he walks out, someone tries to shoot him. He chases after them but doesn't find them, and soon after hears Sue Ellen's sister scream. He runs up the stairs to find her dead, and of course, is then suspected of that murder as well. Of course, his family helps him during the last half hour, and it all turns out that someone we should not have suspected did all the murders, but that he actually wasn't trying to hit

S1 Ep15
7.6
19th Dec 1959
Hoss and Joe come across a pregnant Indian woman while hunting bighorn sheep and must deliver her baby. Despite touches of humor, including a scene in which Joe refers to a meal as "cattle fodder", the story does not have an altogether happy ending.

S1 Ep16
7.8
2nd Jan 1960
Ben sends Hoss and Joe to Monterey to purchase an expensive seed bull. The first of Blocker and Landon's many comic misadventures, although the casual use of violence, as in the rapier fight, is oddly uncharacteristic for the series. Hoss reveals his real name to be Eric for the first time.

S1 Ep17
7.6
9th Jan 1960
Because she is related to criminals, a young woman is ostracized by everyone but the the Cartwrights. She unwisely seeks solace with an ex-con friend of Joe's, Clay Renton, and it's up to Ben to straighten everything out. First episode to have a chapter title after the cast credits.

S1 Ep18
7.6
16th Jan 1960
As the Civil War approaches, Adam and Joe clash over which side to support. The situation is complicated by the arrival of Frederick Kyle, a Southern sympathizer. He was an old friend of Joe's mother and viewers also discover that Joe's middle name is Francis.

S1 Ep19
7.7
23rd Jan 1960
In the first all-out comic episode of the series, Hoss and Joe travel to Kiowa Flats, Texas, where they are mistaken for the notorious Slade Brothers, also played by Blocker and Landon.

S1 Ep20
7.6
30th Jan 1960
The Cartwrights encounter racial bigotry in Virginia City and end up protecting a Chinese boy from mob violence. Victor Sen Yung, in his largest role to date, speaks normally in the presence of his fellow countrymen, but reverts to broken English when with the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep21
7.6
6th Feb 1960
In "The Spanish Grant", a young bargirl, Rosita Morales is pretending to be a Spanish noblewoman named Isabella Marie Inez de la Cuesta and at the end of the story, it's revealed she is really Rosita Morales, but on the other hand, is she really Rosita Morales? This little twist at the end is simply entertaining everytime it's viewed, with the viewer able to determine the young woman's real identity at the end of act four.

S1 Ep22
7.7
13th Feb 1960
A shiftless sheepherder, Jeb Drummond, encroaches his herd of sheep on the Ponderosa and refuses to budge. He resists all of Ben's attempts to throw him off his land and finally resorts to taking Adam prisoner in exchange for ownership of the ranch.

S1 Ep23
7.8
20th Feb 1960
When a tough U.S. Marshal from California arrests a Ponderosa hand, Dave Walker, for murder, Adam and Hoss go along to make sure their employee reaches Los Angeles alive. In one scene, Adam is dressed in black for the first time. In another, Hoss, upon seeing Southern California for the first time, remarks, "It sure ain't never gonna amount to much". Later, Adam makes an amusing reference to the chow Joe says he was forced to eat in "The Last Hunt".

S1 Ep24
7.8
27th Feb 1960
Nevada Territory is awaiting statehood, and Ben considers running for governor until he learns he is wanted for murder in New Orleans. Inspector Charles Leduque arrives and says Ben is wanted for commiting the murder 20 years earlier, and after Joe kills his bodyguard in self-defense, Inspector Leduque makes it appear the other way around. Ben has no choice but go with Leduque, to clear his name in a very suspense-filled episode. Once again, there are several references to Joe's mother, and viewers are shown Marie's grave near the shore of Lake Tahoe.

S1 Ep25
7.9
5th Mar 1960
After Adam is bushwhacked by three army deserters, Ben tracks them down, and tackles the brutal Captain Bolton who is pursuing them.

S1 Ep26
8.0
19th Mar 1960
A restaurant owner whom Ben and Adam have confronted over stolen Ponderosa beef ends up dead one night. His daughter, Sally Byrnes runs the cafe and in her resentment, wrongfully accuses Ben and Adam of murdering her father and they are sentenced to hang. A rancher by the name of Hawkins is also jealous of the Cartwrights and has hired his men to stop the town from helping Ben and Adam, ensuring they hang. Hoss and Joe are willing to stop them, but Ben insists they stay within the limits of the law.

S1 Ep27
7.8
26th Mar 1960
Adam takes Ben's friends, Lord Marion Dunsworth and Lady Beatrice, on a hunting expedition, and they are captured by a gang of crude thieves and murderers. During one early scene, after listening to Ben reminisce, Hoss says, "Always like to hear Pa get wound up. He don't do it often."

S1 Ep28
8.1
2nd Apr 1960
In this comic episode, the first to take place far from the ranch, Ben, Hoss, and Joe deliver a herd to San Francisco. Although he warns his sons to be careful in the big city ("This is not the Ponderosa!"), Ben is the one who is shanghaied and must be rescued.

S1 Ep29
8.1
9th Apr 1960
Len Keith, a miner, wants to purchase some land adjacent to the Ponderosa from rancher Andy McKaren. Andy's son, Tod, is anxious to sell. Keith has offered him a partnership,and more importantly, he is in love with Keith's daughter. When Ben warns Andy that a mine on the property would foul up Ponderosa water, Andy agrees not to sell the land. Len Keith, determined to get that land, plants tick infested cattle in a Ponderosa herd to turn Andy against the Cartwrights.

S1 Ep30
7.8
16th Apr 1960
Hoss takes Billy Allen, the young son of a convicted felon under his wing, then is forced to kill his father and Billy will not forgive him. The most emotional Hoss story since "The Newcomers" and one of Blocker's best.

S1 Ep31
7.6
23rd Apr 1960
Joe falls in love with Tirza, an undeniably strange gypsy girl who says she is cursed and never does seem to "snap out of it". The first episode of the series with a supernatural flavor, directed appropriately enough, by Lewis Allen, who made the classic ghost film "The Uninvited".

S1 Ep32
8.0
30th Apr 1960
Virginia City is plagued by organized crime, Sam Bryant and his gang. One of his men, Farmer Perkins, kills a storekeeper, and at his trial, the wife of the store owner is afraid to testify. When Perkins is sentenced to hang, Bryant kidnaps Ben and wants to exchange Ben for Perkins, which leaves Adam with the most difficult decision of his life. A stellar cast.
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The first episode of Bonanza aired on September 12, 1959.
The last episode of Bonanza aired on January 16, 1973.
There are 431 episodes of Bonanza.
There are 14 seasons of Bonanza.
No.
Bonanza has ended.