Bonanza on DVD!

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: Bonanza on DVD!

#11 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

MagnumILWU wrote:https://youtu.be/p3ZqKht4Vr4 Hoss and the Leprechauns! What a great episode! Grew up watching Bonanza. Sunday nights: Lassie, Walt Disney, and Bonanza!
Hi Magnum,
What a great line up for kids! Disney's multi part Scarecrow movie (with Patrick McGoonan) so scared me when a screaming Scarecrow on horseback rode thru a storm with a maniacal laugh that I was sent to bed while my twin sister got to stay up and watch it. She teased me for the rest of our childhood about that one.
For my money the "Hoss and the Leprechauns" episode of Bonanza that you mentioned is one of the all time funniest episodes of television ever made. The entire cast down to the extras look like they are having a ball.
The Bonanza cast all put out music albums, Lorne Greene the most successful with many hits.
But Pernell Roberts(Adam) was far more talented musically and had a beautiful singing voice. He received critical praise for "Alberta" and his Hoyt Axton duets which along with his other songs are on Youtube.
Does anyone know if the Magnum cast put out any music, or if they had musical talent? Higgins singing "Bridge over the River Kwai" would have been great! Not whistling like in the movie.
Because the lyrics were dirty they had to have the British soldiers march into the POW camp whistling the tune, which turned a negative into a positive as it is one of the most stirring moments ever in a war movie.
It would not have been anywhere as effective if the squaddies were singing:
"Hitler, he only has one b---, Himmler has two but they are very small"

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Little Garwood
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Re: Bonanza on DVD!

#12 Post by Little Garwood »

How nice that someone bumped this old thread about a series that's near-and-dear to my heart!

The release of Bonanza's seventh and eighth seasons on DVD got me thinking about the show and how it evolved after Pernell Roberts departed the Ponderosa, never to return.

I prefer the "Adam Years" but I also enjoy seasons seven and onward for a few reasons. One being there was more location and outdoor filming which helped immerse the viewer into the story. Having that gorgeous Nevada and California scenery certainly helped, though there was still plenty shot on the lot.

Bonanza, albeit less than other programs, began to reflect the changes in American society taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Portrayals of Native and African Americans were always sensitively rendered, even if they didn't receive the screen time and characterizations audiences would expect today, as some of those portrayals are quaint or condescending by the increasingly PC environment. However, Bonanza was always progressive and I believe that if Pernell Roberts had remained with the show throughout the 1960s, he would have appreciated the scripts and the social issues addressed on the program. Michael Landon was interested in this and wrote and directed several episodes. It's a shame he didn't get the chance to write something for Roberts.

I strongly disagree with those who say that Roberts' portrayal of Adam came off as aloof or disinterested. Roberts played comedy quite well yet his overall serious demeanor was a fine contrast to the often silly shenanigans of Hoss and Joe. Some of my favorite scenes are when Adam and Ben react to the younger sons' schemes. There was an excellent Ben-Adam dynamic, with Adam being the eldest son and heir apparent to the Ponderosa. The scenes where Ben and Adam discuss the business of the ranch reflected this. Adam was a subtle character and cut from the "strong, silent type" prevalent in the American Western mythos. Adam also appealed to a specific fanbase; if girls oohed and aaahed over Joe (such as my mother did in her teen years in the early '60s), then women swooned over Adam.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re: Bonanza on DVD!

#13 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

[quote="Little Garwood"]
Bonanza, albeit less than other programs, began to reflect the changes in American society taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Portrayals of Native and African Americans were always sensitively rendered, even if they didn't receive the screen time and characterizations audiences would expect today, as some of those portrayals are quaint or condescending by the increasingly PC environment. However, Bonanza was always progressive and I believe that if Pernell Roberts had remained with the show throughout the 1960s, he would have appreciated the scripts and the social issues addressed on the program. Michael Landon was interested in this and wrote and directed several episodes. It's a shame he didn't get the chance to write something for Roberts.

Hi Garwood,
You are spot on regarding Bonanza's social conscience.
Producer David Dortort took to heart his deeply felt Jewish faith's exhortation to make one's community a better place and thus the episodes with sympathetic African American, Jewish, Indian, Chinese, various other immigrant groups, Morman and Midget(short people? sorry I don't know what they are called now, no doubt a member of the PC Police will correct me) characters.
The episode with the midget Michael Dunn of Wild Wild West fame will break your heart.
Roberts thought the series could do more to promote civil rights and wanted "Adam" to marry a Black woman which would have doomed the show in Southern markets and caused it's cancellation when it was NBC's goldmine.
Roberts relented and said if Adam could marry an Indian then he might not leave the series after 7 years but it was a different world back then and NBC refused.
Check out Roberts in the outstanding Randolph Scott western "Ride Lonesome", he is superb; this flick would be perfect for Tom Selleck to remake, he could pass for 60 and the story would still work.
I can recommend to you David Greenland's
"Bonanza, A Viewers Guide To The TV Legend".
An excellent book and not just because I'm in the 'Acknowledgements' for having contributed to it in a very small way, or because the first paragraph in the Forward is about me as a kid. It is far better researched and written than most of the books about tv series.

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Little Garwood
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Re: Bonanza on DVD!

#14 Post by Little Garwood »

For a most interesting then-contemporary-issue episode, check out The Dream Riders from season two.

Plot: a U.S. Army major, an old friend of Ben's, plans a bank robbery with the subsequent getaway being made with the aid of the major's pet project, a hot-air balloon.

The major's dialogue from The Dream Riders ostensibly concerns his belief in the hot-air balloon he is testing for the army, but when you listen to the dialogue and consider the time in which this episode was aired (May 20, 1961), The Dream Riders is clearly about the U.S. space program. In fact, U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard had gone on his first manned flight that very month.

It's fascinating how a western tv series could so flimsily disguise itself as a space flight allegory. Great stuff from Bonanza.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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