Promos, bumpers, photo galleries, featurettes

Every story has a beginning. “Bonanza” seemed to ride out of nowhere to dominate TV much like its brethren “Gunsmoke”. Creator David Dortort used his western anthology series “The Restless Gun” to develop the concepts for “Bonanza”. As one of the earliest color shows on TV “Bonanza” with its colorful backgrounds and settings pulled in huge audiences for NBC. NBC was owned by RCA and it was part of the idea that putting on color programming would move RCA’s new color televisions in a big, big way. ***

It took awhile for “Bonanza” to find its audience particularly when NBC put the fledgling series up agains the juggernaut of “Perry Mason” and every program after “Perry Mason” was a western so it wasn’t like fans of the genre were going to miss anything. The third season proved the charm with the series being moved into a permanent berth on Sundays away from “Perry Mason”. With an appealing cast including a young Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and the family patriarch played by Lorne Green. Sadly, Roberts left the series looking for greener pastures leaving the remaining actors to carry on and, not surprisingly, this colorful series continued a long successful run on NBC beating the odds even after Dan Blocker’s death and Michael Landon’s departure. ***

Part of the success of the show was due to the terrific writing, direction and performances on the show. Featuring top notch writer/producers such as Gene L. Coon (“Star Trek”), creator Dortort and others “Bonanza” always had an epic feel to it even during the obvious studio shots for the Ponderosa Ranch. ---

Image & Sound:

“Bonanza” gets the deluxe treatment from Paramount as it should. We get the original uncut episodes with no music substitutions as far as I can tell. The episodes aren’t faded, colors are bold throughout and detail remarkably sharp. Although there are occasional bits of dirt and scratches that show up now and again, the show looks remarkably vivid for being 50 years old. ***

Audio likewise is strong throughout with dialogue strong throughout and music in its original mono presentation sounding quite good. ---

We have a wide variety of very good special features including-Original NBC Network logo, bumpers and Lorne Greene RCA promo, Photo gallery,Rare alternate pilot ending featuring the “Singing Cartwrights”,Fireside theatre: “Man of the Comstock” – original airdate 11/03/53, David Dortort stories: The Ponderosa Map Story,Photo gallery: NBC headquarters, Clarence “Fat” Jones stables and publicity stills, Bonanza World Premiere – Reno, Nevada (August 22-23, 1959),David Dortort stories: Remembering Michael Landon,Photo gallery including Lake Tahoe location and credit drawings,David Dortort stories: Remembering Dan Blocker,David Dortort stories: How the Ponderosa got its name”,David Dortort stores: Pernell Roberts,Photo gallery including Iverson Ranch Location, Chatsworth CA (January 1960),Original NBC Network logo, bumpers and RCA spots,David Dortort stores: Remembering Victor Sen Yung,David Dortort stores: Remembering Lorne Greene. ---

Final Words: