Saddle Tales: Bonanza celebrates 40th anniversary

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 9:08 a.m.

On Sept. 12, 1959 a map of the fictitious Ponderosa ranch in Northern Nevada leapt onto television screens and ignited -- and over the next 14 years seared its way into the memories of millions of viewers around the world.

"Bonanza" -- set during the Civil War era and soon after the discovery of the Comstock Silver Lode -- was born 40 years ago Sunday.

Although the series -- the first Western broadcast in color -- can still be seen in reruns around the world (locally at 2 p.m. weekdays on Pax TV, Cox cable channel 50), the fan base is dwindling as baby boomers age and younger generations lose sight of the pop culture icons of the past. Those included the Ponderosa and the Cartwright family that rode its ranges and mountains for 14 seasons: Ben (Lorne Greene), the strong patriarch of the clan who fathered three sons by three wives, all deceased as the show began; Adam, (Pernell Roberts), the brooding intellectual son; Hoss, (Dan Blocker), the gentle giant; and Little Joe (Michael Landon), the impulsive romantic.

When "Bonanaza" began slipping in the ratings a couple of years after the contentious departure of Roberts in 1965, David Canary -- now appearing on the ABC soap "All My Children" -- joined the cast in 1967 as ranch foreman Mr. Canaday, also known as Candy.

In 1970 Mitch Vogel -- 13 at the time -- joined the Cartwright family as orphan Jamie Hunter, injecting some youth into the aging clan. In the background throughout the long-running program was Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung), the Ponderosa's cook.

Most of the show's signature actors -- Greene, Blocker, Landon and Yung -- have died. Roberts, who was very dissatisfied with the show during his tenure, is semiretired and declines to discuss "Bonanza" publicly.

Nevada and 'Bonanza'

For 14 seasons NBC took us to the vast Ponderosa ranch, fictitiously set between Virginia City and Lake Tahoe, where a "Bonanza" convention is taking place this weekend.

Ron James, historic preservation officer of the Nevada Historic Preservation Office, said the impact of "Bonanza" on Nevada was dramatic.

"Millions of people were brought here who would not have come," James said. "It had a tremendous financial impact, and continues to have (an impact)."

People from all over the world still want to see the Ponderosa and Virginia City, although some are disappointed when the real Virginia City bears no resemblance to the one on the series.

James, 44, was 5 when his parents first took him to visit Virginia City in 1960. Residents early on tried to convert the town into a closer image of the television version.

"In reality, Virginia City was a highly industrialized urban community, not a Wild West frontier town," James said. "It was a brick-and-iron town with buildings wall-to-wall. It didn't look like the Western set. In response, the town started clothing brick and iron structures with unpainted cedar board."

Eventually, sanity prevailed and folks reverted to historic accuracy.

But for Virginia City, much of the historical information contained in the "Bonanza" stories was accurate, attributed to the fact that the show's creator, David Dortort, has a history degree.

Cartwright conclave

To commemorate the series' 40th anniversary, diehard fans from around the world are holding a "Bonanza" convention that begins today at Lake Tahoe and continues through Sunday. (However, if you don't already have a ticket, you can't attend.)

More than 200 people have paid almost $300 each to attend the affair, which includes, among other things, a barbecue at the Ponderosa Ranch Western Theme Park at Incline Village, a trip to Virginia City and a chance to mingle with more than 30 people who had some connection with the show -- such as Greene's daughter, Linda Bennett, who will be there promoting a recently completed book about her famous father.

Tom Swann, a businessman from Albuquerque, N.M., organized the convention for two women living in England who sought his assistance in putting together an event to honor this milestone birthday of their favorite television series. They, like many other fans, became acquainted on a website called bonanza1.com.

Swann, 54, created the nonprofit Bonanza Convention, Inc., to put on the event.

David Geddes, 35, manages the 600-acre Ponderosa theme park that was created in the mid-'60s by his wife's parents, Bill and Joyce Anderson, with the help of those involved with the television series. Many of the location shots for the series later in its run were made at the facility, where the sprawling Cartwright house still stands.

Geddes estimates that 250,000 tourists from around the world visit the Ponderosa each year.

Geddes watched "Bonanza" while he was growing up in his native New Zealand. At its peak, an estimated 400 million viewers worldwide watched the show, which was translated into a dozen t languages.

'Family dynamic'

Hal Rothman, a UNLV history professor, calls the series a classic American tale.

"It was about individual maturation, about people growing up. As the show progresses we see the evolution of America," Rothman said, adding that "the family dynamic is what makes it work."

Ron Simon, television curator of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City, said "Bonanza" was a family melodrama, one of the first prime-time shows to use the daytime soap opera format -- a precursor to such shows as "Dallas" and "Dynasty." It was also one of the first westerns to shift from violent shoot-'em-ups to management of family real estate ("The Big Valley" was another).

"It examined the relationship of a family," Simon said. "When 'Bonanza' first was introduced it received uniformly bad reviews. People questioned what it was up to. They thought it had little possibility in sustaining an audience."

He added that the first few episodes came off as "clunky," but eventually the characters found their strides and it became a hit.

"There were three sons so tempermentally different, but all united with the father and the land. The Ponderosa is the fifth element in the show, a backdrop for the drama to play out," he said. "As a western, it was totally suited to a series that could play out over time so we could look at all the different relationships."

Social upheaval and 'Bonanza'

Simon said the show incorporated many of the conflicts of the '60s into its scripts, examining racial issues as well as the generation gap.

Its run covered a tumultuous time in American history.

When "Bonanza" debuted Dwight Eisenhower was wrapping up his presidency, Alaska had recently become our 49th state and five black students were enrolled at a Little Rock high school.

When it was canceled Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, was president and John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated; young people went from white Levis and a black-and-white view of the world to tie-dyed t-shirts and psychedelic colors.

When "Bonanza" took center stage it was in front of a complacent, consumer-oriented public that was absorbed in the pleasure of conspicuous consumption during one of the most prosperous periods of American history.

It played to an audience that paid little attention to a news item of the day that was an ominous portent of the future -- some insignificant little regime in some remote little country called North Vietnam took control of the growing communist rebellion in neighboring South Vietnam.

With a driving theme song that became as recognizable as "The Lone Ranger's" "William Tell Overture," "Bonanza" became a member of a family of westerns that ruled the airwaves at that time.

What baby boomer, or one born on the fringes of boomerhood, can forget tuning into the adventures of "The Range Rider," "The Cisco Kid," "Hopalong Cassidy" and then, "Cheyenne," "Sugarfoot," "Bronco," "Maverick," "Gunsmoke," "The Rifleman," "The Big Valley," "Rawhide," "Wagon Train" (on which Greene once appeared) or "The Virginian" (the pilot of which Blocker appeared on)?

It was the hay day of oaters.

"Bonanza" was no "Petticoat Junction." It had an all-male cast, and the men weren't bumbling idiots but manly men who beat up the bad guys and swept women off their feet -- although frequently the women died at the end of the show to preserve the masculine make-up of the cast.

Landon once quipped that horses had to be careful not to trip over all the graves of the women who died on the show.

In addition to being all-male, the cast was all-white -- except for Hop Sing, the Ponderosa cook who was patronized by the Cartwrights, displaying what some consider gross cultural insensitivity.

Stories, however, incorporated blacks, Indians and other ethnic groups to deal with racial issues that were at the forefront of the news in the '60s.

One of the complaints of Roberts was that there were not enough stories dealing with racism. When it looked like he was going to be given a wife on the show, he insisted that the wife be an Indian -- portrayed by a black actress. Writers decided not to venture into those murky racial waters.

Simon said the show paid close attention to cinematic qualities, as well as to the quality of its stories, many of which were directed by Robert Altman, who has become a legend in the film industry.

However, 14 years and a shift in the national ethos -- not to mention the death of the popular Blocker -- spelled the end of "Bonanza."

"There was a whole movement in the early '70s away from rural-based shows or westerns," Simon said. "TV was changing."

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