Bonanza Marathon Aug 31/Sept 1 on TV Land [Archive] - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Pavan

08-06-2003, 10:01 AM

Marathon release:

It's Back to the Ponderosa When TV Land Launches Bonanza in September

TV LAND TO AIR BONANZA MARATHON
The legendary Western series, Bonanza, blazes back into television when it launches on TV Land on Labor Day weekend, Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET/PT. Clockwise: Dan Blocker as Eric 'Hoss' Cartwright, Michael Landon as Joseph 'Little Joe'Cartwright, Pernelle Roberts as Adam Cartwright, and Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright.

NEW YORK, Aug. 6 -- The legendary Western series, Bonanza,
blazes back into television when it launches on TV Land on Labor Day weekend, Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET/PT. The show will join the network's regular line-up on Tuesday, September 2 and will air daily from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET/PT. One of the longest running Westerns in television history, Bonanza was also the first Western in television to be
broadcast in color.

"Bonanza is truly a classic American series," states Larry W. Jones, Executive Vice President and General Manager, TV Land and Nick at Nite. "The superb cast of Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker, coupled with the weekly adventures of the tight-knit Cartwright clan have made
this a timeless series now and for years to come."

Bonanza aired from 1961-72 and was a non-traditional Western centering on a prosperous family of ranchers living in Virginia City, Nevada during the Civil War years, after the discovery of the Comstock Silver Lode. Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) is a widower and patriarch of an all-male clan and
owner of Ponderosa Ranch. His three sons -- Adam, Eric "Hoss" and Little Joe -- each have a different mother, none of whom are still alive. Adam (Pernell Roberts) is the most serious of the three and is the successor to the ranch. Hoss (Dan Blocker) is a gentle giant who is quite naive and Little Joe (Michael Landon) is the youngest and most romantic of the trio. The show focuses on the everyday adventures in mining and ranching, as well as the
relationships the Cartwright men have with those they encounter. For most of the 1960s, Bonanza ranked as one of the highest-rated programs on television, and its driving theme song, "Bonanza," was also a huge hit.

Many other characters frequented the Ponderosa Ranch such as Hop Sing, (Vicor Sen Yung) the Ponderosa Cook, Candy (David Canary) and Griff King, (Tim Matheson) the ranch hands the Cartwrights hired, Dusty Rhoades, (Lou Frizzel) a friend of Ben's, Jamie Hunter, (Mitch Vogel) an orphaned teenager the Cartwright's took in and ended up adopting, Sheriff Roy Coffee, (Ray Teal) and Deputy Clem (Bing Russell).

The schedule for the Bonanza marathon is as follows (all times ET/PT):

Sunday, August 31
3 p.m. #18 -- House Divided
Frederick Kyle has created problems in the Cartwright home and Virginia City when he arrives in town to gain support for the Confederacy.

4 p.m. #59 -- The Gift
While in Arizona to buy horses, Joe takes a lone trip to Yuma to pick up a gift for his father's birthday -- a beautiful white horse. Finding himself caught in an Indian uprising, he must rely on his traveling companion, Emeliano, the man who raised the horse to get them through safely.

5 p.m. # 68 -- Springtime
It's Spring and the boys are irritable after a long, rough, hard winter. Another dispute lands the three of them in a mud wrestling match and in the ruckus Ben's visiting friend Jedidiah Milbank is injured. Ben offers to have his sons take care of Milbank's affairs while he recovers, so Adam, Hoss, and Joe set off in different directions to carry out the tasks assigned to them.

6 p.m. #121 -- The Hayburner
Adam and Hoss purchase a thoroughbred to run in the Virginia City race, but Hoss puts him up for security in a poker game and loses. They desperately need the money to buy him back but they know their father will never loan them money for a horse that doesn't earn his keep on the ranch.

Monday, September 1
3:00pm #146 -- Hoss and the Leprechauns
Hoss comes to the rescue of a little man being pursued by a bear. When Hoss scares the bear off he finds the little man is gone and has left behind a strongbox full of gold. When Hoss tries to tell people about his story no one believes him. Later that night he finds that the strongbox was stolen. This sets off a hilarious chain of events as the Ponderosa is overrun with gold seekers and Leprechaun hunters.

4:00pm #165 -- The Dark Past
A bounty hunter stops at the Ponderosa with an injured horse and is forced to stay on to work off the cost of a new horse. While there he meets another guest, Holly Burnside, the wife of the man he is after, Jamie Boy Briggs. Ben learns the young man is the son of a famous preacher and is curious to find out why the man seems so hateful and aloof.

5:00pm #183 -- The Flapjack Contest
Ben sends Joe into Virginia City to pick up the mail. Joe picks up the mail including a letter and a package from Adam, then gets into a poker game and wins $100 by drawing to an inside straight. Joe is bushwhacked on the way home and the package from Adam is stolen. The letter from Adam states that he is sending home a valuable ruby that he bought for $1,000. Little Joe hides the theft from his father to keep Pa from asking too many questions about his poker-playing and late-night activities. Little Joe enters Hoss in the flapjack contest and bets against the opponent in an attempt to win $1,000 to pay Adam for the Ruby.

6:00pm #197 -- To Own the World
The world's richest man, Charles Hacket, decides he wants the Ponderosa and he will stop at nothing to get it. He blackmails one of Ben's friends into selling him the land and water rights that Ben needs and he buys up the supplies of grain Ben needs. In the process, Hacket almost loses the only person who ever truly loved him-his wife.

Now seen in more than 78 million U.S. homes, TV Land was created in April 1996. The network's broad mix of sitcoms, dramas, westerns, variety shows and classic commercials -- which TV Land refers to as retromercials -- have helped make TV Land one of the fastest-growing networks in all of television.