Dark Star

I think this is one of the worst episodes. There's not much good to say about it. Tirza is pure evil. I didn't like the way she thought, the way she spoke, or the way she acted. I understand they had brainwashed her into thinking she was a witch, but by golly she gave me the creeps! Even more creepy was the fact that Little Joe fell for such an evil girl. And even more creepy - his father thought that she was a "nice girl"? I cannot imagine any fathers I know that would allow his son to marry a woman like that - she was just creepy!!!

I'm not sure what the writer's were thinking when they wrote this one. They didn't even change that witchey voice after she was "converted." All I can say is...what were they thinking? Yuck!

One of the stranger episodes in Bonanza's history has Michael Landon getting involved with a banished gypsy girl he finds on the Ponderosa. She runs from him when they first meet and trips and hits her head. When she wakes up she declares herself a witch and she's an outcast from her tribe who happen to be squatting on the Ponderosa.

If one is thinking strictly with one's hormones then you can certainly understand Little Joe's interest in Susan Harrison. But even he's not that much a tool of his male member.

Some funny scenes take place between tribe leader Hugo Haas and the Cartwrights when he tries to sell them some inferior horse flesh. Fortunately Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker are up to all his tricks.

I wish the whole episode had been done as light as these scenes were.

This episode is based on the basic biases that people had against the gypsy people. They were considered a superstitious lot as well as shifty and will steal anything they want. When Hoss and Little Joe find an injured woman on the Ponderosa, they take her back to their house and have her examined by a doctor. She is beautiful and Little Joe is immediately attracted to her, even though she bites his hand. A small gypsy caravan arrives on the Ponderosa and that woman is from that band. She is considered to be possessed by evil; hence she is called Dark Star. She has been rejected by the band and she considers herself an exile from all of humanity as a consequence of what she believes is her possession. Ben tries to convince the leader of the gypsy band to take her back and is amused when the leader invites his family to a pig roast that they are having as long as Ben brings the pig. There is thievery, hints of evil magic, Little Joe falling for Dark Star and one of the gypsy men going into a murderous rage over it. All things that fit into the stereotypes of gypsy people and acceptable in television of the late fifties. The story ends on a down note, yet it was a predictable outcome. There are some amusing scenes where the gypsy leader openly admits to his malfeasance to Ben and succeeds in talking his way out of it.