Back to Bonanza

This wonderful retrospect paid homage to the most amazing series in television history. It focused on the years that featured the original cast, a time when the "family" was complete, and quite frankly, Bonanza at its very best. A lovely tribute to Bonanza creator, David Dortort, and his dream team of Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright, Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright, Dan Blocker as Hoss Cartwright, and Michael Landon as Little Joe Cartwright. This ensemble cast, together, made television history, made a difference in so many lives that they touched with their humanity and warmth...Bonanza was at its best with these four original "Cartwrights", and this tribute was true to the original cast and concept. There were four Cartwrights and anything less than that was not Bonanza at its best. These four actors in both dramatic and comedic episodes, were as good as it will ever get. No other TV show will ever match or surpass what these four gentlemen brought to the viewing audience.

This excellent Bonanza-mentary aired in November of 1993 on NBC as a warm up to the new "Bonanza Return to the Ponderosa" movie.Perhaps it was the networks way of keying in younger viewers who werent familiar enough with the original to know what was going on.Needless to say the movie was a dull flop but the documentary was something else altogether.Hosted by Dirk Blocker and Michael Landon Jr.,real life sons of 'Hoss' and 'Little Joe',the retrospective features a kaleidescope of clips from the 440 episode series and is well researched and detailed going far enough behind the scenes to give viewers a hint of what it was like on the set of the classic 1960's series.It also gives a good assumption of series creator David Dortort's vision of bringing a vibrant color series to the dull black and white world of 1959 television.Bonanza was and is an enduring classic which will be rerun on television for many years to come.I only wish that this excellent memory refresher were available on video for fans to enjoy as well.