Episode 169. Invention Of A Gunfighter – First aired on September 20, 1964.

(From Look magazine 1964) The original script was about a brute named Lafe who has deserted his wife, Prudence. She finds him out on the range trapping horses with Hoss. Not knowing she is pregnant, he rejects her. She dies in childbirth, despite all that Hoss can do. When Lafe rejects the baby, too, Hoss takes it to the Ponderosa. Lafe repents and comes to see his child three pages before the fade-out. “LAFE: Looks just like his Ma. Sure wish she could see him now. HOSS: Something tells me, Lafe – maybe she can…” An NBC West Coast vice-president was horrified. “The fact that Prudence dies,” he wrote to Dortort, “shocked me no end. But it wasn’t the right kind of shock. It was a private reaction to what I consider an arbitrary decision of the writer…” There is no buildup to the death, he says, and “this becomes doubly painful when…Prudence’s death does not cause an immediate reaction in the man, but, on the contrary, stiffens his cruel attitude. In my opinion, this should be the story of a woman who loved this man, who cannot get away from the fact that she is his wife, no matter how badly he treats her. All the attention of the audience is focused on the question, ‘Will she win him over or not?’…If Prudence should actually die, then the writer cheats the audience out of the big scene of the man’s emotional breakdown and the reconciliation. The way it is now…the audience is left with nothing. If ever a story cried out for an emotional happy ending, this is the one….” The script was changed. Prudence lived. But Broadcast Standards still hadn’t had its say. A two-page memo, one of many, cautioned David Dortort against showing Lafe actually striking Hoss at one point, or a horse at another. “Bleeding should not be gory in any way,” the memo warns. Eight times, it asks that reference to God be made “reverently” or “prayerfully.” Of Prudence’s labor pains, the memo says: “We feel that the pain and agony that Prudence endures…should not be sensationalized and held to a minimum.” In fact, it adds, “the whole scene should be held to a minimum.” Approaching despair, the memo tells the 11 executives to whom it is addressed: “This story is subject to rough cut viewing. The above revised script was delivered to this office two (2) days before actual shooting commenced. We cannot be held responsible for problems that arise in revisions such as these, received less than five (5) days prior to shooting. We will do our best, however.”

According to Kent McCray (Production Supervisor/Manager), in an interview in 2005, he said, in the episodes they were never allowed to refer to a herd of horses as mustangs because the Mustang car was made by Chevrolet’s competitor, Ford.  

Blooper: At the beginning, after Adam falls in the river, just as Tom spots him, a car can be seen in the background.

Episode 174. The Scapegoat – First aired on October 25, 1964. 

David Dortort, 1991: "One weekend, my son, Fred, who was about 11 or 12 years old, and I were climbing rock formations in Palm Springs. We decided we'd explore a canyon and we found a waterfall against a sheer rock, very steep. Fred started to climb up the face of the rock and I followed him. He went up like a little deer, no problem getting to the top. I got about three-quarters of the way up, and suddenly I was completely paralyzed with uncontrollable fear. After a few minutes I slowly began easing my way down, literally an inch at a time. Fred, by now, had gone up and over the other side and was waiting for me down below. I came back to the studio and I was telling Michael about this. And he said, 'You know, I think I have the same problem.' So, as a result of that conversation we decided to do a story on it. We found a location at Vasquez Rocks, in what's known as the Antelope Valley, north of Los Angeles, at the beginning of the Mojave Desert. The episode, 'Between Heaven and Earth' dealt with Little Joe's unexplainable fear of heights. As Michael was climbing up on the rocks, he began to get some of the same fear. What was caught on film was not only acting, but the real thing. I remember Billy Witney, the director, telling me, ‘You know, he's really terrified up there.’ And I told him, 'I can understand why. So was I!' So, there was Michael Landon, who was in perfect physical shape, so agile; there was nothing physically he couldn't do, and yet, that situation affected him exactly that same way it affected me."  

In 1991, John Flora (Director) talked about a practical joke Michael played on Dan Blocker using the elephant. "He (Michael) loved Dan Blocker so much! I directed a show that had to do with Mike training Dan to take on the Marsked Marvel in a circus, in a wrestling match. He trains him so well that he busts the Marsked Marvel's ribs and so Dan has to take his place. The circus owner lost his money in a poker game, so instead of paying Dan, he gave Dan the elephant in payment for his wrestling. And of course they take the elephant home and Lorne goes out of his mind; they don't know what to do with the elephant. Well Dan was having a birthday party, and Mike rented the elephant for the night. So when Dan came home, there was the elephant on his front lawn, eating the grass! And of course, he had a hunch that Mike did it. Mike said, 'No, no - Florea did it!'"  

Guest star, James Gregory (Whitney Parker) made a few appearances on Bonanza. He thought “It was a fine group” to work with. “Pernie (Pernell Roberts) had a certain pleasant refinement. He was a nice fellow. Dan Blocker was always good-natured and easy-going. As for the young man, Michael Landon…occasionally, after a hard day, I would have a little nip in my dressing room when I was getting out of wardrobe. I remember there were a couple of times that Landon happened to drop in, and I’d give him a drink.”  

During the fight scene towards the end, Bobby Miles doubled for guest star Charles Bronson (Harry Starr). Bobby was wearing padding because he was supposed to fall from a cliff, when Charles Bronson saw him, he said that the padding would make it look like he was fat.  Michael told him, if he didn’t want Bobby to play it like that, Charles would have to do it himself. The scene was filmed with Michael and Bobby doing the fight.   

Guest star Anthony Caruso (Charlie) enjoyed working on this episode. He liked the cast and crew. Many years later he still couldn’t understand why Pernell Roberts chose to leave, saying, “I think that was a dumb move, myself. He had a real good job on Bonanza. Oh, well, that was his decision.” 

From an article by Lorraine Gauguin who was on the set during the filming of this episode: “It was a warm day as I drove through the Paramount Studio’s De Mille gate. The Virginia City street set is practically at the gate – almost in full view of the heavy traffic on Melrose Ave. I parked and walked quietly over to watch them film a scene. Some sort of gunplay was about to take place. I noticed with alarm a man standing next to the camera with an air riffle (don’t ask me about guns but I think that’s what it was). Dan Blocker was seated at a long gingham-covered table in the street and Michael Landon was standing next to him holding a small pane of glass. When the director yelled, “Action” a shot fired from the rifle, blew the glass to smithereens in Mike’s hands. Dan stopped eating a huge pile of pancakes while actors streamed out of buildings up and down the street, firing revolvers, chased by vigorous Lorne Greene. Michael and Dan began firing and the scene finally ended in a realistic fistfight between Mike and character actor Johnny Seven. It took me a while to figure out that the pane of glass which Mike had been holding was substituting for either a plate of pancakes or a glass. It all happens so quickly the audience won’t detect it is not the real thing. Michael walked over to me when the scene was completed. “Wow,” he exclaimed. “Did you see that?” “Thrilling” I commented. “No – you don’t get what I mean,” he explained. “The director yelled action before I was ready…and I was holding the glass in front of me instead of away from my body. So, there I was, as they say in the commercials, standing in front of my invisible shield…” “You nut – you crazy nut,” interrupted Dan. “You fool around too much.” Michael whispered, “Don’t pay any attention to him. He’s been eating pancakes all morning…he doesn’t feel well.” “I heard that,” Dan said with a groan. “I not only don’t feel well, I feel terrible – I’m sick. When they called lunch I nearly passed out. I went to sleep in my dressing room.” Lorne Greene joined us and a discussion began about just how safe are “blanks” – the bullets fired by actors in films or on the stage. Dan held out his finger showing a bruise, “Look, some shellac hit me just now.” (Note: Obviously, she guessed wrong about the pane of glass substituting for something else).  

This was Suzanne Clauser’s first television script and she said that is one of the reasons it’s her favourite one that she wrote. Suzanne said she wrote it because she had a crush on Pernell and she thought he did comedy brilliantly.

Episode 186. The Ballerina – First aired on January 24, 1965. 

The writer of this episode was Frank Chase. His sister Barrie Chase (Kellie Conrad) was a ballet dancer and he wrote this episode for her.

Blooper: When Cynthia is murdered, her killer accidentally tears a ragged piece out of his poncho. Towards the end of the episode when Roy Coffee fits the piece into the poncho, it’s now a perfect square shape.  

Blooper 1: In the scene where Hoss and Joe are riding to the cabin to see the professor and his granddaughter, Joe is riding a different horse to the one he is on when they reach the cabin. 

Blooper 2: Hoss introduces Joe as, my little brother, Joe. Amanda says, “How do you do, Little Joe,” and then her grandfather calls him Little Joe. Hoss never said he was called Little Joe. 

Blooper 3: When Hoss is about to jump off the cliff, his hat blows off. You can see a black wire attached to his hat when the hat is pulled off.    

This was the seventh highest rating Bonanza episode. 

The following piece is from an article where a reporter was on the set talking to David Dortort. He (David Dortort) looked over guest-star Cesar Romero's clown costume for the following week's show. "Borelli is fiery but fun; I hope you play him that way," he said to Romero. An actress wearing tights, Ilze Taurins, surprised him with a dazzling set of legs that he had not known she had. He told her, "The part should please you. You are a tease, a woman of passion." He cautioned Gerd Oswald, the new director, "I like the idea of letting Romero go broad, but do not let Lorne get into a competition with him." (Later) He was interrupted by story editor Frank Cleaver. A crisis had arisen. Mike Landon wouldn't play the fight scene in his bare chest. "Mike's funny that way," Dortort said. "Let me talk to him, Frank."  (Note: Michael got his way because he plays the scene with his shirt on.) This is the way it was written in the script: Ext. Clearing, surrounded by trees - Day. This is the “Field of Honor”, a picturesque, rustic spot somewhere on the Ponderosa spread. As we COME IN on the scene, we see that two horses are tethered in the b.g., and that Little Joe and Alfieri are squaring away. Both are bare to the waist. 

This was the fifth highest rating Bonanza episode. 

The following is from an article where a reporter was on the set. Down on the set all hell was breaking loose. The director, although a veteran of some 90 wagon trains, was new to Bonanza, and Pernell Roberts, the Peck's Bad Boy of the Ponderosa was showing him just how difficult a sagebush Barrymore can be. The sweat broke out in little nodules on the director's forehead. Dortort told him not to mind. "That's just Pernell," he said. The leading lady was deep in trauma too. It was her first big break with Bonanza, and things were not going well. Her performance was too stiff. She was having serious domestic problems - a death in the family, a tottering marriage. More than once the director had found her crying in the alley. Dortort drew her aside and told her not to worry, that things were improving. Later in the week they did. Roberts sat slumped in a director's chair, an island of glower, drawing heavy black lines through the dialog with a stubby pencil. Rewriting the script? "Yeah," Pernell said affably. "Trying to get some kind of honesty into it. Whee!" Someone asked him if he'd liked anything he'd done this season. "Sure," he replied. " 'A Thousand Clowns' on the road - it was a gas!" Dortort came up. "Givin' 'em all those tough answers, Pernell?" he said smoothly. Across the stage Dan Blocker and Mike Landon were too busy horsing around to notice. In a viewing room, while watching the day's films, Dortort shrugged off the fact that Roberts had insisted on reading rather than learning his speech to the ranchers. "What can you do? He says that Adam Cartwright would make notes."

Blooper: When the dogs first run into the house, you can see that it is Dan and Lorne's stuntmen who take the falls. When Michael picks the vase up from the table it breaks in his hands before anything actually hits it. 

This was the fourth highest rating Bonanza episode. 

It is said that Michael Landon played a trick on Lorne Greene during the filming of this episode. In the scene after Joe is shot, Ben carries him. Reportedly, Michael had weights sewn into his clothes so he would be heavier when Lorne had to carry him.

Blooper: At the start of the episode when Howard Mead and Johann Brunner are fighting, Adam rides up. He doesn’t have his jacket on. Adam fights Howard and then suddenly, just before he pulls his gun, he has his jacket on. The same thing happens later in the episode. Adam is putting on his coat as he leaves the house. He goes to the barn and gets his horse. In the next scene, he is riding but he doesn’t have his coat on, nor is it tied behind the saddle. When Adam arrives at Howard Mead’s camp site, he has the jacket on. 

Episode 202. Patchwork Man – First aired on May 23, 1965.