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SEASON 8 (1966 –1967)
In
an article in July 1966, David Dortort talked about his plans to film two, two
part episodes – one was filmed (The Pursued), the other that was to be set in
Hawaii was not. This is what he says about the episodes. “I’ve been told,”
says producer Dortort of Bonanza, “we will have ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’
thrown at us when we open the new season Sept. 11, and that may give us some
trouble, but then what can ABC do for an encore?” Back on the Ponderosa,
meanwhile, Dortort has big plans for the two-part Bonanzas which he hopes will
keep the Cartwrights solvent and robust. The first of these will air sometime in
October and deals with a Mormon family from Brigham Young’s flock who fail to
heed their leader’s call to come back to Salt Lake City for a collective stand
against their enemies. The man of this particular family has two wives, and the
other settlers naturally don’t hanker to a man with “concubines.” But the
broadminded Cartwrights come to the rescue. Dortort moves his cast and crew to
Lone Pine, Calif., for this saga, then later takes them to Hawaii for another
two-parter which also has a slight kinship with early American history. John
Sutter brought 200 Kanaka families from what was then the Sandwich Islands and
settled them in the California central valley to grow breadfruit. Sutter
believed a food shortage was imminent, but when gold was discovered in
California, the Kankas’ breadfruit fields were trampled and torn up by
wile-eyed prospectors. “What we’re doing is a story about what happened to
the Kankas,” says Dortort. “They know that Ben Cartwright was a friend of
Sutter’s and they come to him with a plea to ‘take us home,’ which Ben and
the boys do with a hired schooner.” As Dortort readily admits, this last part
of the story (the trip back home to what then had become Hawaii) is Bonanza
history rather than American history, but it isn’t likely the fans will hold
that against the Cartwrights, assuming they even know that much history.
Incidentally, Dortort reports that the latch string is still out for Adam
Cartwright, anytime Pernell Roberts who once played the role, decides he wants
to give up playing Hamlet and come home. Otherwise, things’ll be about the
same on the Ponderosa, come September.
From Nevada Magazine, 1966. When you put a crew together for so long, though there will always be the few running gags and the inevitable practical jokes. Dan "Hoss" Blocker, all 285 pounds of him and Michael "Little Joe" Landon are responsible for most of the pranks. Dortort recalls one trick pulled off by the pair that he will never live down. It was during the early filming days of the show and the big Brass from NBC New York had given ample warning that there would be a "visit of state" so to speak. Shortly thereafter an entourage of oh-so-very-important network officials descended on stage. Shooting that day was taking place on the living room set at the Ponderosa. Dortort had given strict orders that all were to be on their good behavior - lest Big Brass become offended and bring disaster to the struggling group. With only a few crossed fingers, all agreed. But then it happened! Just as Dortort was to introduce Big Brass to Hoss and Little Joe the latter turned on the monster and with his best stage right cross sent the huge hulk reeling and tumbling all over the stage, smashing pre-set breakaway furniture, and leaving the entire set in a shambles. Hoss responded by rushing little Joe with eyes ablaze. But he stopped just short of the coup de gras, administered instead a resounding kiss and cried, "Do it again, Little brother?" Big Brass suddenly remembered important previous appointments and never again returned to the Bonanza set. A good half hour later the roaring crew finally got back to work. Such stunts, some planned, some not planned, keep the atmosphere carefree and morale high.
In an article from 1967, the article highlighted occasions where one of the cast members had helped out another. Here is part of it. When Blocker's back went out of kilter just this past month, he had to pull out of production just as shooting was started on a script that dealt 90 per cent with his character, Hoss, Landon, who had made plans for a long-awaited week off, immediately jumped into a script designed to feature his own Little Joe. Says Greene: "You can call it togetherness or you can call it hard-headed practicality. The fact remains that the quality of the close-knit family that comes across on the screen couldn't be maintained over a long period of time by three actors who didn't get along with each other off-camera. Some people like to make something of the fact that we don't see each other very much socially. They forget that we see more of each other right here onstage and on location trips and on personal appearance tours than we see of our own families.”
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