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Bonanza
grumpygy
Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
Does anyone recall the theme song for the TV show Bonanza?
"We've got the right to pick a little fight, Bonanza..."
It went something like that. Would they still listen? It's cozy nights, childhood bliss and universal nostalgia for bygone days.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_en_tv/tv_theme_songs&title=Television+theme+songs+are+fading+fast&h1=ap/20061018/tv_theme_songs&h2=T&h3=494
Comments
Now I did just watch sesson 3 and it was what I remembered. I did not see any of the 1st 2 seassons cause where I lived we did not have TV. Actually did not even have Electricity. But the country was very much like what was showen on the show Bonanza. I lived at Big Bear wheile they were building the area up. Lived in a one room Log house.
Nice times wasn't it... ? [;)]
And I'll bet you entertained yourselves with simple toys and tools...
Nice times wasn't it... ? [;)]
Actually I was only 3 or 4 and do not remember much. Do know we lived in and area of Rattlesnakes. Sightings of them were daily so I was not allowed out much. Do remember my Dad Killing one then telling me to get back inside.
Mine was the one where Hoss saw leprechauns in the woods and no one believed him. He wanted to catch one and win the pot of gold. In the end, it turned out to be a traveling circus of little people. I remember the episode as hilarious. [:D][:D]
I visited the Ponderosa back in the 90's before they closed the site. Very cool to see the actual set. Hoss was always my favorite character. Adam was too much of a diva. Joe was an emotional immature jerk most of the time. Ben was just dull. Hoss was funny and acted like a real person in most episodes. Of course, there was Hop Sing. He was funny. [:D]
In the Pilot Ben Looks Stoned. Adam Diva from the start trying to boss everybody around. But does Piss off Hoss who with one punch puts him in his place. Joe acted like a 2 year old. And they really Pissed me off with this Hoss was the Bumbling Idiot.
If You can't tell I liked Hoss in Later shows.
I was 12 yrs.old when we got Electricity was in the 10th. grade. when I saw My first TV.
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
Just started watching the series from the very 1st show the Pilot. Think I was lucky not to have seen it till now. It sucked.
Now I did just watch sesson 3 and it was what I remembered. I did not see any of the 1st 2 seassons cause where I lived we did not have TV. Actually did not even have Electricity. But the country was very much like what was showen on the show Bonanza. I lived at Big Bear wheile they were building the area up. Lived in a one room Log house.
Wasn't Bonanza the first TV series to be regularly broadcast in color? I may be remembering wrong, but I think that happened in the early to mid-60's.
Yes.
Also was looking for more info on Hoss. When My mom got rid of my stuff I lost a lot of great articles on him. One of him lifting a car off a Man, even lifting the corner of a house off its blocks. Did find this info.
quote:The character of Hoss was conceived as a stereotype: The Gentle Giant. The 6'4", 300 lbs. Blocker filled Hoss's cowboy boots and ten-gallon hat admirably but brought something extra to the role, a warmth and empathy that helped ground the show. Personal accounts of Blocker testify to the fact that the man was gregarious and friendly to everyone. He brought that upbeat personality to the character of Hoss.
Hoss originally had been conceived as dull-witted, but ironically, Dan Blocker's professional acting career was assured after he moved his family to California so he could pursue a PhD at U.C.L.A. A native of West Texas, he reportedly was discovered while making a call in a phone booth while outfitted in Western garb, including a straw cowboy hat, his standard dress being a native son of Texas, soon after arriving in California. Even after being cast in "Bonanza", he intended to complete his PhD, but the great success of the series made that impossible, due to the work load of 30+ episodes per year necessitating a 7AM-9PM work schedule five days a week.
Donny Dany Blocker made his debut on December 10, 1928 in De Kalb, Texas, weighing in at 14 lbs. He reportedly was the biggest baby ever born in Bowie County. By the age of 12, he already was 6" tall and weighed 200 lbs. (Towards the end of "Bonanza", he reportedly had ballooned past his stated weight of 300 to as much as 365 lbs.) A "TV Guide" story after his death reported that back in Texas, the young Dan once lifted a car off of a man after it slid off a jack and pinned him under the auto.
"My daddy used to say that I was too big to ride and too little to hitch a wagon to," Blocker said, "no good for a damn thing."
His father Ora Blocker was hurt by the Great Depression that began the year after his son Dan's birth. He moved his family to O'Donnell, which is just south of Lubbock, where he ran a grocery store. His "no good" son went to the Texas Military Institute, and in 1946 started his undergraduate work at Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, Texas), where he played football. It was there he fell in love with acting when he was recruited by a girlfriend to play a role in campus production of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) as they needed a strong man to lift the bodies that the spinster aunts had dispatched up from the cellar.
After graduating in 1950 with a degree in English, Blocker went east where he did repertory work in Boston. A 1960 "TV Guide" article says that he appeared on Broadway in the 1950-51 production of King Lear (1983) (TV), which starred Louis Calhern. The draft soon ended his apprenticeship, and he served in the Army in the Korean War, making sergeant.
After being demobilized in 1952, he attended attended Sul Ross State Teacher's College (Alpine, Texas), earning a master's degree in dramatic arts. He taught English and drama at a Sonora, Texas high school before moving to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where he taught sixth grade. He then moved his family to California, where he again taught school while preparing for his PhD studies.
Blocker picked up bit parts in television, making his debut as a bartender in _"Sheriff of Cochise" (1957). His career rise was steady and rapid, and he appeared on many Westerns, including "Gunsmoke" (1955), "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957), "The Rifleman" (1958), and "Maverick" (1957). He claimed his turn as Hognose Hughes on "Maverick", the comic Western starring James Garner, was the seminal role of his career. As Hoss, Blocker would often star in light-hearted episodes on "Bonanza".
He was cast in the recurring role of "Tiny" Carl Budinger in the short lived Western series _"Cimarron City" (1957). Its cancellation after one season made him available for "Bonanza", which was "Cimarron City" creator David Dortort's next project. He had previously appeared on Dortort's Western series "The Restless Gun" (1957).
"Bonanza" debuted in September 1959 on Saturdays at 7:30PM on N.B.C., which was owned by R.C.A., opposite the popular "Perry Mason" (1957), the #10 rated show for the 1959-60 season. The new Western was shot in color, and R.C.A. made color TV sets and saw the program as a good advertisement for its wares. The company sponsored the first two seasons of the show, and the sponsorship and R.C.A.'s ownership of N.B.C. was likely why it wasn't canceled after its shaky first season, when it placed #45 in the ratings for the 1959-60 season. The following year, it cracked the top 20 at #17, but it wasn't until it was shifted to Sundays at 9PM in the 1961-62 season that it became a ratings phenomenon, coming in at #2. It was the first of nine straight seasons in the top 5.
Once "Bonanza" was ensconced as America's favorite Western, Blocker and his three co-stars, Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts and Michael Landon were paid an extremely handsome salary that eventually rose to approximately $10,000 per episode each by the time Roberts quit after the sixth season, its first at #1. Commenting on Roberts' departure, Landon said, "After he left we took one leaf out of the dining room table and we all made more money because we split the take three ways instead of four." Salary, royalties from Bonanza-related merchandise and business ventures (Blocker started the Bonanza Steak House chain in 1963), and an eventual $1-million payout from N.B.C. to buy out the residual rights of each of the three remaining stars made them all rich.
"Bonanza" made Dan Blocker a very wealthy man, but more importantly, it made him a television immortal. The series continues to be re-run in syndication 40 years after Hoss exited the stage.
Also found this.
quote:My father once told me] 'Son, the rate you're growing you're going to be one helluva big fella. If you use your size and strength properly it can be a wonderful thing for you. If you don't Heaven help you. One day you'll start pushing some little guy around and he'll pull a gun and blow your brains out.'
Being big has its advantages, especially when you're doing the rounds of the agents' offices. They don't forget you in a hurry. But it has its disadvantages too, you've got to have a bed special made...mine is 7 feet long. You've got to be careful when you sit down. I used to wreck a couple of chairs a week in the studio. Weight is a problem with me. If I don't watch it, it shoots up to around 300 pounds. It bugs me having to go on a diet but here isn't any alternative. I remember breakfast when I ate a dozen eggs, two loaves of bread and drank two quarts of milk. Now I eat like a normal guy and I'm always hungry. If I had been a little guy I'd probably still be teaching school in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Little Joe( Landon) went on to make Little House on the Praire, filmed locally. He was vary gracious, came to local schools. I got hired to build sets a couple of times. He actually met my oldest son and was very nice to our community.
Several episodes on Little House were taken from Bonanza too.
How many snot nosed celebrities today would consider the welfare of a Mexican wood cutter? Likely none. Dan Blocker was a good person, on screen, and more importantly, off.
You all probably get tired of me posting signed pictures from my collection, but I like them, and like to share them, where some folks might appreciate them. This is one of my favorites:
I'm not tired of them![:)]
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
XXXXXX
The first episodes of Bonanza were good, but then the over acting turned me off.
Now Festus and Doc Adams were good Actors, and were never full of themselves.
The part of Bonanza that always messed with my mind was when someone at the Ponderosa would jump on his horse or up on a buckboard and head into Virginia City for some errand and arrive a very short time later like it was only two miles down the road. Try that for real on horseback sometime. [:D] (hint: it ain't nearly close enough to do that) [:D][:D]
And they were never winded or lathered up!
How about your favorite episode?
Mine was the one where Hoss saw leprechauns in the woods and no one believed him. He wanted to catch one and win the pot of gold. In the end, it turned out to be a traveling circus of little people. I remember the episode as hilarious. [:D][:D]
..That one was on just a few days ago. Goofy story line but
still funny as all get out.
The part of Bonanza that always messed with my mind was when someone at the Ponderosa would jump on his horse or up on a buckboard and head into Virginia City for some errand and arrive a very short time later like it was only two miles down the road. Try that for real on horseback sometime. [:D] (hint: it ain't nearly close enough to do that) [:D][:D]
Last night the one I watched Adam Had just road in at a full gallop slidining in on his horse. Telling them there were people in a certain valley. Instead of getting a new horse he jumps right back on the same one and takes off again.
Or ever notice there Horses are always saddled and ready at the Hitching rail out in front of the house. Day or Night.
One of the greatest things about that era to me was the resurgence in popularity of the sixgun that gave us the Ruger, especially the single-six!!!
+ one million. (I forget how many zero's are in a million [:D] )
He was, like me, a Georgia boy who attended Ga. Tech for a while.
My family gathered around the tv set every Sunday night to watch Bonanza and didn't miss a show for the first 4 or 5 years.
Yes it was the first tv show that was geared to color and they made sure that the actors all had colorful costumes.
Also, NBC owned one of the big tv manufacturers and they wanted to boost color tv sales.
There used to be a web site, bonanzaworld.net, that was based in England. Reruns of Bonanza are shown daily over there.
On this web site, thousands of British gals meet and talk about their favorite Bonanza character.
Hoss, Adam, Little Joe, and Ben each have their own little fan clubs over there on this web site. Far and away, the most popular is Adam.
All the English gals sit in their apartments in their cities, and dream about being carried off into the sunset on the back of a horse being ridden by their American cowboy hero.
These gals know every episode of Bonanza by heart!
I got a kick out of reading their posts, but, last time I checked, Bonanzaworld.net was out of business.
..Allen, I'm sure you meant Pernell Roberts. I can't recall the name of the series he had later, where he was doctor, and I'm too lazy to look it up.
Trapper John MD, quasi spin-off of MASH
Started watching it on a round screen black and white TV.
Makes me feel old. I can remember when new episodes would come on TV.
You should have seen that Brit web site, those gals went on, and on about their love for Adam
If y'all watched that great series on The History Channel about 8 years ago, "The Mountain Men" the narrator was Pernell Roberts. It was about a 5 hour show, really good.
Pernell did a great job as narrator.
I was a little kid, but I would strap on my plastic six guns, and get on my horse that rode on springs each time![:0]
I think my mom has a pic of me doing that somewhere. It needs to be destroyed.[:0]
I was born in 1961,....I still remember the show coming on, and what I would do during the intro song.
I was a little kid, but I would strap on my plastic six guns, and get on my horse that rode on springs each time![:0]
I think my mom has a pic of me doing that somewhere. It needs to be destroyed.[:0]
1st show was 1959, but like you I did not see it for the 1st time till about 1961. Only Color TV in the are was at a Hotel, So Sunday After Church that was where we headed. Watch Disney then Bonanza or it could be the other way around. The Recruiters were For the Marines and Navy Lived in the Hotel and we were guests of them. At least once each Month I would get a comic Book of Great Navy Sea Battles. It was something the Navy had as a recruitment tool.
The Comic Books were like this one
http://www.scribd.com/doc/98925088/Navy-History-and-Tradition-1782-1817-Comic-Book
How about this one? It one of the few survivors of my youth!!!!!
Never saw a Bonanza comic book, nor did I know there ever was one.[:)]