Bonanza
Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, "Bonanza" is NBC's longest-running western, and ranks overall as the second-longest-running western series on U.S. network television (behind CBS's "Gunsmoke"), and within the top 10 longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family that live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon and later featured (at various times) Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel, and Tim Matheson. The show is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas.
1970s in television
With the rise in socially responsible programming, the television western, a very popular genre in the 1960s, slowly died out. The first casualties were "The High Chaparral" and "The Virginian", both NBC staples, in the spring of 1971. "Bonanza" suffered a blow when actor Dan Blocker died during surgery in 1972, and the show quietly ended its run the next year. CBS's "Gunsmoke" outlasted them all, and finally ended its run with a star-studded series finale in 1975. "Bonanza" actor Michael Landon helped popularize a television adaptation of the popular children's book series "Little House on the Prairie". Debuting in 1974, the series ran for eight years. "Little House"'s competitor family drama was CBS's "The Waltons", which revolved around family unity but during a different time and place — Virginia during the Great Depression.