Bonanza
The family lived on a thousand square-mile (2,600 km) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range]. The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" (2,000 km) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa." The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell).
Dan Blocker
On May 13, 1972, Blocker died in Los Angeles, at age 43, of a pulmonary embolism following gall bladder surgery. The writers of "Bonanza" took the unusual step of referencing a major character's death in the show's storyline that autumn. "Bonanza" lasted another season without Hoss, and the 14th and final season ended on January 16, 1973.