Bonanza
In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the "Bonanza" concept with a prequel, "Ponderosa" – not to be confused with the 1972 summer reruns under the same title – with a pilot directed by Simon Wincer and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam was a teenager and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling than the original. "Bonanza" creator David Dortort approved PAX TV (now Ion TV)'s decision to hire Beth Sullivan, formerly of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", which some believe gave the series more depth as well as a softer edge. The Hop Sing character is depicted not only as a cook but also a family counselor and herbal healer. The series takes place in Nevada Territory in 1849, which is actually an anachronism. The Nevada Territory did not split from the Utah Territory until 1861, meaning that until at least the 5th season (the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers" establishes that year as 1857), "Bonanza" is also set in what in real life would have been Utah Territory.
Ponderosa Ranch
The Ponderosa was the fictional setting for "Bonanza". According to the 9th episode ("Mr. Henry Comstock") in the first season, it was a thousand-square mile (640,000 acre or 2,600 km) ranch on the shores of Lake Tahoe, nestled high in the Sierra Nevada, with a large ranch house in the center of it. Ben Cartwright was said to have built the original, smaller homestead after moving from New Orleans with his pregnant third wife Marie and his two sons, Adam and Hoss. The grown Adam, an architect/engineer, designed the later sprawling ranch house as depicted on TV ("Bonanza, The Philip Diedesheimer Story", Oct. 31, 1959, NBC-TV; "Bonanza: The Return", April 1993, NBC-TV). The fictional ranch was roughly a two-hour horse ride from Virginia City, Nevada. (Note: There are slight variations as to the origin of the Ponderosa Ranch, from the original "Bonanza" series, Lorne Greene's 1964 song "Saga of the Ponderosa", the 1988-95 TV movies, and the 2001 PAX prequel series "Ponderosa"). The ranch house was a single level structure that had a facade second storey. Inside a staircase seemingly led to the first-floor corridor, but it was a dead end. The bedroom scenes were filmed at Burbank Studios. The inspiration for the name may have been the large number of Ponderosa pines in the area or the original Latin meaning of "large" (root of the English word "ponderous"). The exteriors for the television show were occasionally shot in Nevada, usually out of sequence. Crews were sometimes able to complete an entire season's work in just a few days.