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.
List of Bonanza episodes
"Bonanza" was an American western television series developed and produced by David Dortort and broadcast in the United States for 14 seasons on the NBC network. The entire run of the series' 431 hour-long episodes was produced in color. The premiere was on September 12, 1959, and the final episode broadcast on January 16, 1973. In its initial season, "Bonanza" aired on Saturday evenings and placed at number 45 in the Nielsen ratings. During its second season, the series moved up to number 17. "Bonanza" was moved to Sunday nights at 9:00 PM at the start of its third season. In that time slot, the ratings soared and the series become second only to "Wagon Train" as the most popular program on American prime time television. It remained in the top ten of the ratings until its twelfth season and ranked at number one in its sixth, seventh, and eighth seasons. "Bonanza" also became a worldwide success as it was broadcast in nearly 50 countries, including Canada, Brazil, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Australia, and Japan.