Editing Bonanza (section)

== Background and production ==
=== Set and filming ===
[[File:Bonanza-Ponderosa Ranch-postcard-03 (5619566355).jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Ponderosa tour postcard – visitors tour the replica ranchhouse and its big living room with stone fireplace overlooking the east shore of [[Lake Tahoe]], in [[Incline Village, Nevada]] where several rebuilt ranch buildings were used as a set for outside filming.]]

The opening scene for the first season was shot at [[Lake Hemet]], a reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, and later moved to Lake Tahoe. After moving to Lake Tahoe, the opening sequence with theme music was filmed on the east side of Lake Tahoe in Bourne's meadow near Round Hill, Nevada. During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of ''[[Have Gun – Will Travel]]'', ''[[Mannix]]'' and ''[[The Brady Bunch]]''. In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12th season titled "The Night Virginia City Died", Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires (reflecting a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City). This allowed for a switch to the less expensive Warner studios from September 1970 through January 1973. The script was initially written for the departing David Canary's Candy, but was rewritten for actors Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee) and Bing Russell (Deputy Clem Foster), who rarely appeared together on the show.

The program's Nevada set, the [[Ponderosa Ranch]] house, was recreated in [[Incline Village, Nevada]], in 1967, and remained a tourist attraction until its sale thirty-seven years later in September 2004.

The series was also partially filmed in [[Wildwood Regional Park]] in [[Thousand Oaks, California]].<ref>Schad, Jerry (2009). ''Los Angeles County: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide''. Wilderness Press. Pages 35–36. {{ISBN|9780899976396}}.</ref><ref>Stone, Robert (2011). ''Day Hikes Around Ventura County''. Day Hike Books. Page 216. {{ISBN|9781573420624}}.</ref><ref>Maxwell, Thomas J. (2000). ''Hiking In Wildwood Regional Park: Natural History, Folklore, and Trail Guide''. California Lutheran University. Page 2.</ref>

=== Costumes ===
[[File:Bonanza main cast 1961.JPG|thumb|right|Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Lorne Greene and Michael Landon (1961)]]
From the third season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode. The reason for this is twofold: it made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles (Hal Burton, Bob Miles, Bill Clark, Lyle Heisler, Ray Mazy) and it cut the cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes), as previously shot stock footage could be reused. Below is a survey of costumes employed:

* Ben Cartwright: Sandy shirt, tawny leather vest, gray pants, cream-colored hat, occasional green scarf.
* Adam Cartwright: Black shirt, black or midnight blue pants, black hat. Elegant city wear. Cream-colored trail coat.
* Hoss Cartwright: White shirt, brown suede vest, brown pants, large beige flat-brimmed, ten-gallon hat.
* Little Joe Cartwright: Beige, light gray shirt, kelly-green jacket, tan pants, beige hat. Black leather gloves from 10th season on. In season 14, he and Greene occasionally wore different shirts and slacks, as the footage of them and the late Dan Blocker together could no longer be reused.
* Candy Canaday: Crimson shirt, black pants, black leather vest, black hat, grey/ pale purple scarf.

It was not unusual for Little Joe Cartwright and Candy Canaday to appear shirtless in various scenes involving manual labor.

The horse saddles used by the Bonanza cast were made by the [[Bona Allen Company]] of Buford, Georgia.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local/flashback-photos-buford-was-once-home-the-country-most-prolific-tannery/k88cgTUiYACiPDwnYlyXBK/|title=Flashback photos: Buford was once home to the country's most prolific tannery|newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |last=Estep |first=Tyler }}</ref>

=== Hair styles ===
In 1968, Blocker began wearing a toupee on the series, as he was approaching age 40 and his hair loss was becoming more evident. He joined the ranks of his fellow co-stars Roberts and Greene, both of whom had begun the series with hairpieces. (Greene wore his modest frontal piece in private life too, whereas Roberts preferred not wearing his, even to rehearsals/[[Blocking (stage)|blocking]].) Landon was the only original cast member who was wig-free throughout the series, as even Sen Yung wore an attached rattail- [[Queue (hairstyle)|queue]].<ref>Michael Landon, "The Tonight Show", NBC-TV, March 10, 1983</ref>

=== Music ===
''Bonanza'' features a memorable [[theme music|theme song]] by [[Jay Livingston]] and [[Ray Evans]] that was orchestrated by [[David Rose (songwriter)|David Rose]] and arranged by [[Billy May]] for the television series. Members of the [[Western Writers of America]] chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.<ref name="Top100">{{Cite web |title=The Top 100 Western Songs |author=Western Writers of America |year=2010 |author-link=Western Writers of America |publisher=American Cowboy |url=http://www.americancowboy.com/culture/top-100-western-songs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019002745/http://americancowboy.com/culture/top-100-western-songs |archive-date=October 19, 2010 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}</ref>

The ''Bonanza'' theme song opens with a blazing Ponderosa map and saddlebound Cartwrights. The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses, is one of the most recognized television scores. Variations of the theme were used for 12 seasons on the series. Although there were two official sets of lyrics (some country-western singers, avoiding royalties, substituted the copyright renditions with their own words), the series simply used an instrumental theme. Three of the cast members bellowed out the original lyrics, unaccompanied, at the close of the pilot (Pernell Roberts, the sole professional singer of the quartet, abstained and untethered the horse reins). Before the pilot aired (on September 12, 1959), the song sequence, deemed too campy, was edited out of the scene and instead the Cartwrights headed back to the ranch whooping and howling. In a 1964 song, the Livingston-Evans lyrics were revised by Lorne Greene with a more familial emphasis, "on this land we put our brand, Cartwright is the name, fortune smiled the day we filed the Ponderosa claim" ("Bonanza", [[Bear Family Records|Bear Family]] Boxed set, Disc #2). In 1968, a slightly revamped horn and percussion-heavy arrangement of the original score introduced the series, which was used until 1970. A new theme song, called "The Big Bonanza" was written in 1970 by episode scorer David Rose, and was used from 1970 to 1972. Action-shot pictorials of the cast replaced the galloping trio with the order of the actors rotating from episode to episode, resulting in Blocker or Landon often getting top billing over Greene. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast (sans Dan Blocker, who had died by this point).

=== Cancellation ===
[[File:Bonanza full cast 1962.JPG|thumb|right|Front to back: Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Lorne Greene]]
In the fall of 1972, NBC moved ''Bonanza'' to Tuesday nights—where reruns from the 1967–1970 period had been broadcast the previous summer under the title ''The Ponderosa''<ref name="brooks"/>—opposite the ''[[All in the Family]]'' spinoff show, ''[[Maude (TV series)|Maude]]'', which was a virtual death sentence for the program. The scheduling change, as well as Dan Blocker's death in May 1972, resulted in plunging ratings for the show. David Canary returned to his former role of Candy (to offset Hoss' absence), and a new character named Griff King (played by [[Tim Matheson]]) was added in an attempt to lure younger viewers. Griff, in prison for nearly killing his abusive stepfather, was paroled into Ben's custody and given a job as a ranch hand. Several episodes were built around his character, one that Matheson never had a chance to fully develop before the show was abruptly cancelled in November 1972 (with the final episode airing January 16, 1973). Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that the character of Hoss was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast.

For 14 years, ''Bonanza'' was the premier Western on American television. Reruns of the series have aired on several cable networks such as [[TV Land]], INSP, Family Channel, the [[Hallmark Channel]] and [[Great American Faith & Living]].