“Bonanza” was hugely successful and ran for over 400 episodes, but did you know it was almost canceled after it had its first disappointing season? “Bonanza” was put in the Saturday night time slot on NBC, and because of the poor time slot, it did not do well. In fact, due to the ratings, “Bonanza” was even supposed to get canceled!
“Bonanza” was given one more chance. They moved it from Saturday night to Sunday night at 9pm, which was a prime slot. By 1965, the ratings had soared. “Bonanza” hit the number one spot all over the nation. Pretty impressive for a show that was going to be canceled after just one season.
The Credits Were Constantly Rotated
Like we had mentioned before, the production team really wanted to make sure that all of the main actors in the show were equal. They really monitored the script, making sure everyone was equal and no one stood out.
Because the production team was so focused on equality, you will notice if you look at the opening credits of a couple of different episodes, you will see that in each episode, the actors are ordered differently. They did not want one actor to get top billing, so they continued to rotate so that everyone got top billing at some point.
'Bonanza' In Theaters
Not only was “Bonanza” a top rated television show, it also had a release in theaters. However, fans in the US were not able to see this, as it was only released in Mexico.
The production team combined two episodes, “Ride the Wind” one and two. They put these two episodes together and brought them to theatres under the new name, “Jinetes del Viento.” This was the one and only time they brought the TV show Bonanza to theatres. There isn’t much information about box office sales, but we are guessing they did not do too well, otherwise we may have seen this happening more often!
Michael Landon And His Lifts
Not only did the male cast members of “Bonanza” wear toupees, they also wore other appearance altering items, like lifts, which are shoe inserts that make you appear taller, Five foot nine may seem like a pretty average tall height, but it was not tall enough for Michael Landon.
Landon had to wear lifts on the set of the show so he would look taller next to the rest of the cast members. The lifts he wore were said to add about a couple of inches to his height. His co-stars were taller, which really made his small stature stand out. Blocker stood six foot four and was 300lbs, so he had to gain a little height, for sure!
What Happened To All The Women?
Michael Landon was quite the jokester. He was constantly cracking jokes about the unspoken Cartwright curse. He thought that it was hilarious that all of the women who came on the show would disappear. They would either die or mysteriously disappear.
It was well known by fans that the Cartwright curse was in full effect anytime a female character appeared on the show. They would introduce a wife or love interest to one of the male characters. Eventually, they would disappear without warning, no female character ever survived more than a couple of episodes on Bonanza.