The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 3
Every episode of Bonanza season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 3!
The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss"; and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe". Via exposition and flashback episodes and each wife was accorded a different ethnicity. The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing.
#1 - The Horse Breaker
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1961
A professional wrangler working for the Cartwrights is paralyzed when thrown by a particularly mean bronco. The woman nursing him was once engaged to the late son of a neighboring rancher out to get Ben.
#2 - Day of the Dragon
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1961
Joe wins a card game and an unexpected prize...a young lady. She goes to the Ponderosa and serves them, not wanting to be set free. Meanwhile, an army is looking for her and the Cartwrights.
#3 - The Guilty
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/25/1962
When Ben fails to prevent the death of a friend's son, Adam and Joe, concerned by their father's depression, attempt to prove there was nothing he could have done.
#4 - The Crucible
Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/8/1962
Adam is left to die in the desert after two thieves take $5,000 and his horse from him. Near death, he stumbles into an old prospector named Kane who offers to lend him a mule and supplies in exchange for three day's work at his mine. Kane, however, turns out to be a demented madman. He holds Adam prisoner and tortures him to prove his theory that anyone could be driven to kill, even a man as rational as Adam. This is Pernell Robert's favorite episode along with "The Wooing Of Abigail Jones".
#5 - Springtime
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/1/1961
A friend of Ben's (Mr. Milbank) arrives at the Ponderosa at a bad time...when the Cartwright boys are fighting in the mud. Mr. Milbank, who is injured by a flying log during the fight, gives an assignment to each of the three boys. Can they fulfill the assignments, or has Springtime gotten to them all?
#6 - Look to the Stars
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/18/1962
A young genius, Albert Michaelson, vies for a scholarship. Adam assists Albert in the boy's experiments. Albert only needs the school teacher's approval to be granted a scholarship-which will be very difficult to get considering Albert was expelled from school.
#7 - Gabrielle
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/24/1961
In this Christmas story, inspired by Johanna Spyri's "Heidi", Hoss and Joe come across a blind girl whose family has been killed in a wagon wreck, learning later that her grandfather is a bitter hermit who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
#8 - Broken Ballad
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/1961
Adam tries to help a reformed gunman who wants only to live peacefully near Virginia City. Good story without a tidy ending. Pernell's first chance to sing on the series.
#9 - The Long Night
Season 3 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/6/1962
Ben, Joe and Adam travel to Bowleg to pay the yearly taxes on the Ponderosa. After the transaction is completed, Ben and Joe ride over the summit to join the cattle drive. Adam is on his way to Genoa and is carrying a $10,000 bank draft his father has given him. A prison guard rides into town and announces two hombres have broke out and escaped who are holdup men and killers. Elmer Trace and his partner Poindexter were assisted by a guard in escaping prison and they betray him on the trail. Trace takes his clothes, horse and firearms, leaving Poindexter with only a rifle and rides off. Meanwhile, the Sheriff of Bowleg organizes a posse immediately.
#10 - The Mountain Girl
Season 3 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/13/1962
Joe promises a dying sheepman he will make sure the old man's granddaughter gets her rightful inheritance from a wealthy San Francisco family. This episode was filmed immediately after "Inger, My Love", which explains why Blocker's arm is still in a sling.
#11 - The Ride
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/21/1962
Adam races against the clock to prove a man who was once his friend is guilty of robbery and murder and Adam is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt he is guilty.
#12 - The Wooing of Abigail Jones
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/4/1962
In order to keep peace on the ranch, Hoss and Joe try to help ranch hand, Hank Meyers woo the the plain-looking schoolteacher, Abigail Jones. When their first plan backfires, they convince Adam (who doesn't want to get involved) to help and this makes things worse because Abigail believes it is Adam who is wooing her and Hank Meyers believes Adam wants to steal her away.
#13 - The Many Faces of Gideon Flinch
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/1961
Hoss and Joe become involved when "Bullethead" Burke vows revenge on an old man he claims cheated him in an investment deal.
#14 - The Lady from Baltimore
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/14/1962
An overbearing friend of the family tries to force her daughter into marrying Joe, though she does not love him. The situation grows more complex when Adam stumbles onto the scheme.
#15 - The Gamble
Season 3 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/1/1962
In the town of Alkali, the Cartwrights are jailed on false charges of robbery and murder, but Joe escapes and returns with an army of Ponderosa hands.
#16 - Inger, My Love
Season 3 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/15/1962
Ben indulges in a nostalgic reverie about Hoss's deceased mother. Having worked his way west to Galesburg, IL., Ben is befriended by a girl named Inger, the fiancee of the tavern owner who gave him a job.
#17 - The Countess
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/19/1961
A woman Ben once loved, Lady Chadwick, returns and attempts to trick him into marrying her by ruining his business. Ben says almost losing the Ponderosa will make him and his sons appreciate it more.
#18 - Gift of Water
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/11/1962
The Cartwrights dig a well, build a rig and a windmill for a drought-stricken farm family.
#19 - The Tall Stranger
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/7/1962
Hoss plans to marry Margie, a pretty blonde, but Margie becomes fascinated with a tall, traveling stranger named Mark Connors. Margie marries Mark but soon finds it was far from a match made in heaven.
#20 - The Friendship
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/1961
Joe befriends and takes responsibility for an ex-convict named Danny. Danny loves horses and is not used to people's ways on the outside of jail. Will his rough jailhouse upbringing mar any hopes of friendship?
#21 - The Smiler
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/24/1961
A drunk is killed in a saloon brawl with Hoss, and though the man's brother insists there are no hard feelings, he is actually a silver-tongued devil bent on revenge.
#22 - The Lawmaker
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/11/1962
Ben supports the appointment of Asa Moran as Virginia City's temporary sheriff, but Moran goes overboard with his authority, jailing Adam in the process and pistol-whipping a Ponderosa hand.
#23 - The Miracle Maker
Season 3 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/20/1962
Hoss blames himself when a young woman is crippled in a wagon accident, and hopes a faith healer can help her walk again.
#24 - The Burma Rarity
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/22/1961
In this comic episode involving a precious emerald and the sweet widow, Clemantine Hawkins who is attracted to Ben, turns the tables on a pair of land swindlers.
#25 - The Frenchman
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1961
An irritating man who boasts of being the reincarnation of French poet Francois Villion shows up causing trouble for the Cartwrights.