The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 4
Every episode of Bonanza season 4, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 4!
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 - Elegy for a Hangman
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/20/1963
A stranger, Bob Jolly, arrives in Virginia City to accuse a drunken Judge Harry Whitaker of sending his innocent father, Carl, to the gallows. Adam defends the judge's honor because of his long friendship with the Cartwrights. After Adam talks with Jolly, he begins to believe his story. Upon further investigation, Adam discovers that Senator Cal Prince and Hobie Klinderman as well as the judge might have had a lot to gain from Carl Jolly's murder. In an attempt to learn what really happened, Adam organizes an informal meeting in the saloon.
#2 - My Brother's Keeper
Season 4 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/7/1963
While hunting for a wolf, Joe is attacked by the wolf. Adam also hunting for the wolf, hears Joe struggling with the wolf comes to Joe's aid. He fires his rifle but the bullet hits Joe. Adam hurries over knocks the wolf off Joe, shoots, and then kills the wolf. The damage has already been done with the wolf bite and Adam's bullet in Joe. Adam has to rush his little brother back to the Ponderosa. Will he make it back to save Little Joe's life, since the wolf's bite is fatal?
#3 - Little Man...Ten Feet Tall
Season 4 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/26/1963
When a Italian immigrant comes to the Ponderosa, he decides he wants to give up the guitar to become a cowboy.
#4 - The Hayburner
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/17/1963
For a change, it is Adam rather than Joe who becomes mixed up in one of Hoss' funny exploits. Together they purchase a thoroughbred horse, and end up competing against their little brother in the big Virginia City race. This is Pernell Robert's favorite comedy episode.
#5 - Mirror of a Man
Season 4 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/31/1963
The peaceful world of a Ponderosa hand is disturbed by the arrival of his no-good father and twin brother, who is a wanted man.
#6 - The Last Haircut
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/3/1963
A vain outlaw murders a man in front of witnesses, including Joe, but a clever lawyer is able to get him acquitted. Though enraged, Joe has to convince the dead man's son it is wrong to take the law into their own hands.
#7 - The Way of Aaron
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/10/1963
Adam takes a shine to Rebecca Kaufman, the daughter of a Jewish peddler, and bandits are convinced the Kaufman wagon is worth robbing.
#8 - Song in the Dark
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/13/1963
Adam's guitar-strumming friend, ranch hand Danny Morgan, is arrested on suspicion of murdering and robbing the Widow Baker. Someone had reported hearing Danny singing outside her place at the time of the murder. More, importantly, Morgan has bad scratches on his arm, and the widow was found with human skin under her fingernails. Adam is thoroughly convinced that Danny couldn't have done it; the two became friends after Danny saved Adam's life a few years ago.
#9 - Five into the Wind
Season 4 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/21/1963
After their stagecoach crashes, a group of rag-tag passengers and Joe must get out of the desert alive. One of the passengers may or may not be a murderer and Joe is accused.
#10 - The Quest
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/30/1962
Determined to prove he can succeed at something without the help of his Pa, Hoss, and Adam, Joe sets out on his quest and wins a timber contract for Ponderosa timber, and later discovers that having a family to rely on can definitely be an asset.
#11 - A Hot Day for a Hanging
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/14/1962
Hoss is jailed for robbing the bank in Dutchman Flats, a town on the brink of economic collapse, even the sheriff knows he is innocent, but a lynch mob gathers and Hoss' fate is not good.
#12 - The Deadly Ones
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/1962
The Ponderosa becomes a war zone when it is invaded by a detachment of Mexican mercenaries under General Diaz. The general is furious when one of his men, Forsythe, disobeys his orders to get a hostage peacefully, and instead shoots Little Joe in the back. Diaz forces Ben to lead his men over the back roads of the Ponderosa, so they can ambush a gold train led by Emperor Maximilian's men.
#13 - The Actress
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1963
Joe becomes romantically involved with a woman who considers herself a serious dramatic actress. Unfortunately, she is the only one who does.
#14 - The Jury
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/30/1962
When Hoss is responsible for causing a hung jury, Ben tells him, "a man is never wrong doing what he thinks is right", and Adam attempts to validate his brother's reasonable doubt.
#15 - Knight Errant
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1962
Hoss volunteers to pickup an injured neighbor's mail-order bride, but by the time they return, she has fallen in love with Hoss and a price is put on Hoss' head.
#16 - The Deserter
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/21/1962
An Indian-hating officer, Colonel Edward J. Dunwoody, comes to the Ponderosa looking for army deserter Bill Winters, who is a good friend of the Cartwrights. Bill happens to be his son and is married to an Indian. It seemed Bill deserted when he was ordered to massacre the Shoshone, by poisoning their food and water, genocide. The Shoshone find out and abduct Bill's father.
#17 - The Boss
Season 4 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/19/1963
Ben regrets that he helped Tom Slayden start a freight hauling business when Slayden sets out to ruin all the competition, and Joe is shot in the process.
#18 - Any Friend of Walter's
Season 4 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/24/1963
Classic comedy in which Hoss first meets prospector Obie and his lazy but allegedly brilliant mongrel dog, Walter.
#19 - The First Born
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/1962
Clay Stafford signs on to work for the Cartwrights and shortly afterwards shoots and kills a man who accuses him of cheating at poker. The miners warn Clay to leave town, but it appears he killed in self-defense. Surprisingly, he tells Little Joe that he is his half-brother, and Marie was his mother. Ben listens to his story and takes his word for it, but Adam and Hoss think he should wire the judge in New Orleans to confirm Clay's real identity. Meanwhile, Clay and Joe develop a close relationship, but the vengeful miners still want Clay out of Virginia City and their first warning, is when Joe is beaten up by them. Ultimately, Clay decides life on the ranch is not for him.
#20 - A Stranger Passed This Way
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/3/1963
Hoss develops amnesia after being bushwhacked and hit over the head by two outlaws and moves in with a Dutch couple. The woman regards him as a substitute for her dead son, and unless he recovers his memory, the other Cartwrights fear he will leave them forever.
#21 - Gallagher's Sons
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/9/1962
Hoss helps Charlie and Will (Charlotte and Willomina), two young girls who just lost their father. They go on a journey to find their only nearby relative, Aunt Cloe. Charlie takes with her a stolen sack of money that her father gave her and tries her best to lose Hoss. Four bandits show up looking for the loot Charlie has. In the end, Hoss finds out about the stolen money and talks the girls into giving it back. He puts them in dresses and sends them off to Boston on a stage, telling them they did the right thing and will probably get the money back as a reward for helping capture the bandits!
#22 - The Decision
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/16/1962
Hoss is seriously injured internally and Ben seeks help from the only doctor within 50 miles, who happens to be in prison for murder. Ben talks to the judge, and with some convincing, talks him into letting the doctor look at Hoss. Danny, who works for the Doctor, tells Ben what he saw about the murder. Ben discovers what really happened and proves to the judge that the doctor really is innocent. The judge stops the hanging and Hoss survives.
#23 - Thunder Man
Season 4 - Episode 31 - Aired 5/5/1963
Little Joe's 19-year old girlfriend is killed by a good samaritan, an explosives expert who had stopped to render aid to the woman's uncle after he suffers a stroke. Unable to talk, the only clue he can offer the investigating Cartwrights is a scrawled title of the song the assailant was whistling — "New Orleans Woman."
#24 - Rich Man, Poor Man
Season 4 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/12/1963
Claude Miller, the laughingstock of Virginia City, gets even with everyone who made fun of him when he strikes it rich.
#25 - The Colonel
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/6/1963
Frank Medford, a figure from Ben's "wild, misspent youth", shows up in Virginia City, and though down on his luck, creates troubles for the Cartwrights by claiming to be a successful businessman.