The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 5
Every episode of Bonanza season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 5!
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 - Ponderosa Matador
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/12/1964
Adam, Hoss, and Joe vie for the attention of a pretty young lady named Dolores. Hoss talks Joe into entering a bull fight, but it doesn't work out quite as planned.
#2 - Hoss and the Leprechauns
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/22/1963
In what is arguably the best comedy of the series, Hoss swears he has seen green elves running around the Ponderosa and a smooth-talking Irishman complicates matters even worse.
#3 - The Toy Soldier
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/1963
Adam encounters drunken artist James Callan, branded a "squaw man" because he is married to an Indian, and whose talent is going to waste in the town of Sheep Head.
#4 - The Lila Conrad Story
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/5/1964
Joe and Adam protect a saloon girl, who has killed in self-defense, from an angry lynch mob. The accompanying Judge, along with his wife, takes a liking to Lila, and before it is all over, he and Lila discover much more about themselves.
#5 - King of the Mountain
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/23/1964
When mountain man Jim Leyton decides to marry, he chooses Hoss as his best man. Julie's father, Grizzly, does not agree and Hoss must come to the rescue.
#6 - A Question of Strength
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1963
Hoss and a pair of nuns, the younger one having a difficult time training for the order, are robbed and stranded at a way station.
#7 - The Waiting Game
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/8/1963
Adam becomes involved with the recently widowed Laura Dayton and her little girl, Peggy.
#8 - Enter Thomas Bowers
Season 5 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/26/1964
After a triumphant tour in Europe, a famous Negro singer encounters racial prejudice in Virginia City when he arrives for a concert.
#9 - Calamity Over the Comstock
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1963
Joe has a run-in with Calamity Jane, and takes her home with him after promising her dying father to take care of her. At first the Cartwrights (besides Joe) think "Cal" is a boy, but they soon find out differently. Cal begins to fall in love with Joe, but Joe finds her attentions unwanted...especially when Cal's boyfriend, Doc Holliday, has it in for Joe.
#10 - The Quality of Mercy
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/17/1963
Joe struggles to understand whether his friend was right in killing a dying man who pleaded to put out of his misery.
#11 - Journey Remembered
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1963
Ben finds an old journal that he kept while in a wagon train travelling from St. Joseph, Missouri to Ash Hollow. As he is reading it Ben remembers the journey he undertook with his wife Inger and a young Adam. During the trip Hoss is born and they have trouble with some Indians.
#12 - The Pressure Game
Season 5 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/10/1964
Laura Dayton's Aunt Lil comes to visit and quickly decides it's time she help the hesitant Adam propose to her favorite niece. Her plan is to make Adam jealous by using his cousin Will but it doesn't go exactly as planned.
#13 - The Legacy
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/15/1963
Adam, Hoss and Joe mistakenly believe their father was murdered. They split into 3 different directions to confront the supposed killers. In his heart, Ben knows his sons will not act outside the law; but he is not 100% sure that Joe will behave correctly.
#14 - The Prime of Life
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/29/1963
Ben becomes irritable and reckless when the completion of an important timber contract is hindered by an old rival.
#15 - She Walks in Beauty
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/1963
Hoss wants to marry mysterious Regan Miller, a woman with less than a pristine past. When he thinks Adam is trying to steal her away, he loses control and beats Adam up.
#16 - The Cheating Game
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/9/1964
In this sequel to "The Waiting Game", Laura resents Adam's advice on how she ought to be running her ranch. A newcomer, Ward Bannister, comes to her aid, but is actually part of a scheme to steal her ranch.
#17 - Twilight Town
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/13/1963
Joe is bushwhacked in the desert and awakens to find himself in Martinville, a town that may or may not be populated by ghosts. An errie, surrealistic and well-produced episode.
#18 - Return to Honor
Season 5 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/22/1964
Ben must travel to pay his respects after he learns of the death of his nephew Will. When he visits the grave, he finds his nephew barely alive with a bullet wound. He takes him to a doctor and Will insists that he leave, but Ben refuses. Will explains that the men after him must believe that he is dead. Ben decides his best bet is to take Will home. He and Will are followed by the same men who are interested in some valuables Will is carrying.
#19 - Rain from Heaven
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/6/1963
A destitute rainmaker and his family arrive in drought-stricken Virginia City. While Ben tries to help him make rain, Hoss tends to the man's seriously ill little girl.
#20 - Bullet for a Bride
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/16/1964
While out hunting for a mountain lion, Joe accidently shots Tessa Caldwell causing her to go blind. As a result of his guilt, Joe ends up proposing to the girl. However, other circumstances arise that cause Tessa to make a rash decision - one that both her and Joe may regret in the future.
#21 - The Gentleman from New Orleans
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/2/1964
The new stranger in town claims to be the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, and Hoss believes him.
#22 - Triangle
Season 5 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/17/1964
Adam and Laura are finally engaged. Adam is secretly building a house and planning for the future. Laura realizes that it's Will she is in love with. Adam is then confined to a wheelchair after falling from a ladder and out of guilt, Laura and Will deny their feelings.
#23 - Walter and the Outlaws
Season 5 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/24/1964
Hilarious sequel to "Any Friend Of Walter's" in which Obie leaves Walter in Hoss' care. The three outlaws, Macy, Teague, and Willard, kidnap Walter and hold him for ransom, leaving Hoss and the returning Obie to rescue him, but matters turn out the other way.
#24 - Love Me Not
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/1/1964
While talking with an Indian, Ben is given an unexpected present...a woman. She is a young white woman named Joan who has lived with the Indians since she was a little girl. Through a humorous learning experience, Ben tries to teach Joan how to behave like a white woman. In the process, Ben finds himself in an awkward situation.
#25 - The Pure Truth
Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/8/1964
Hoss is suffering from spring fever, goes to the wrong town and is accused of bank robbery.