The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 8
Every episode of Bonanza season 8, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 8!
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 - Maestro Hoss
Season 8 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/7/1967
Hoss is conned into buying a violin from a gypsy fortune teller, and everyone on the Ponderosa--except for Hop Sing--suffers the consequences.
#2 - Something Hurt, Something Wild
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/11/1966
The Cartwrights' friendship with a neighboring rancher is threatened by his mentally unstable daughter.
#3 - The Pursued (2)
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/9/1966
As the persecuted party awaits Ben and Hoss' return, Herber is shot and killed. Joe retaliates and shoots Herber's assassin.
#4 - Judgment at Red Creek
Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired 2/26/1967
Hoss and Joe have their doubts as to who really robbed a way station, suspecting the two men they captured are innocent.
#5 - Journey to Terror
Season 8 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/5/1967
Joe visits his married friends in Arizona Territory, only to discover the husband has become a criminal and is secretly part of a notorious gang.
#6 - Four Sisters from Boston
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/30/1966
The Cartwrights come to the rescue of four inexperienced homesteaders, when devious cattle ranchers try to run them off their property.
#7 - The Greedy Ones
Season 8 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/14/1967
The Ponderosa is in danger of being overrun by gold hunters.
#8 - The Oath
Season 8 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/20/1966
While in another town, on business, Ben runs into a saloon employee who is a big figure, and after he kills an old miner, who has burned down his house, Ben takes him into the sheriff. He is sentenced and hung. Before his departure, Charlie Monahan, has made his half-breed son, Charlie Two, swear an oath to kill Ben. Little Joe is made aware of this and must track him down to prevent him from carrying out his oath against Ben. Charlie Two is unaware that Joe is Ben's son, as they meet on the trail.
#9 - The Deed and the Dilemma
Season 8 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/26/1967
Ben assists Georgio Rossi in his battle for water on adjoining property.
#10 - Amigo
Season 8 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/12/1967
A wounded comanchero sides with the Cartwrights when the rest of the gang, led by Captain Fenner, shows up to burn and rob the Ponderosa.
#11 - The Unseen Wound
Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/29/1967
Ben discovers that his friend, Sheriff Paul Rowan, is suffering from stress brought on by his wartime experiences.
#12 - Tommy
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/18/1966
The Cartwrights protect a woman and her deaf-mute little son from the boy's outlaw stepfather.
#13 - Black Friday
Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/22/1967
In the town of Chiso, Joe encounters a former Ponderosa cowhand who is now a gunfighter and expecting to be killed on Friday the 13th. John Saxon makes the first of his three appearances in the series, in this episode as Steven Friday.
#14 - The Bridegroom
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/4/1966
Joe plays matchmaker in this story of a rancher attempting to marry off his supposedly unremarkable daughter.
#15 - A Time to Step Down
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/25/1966
After the Cartwrights put wrangler Dan Tolliver out to pasture, the embittered old man plans to take part in robbing the Ponderosa.
#16 - A Bride for Buford
Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/15/1967
Dolly Bantree has a crooked manager "Blackie", who blackmails Dolly to fleece newly rich miner Buford out of his newfound wealth. Hoss suspects something and gets all duded up to pose as a rich mark to test Dolly.
#17 - The Wormwood Cup
Season 8 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/23/1967
A woman - convinced Little Joe intentionally killed her brother - offers $1,000 to the man who kills the youngest Cartwright in what she deems a "fair fight." Joe, meanwhile, must overcome his guilt over killing another man in self defense while trying to avoid the dead man's bitterly grieving father.
#18 - A Real Nice, Friendly Little Town
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/27/1966
When the woman he was planning to marry is strangled, Joe forces the only suspect to come forward, in a very tense-filled episode.
#19 - A Woman in the House
Season 8 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/19/1967
Mary Wharton, an old friend of the family, comes to live on the Ponderosa with her shiftless husband. When Ben learns Mary is the victim of domestic abuse, he sends Russ packing.
#20 - Dark Enough to See the Stars
Season 8 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/12/1967
Young Billy Wilcox wanders onto the Ponderosa, sick, hungry, and alone. Ben finds him, and after he regains his strength, offers Billy a job. Jennifer Yardley, who with her father is visiting the Cartwrights, is interested in Billy. Billy is more concerned about a lawman that has come to town because he has a past that could be problematic: he killed a man in self-defense and ran.
#21 - A Man Without Land
Season 8 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/9/1967
The foreman of a neighboring ranch frames Joe for murder as part of a scheme to get his employer's property.
#22 - Old Charlie
Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/6/1966
A young cowpoke is killed during a fight with Hoss, but the old blowhard who runs the Virginia City stables, takes the credit, placing him in danger from the dead man's brothers.
#23 - Napoleon's Children
Season 8 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/16/1967
A gang of juvenile delinquents, led by an intelligent runt, who calls himself Napoleon, terrorizes Virginia City and the Ponderosa as well.
#24 - To Bloom for Thee
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/16/1966
Hoss is engaged to Carol Attley, a troubled woman with a past darker than he imagines.
#25 - Horse of a Different Hue
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/18/1966
So the Cartwrights will not be killed, one of Ben's oldest friends must make sure Joe does not win a horse race.