The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 11
Every episode of Bonanza season 11, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 11!
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 - Another Windmill to Go
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1969
An Englishman with a passion for challenging ridiculous laws shows up on the Ponderosa grazing in a land-rowing boat mounted on a wagon.
#2 - Danger Road
Season 11 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1970
Ben needs to haul three beams that are 30 feet long and the Cambeau Freight Company will not do it. A new, independent freight hauler may be the answer. However, when Ben meets Gunny, he orders him off the Ponderosa. Ben and Gunny served together in the Mexican war, and chose opposite sides. Ben puts his differences aside with Gunny and helps him win the government contract away from Cambeau Freight Company.
#3 - Return Engagement
Season 11 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/1/1970
En route to San Francisco, actress Lotta Crabtree arrives in Virginia City for a special performance. Hoss is smitten by the beautiful actress, which makes her leading man jealous. When he is killed during a performance, Lotta and then Hoss are suspected of the death. It is up to Ben to set things straight.
#4 - To Stop a War
Season 11 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/19/1969
Dan Logan, a former army scout and lawman who works for the Cartwrights, has his hands full with rustlers, a range war, and a one-time prostitute whose devotion is questionable.
#5 - A Matter of Circumstance
Season 11 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/19/1970
Little Joe stays back at the Ponderosa to tend to its operation as Ben, Hoss, Candy and Hop Sing leave for a cattle drive, who leave as a severe thunderstorm approaches. Joe goes to the barn to calm a horse that was spooked by the thunder and lightning. But just when it seems like the horse has settled down, the horse goes wild, knocking down Joe and crushing his left arm and breaking his leg. Joe goes in and out of consciousness and – after struggling against driving rain and winds to get into the house – treats his wounds. However, the arm is infected and Joe, fearing gangrene has set in, debates whether to amputate the wound.
#6 - A Darker Shadow
Season 11 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/23/1969
A Virginia City store clerk decides to take advantage of his co-worker's paralyzing sensitivity to bright light.
#7 - The Medal
Season 11 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/26/1969
Ben lends a hand to a down and out war veteran, Matthew Rush, who received the Congressional Medal Of Honor.
#8 - Old Friends
Season 11 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/14/1969
Ben is sorry to learn that two of his oldest friends are on opposite sides of the law, after 27 years. Charlie Shepard once worked a mining claim with Ben, along with Jess Waddell, now a bounty hunter, and will stop at nothing to kill Charlie, regardless of what anyone tries to persuade him to do otherwise.
#9 - The Witness
Season 11 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1969
A young woman, Jenny Winters who is prone to telling tall tales, claims she witnessed the Logan gang holding up a stagecoach. The Cartwrights hide her at the Ponderosa, but that is only the beginning of what Jenny will learn from spinning tall tales.
#10 - It's a Small World
Season 11 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1970
A prejudiced Virginia City banker spurns Ben's recommendation of a recent widower (with an infant daughter to raise) for a bank teller's job because he's a midget. The midget, a former circus performer, steals money from the bank to support his daughter.
#11 - The Silence at Stillwater
Season 11 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1969
A young boy positively identifies Candy as the man wanted in Stillwater for robbery, arson and murder.
#12 - Meena
Season 11 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1969
Little Joe and Candy defend Meena Calhoun and her crusty father, Luke, from horse rustlers. In the process, Joe helps Meena become assertive and stick up for herself.
#13 - Anatomy of a Lynching
Season 11 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/1969
Will Griner is acquitted of murder which upsets the folks of Virginia City. They feel Griner silenced witnesses and are ready to lynch him. Ben works to reopen the case by finding out the truth about the case before it is too late.
#14 - Long Way to Ogden
Season 11 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/22/1970
Ben gambles the future of the Ponderosa when a convincing meat packer from Chicago, sets out to ruin the local cattle industry.
#15 - The Lady and the Mark
Season 11 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/1/1970
A new wealthy Ponderosa employee with a weakness for women becomes the target of con artists.
#16 - The Law and Billy Burgess
Season 11 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/15/1970
Ben seriously doubts an angry young man committed several murders to which he has confessed to.
#17 - The Gold Mine
Season 11 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/8/1970
Two drifters come to the Ponderosa and they try to rob the Cartwrights but are driven away. Joe becomes close to the young Mexican, Ramon, who is with them. After they get into a little disagreement they throw Ramon out. The drifters then discover that Ramon has found gold. Ramon returns to the Ponderosa and is welcomed. The Cartwrights learn that Ramon's father, who had to take care of his large family, sold his son to the two men. The two drifters grab Ramon and force him to tell them where he found the gold. They are about to make their claim when the Cartwrights stop them and let Ramon claim the gold as his. Ramon then goes back to Mexico with his fortune.
#18 - The Trouble with Amy
Season 11 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/25/1970
Ben comes to the aid of Amy Wilder, an eccentric animal lover whose mental competency is questioned when a neighbor declares an interest in her land for mining. The neighbor asks the court for a hearing to have Amy declared senile so he can obtain her land, setting off Ben's race against time to track down Amy's relatives to defend her mental state.
#19 - Is There Any Man Here?
Season 11 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/8/1970
When the daughter of a friend declares her love for him, Ben agonizes over what to do.
#20 - Decision at Los Robles
Season 11 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/22/1970
Ben and Joe stop in Los Robles for a couple of beers and a night's rest. Ben sees the town boss, John Walker, bullying the saloon waitress, and he comes to her defense. When Ben steps outside of the saloon, Walker shoots him in the back. Badly wounded, Ben shoots back, killing Walker just before he falls unconscious. While Joe keeps a vigil at Ben's bedside, the priest tells him Los Robles had always been ruled unquestionably by John Walker and his son Jed. Now Jed will certainly want revenge. Sure enough, he tells Joe if he doesn't hand Ben over in 24 hours, he will kill every citizen in Los Robles, one an hour. To complicate matters more, Walker's foreman, Garth, deliberately tells Jed that Ben shot his father in the back, in hopes that Joe will kill Walker, so he can run the Walker ranch. When Joe tries to mobilize a few citizens to fight Walker and his army of men, he finds a town full of cowards. The biggest coward of all is the doctor. He purposely left the bullet in Ben's back, hoping that he'd die within 24 hours. Jed and Garth make final plans to blow up Los Robles with dynamite, unless Joe surrenders Ben to him.
#21 - The Stalker
Season 11 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/2/1969
Candy helps the widow of a man he shot and killed in self defense, unaware she is plotting revenge against him.
#22 - The Horse Traders
Season 11 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/5/1970
In this second episode to feature Meena Calhoun and her father, Hoss and Joe's plans to sell horses from the livery stables in town is thwarted. Virgil and his two brothers also go into the livery business which creates troubles for Hoss and Joe.
#23 - A Lawman's Lot is Not a Happy One
Season 11 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1969
When he is called to testify in an out-of-town lumber shark case, Roy recruits Hoss to temporarily serve as sheriff. Hoss quickly finds his hands full dealing with a reluctant groom, who plans a robbery to make himself less appealing to his assertive fiancé; and a persistent salesman wanting to sell stock for a resort in the Virginia City area. Will Virginia City ever be the same?
#24 - What Are Pardners For?
Season 11 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/12/1970
Hoss meets two men. He forms a rapport with them and they tell him that they plan to rob the bank in the town they are going to. Hoss tries to stop them but he fails. Hoss decides to go into the town to warn the sheriff but is too late. The sheriff then arrests Hoss.
#25 - Abner Willoughby's Return
Season 11 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/21/1969
Joe agrees to help the man who tried to steal his horse, Abner Willoughby, who has returned to claim the box of gold he hid years ago, before going to sea.