The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 6
Every episode of Bonanza season 6, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 6!
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 Search
Season 6 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/14/1965
Adam sets out to track down the man who has been impersonating him to clear his reputation.
#2 - The Hostage
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1964
Outlaws capture Ben and hide him in an abandoned mine, holding him for a ransom. The boys must come up with a plan to save him before it's too late.
#3 - Right is the Fourth R
Season 6 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/7/1965
While working as a substitute teacher, Adam uncovers an ugly secret about the territory's past that others prefer remain hidden.
#4 - A Knight to Remember
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/20/1964
Two robberies take place on stagecoaches that Adam is traveling on, and both times a knight in shining armor scares the robbers away. Adam is accused of robbery, and his story about the knight is none too helpful.
#5 - Woman of Fire
Season 6 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/17/1965
Ben's friend, Don Miguel, visits the Ponderosa with his two daughters, Margarita and Elena, and Elena's two very anxious suitors. Their mission? They're on their way to California to meet Margarita's suitor, Don Luis. Trouble is, Margarita is a "woman of fire" who manages to scare away all suitors with her hot temper. Since Margarita is the older daughter, she must be married before Elena. Elena's two suitors are quickly losing their patience, and Don Miguel fears his name will be disgraced if Margarita rejects Don Luis.
#6 - Thanks for Everything, Friend
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1964
After inadvertantly falling into the river, Adam is rescued by Tom Wilson. Wilson has feelings for Sue Miller, which bring him into trouble after her father is killed.
#7 - Between Heaven and Earth
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/1964
When Joe and his friend Mitch go after a puma, Joe climbs a big peak and throws his gun up higher, intending to crawl up after it. But as he looks down, things begin to spin. He realises he can't go any higher, and he retreats down the hill. Needing to prove himself, Joe spars against Mitch.
#8 - A Dime's Worth of Glory
Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1964
An author is inspired to write about the heroic Cartwrights after watching first-hand as they fight off an attempted robbery of a stage. As Ben and Adam see no use for the glory of such a novel, they turn the writer down forcing him to turn to the sherriff who quickly accepts.
#9 - Patchwork Man
Season 6 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/23/1965
Hoss befriends a self-demeaning recluse named Patch, who makes the best apple pie Hoss has ever tasted. Hoss is so impressed with him, especially his pie, that he hires him to work on the Ponderosa. Ben, however, is unimpressed with Hoss' new friend when the Cartwrights get into a gunfight with a mining outfit, and Patch cowers. He has a deepseeded fear of violence stemming from an incident in his teen years, but he knows in order to survive in the West, he must overcome it.
#10 - The Scapegoat
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1964
Hoss hires Waldo as a ranch hand after keeping Waldo from killing himself. Hoss soon learns that Waldo is lousy at his job and only causes problems for everyone else due to his clumsiness. Although Hoss is willing to defend him, he soon finds out a secret about Waldo.
#11 - Old Sheba
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/1964
As payment for a performance in a circus, Joe and Hoss are given an elephant. They want to keep it but encounter opposition from Adam and Ben.
#12 - The Ballerina
Season 6 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/24/1965
Kellie Conrad dances and her father plays the fiddle to earn a living. Hoss feels a sense of guilt after he unintentionally hurts the arm that Kellie's father uses to play the fiddle, in a saloon fight with some roughnecks. He gets them to stay at the Ponderosa while the girl's father recuperates. While there, Ben introduces Kellie to his friend Paul Mandel, a ballet star before an explosion cut his dancing career short. Kellie persuades Paul to help her learn ballet. She soon comes to the realization that she loves both the ballet and Paul. She struggles inwardly to make a choice between her love of ballet and giving it all up for the love of her father.
#13 - The Return
Season 6 - Episode 31 - Aired 5/2/1965
No one in Virginia City is happy to see ex-con Trace Cordell, especially the man he crippled in a gunfight, now married to Cordell's former girlfriend.
#14 - The Saga of Squaw Charlie
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/27/1964
A peaceful Indian is framed for the kidnapping of a young girl, a stunt which ends in tragedy.
#15 - The Flannel-Mouth Gun
Season 6 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/31/1965
Adam becomes involved with a quick-triggered range detective hired by the Virginia City Cattleman's Association to find out who is responsible for all the rustling going on in the area.
#16 - Logan's Treasure
Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1964
Sam Logan is released from jail after serving his twenty year sentence for stealing $100,000 worth of gold dust. He is followed by a bounty hunter who believes Sam will lead him to where the gold is buried.
#17 - The Ponderosa Birdman
Season 6 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/7/1965
Professor Klump and Amanda pull Hoss into their flying machine scheme. The "Hoss-mobile" doesn't seem to be destined for a great take-off.
#18 - Invention of a Gunfighter
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1964
Joe teaches Johnny Chapman how to use a gun for defense. What Joe doesn't see is the deadly consequences that it has in the long run when Johnny becomes a gunfighter.
#19 - The Wild One
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1964
Lafe Jessup doesn't really want to be married, and now he's about to be a father! The horse wrangler finds a fight with Hoss at his reluctance to perform his duties.
#20 - The Trap
Season 6 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/28/1965
One of Joe's old girlfriends thinks he killed her husband so they could come together. Unfortunately, that is what her husband's twin brother also believes.
#21 - The Underdog
Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/13/1964
Little Joe convinces Ben to hire Harry Starr, a half-Indian who is accused by other ranchers of being a chronic horse thief. Joe sets out to prove the others wrong, but is the youngest Cartwright's trust misplaced?
#22 - Hound Dog
Season 6 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/21/1965
Cousin Muley Jones returns to the Ponderosa, along with a pack of noisy hound dogs, in this funny sequel to "The Saga Of Muley Jones".
#23 - Once a Doctor
Season 6 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/28/1965
Hoss' latest acquaintance, an Englishman named Professor Poppy, is actually Percival Alexander Mundy, M.D., who has given up the practice of medicine. However, when Hoss is shot in the back, only Mundy's skill can save his life.
#24 - Square Deal Sam
Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1964
A conman heads into town and takes advantage of the Cartwrights with a fake land deal. The conman ends up staying in Virginia city to run an orphanage.
#25 - The Flapjack Contest
Season 6 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/3/1965
Hoss unknowingly enters a flapjack contest and Joe puts Hoss on a diet which Hoss doesn't care for. Joe's betting on the flapjack contest could get him into some trouble and will he ever succeed in getting the window pane his Pa wants?