The BEST episodes of Bonanza season 7
Every episode of Bonanza season 7, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bonanza season 7!
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 - Ride the Wind (2)
Season 7 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/23/1966
Conclusion to the previous-week's episode, where the Cartwrights provide needed assistance to the Pony Express.
#2 - The Trouble with Jamie
Season 7 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/20/1966
The Cartwrights attempt to straighten out the snobbish young son of Ben's cousin.
#3 - Home from the Sea
Season 7 - Episode 31 - Aired 5/1/1966
A sailor, claiming to be one of Adam's closest friends, is given a warm welcome by the Cartwrights, who have no way of knowing the man and his accomplice plan on robbing them.
#4 - Ride the Wind (1)
Season 7 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/16/1966
The Pony Express sets up office in Virginia and Joe is one of the first to join up. Ben also decides to invest in the fledgling enterprise. However, troubles soon plague the Pony Express with the Paiutes and a newspaper reporter, both trying to get their own agendas across.
#5 - Peace Officer
Season 7 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/6/1966
While Sheriff Coffee is in Saint Louis, the Morrisey bunch decides to work off excess energy by wrecking the saloon in a violent spree. When Deputy Bill Harris tries to arrest them, they hit him on the head with a whiskey bottle, accidentally killing him. All of them get away except Cliff, who is put in jail. He refuses to say the names or locations of his friends. Mayor Garrett holds an emergency meeting of the Virginia City town council. They hire legendary lawman Wes Dunn, as the temporary sheriff. He is a humorless man who is determined to restore order in town. He beats Cliff almost to death to find out where his friends are, but Cliff will not say anything. Meanwhile, Hoss finds Chuck, a wounded gang member. When he tries to take Chuck's gun away, he shoots Hoss. Joe goes with Dunn to find the other men. He thinks Dunn is a hero until he sees him murder one of the suspects in cold blood.
#6 - The Unwritten Commandment
Season 7 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/10/1966
Everyone feels Andy Walker is an outstanding singer but his father, who feels the boy should concentrate on ranch work instead. Joe mentions receiving a letter from Adam, currently in Paris.
#7 - The Dilemma
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1965
Ben helps a convict win a parole only to have the man later become the chief suspect in a bank robbery.
#8 - Found Child
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/24/1965
Hoss comes upon an overturned stagecoach and discovers a little girl suffering from shock. After the Cartwrights suceed in bringing her around, Hoss is disappointed she has relatives and cannot stay. The girl's uncle turns out to be the enemy and Hoss saves her.
#9 - The Debt
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/12/1965
Wiley and Annie Kane arrive at the Ponderosa to work off their father's debt to Ben. It seems as though the elder Kane once swindled the Cartwright patriarch.
#10 - The Strange One
Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/14/1965
Hoss and Joe find a woman abandoned by a wagon train because her gift of prophecy is considered a curse. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," says Ben, "if eveybody made a real effort to understand whatever's strange and unfamiliar rather to fear it and try to destroy it?"
#11 - The Emperor Norton
Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/27/1966
Joshua Norton, an eccentric and formerly wealthy San Francisco merchant who considers himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, comes to the Ponderosa. Authorities want to have him committed, and Ben contacts Mark Twain to testify to Norton's sanity.
#12 - Her Brother's Keeper
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/6/1966
Ben and Claire Armory fall in love, but their future is jeopardized by her disabled brother.
#13 - The Code
Season 7 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/13/1966
Joe is goaded into facing gunman Dan Taggert, unaware there is more to be prearranged than he realizes.
#14 - Three Brides for Hoss
Season 7 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/20/1966
Not one, but three mail-order brides show up unexpectedly at the Ponderosa, all of them believing they are to marry Hoss.
#15 - Shining in Spain
Season 7 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/27/1966
Young, adoring Wendy Daniels has come to Virginia City to meet up with her father, Taylor Daniels, who has been traveling on business for the last five years. Joe is attracted to Wendy, but he faces stiff competition for her affections. She idolizes her father and cannot stop talking about his great business visions, although she has not seen him in five years. The Cartwrights realize there is something wrong when Wendy's supposedly rich father leaves her stranded in Virginia City with no money. When she is evicted from the hotel after running up a debt of $50, Joe takes her to the Ponderosa, only to have her dreams of her father shattered when he shows up flat broke.
#16 - A Natural Wizard
Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/12/1965
Hoss finds a kindred spirit in Skeeter Dexter, a lonesome young man who feels closer to animals than most people.
#17 - The Other Son
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/3/1965
A mule skinner and his two sons are hired by Ben to transport nitroglycerin to California.
#18 - All Ye His Saints
Season 7 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/19/1965
In this series' highlight, little Michael Thorpe heads to the high country to ask God to spare his critically wounded father, believing he has found Him in the form of longtime fugitive Tom Cain.
#19 - Big Shadow on the Land
Season 7 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/17/1966
Italian immigrants are determined to establish their own vineyard on Ponderosa property.
#20 - The Reluctant Rebel
Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/21/1965
The Generation Gap, Western-style, as Hoss tries to bring a young man and his father closer together.
#21 - The Genius
Season 7 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/3/1966
Hoss chooses a difficult path when he decides to rehabilitate a famous poet, Will Smith, who is really William Warlock Evans, who spends too much time drinking and eventually his wife arrives at the Ponderosa.
#22 - The Lonely Runner
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/10/1965
The Cartwrights' friend, Jim Acton, is in danger of losing his prized mare. He has sold a herd of wild horses to horse trader Sam Whipple, and Whipple takes him to court claiming the mare was part of that herd. Acton walks out on the court proceedings, and the judge awards the mare to Whipple. When Acton tries to make a deal with Whipple to buy her back, Whipple shoots at him. Jim kills Whipple in self defense and becomes a wanted man. The Cartwrights are sure he is innocent, but an overzealous deputy under Sheriff Coffee, has other intentions. Acton has only one wish: to run free like a wild horse.
#23 - Devil on Her Shoulder
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/17/1965
Ben is attracted to Sarah Reynolds, a member of a religious order led by her fanatical uncle. When she is accused of being a witch, the Cartwrights step in.
#24 - Mighty is the Word
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/7/1965
Virginia City's newest preacher is an ex-gunfighter who wants only to build a new church, but the brother of one of his victims has other ideas. The blueprints for the church are said to be a gift from Adam.
#25 - To Kill a Buffalo
Season 7 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/9/1966
Hoss finds a wounded young Indian on the prairie, who is torn between accepting the ways of the white man or returning to his old life.