The WORST episodes of Bonanza
Every episode of Bonanza ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Bonanza!
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 Spotlight
Season 6 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/16/1965
Ben invites opera singer Angela Bergstrom to perform at Virginia City's anniversary celebration. She accepts, but does not tell him that her famous singing voice is long gone
#2 - Jonah
Season 6 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/9/1965
The Ponderosa hands are upset when new hand George Whitman is hired on, it is rumored he is a jinx. Hoss tells George to ignore such foolishness, but a gypsy fortune teller says otherwise.
#3 - One Ace Too Many
Season 13 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/2/1972
Ruthless land baron Bradley Meredith (Lorne Greene in a dual role) makes his return to Virginia City with a new scheme to get control of the Ponderosa. He learns the Cartwrights are on a cattle trip to Carson City and takes advantage of their absence when "Ben" claims is seriously ill and begins his holdings to friends.
#4 - The Love Child
Season 12 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1970
A dying woman and her son are rejected by her father because she had a child out of wedlock.
#5 - The Dublin Lad
Season 7 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/2/1966
After sitting on a jury that has convicted Terrence O' Tool of murder, Joe has second thoughts about the verdict and decides to do some investigating of his own.
#6 - The Younger Brothers' Younger Brother
Season 13 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/12/1972
A comic tale of mistaken identity, as Hoss (and eventually Ben and Joe) are held in connection with a series of road gang robberies by the bumbling Younger Brothers.
#7 - Lothario Larkin
Season 6 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/25/1965
Ladies' man Lothario Larkin creates havoc whenever he hits Virginia City, so Roy Coffee orders him out of town. Naturally, Hoss takes him in.
#8 - A Visit to Upright
Season 13 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/26/1972
Ben's ability to close a lucrative livestock contract with a conspicuous widow hinges on the sale of a dilapidated saloon in Upright that Hoss and Joe had impulsively purchased. However, the boys put off the sale when the town drunk (who acts as "saloon keeper") insist the crumbling Trails End Saloon may house a fortune. Things get even more complicated when a woman, claiming to be the daughter of the deceased former owner, envisions turning the Trails End into a booming saloon, hotel and restaurant.
#9 - The Meredith Smith
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/31/1965
Ben must determine who is the rightful heir to a fortune that includes water rights vital to the Ponderosa.
#10 - A Good Night's Rest
Season 6 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/11/1965
First Ben's sons are making lots of noise, so he goes into town to sleep in the hotel. Then, various noises and things interrupt Ben's sleep. Will he ever get his desired good night's rest?
#11 - The Big Jackpot
Season 11 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/18/1970
Candy has inherited a fortune from an Indian he helped. He quits his job on the Ponderosa and becomes a vice president for a land promotor who is selling beautiful, fertile land. When it is discovered that the land promotor is selling barren desert land, Candy and the Cartwrights set out to expose the land promotor as a fraud.
#12 - The Deadliest Game
Season 6 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/21/1965
The Cartwrights play host to Guido Borelli, a world renowed aerial acrobat who once saved Ben's life in Italy. Borelli's troup is beset by internal strife, and is performing in Virginia City.
#13 - 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.
#14 - First Love
Season 14 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/26/1972
Jamie becomes friends with the wife of an unpopular schoolmaster, who often browbeats her.
#15 - The Impostors
Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/13/1970
Hoss and Joe pretend to be stage robbers' partners in order to recover stolen Cartwright money. All goes well until the wife of one of the thieves shows up.
#16 - The Hidden Enemy
Season 14 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/28/1972
Dr. Will Agar is Virginia City's new town doctor, and brings with him new skills and expertise to treat area residents' health maladies. Only thing is, Dr. Agar is seriously addicted to morphine, and it results in serious trouble for everyone.
#17 - A Man to Admire
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/6/1964
Hoss relies on clever attorney Whitney Parker, who has a drinking problem, to clear him of a murder charge.
#18 - The Luck of Pepper Shannon
Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/22/1970
Pepper Shannon is a dime novel hero and outlaw. Ben gives a job to Pepper Shannon on the condition the one-time outlaw stays away from Jamie, who happens to admire him.
#19 - 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.
#20 - 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.
#21 - Face of Fear
Season 13 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/14/1971
Neta, a teen-age girl who is a friend of Jamie's, witnesses an assault and robbery. The victim - Mr. Trumbull, a man who is about to inherit a fortune - dies. The culprit, a drifter named Griff Bannon, gets a glimpse of Neta and, after fleeing the scene, plots to assume his victim's identity and stalk the witness. Her father, meanwhile, is no help, since he raises her by "traditional values" and forbids her to socialize with the Cartwrights. Meanwhile, the imposter - now working for the Cartwrights – begins to track Neta's every move and plans to seal her silence, unless she can summon the courage to tell Jamie and the others about the crime she witnessed and identify the baddie.
#22 - The Twenty-Sixth Grave
Season 14 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/31/1972
Mark Twain ruffles dangerous feathers in Virginia City with accusations of claim-jumping and murder.
#23 - The Rattlesnake Brigade
Season 13 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/5/1971
Jamie and three teen-agers - a girl and two boys - are kidnapped by Doyle, a hardened criminal with nothing to lose, and his gang of outlaws. The desperate outlaws use the youths as bargaining tools to make their escape from a trip to prison.
#24 - 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.
#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.