The BEST episodes written by Thomas Thompson

The Martin Gatsby Story
star
9.00
4 votes

#1 - The Martin Gatsby Story

Wagon Train - Season 6 - Episode 4

Wealthy merchant Martin Gatsby, a man with little room for compassion for others, wants the wagon train to keep rolling and demands that Hale leave Caleb Lefton and his family behind, because the inexperienced Lefton is causing delays.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Hunter Malloy Story
star
8.60
5 votes

#2 - The Hunter Malloy Story

Wagon Train - Season 2 - Episode 16

Hunter Malloy and partner get jobs as drivers on the wagon train to rob their boss. Striking gold instead while stopping to repair their wagons, the fever is high as some stop to strike it rich and uncover more than just a few nuggets.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Fourflusher
star
8.31
12 votes

#3 - The Fourflusher

The Rifleman - Season 2 - Episode 32

A sharecropper enters his colt in a horse race, hoping to win enough money to buy his farm from the owner, who has bet on Mark McCain's entry.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Sacramento Story
star
8.00
12 votes

#4 - The Sacramento Story

Wagon Train - Season 1 - Episode 39

At the end of a long journey, lives were lost. Some made it with their dreams intact. Flint tries to help one of the passengers with theirs and almost bites off too much. Politics are involved as well as unsolicited trips to the Far East.

The Clayton Tucker Story
star
7.83
6 votes

#5 - The Clayton Tucker Story

Wagon Train - Season 3 - Episode 18

Taking a dangerous route through the desert to join up with the wagon train, a small band of settlers take a turn for the worse when they lose the one man leading them, their scout, and now differ on where they need to go now.

The Quest
star
7.75
11 votes

#6 - The Quest

Bonanza - Season 4 - Episode 2

Determined to prove he can succeed at something without the help of his Pa, Hoss, and Adam, Joe sets out on his quest and wins a timber contract for Ponderosa timber, and later discovers that having a family to rely on can definitely be an asset.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Monty Britton Story
star
7.73
11 votes

#7 - The Monty Britton Story

Wagon Train - Season 1 - Episode 38

Low on water, Flint scouts for more. When three water holes are dry or poisoned, Fort Paiute seems their only hope but he has to make it back to the wagon train on foot and the only other man who knows the way is believed to be a deserter.

The Pursued (2)
star
7.67
13 votes

#8 - The Pursued (2)

Bonanza - Season 8 - Episode 5

As the persecuted party awaits Ben and Hoss' return, Herber is shot and killed. Joe retaliates and shoots Herber's assassin.

Watch Now:Amazon
San Francisco
star
7.66
53 votes

#9 - San Francisco

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 28

In this comic episode, the first to take place far from the ranch, Ben, Hoss, and Joe deliver a herd to San Francisco. Although he warns his sons to be careful in the big city ("This is not the Ponderosa!"), Ben is the one who is shanghaied and must be rescued.

Watch Now:Amazon
Showdown at Tahoe
star
7.64
10 votes

#10 - Showdown at Tahoe

Bonanza - Season 9 - Episode 10

A career robber who claims to be a lumber man, and his gang plan to use Ben's new freight paddleboat to haul a $1 million currency shipment to San Francisco.

Watch Now:Amazon
Incident at Alkali Sink
star
7.60
5 votes

#11 - Incident at Alkali Sink

Rawhide - Season 5 - Episode 29

Burt Harvey is accused of cowardice at Gettysburg by his new father-in-law.

The Artie Matthewson Story
star
7.60
5 votes

#12 - The Artie Matthewson Story

Wagon Train - Season 5 - Episode 7

Duke finds Flint's dying foster mother who asks Flint to check on her real son Artie who she hasn't seen in five years and has a reputation for getting into trouble with the law. Flint finds him on the right side of the law - or is he.

The Fear Merchants
star
7.50
24 votes

#13 - The Fear Merchants

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 20

The Cartwrights encounter racial bigotry in Virginia City and end up protecting a Chinese boy from mob violence. Victor Sen Yung, in his largest role to date, speaks normally in the presence of his fellow countrymen, but reverts to broken English when with the Cartwrights.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Outcast
star
7.38
24 votes

#14 - The Outcast

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 17

Because she is related to criminals, a young woman is ostracized by everyone but the the Cartwrights. She unwisely seeks solace with an ex-con friend of Joe's, Clay Renton, and it's up to Ben to straighten everything out. First episode to have a chapter title after the cast credits.

Tommy
star
7.25
10 votes

#15 - Tommy

Bonanza - Season 8 - Episode 14

The Cartwrights protect a woman and her deaf-mute little son from the boy's outlaw stepfather.

The Hobie Redman Story
star
7.25
4 votes

#16 - The Hobie Redman Story

Wagon Train - Season 5 - Episode 16

When three wagons are late in the desert, Chris sends Duke to find them and bring them to the wagon train as the train cannot wait for them. It may be a suicide mission due to water holes drying up and the missing people's personal issues.

The Fenton Canaby Story
star
7.25
4 votes

#17 - The Fenton Canaby Story

Wagon Train - Season 7 - Episode 15

Canaby, who is unjustly reputed to have led a wagon train to disaster in the desert, becomes unexpectedly part of Hale's train as Hale has some of the same problems Canaby had and the train carries a widow wanting revenge against Canaby.

The Gift
star
7.13
14 votes

#18 - The Gift

Bonanza - Season 2 - Episode 27

While crossing the desert to Yuma, Arizona with a white stallion intended as a birthday present for Ben, Joe runs into a pack of merciless comancheros. His companion, a former comanchero, Emiliano, who raised the horse, must get he and Joe through safely.

The Payment
star
7.13
8 votes

#19 - The Payment

The Virginian - Season 3 - Episode 14

Ryker invites the man who raised him to come to Medicine Bow after being released from 10 years in prison. When Ryker finds Abe has invited his family to join him, he knows there are problems as Shiloh makes a record sized cattle shipment.

The Philip Diedesheimer Story
star
7.04
87 votes

#20 - The Philip Diedesheimer Story

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 8

Adam and Hoss assist a German engineer in developing the concept of "square set timbering" in the mines. Based on fact, and the first episode not to include all four Cartwrights. Hoss refers to the character, Emily, with whom he was in love with in, "The Newcomers."

The Newcomers
star
7.01
109 votes

#21 - The Newcomers

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 3

John Pennington and his crew want to mine the Ponderosa land by hydraulic means. Ben is totally against this method and evicts them in short order. Hoss is given the task of telling Pennington's men to leave, but soon has a moral dilemma on his hands when he meets Pennington's beautiful sister, Emily. He soon discovers a heartbreaking secret...she's terminally ill; but their relationship soon leads to plenty of trouble for the Cartwrights.

Star Crossed
star
6.91
9 votes

#22 - Star Crossed

Bonanza - Season 9 - Episode 23

Candy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, unaware that the man claiming to be her cousin is a bounty hunter who is not only harassing her but has framed her for murder and robbery.

The Saga of Annie O'Toole
star
6.90
90 votes

#23 - The Saga of Annie O'Toole

Bonanza - Season 1 - Episode 7

Adam defends the mining claim of Annie O' Toole in a court presided over by Judge Ben Cartwright. Annie comes to the Washoe Diggings with a claim to a mine filed by her beau, Swede Lundberg. Swede has two claims and sold one to an acquaintance of theirs named Gregory Spain, creating confusion, that only Judge Ben Cartwright can make a ruling on.

The Cole Crawford Story
star
6.80
5 votes

#24 - The Cole Crawford Story

Wagon Train - Season 5 - Episode 28

The young Crawford couple is trying to leave their past behind but having difficulty doing it. The wagon train is crossing a massive ranch and the owner's son refuses to let Mrs. Crawford leave nor will the train members help them.

The Pursued (1)
star
6.77
11 votes

#25 - The Pursued (1)

Bonanza - Season 8 - Episode 4

A Mormon with two wives is badgered by the town's people and then things get much worse.

Old Tony
star
6.62
12 votes

#26 - Old Tony

The Rifleman - Season 5 - Episode 26

Mark and his girlfriend Laurie discover that an old hermit is very lonely.

The Unwanted
star
6.58
10 votes

#27 - The Unwanted

Bonanza - Season 10 - Episode 27

Feeling unloved, a Marshal's daughter runs off with a Ponderosa hand her father thinks may be related to the man that shot him.

A Christmas Story
star
6.57
12 votes

#28 - A Christmas Story

Bonanza - Season 8 - Episode 15

Warbling Andy Walker returns to Virginia City a big success, along with his shifty Uncle Thaddeus.

The Other Son
star
6.00
7 votes

#29 - The Other Son

Bonanza - Season 7 - Episode 4

A mule skinner and his two sons are hired by Ben to transport nitroglycerin to California.

The Lonely Runner
star
5.50
6 votes

#30 - The Lonely Runner

Bonanza - Season 7 - Episode 5

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.

Mighty is the Word
star
5.50
4 votes

#31 - Mighty is the Word

Bonanza - Season 7 - Episode 9

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.