Bonanza - Official First Season, Vols. 1 & 2 with Lorne Greene: DVD Cover
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Bonanza - Official First Season, Vols. 1 & 2 Cast: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts

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  • DVD Release Date: 09/15/2009
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 3,407
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Features

Rare alternate pilot ending and other great extras

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Editorial Reviews

Not many media pundits gave Bonanza much of a chance when the hour-long Western series inaugurated its first season in the fall of 1959. Sure, it was filmed in beautiful color; and yes, the acting was superb, the writing terrific, the production values first-rate. But how could NBC hope to compete against Bonanza's principal Saturday night competition, CBS' indomitable Perry Mason? The first episode, "A Rose for Lotta" offers a special treat for Bonanza enthusiasts: a full-blooded, a cappella performance of the series' theme song (yes, there were lyrics!) by stars Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright), Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright), Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright), and Michael Landon (Little Joe Cartwright). "A Rose for Lotta" also guest-stars Yvonne de Carlo as fabled entertainer Lotta Crabtree, one of several real historical characters who would cross paths with the Cartwrights over the next 14 seasons: other season one examples include humorist Sam "Mark Twain" Clemens (Howard Duff), financier Henry Comstock (Jack Carson), and actress Adah Isaacs Menken (Ruth Roman). One of the season's final episodes, "The Avenger, is essentially a showcase for guest star Vic Morrow as a man named Lassiter, whose heightened sense of justice was forged years earlier when his parents were lynched. "The Avenger" was clearly intended as the pilot for a spin-off series, but nothing came of it; Morrow would have to wait two years before landing his own weekly program, Combat. The predictions of industry Cassandras seemed to come true when Bonanza failed to make a dent in Perry Mason's ratings; indeed, Bonanza wasn't even able to crack the Top 30 shows. However, its sponsor, RCA Victor, could not help but notice the upsurge in the sale of color TV sets during Bonanza's freshman season, thus the show was renewed for a second year on the air. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

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  • Ratings: 2Reviews: 1

Phooey! Decades to wait and only Season 1?????by miriamc

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November 23, 2009: Season 1 was the WORST! The characters hadn't been fully developed until late in the season. Lorne Greene said the scripts weren't worthy of toilet paper. Eventually, they found the winning formula,but it took most of the first season. They had good actors, absolutely. And great color, and a marvelous musician behind the scenes doing the lush orchestrations (David Rose, Judy Garland's first husband). But writing? Yuck. Most of the early episodes were awful renderings of very bad histories of the Comstock, mostly Lyman's Saga of the Comstock Lode. You could almost see, word for word, how Dortort followed it - Dortort, who apparently wrote those episodes, made that history even worse. And it didn't fit the eventual shape the series took. Thank goodness they found it. And credit Dortort with waiting it out until he did.

After all my ranting, the first season isn't worthless. It's interesting to watch the show evolve. And the color was great back then. But after all the wait for good, quality DVDs of this series - and all we get is Season 1? How long before we get to the best years - like Season 5? That was its greatest peak year - the year of "Hoss and the Leprachauns" and the fun of the series was matched by the very high ratings numbers. Another fifty years? Sigh. Season 1 isn't worth the money they're charging.