Bonanza and the Ranch Westerns of the Sixties

Beginning in 1955 there would be a cycle of Westerns on American television that would last until 1960.  It would perhaps be the largest cycle of any given genre in American television history. In fact, from the 1958-1959 season to the 1960-1961 there was at least one Western TV show, sometimes more, on each night of the week. Despite the sheer number of Westerns on American television at the time, there was not a whole lot of variety in the Westerns of the late Fifties. Most of them centred on lawmen of various types (marshals, sheriffs, and so on), individuals whose professions required them to travel (bounty hunters, gamblers, and so on), or drifters. Conspicuously missing for much of the cycle were any Westerns set on ranches.

All of that would begin to change in the 1958-1959 season with the debut of The Rifleman. The Rifleman centred on Lucas McCain (played by Chuck Connors), who lived on a small homestead with his son Mark in New Mexico. It would be in the 1959-1960 season that two different Western TV shows based around ranches would debut. The first of these was Bonanza, which debuted on September 12 1959. Bonanza centred on Ben Cartwright (played by Lorne Greene) and his three sons, who together ran the Ponderosa Ranch just a few miles outside Virginia City, Nevada. The oldest son was Adam (played by Pernell Roberts), the level headed one with a college education. The second oldest son was Hoss (played by Dan Blocker), a gentle giant with a gift for caring for animals and people. The youngest son was Little Joe (played by Michael Landon), the impulsive one with a tendency to fall in love often. Ben's sons were technically only half-brothers. He had married three times, siring a son by each wife, only to lose his wives to death in childbirth (Adam's mother), an Indian massacre (Hoss's mother), and an accident with a horse (Little Joe's mother).

Bonanza debuted on Saturday, September 12 1960 at 7:30 PM Eastern. During its first two seasons, it did respectably in the ratings, even coming in at no. 17 for the year in its second season. In its third season NBC moved Bonanza to 9:00 Eastern Sunday night and the show really began to take off. For that season it jumped all the way up to no. 2 in the ratings for the year. The next few years Bonanza would remain in the top five shows until, in the 1964-1965 season, it became the no. 1 show on the air. It remained the no. 1 show for the next three seasons. Ultimately, Bonanza would spend nine consecutive seasons in the top five and would last 14 years. As might be expected, the success of Bonanza would lead to more Western TV shows set on ranches.

Before that, however, there was another ranch Western that debuted in the 1959-1960 season, as mentioned earlier. Laramie was set on the Sherman Ranch and stagecoach relay station. It starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, owner of the ranch, and Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, a drifter who settled down to help Slim run the ranch. In the first season the cast also included Slim's much younger brother Andy (played by Robert L. Crawford) and Jonesy (played by Hoagy Carmichael), who handled the domestic duties on the ranch.

Laramie led a somewhat schizophrenic existence. For much of the first season the show's episodes centred on the ranch and stage stop. For the show's second season NBC did not renew Hoagy Carmichael's contract, so that Jonesy was no longer on the show. Andy was phased out, only appearing in a few episodes of the second season. And while the first season saw many episodes set around the ranch, the second season saw many episodes in which Slim, Jess, or both of them were away from the ranch. This changed with the show's third season, which also saw the show change from black-and-white to colour. Spring Byington joined the cast as Daisy Cooper, a widow who became the Sherman Ranch's new housekeeper. Dennis Holmes also joined the cast as orphan Mike Williams who finds a home on the ranch. The third and fourth seasons would then see most of the episodes set around the Sherman Ranch or Laramie. Unlike Bonanza, Laramie  was never a ratings success. It would be cancelled in its fourth season due to declining ratings. That having been said, it developed a following that it maintains to this day.

It was perhaps because of the success of Bonanza that a show which saw its hero travelling a great deal became a ranch Western. Originally Tales of Wells Fargo centred on Dale Robertson as Jim Hardie, a detective for Wells Fargo. At times as much of a detective series as it was a Western, Tales of Wells Fargo would see Jim Hardie travelling across the West on various cases. It was in the sixth and final season that Tales from Wells Fargo expanded from a half hour to an hour. It was also at the beginning of the sixth season that Jim Hardie bought a ranch outside San Francisco. While Dale Robertson had been the only star on the show for its first five season, the sixth season also saw the addition of a supporting cast consisting of William Demarest as his ranch foreman Jeb Gaine, Virginia Christine as his neighbour Olive, and Jack Ging as Hardie's assistant Beau McCloud.

Many of the ranch Westerns that followed in the wake of Bonanza have been accused, rightly or wrongly, of being Bonanza imitators. That would not be the case with the next ranch Western to debut, which was based on a classic novel. It was a young story editor at Columbia Pictures named Frank Price who suggested a television version of The Virginian by Owen Wister, which by that time had entered public domain. It was then in 1958 that Screen Gems produced a half hour pilot for a TV series based on The Virginian by Owen Wister. While the pilot failed to sell, NBC found the young actor cast in the title role, James Drury appealing. Of course, 1958 was the peak of the Western cycle. In fact, Wagon Train, airing on NBC, was the no. 1 show on television for the year. It would be Wagon Train that would lead to The Virginian finally coming to television.

Wagon Train was produced by MCA's television production subsidiary Revue Studios. It had proven very profitable for MCA, and in the 1961-1962 season was still the no. 1 show on the air. Jennings Lang, vice president of MCA-TV, figured he could get twice as much money out of Wagon Train by selling it to another network. Mr. Lang then sold Wagon Train out from under NBC to ABC. Fortunately, he would not leave NBC empty handed. Instead he sold them The Virginian, which would not only be shot in colour (somewhat of a rarity then), but would be a full 90 minutes in length. James Drury, who had played The Virginian in the unsold 1958 Screen Gems pilot, was cast in the title role. Frank Price, who had instigated the 1958 pilot, was brought on board to write the format for The Virginian. He would also serve as the show's producer in its early days and later as its executive producer.

The Virginian was very loosely based on the novel of the same name. It was set on the Shiloh Ranch outside Medicine Bow, Wyoming in the 1890s, owned by Judge Henry Garth (played by Lee J. Cobb). Judge Garth had a young daughter named Betsy (played by Roberta Shore). A major change from the novel was in the character of Trampas. In the novel Trampas is actually the primary villain. On the TV show however, Trampas (played by Doug McClure) was The Virginian's fun loving friend. Trampas would be only one of two characters, along with The Virginian, who would be on the show for its entire run. As to The Virginian, just as in the novel, he was the ranch foreman.

While The Virginian proved successful, the show underwent many changes through the years. Lee J. Cobb left after the fourth season, after which the Shiloh Ranch would go through three more owners. In fact, there were so many cast changes on The Virginian that ultimately only James Drury and Doug McClure would remain with the show for its entire run. The ninth season would see the show's title changed to The Men from Shiloh and the look of the show was revamped as well in an effort to attract younger viewers. Not surprisingly, there was also a new owner of the Shiloh Ranch in the form of Colonel Alan MacKenzie (played by Stewart Granger).

Despite the many cast changes on The Virginian, the show remained successful for most of its run. In its second it ranked no. 17 for the year in the ratings. For its third and fourth seasons it ranked in the top twenty five. The Virginian peaked in ratings during its fifth season, when it ranked no. 10. Ultimately, the only year in which it did not rank in the top twenty five would be its eighth season, when it did not rank in the top twenty. It was still doing well in its ninth and final season, ranking at no. 18 for the year. Unfortunately, the 1970-1971 season was when the Rural Purge took place. While CBS axed the most shows for having audiences too old or too rural during the Rural Purge, NBC axed its share of shows as well. Among them was The Virginian.

The Virginian would have a lasting impact. As the first ninety minute show with continuing characters it established the format as viable. It was then that the other networks made their own attempts at ninety minute Westerns. ABC expanded Wagon Train to ninety minutes in its 7th season. The experiment failed and the show was returned to an hour the following year. During the 1967-1967 season CBS aired its own ninety minute Western, Cimarron Strip. It was cancelled due to low ratings. Despite the failure of both Wagon Train and Cimarron Strip as ninety minute shows, there would be ninety minute shows in other genres following in the wake of The Virginian. The Name of the Game was a ninety minute drama that aired on NBC from 1968 to 1971. In 1971 The NBC Mystery Movie debuted. While it started out at ninety minutes, it would eventually expand to two hours.

Of course, The Virginian would inspire more than other ninety minute shows. Its success sparked a new cycle towards Westerns that would produce such shows as Destry, Branded, The Wild Wild West, and Iron Horse. It also insured that more ranch Westerns would produced during this new cycle towards Westerns on television.

It was in 1965 that a ranch Western debuted that differed from all the others in that its lead was a woman. The Big Valley was created by Lou Edelman and A.I. Bezzerides as a vehicle for acclaimed actress Barbara Stanwyck. For inspiration they looked to the Hill Ranch, a historical ranch that had operated in  Calaveras County, California from 1855 to 1931. In 1861 Lawson Hill. owner and operator of the ranch, was murdered, after which his wife Euphemia took over running the ranch with her three sons. Developed following the failure of The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Lou Edelman was unable to interest anyone in a show about a woman running a ranch. Of course, much of this might have had to do with the fact that by 1961 Western TV shows were on their way out.

Fortunately, with a new cycle towards Westerns underway in the Sixties, Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions was able to strike a deal with ABC and Four Star Television for the prospective show. As might be expected, they asked Barbara Stanwyck if she was still interested in the show. Of course, she was.

The Big Valley centred on Victoria Barkley, a widow who owned the Barkley Ranch just outside of Stockton, California. Among her sons were the eldest Jarrod (played by Richard Long), the refined level headed attorney, and the second eldest Nick (played by Peter Breck), the hot tempered manager of the ranch. Victoria also had a daughter, Audra (played by Linda Evans). The Barkley's were joined by Heath Barkley (played by Lee Majors), the illegitimate son of Victoria's husband.  There was also youngest son, Eugene (played by Charles Briles), who was studying medicine at Berkeley. He only seen sporadically on the show before eventually being written out of it.

The Big Valley debuted on ABC on  September 15 1965. Critics were dismissive of the series, with some referring to it as a Bonanza imitator ("Bonanza in skirts"). Despite this, it proved popular with audiences. In a readers' poll conducted by the magazine TV Radio Mirror, The Big Valley was voted the favourite new show of the 1965-1966 season. While The Big Valley never ranked in the top thirty shows of the year, it did well enough to run four seasons. It would also prove to be a success in syndication.

While The Big Valley was often accused of imitating Bonanza, the next ranch Western to debut would be created by Bonanza creator David Dortort. That having been said, it was a far cry from Bonanza. The High Chaparral centred on the ranch of that name in Arizona during the 1870s. The High Chaparral starred Leif Erickson as John Cannon, owner of the High Chaparral, whose wife had died in an Indian raid not long after settling in Arizona. His neighbour was powerful rancher Don Sebastián Montoya (played by Frank Silvera), who promised to be his ally if he would marry his daughter Victoria (played by Linda Cristal). Realising that Montoya would be a powerful enemy, John consented. Victoria differed from many Western television heroines in being strong willed and intelligent. In time she came to love John and John came to love her.

Coming with Victoria to live on the High Chaparral was her brother Manolito (played by Henry Darrow). Manolito had a strong streak of independence, not to mention a good deal of cunning and charm. Also living on the High Chaparral was John's brother Buck. Although uneducated, Buck had a good deal of common sense and would not hesitate to help someone. Rounding out the household was John's son Blue (played by Mark Slade), who at times find himself at odds with his father. The High Chaparral differed from other ranch Westerns in that it actually featured ranch hands in recurring roles. Among them were ranch foreman Sam Butler (played by Don Collier), Sam's brother Joe (Bob Hoy), Pedro (played by Roberto Contreras), and others.The High Chaparral also differed from previous Westerns in featuring several Lantix characters. Like Bonanza before it, it often dealt with various issues, particularly racism.

The High Chaparral debuted on September 10 1967 on NBC. It would not repeat the success of Bonanza. While The High Chaparral received respectable ratings for much of its run, it never ranked in the top thirty for the years. In the end, it lasted four seasons and 98 episodes. It would prove successful in syndication, and it maintains a cult following to this day.

The final ranch Western of the Sixties was Lancer. On the surface, Lancer would appear to owe something to Bonanza. Lancer centred on Murdoch Lancer (played by Andrew Duggan), who is struggling to protect his ranch in the San Joaquin Valley from bandits in the 1870s. To help, he seeks out his two sons, each by one of this two wives, neither of whom he had seen since they were children. The eldest was Scott (played by Wayne Maunder), the educated son from Boston. The youngest was Johnny Madrid, a half-Mexican gunslinger. In return for their help, he offers them one-third ownership in the ranch each. Teresa O'Brien (played by Elizabeth Baur) was Murdoch's ward, the daughter of his foreman who had been killed. Paul Brinegar, who had played Wishbone on Rawhide, joined the cast in the first season progressed as the Lancers' cook and ranch hand Jelly Hoskins.

While Lancer resembled Bonanza on the surface, in many ways it was a very different show. While Ben Cartwright was a wise and usually gentle father, Murdoch Lancer could often be obstinate and sometimes downright cruel. Indeed, while Ben's wives had died, Murdoch's wives simply left him. Scott's mother, born of wealth, took Scott back to Boston where she raised him. Johnny Madrid's mother ran off with a gambler and returned to Mexico. Particularly early in the show, Murdoch's two sons sometimes came into conflict due to their differing backgrounds. There was a world of difference between the Cartwrights and the Lancers.

Lancer debuted on September 24 1968 on CBS. Unfortunately, the show was scheduled against one of the big hits of the 1968-1969 season, The Mod Squad on ABC. As a result it struggled in the ratings. It would be cancelled after two seasons. That having been said, like many of the ranch Westerns it would maintain a cult following.

Of course, much of the reason Lancer may have lasted only two seasons is that it simply debuted at the wrong time. The cycle of Westerns that had been started by The Virginian had wound down by 1968. Lancer was the only one of two Westerns to debut in the 1968-1969 season, along with The Outcasts (which lasted only one season). There was also another possible reason for the decline in Westerns in 1968 beyond the cycle having come to an end. Quite simply, following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, there was renewed outcry over television violence. In fact, at least one Western (the spy-fi/Western hybrid The Wild Wild West) would be cancelled in 1969 dues to its allegedly violent content. That to some degree or another the networks associated the Western genre with violence is borne out by an article published in the Pittsfield Berkshire Eagle, the Corpus Christi Caller Times, and other newspapers in mid-March of 1969. An ABC executive uses as an example of the network's efforts to reduce violence on the small screen the fact that they have eliminated all Westerns from their schedule. Indeed, it seems that several Westerns would go off the air in the year 1969: The Big Valley, The Guns of Will Sonnett, The Outcasts, and The Wild Wild West. While some of these shows were probably cancelled due to ratings, it seems possible that violence may have played a role in the cancellation of some of them (it certainly did with The Wild Wild West). Those Westerns that remained would find it more difficult to accurately portray the Western milieu. As Milburn Stone, who played Doc on Gunsmoke said at the time, "How can you have Westerns without violence?"

Regardless, by the late Sixties Western TV shows were already in decline. Lancer left the air in 1970. Both The High Chaparral and The Virginian (under the title The Men from Shiloh) left the air in 1971. None of the new Westerns that debuted in the Seventies would be ranch Westerns and none of them would last beyond three seasons, with most having much briefer runs. If there was a sign that the ranch Western on television was truly dead, it was the cancellation of Bonanza in 1973.  After well over a decade, the era of the ranch Western was over.