Bonanza: Season 3

1961 · 34 episodes · ★ 7.5

What Season 3 of Bonanza

The third season of Bonanza places the Cartwright family at the Ponderosa, a vast ranch on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada, near Virginia City, during the 1860s. Ben, the patriarch who has been widowed three times, gathers his sons: Adam, an architect with big-city manners; Hoss, a gentle giant; and Little Joe, impulsive and explosive. Each week, the brothers face situations that force them to decide what to do. Trouble comes from outside, with gunmen seeking revenge, land swindlers, cattle rustlers and an intolerant army captain. It also comes from within, with complicated romances and loyalties put to the test. Ben carries the weight of every decision, while his sons push to resolve each conflict in their own way.

34episodes

Sep 24, 1961premiered

May 20, 1962latest episode

27.8 hrtotal runtime

Season 3 Episodes

3x01 The Smiler
Sep 24, 1961 · 49 min
A drunk is killed in a saloon brawl with Hoss, and though the man's brother insists there are no hard feelings, he is actually a silver-tongued devil bent on revenge.
Starring: Ray Teal, Robert Foulk, Cosmo Sardo, Ethan Laidlaw
3x02 Springtime
Oct 1, 1961 · 49 min
A friend of Ben's (Mr. Milbank) arrives at the Ponderosa at a bad time...when the Cartwright boys are fighting in the mud. Mr. Milbank, who is injured by a flying log during the fight, gives an assignment to each of the three boys. Can they fulfill the assignments, or has Springtime gotten to them all?
With: John Carradine, John Qualen, Jena Engstrom, Claude Johnson
3x03 The Honor of Cochise
Oct 8, 1961 · 49 min
The Cartwrights and a bigoted army captain are pinned down by Cochise and his braves, who claim the officer poisoned 30 of their people.
With: DeForest Kelley, Bing Russell, Jeff Morrow, Raymond Mayo
3x04 The Lonely House
Oct 15, 1961 · 49 min
Little Joe pays a visit to the widow Lee Bolden, and brings her a bank draft for her husband's investments with Ben. Actually, the investments were losing propositions. Ben just wanted to help out his friend. During his visit, a wounded man stumbles into the house, and Joe recognizes him as Trock, who had just robbed the local bank. Lee Bolden was a nurse to her husband physician, and removes the bullet from Trock. Joe soon learns that Lee is in love with Trock, and that is the only thing standing between him and an early grave.
Starring: Faith Domergue, Paul Richards
3x05 The Burma Rarity
Oct 22, 1961 · 49 min
In this comic episode involving a precious emerald and the sweet widow, Clemantine Hawkins who is attracted to Ben, turns the tables on a pair of land swindlers.
Starring: Victor Sen Yung, Ray Teal, Cosmo Sardo, Michael Jeffers
3x06 Broken Ballad
Oct 29, 1961 · 49 min
Adam tries to help a reformed gunman who wants only to live peacefully near Virginia City. Good story without a tidy ending. Pernell's first chance to sing on the series.
Starring: Robert Culp, Cosmo Sardo, Dabbs Greer, Robert Christopher
3x07 The Many Faces of Gideon Flinch
Nov 5, 1961 · 49 min
Hoss and Joe become involved when "Bullethead" Burke vows revenge on an old man he claims cheated him in an investment deal.
Directed by: Robert Altman · Screenplay: Robert Vincent Wright · Starring: Joe Turkel, Sue Ane Langdon, Ray Teal, Arnold Stang
3x08 The Friendship
Nov 12, 1961 · 49 min
Joe befriends and takes responsibility for an ex-convict named Danny. Danny loves horses and is not used to people's ways on the outside of jail. Will his rough jailhouse upbringing mar any hopes of friendship?
With: Edward Faulkner, Stafford Repp, Norman Alden, Dean Jones
3x09 The Countess
Nov 19, 1961 · 49 min
A woman Ben once loved, Lady Chadwick, returns and attempts to trick him into marrying her by ruining his business. Ben says almost losing the Ponderosa will make him and his sons appreciate it more.
Starring: Victor Sen Yung, Margaret Hayes, John Alderson, Norman Leavitt
3x10 The Horse Breaker
Nov 26, 1961 · 49 min
A professional wrangler working for the Cartwrights is paralyzed when thrown by a particularly mean bronco. The woman nursing him was once engaged to the late son of a neighboring rancher out to get Ben.
Starring: R.G. Armstrong, Ben Cooper, Sue Randall
3x11 Day of the Dragon
Dec 3, 1961 · 49 min
Joe wins a card game and an unexpected prize...a young lady. She goes to the Ponderosa and serves them, not wanting to be set free. Meanwhile, an army is looking for her and the Cartwrights.
Starring: Lisa Lu, Victor Sen Yung, Cosmo Sardo, Richard Loo
3x12 The Frenchman
Dec 10, 1961 · 49 min
An irritating man who boasts of being the reincarnation of French poet Francois Villion shows up causing trouble for the Cartwrights.
With: Erika Peters, Victor Sen Yung, Ray Teal
3x13 The Tin Badge
Dec 17, 1961 · 49 min
Joe accepts the job of temporary sheriff in the town of Rubicon, unaware he is being used to facilitate a scheme involving murder.
With: Vic Morrow, John Litel, Robert Fortier
3x14 Gabrielle
Dec 24, 1961 · 49 min
In this Christmas story, inspired by Johanna Spyri's "Heidi", Hoss and Joe come across a blind girl whose family has been killed in a wagon wreck, learning later that her grandfather is a bitter hermit who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
3x15 Land Grab
Dec 31, 1961 · 49 min
The Ponderosa is overrun with settlers bearing phony property deeds, and one of Ben's oldest friends is responsible.
3x16 The Tall Stranger
Jan 7, 1962 · 49 min
Hoss plans to marry Margie, a pretty blonde, but Margie becomes fascinated with a tall, traveling stranger named Mark Connors. Margie marries Mark but soon finds it was far from a match made in heaven.
With: Kathie Browne, Jacqueline Scott, Russell Thorson, Dorothy Neumann
3x17 The Lady from Baltimore
Jan 14, 1962 · 49 min
An overbearing friend of the family tries to force her daughter into marrying Joe, though she does not love him. The situation grows more complex when Adam stumbles onto the scheme.
Starring: Audrey Dalton, Victor Sen Yung, Mercedes McCambridge, Robert Adler
3x18 The Ride
Jan 21, 1962 · 49 min
Adam races against the clock to prove a man who was once his friend is guilty of robbery and murder and Adam is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt he is guilty.
Directing: Don McDougall · Writing: Ward Hawkins · Starring: Ray Teal, Grace Gaynor, Cosmo Sardo, William Meader
3x19 The Storm
Jan 28, 1962 · 49 min
Joe plans to marry Laura White, daughter of a man Ben once sailed with, but she is fatally ill. Ben consoles him with words spoken years before, by the father of Adam's mother.
Starring: Brooke Hayward, Frank Overton
3x20 The Auld Sod
Feb 4, 1962 · 49 min
The Cartwrights pretend the Ponderosa belongs to the town lush, when his aging mother from Ireland arrives.
Starring: Jack Carr, Cheerio Meredith, Ray Teal, Keith Richards
3x21 Gift of Water
Feb 11, 1962 · 49 min
The Cartwrights dig a well, build a rig and a windmill for a drought-stricken farm family.
With: Royal Dano, Pam Smith, Ray Teal, Majel Barrett
3x22 The Jackknife
Feb 18, 1962 · 49 min
Adam gives a second chance to a family man he suspects is one of the rustlers who has been hitting the Ponderosa herds.
Starring: Bethel Leslie
3x23 The Guilty
Feb 25, 1962 · 49 min
When Ben fails to prevent the death of a friend's son, Adam and Joe, concerned by their father's depression, attempt to prove there was nothing he could have done.
Starring: Anne Benton, Ray Teal, Charles Maxwell, Edward Platt
3x24 The Wooing of Abigail Jones
Mar 4, 1962 · 49 min
In order to keep peace on the ranch, Hoss and Joe try to help ranch hand, Hank Meyers woo the the plain-looking schoolteacher, Abigail Jones. When their first plan backfires, they convince Adam (who doesn't want to get involved) to help and this makes things worse because Abigail believes it is Adam who is wooing her and Hank Meyers believes Adam wants to steal her away.
Starring: Eileen Ryan, Diana Darrin, Norma Varden
3x25 The Lawmaker
Mar 11, 1962 · 49 min
Ben supports the appointment of Asa Moran as Virginia City's temporary sheriff, but Moran goes overboard with his authority, jailing Adam in the process and pistol-whipping a Ponderosa hand.
Starring: Ray Teal, Rosalind Roberts, Arthur Franz, Roy Engel
3x26 Look to the Stars
Mar 18, 1962 · 49 min
A young genius, Albert Michaelson, vies for a scholarship. Adam assists Albert in the boy's experiments. Albert only needs the school teacher's approval to be granted a scholarship-which will be very difficult to get considering Albert was expelled from school.
Starring: Douglas Lambert, Joe De Santis
3x27 The Gamble
Apr 1, 1962 · 49 min
In the town of Alkali, the Cartwrights are jailed on false charges of robbery and murder, but Joe escapes and returns with an army of Ponderosa hands.
Directed by: William Witney · Screenplay: Michael Landon, Frank Cleaver · Starring: Emile Avery, John Breen, Charles McGraw, Ben Johnson
3x28 The Crucible
Apr 8, 1962 · 49 min
Adam is left to die in the desert after two thieves take $5,000 and his horse from him. Near death, he stumbles into an old prospector named Kane who offers to lend him a mule and supplies in exchange for three day's work at his mine. Kane, however, turns out to be a demented madman. He holds Adam prisoner and tortures him to prove his theory that anyone could be driven to kill, even a man as rational as Adam. This is Pernell Robert's favorite episode along with "The Wooing Of Abigail Jones".
Starring: Lee Marvin, Barry Cahill
3x29 Inger, My Love
Apr 15, 1962 · 49 min
Ben indulges in a nostalgic reverie about Hoss's deceased mother. Having worked his way west to Galesburg, IL., Ben is befriended by a girl named Inger, the fiancee of the tavern owner who gave him a job.
Starring: Jeremy Slate, Troy Melton
3x30 Blessed Are They
Apr 22, 1962 · 49 min
When two feuding families argue over the custody of two orphaned children, a reluctant Ben is called upon to straighten out the situation before real trouble erupts.
Starring: Tracy Stratford, Emile Avery, John Breen, Robert Foulk
3x31 The Dowry
Apr 29, 1962 · 49 min
The Cartwrights get mixed up in the romance of a phony heiress and an equally phony land baron.
Starring: Luciana Paluzzi, Lee Bergere, Cosmo Sardo, Steven Geray
3x32 The Long Night
May 6, 1962 · 49 min
Ben, Joe and Adam travel to Bowleg to pay the yearly taxes on the Ponderosa. After the transaction is completed, Ben and Joe ride over the summit to join the cattle drive. Adam is on his way to Genoa and is carrying a $10,000 bank draft his father has given him. A prison guard rides into town and announces two hombres have broke out and escaped who are holdup men and killers. Elmer Trace and his partner Poindexter were assisted by a guard in escaping prison and they betray him on the trail. Trace takes his clothes, horse and firearms, leaving Poindexter with only a rifle and rides off. Meanwhile, the Sheriff of Bowleg organizes a posse immediately.
Starring: James Coburn, Bing Russell, Dorothy Adams
3x33 The Mountain Girl
May 13, 1962 · 49 min
Joe promises a dying sheepman he will make sure the old man's granddaughter gets her rightful inheritance from a wealthy San Francisco family. This episode was filmed immediately after "Inger, My Love", which explains why Blocker's arm is still in a sling.
Starring: Victor Sen Yung, Nina Shipman, Warren Oates, Mary Treen
3x34 The Miracle Maker Season Finale
May 20, 1962 · 49 min
Hoss blames himself when a young woman is crippled in a wagon accident, and hopes a faith healer can help her walk again.
Starring: Patricia Breslin, Raymond Bailey, Bill Quinn, Robert Adler