Bonanza: Season 7

1965 · 33 episodes

What Season 7 of Bonanza

The Cartwright family lives on the Ponderosa, a huge ranch on the east shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada, near Virginia City, during the 1860s. Ben, widowed three times, leads his sons Adam, Hoss and Little Joe, each with a distinct personality. Each week, the family faces tough choices: inherited debts, disputes over land and water rights, or strangers arriving with questionable intentions. Hoss often helps lonely people, while Joe, with his explosive temper, frequently gets into trouble. The stories blend classic Western themes with dilemmas about justice and how we treat those who are different.

33episodes

Sep 12, 1965premiered

May 15, 1966latest episode

27 hrtotal runtime

Season 7 Episodes

7x01 The Debt
Sep 12, 1965 · 49 min
Wiley and Annie Kane arrive at the Ponderosa to work off their father's debt to Ben. It seems as though the elder Kane once swindled the Cartwright patriarch.
Starring: Tommy Sands, Brooke Bundy, Ford Rainey, Ray Teal
7x02 The Dilemma
Sep 19, 1965 · 49 min
Ben helps a convict win a parole only to have the man later become the chief suspect in a bank robbery.
Starring: Tom Tully, Elizabeth Perry, Kelly Thordsen, Ray Teal
7x03 The Brass Box
Sep 26, 1965 · 49 min
Juan Ortega claims he has a land grant which gives him ownership of the entire Nevada Territory.
Starring: Michael Dante, Adam Williams, Jack Gordon
7x04 The Other Son
Oct 3, 1965 · 49 min
A mule skinner and his two sons are hired by Ben to transport nitroglycerin to California.
7x05 The Lonely Runner
Oct 10, 1965 · 49 min
A judge awards itinerant horse breeder Jim Acton's beloved mare to rancher Sam Whipple. Jim tries to buy her back, but Whipple refuses his offer, after which a fight ensues and Jim kills Whipple in self-defense. The Cartwrights want to bring Jim in to make sure he receives a fair trial, but an ambitious and overzealous deputy doesn't care how he brings him in.
Starring: Marie Windsor, John Hoyt
7x06 Devil on Her Shoulder
Oct 17, 1965 · 49 min
Ben is attracted to Sarah Reynolds, a member of a religious order led by her fanatical uncle. When she is accused of being a witch, the Cartwrights step in.
Starring: Ina Balin, John Doucette
7x07 Found Child
Oct 24, 1965 · 49 min
Hoss comes upon an overturned stagecoach and discovers a little girl suffering from shock. After the Cartwrights suceed in bringing her around, Hoss is disappointed she has relatives and cannot stay. The girl's uncle turns out to be the enemy and Hoss saves her.
With: Eileen Baral, Ray Teal
7x08 The Meredith Smith
Oct 31, 1965 · 49 min
Ben must determine who is the rightful heir to a fortune that includes water rights vital to the Ponderosa.
With: Anne Helm, Strother Martin, Burt Mustin
7x09 Mighty is the Word
Nov 7, 1965 · 49 min
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.
Starring: Glenn Corbett, Sue Randall, Julie Gregg, Jack Gordon
7x10 The Strange One
Nov 14, 1965 · 49 min
Hoss and Joe find a woman abandoned by a wagon train because her gift of prophecy is considered a curse. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," says Ben, "if eveybody made a real effort to understand whatever's strange and unfamiliar rather to fear it and try to destroy it?"
Starring: Louise Sorel
7x11 The Reluctant Rebel
Nov 21, 1965 · 49 min
The Generation Gap, Western-style, as Hoss tries to bring a young man and his father closer together.
Starring: Al Bain, Janis Hansen, Jack Gordon, Gary Epper
7x12 Five Sundowns to Sunup
Dec 5, 1965 · 49 min
The mother of a young outlaw condemned to hang, threatens to have her gang's hostages killed if her son is not set free. One of the hostages is Joe.
Starring: Ray Teal, Douglas Henderson, Stacy Harris, John Alderson
7x13 A Natural Wizard
Dec 12, 1965 · 49 min
Hoss finds a kindred spirit in Skeeter Dexter, a lonesome young man who feels closer to animals than most people.
With: Jacqueline Scott, Victor Sen Yung
7x14 All Ye His Saints
Dec 19, 1965 · 49 min
In this series' highlight, little Michael Thorpe heads to the high country to ask God to spare his critically wounded father, believing he has found Him in the form of longtime fugitive Tom Cain.
Starring: Clint Howard, Leif Erickson, Harvey Stephens
7x15 The Dublin Lad
Jan 2, 1966 · 49 min
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.
Starring: Ray Teal, Jack Gordon
7x16 To Kill a Buffalo
Jan 9, 1966 · 49 min
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.
With: Victor Sen Yung, Jack Gordon
7x17 Ride the Wind (1)
Jan 16, 1966 · 49 min
The Pony Express sets up office in Virginia and Joe is one of the first to join up. Ben also decides to invest in the fledgling enterprise. However, troubles soon plague the Pony Express with the Paiutes and a newspaper reporter, both trying to get their own agendas across.
Starring: Tom Lowell, DeForest Kelley, Jack Gordon, Victor Jory
7x18 Ride the Wind (2)
Jan 23, 1966 · 49 min
Conclusion to the previous-week's episode, where the Cartwrights provide needed assistance to the Pony Express.
Starring: Tom Lowell, DeForest Kelley, Victor Sen Yung, Rod Cameron
7x19 Destiny's Child
Jan 30, 1966 · 49 min
After his only friend is killed, the Cartwrights take in a slow-witted man, who Roy Coffee informs them, is wanted for murder by Arizona authorities.
Starring: Ray Teal, Dick Peabody, Steve Raines, Jack Gordon
7x20 Peace Officer
Feb 6, 1966 · 49 min
While Sheriff Coffee is in Saint Louis, the Morrisey bunch decides to work off excess energy by wrecking the saloon in a violent spree. When Deputy Bill Harris tries to arrest them, they hit him on the head with a whiskey bottle, accidentally killing him. All of them get away except Cliff, who is put in jail. He refuses to say the names or locations of his friends. Mayor Garrett holds an emergency meeting of the Virginia City town council.They hire legendary lawman Wes Dunn, as the temporary sheriff. He is a humorless man who is determined to restore order in town. He beats Cliff almost to death to find out where his friends are, but Cliff will not say anything. Meanwhile, Hoss finds Chuck, a wounded gang member. When he tries to take Chuck's gun away, he shoots Hoss. Joe goes with Dunn to find the other men. He thinks Dunn is a hero until he sees him murder one of the suspects in cold blood.
Starring: Eric Fleming, Ted Knight, Ron Foster
7x21 The Code
Feb 13, 1966 · 49 min
Joe is goaded into facing gunman Dan Taggert, unaware there is more to be prearranged than he realizes.
Starring: Jan Shepard, Jack Gordon
7x22 Three Brides for Hoss
Feb 20, 1966 · 49 min
Not one, but three mail-order brides show up unexpectedly at the Ponderosa, all of them believing they are to marry Hoss.
Starring: Majel Barrett, Victor Sen Yung
7x23 The Emperor Norton
Feb 27, 1966 · 49 min
Joshua Norton, an eccentric and formerly wealthy San Francisco merchant who considers himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, comes to the Ponderosa. Authorities want to have him committed, and Ben contacts Mark Twain to testify to Norton's sanity.
7x24 Her Brother's Keeper
Mar 6, 1966 · 49 min
Ben and Claire Armory fall in love, but their future is jeopardized by her disabled brother.
Starring: Nancy Gates, Wesley Lau, Norman Leavitt
7x25 The Trouble with Jamie
Mar 20, 1966 · 49 min
The Cartwrights attempt to straighten out the snobbish young son of Ben's cousin.
With: Victor Sen Yung, Ray Teal, Tracy Olsen
7x26 Shining in Spain
Mar 27, 1966 · 49 min
Young, adoring Wendy Daniels has come to Virginia City to meet up with her father, Taylor Daniels, who has been traveling on business for the last five years. Joe is attracted to Wendy, but he faces stiff competition for her affections. She idolizes her father and cannot stop talking about his great business visions, although she has not seen him in five years.The Cartwrights realize there is something wrong when Wendy's supposedly rich father leaves her stranded in Virginia City with no money. When she is evicted from the hotel after running up a debt of $50, Joe takes her to the Ponderosa, only to have her dreams of her father shattered when he shows up flat broke.
Starring: Judi Rolin
7x27 The Genius
Apr 3, 1966 · 49 min
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.
With: Troy Melton
7x28 The Unwritten Commandment
Apr 10, 1966 · 49 min
Everyone feels Andy Walker is an outstanding singer but his father, who feels the boy should concentrate on ranch work instead. Joe mentions receiving a letter from Adam, currently in Paris.
Starring: Jack Gordon, Anne Jeffreys
7x29 Big Shadow on the Land
Apr 17, 1966 · 49 min
Italian immigrants are determined to establish their own vineyard on Ponderosa property.
With: Jack Gordon, Penny Santon, Michael Stefani, Robert Foulk
7x30 The Fighters
Apr 24, 1966 · 49 min
Feeling guilty for unintentionally ending the career of a professional boxer, Hoss vows never to fight again. But things change when Joe is nearly beaten to death.
Starring: Victor Sen Yung, Rudy Doucette, Michael Conrad, Cal Bolder
7x31 Home from the Sea
May 1, 1966 · 49 min
A sailor, claiming to be one of Adam's closest friends, is given a warm welcome by the Cartwrights, who have no way of knowing the man and his accomplice plan on robbing them.
7x32 The Last Mission
May 8, 1966 · 49 min
Ben and Hoss unwittingly aid a vengeful army colonel who plans to wipe out every Indian he can with a Gatling gun.
Starring: R.G. Armstrong, Victor Sen Yung
7x33 A Dollar's Worth of Trouble Season Finale
May 15, 1966 · 49 min
Hoss finds himself in another mess, this one involving a beautiful blonde, a moonshiner, and a nearsighted outlaw who is allergic to chocolate and flowers.
Starring: Sally Kellerman, Elisha Cook Jr., Victor Sen Yung, Ray Teal