The Best of Bonanza, Volume 1

This two-disc set offers eight episodes of the beloved, long-running series about the Cartwrights of Virginia City and their attempts to keep order in the Old West. Life on the Ponderosa ranch was anything but placid for sage patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his three grown sons, each born from a different and conveniently departed wife: serious Adam (Pernell Roberts), impulsive Little Joe (Michael Landon), and big happy galoot Hoss (Dan Blocker). Claim jumpers, bandits, unsavory businessmen, and the occasional distressed damsel inevitably find their way to the Ponderosa, yet despite its Western setting, Bonanza was less of a horse opera and more of a soap opera with an uncommonly strong sense of family bonding and a fairly progressive view of Native Americans. The show also attracted high-profile guest stars who played their roles at full throttle, most notably in this collection Lee Marvin as a sadist who tortures Adam Cartwright in the desert and Howard Duff as muckraking journalist Mark Twain. With its vigorous performances and intelligent scripts, it's no wonder Bonanza was a top-rated program throughout its 1959-1973 run. For anyone who only knows the show from the muddy prints used for endless TV reruns, the digitally remastered presentations in this otherwise extra-less set brings the series' beautiful full-color cinematography back to its original glory. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)