What a stroke of luck the western series Bonanza has been, in fact a bonanza in itself. It was created and began running just as television was peaking enormously in the US. Around 1959 more than half of US homes had a TV, and everyone gathered around to see what was one. What better than to create a family show based on true American history, with the right set of fundamental moral standards, and where every story has a happy ending? When also the absolute right set of characters played by the ultimate actors were created and found, and their never seen mother character empathicly had passed away, just so that female guest stars could make a much bigger impact in the episodes - how could it not be a success? It didn't matter that the quality of episode plots always weren't that good, that the jingle was truely poor before one of the most recognized theme tunes of all times came along, that the scenes constantly switched from studio to location filming, resulting in sudden changes of light, sound and actor's positions, that the acting sometimes was characterized by actors who were disappointed with their role, having a bad day, or simply being tired of it all. None of this really mattered, because Bonanza was so much the right thing to the right time, that it just had to be an epical success series, the longest running of them all. Evidently Bonanza is still running on repeat in many countries.
Review of Bonanza
