document_title: Florida–Tennessee football rivalry

question_text: when was the last time tennessee beat florida gators

question_tokens: when was the last time tennessee beat florida gators

text: Florida–Tennessee football rivalry

text: Schedule[edit]

text: Florida and Tennessee's football teams first met in 1916, when both schools were members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. They each joined the Southern Conference in the 1920s, and were founding members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1932. Despite these common affiliations, a true rivalry did not develop between the programs for a long time because they played so sparingly.

text: For many years, the SEC allowed schools to arrange their own conference schedules, which sometimes resulted in unusual or imbalanced conference slates that varied according to traditional opponents and the university's athletic budget. The University of Tennessee is located in Knoxville and the University of Florida is in Gainesville, which are approximately 550 miles apart. Between the cost and time required to travel by train and the fact that the SEC did not require members to play each other very often, the two schools met on the gridiron only thirteen times between 1916 and 1969. Of those thirteen games, seven were played in Knoxville, two were played in Gainesville, and four were played in other locations in Florida.

text: The SEC became a 10-member league in the late-1960s, and a new scheduling system had the Gators and Vols play seven times over the next 21 seasons. The SEC became a 12-member league in 1992 and split into two divisions. Both Florida and Tennessee were placed in the SEC's Eastern Division, and they have met annually ever since.

text: Florida and Tennessee have played on the third Saturday of September almost every year since 1992, giving the rivalry its nickname. Notable exceptions were in 2001, when the game was postponed until December 1 due to the September 11th terrorist attacks, and in 2014, when the addition of two new members to the SEC temporarily scrambled the dates of many traditional conference rivalries and moved the Florida–Tennessee game to October. The rivalry has sometimes served as the conference opener and is often the first significant test of the season for one or both of the teams.

text: Other sports[edit]

text: As long-time members of the same conference, Tennessee and Florida have long competed in many other sports besides football. Men's basketball in particular became a heated rivalry for a time in the mid- to late-2000s, when coach Bruce Pearl's Volunteer squads challenged coach Billy Donovan's national championship-winning Gator teams for supremacy in the SEC's Eastern Division. However, the basketball rivalry cooled after Pearl left Tennessee in 2011 (Pearl is currently head coach of another SEC school, Auburn) and Donovan left Florida in 2015, and the schools' football rivalry has consistently received more attention from fans and media over the years.

text: Series history[edit]

text: Early history[edit]

text: Tennessee dominated the early series, winning their first 10 meetings with Florida over a span of 37 years (1916–53). The highlight of this period was a 1928 season-ending matchup between undefeated squads in Knoxville that the Volunteers won 13–12. Florida finally beat Tennessee in 1954, winning 14–0 in Knoxville, but Tennessee won the return visit to Gainesville the following year, which was the first time that the teams played at Florida Field.

text: Florida and Tennessee would not meet again for fourteen years, the longest gap in the series. They next faced off in the 1969 Gator Bowl. In that highly unusual post-season matchup between conference foes, Florida won 14-13, then hired away the Tennessee's head coach, former Gator quarterback Doug Dickey.

text: At the conclusion of the 1960s, Tennessee owned an 11–2 all-time record against Florida.

text: 1970s and 1980s[edit]

text: Tennessee won their first two clashes against Dickey's Gators, and Florida won the next two, including a 1976 victory in Gainesville that was their first home win against the Vols in four tries. Dickey resigned as Florida's coach after the 1978 season, ending a largely disappointing tenure at Florida and eventually returning to Knoxville in 1985 to become Tennessee's athletic director.

text: Florida ran their win streak over Tennessee to four games (over nine seasons) with wins in Knoxville and Gainesville in 1984 and 1985 as they topped the SEC standings in both years.[2] However, Florida would not be officially recognized for those championships, as the program was put on NCAA probation during the 1984 season due to violations committed under former coach Charley Pell. Though SEC's executive committee had initially ruled that Florida could keep their first ever conference championship, the university presidents later overturned the decision and vacated the title. Florida President Marshall Criser and the university community were incensed by this reversal, and many blamed the University of Tennessee for leading the movement to strip UF's first conference championship.[3][4]

text: On the field, Florida held a 4–2 advantage during the 1970s and 80s.

text: Tennessee and Florida rotated back onto each other's schedule in 1990, which was coincidentally the same year that former Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier returned to Gainesville as the Gators' new head ball coach. Spurrier had spent most of his youth in Tennessee, and his return to the state was marred by a 45-3 Vols rout in 1990, the largest margin of victory in series history. Florida won the return game in Gainesville in 1991 on their way to their first official conference championship.

text: SEC East rivals[edit]

text: One result of the SEC's 1992 expansion and split into divisions was the beginning of an annual match-up between Florida and Tennessee at a time when both programs rose to national prominence. Under head coaches Steve Spurrier and Phillip Fulmer, the Gators and Volunteers were annual contenders for conference and national championships, with both teams usually fielding wide-open offenses led by top quarterbacks such as Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, among many other highly decorated players on both sides of the ball.

text: Their first match-up as permanent opponents in 1992 helped to sow the seeds of rivalry, as the underdog Vols beat the defending SEC champion Gators in Neyland Stadium. Fulmer had been serving as UT's interim head coach while Johnny Majors recovered from heart problems, but his team's upset of the Gators helped to secure him the permanent position and brought about a decade of games in which the rivalry was one of the key match-ups of every college football season. The Gators turned the tables and upset the Volunteers in 1993, with true freshman Wuerffel outplaying Heisman trophy candidate Heath Shuler in a 41–34 win that was Fulmer's first loss as Tennessee's head coach.

text: The rivalry held national championship implications over each of the following seasons, with both teams entering the contests ranked in the top 10 every year. Though they were not always the favorite, Florida won five straight against Tennessee from 1993 to 1997, winning four SEC titles and a consensus national championship in 1996. The 1994, 1995, and 1996 contests featured match-ups between starting quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, who never beat Florida during his celebrated college career. But though Florida beat Tennessee in 1997, upset losses to LSU and Georgia propelled Tennessee to their own SEC championship in Manning's senior year. Tennessee broke Florida's winning streak in 1998 with a 20–17 overtime win and went on to win their second straight SEC championship and a national championship. In 1999, Florida upset the Vols in Gainesville to close out the decade.

text: During the 1990s, Florida and Tennessee combined to win eight conference and two national championships, and either the Gators or the Volunteers represented the SEC East in each of the first ten SEC Championship games. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 for eight out of their ten contests during the decade, and neither team ever entered their rivalry game ranked lower than No. 15. Florida held a 7–3 record against Tennessee from 1990 to 1999.

text: Florida began the next decade with a 27–23 victory in Knoxville in front of a national record crowd of 108,768 fans. During the following season, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks postponed all NCAA Division-I football games that were scheduled to be played on the following Saturday. The Florida and Tennessee match-up was rescheduled for December, and the Vols upset the Gators in Gainesville, winning on Florida Field for the first time since 1971. Steve Spurrier left Florida for the NFL after the 2001 season, but two trends in the rivalry continued in 2002: both teams were ranked in the top 10, and new Florida coach Ron Zook led the Gators to another win in Knoxville. However, both teams stumbled later in the season, and for the first time ever, neither would represent the SEC's Eastern Conference in the SEC Championship Game. The 2002 contest would be the last time to date in which both schools would enter their annual clash ranked in the top 10.

text: For the first time since the division rivalry began 11 years earlier, the 2003 match-up featured UF and UT teams that were each ranked out of the top 10 (UT No. 12, UF No. 17), and the game was relegated to a noon kickoff on CBS. Tennessee pulled away in the second half to win 24–10 for their second victory in Gainesville. The Vols were victorious against Florida again in 2004 for their 2nd straight win against Florida and their third victory in four meetings.

text: Ron Zook was fired during the 2004 season, and new Gator coach Urban Meyer put an emphasis on defending their home turf. Florida's 16–7 home win over Tennessee in 2005 helped to revive the program and started a Gator win streak in the rivalry that would span over a decade. Meyer's Gators beat Fulmer's Volunteers again in 2006 and 2007, and while Florida was SEC and national champions in 2006, Tennessee reached the SEC championship game in 2007. Florida won 30–6 in Knoxville in 2008 on their way to another SEC and national championship season. After Tennessee recorded its second losing season within a four-year span, Fulmer resigned as the Vols' head coach.

text: Lane Kiffin replaced Fulmer as Tennessee's coach in 2009. He verbally sparred with Gators coach Urban Meyer in the months leading up to their first meeting, but the Gators beat the Volunteers in Gainesville in 2009, and Kiffin left Tennessee after the season.

text: From 2000 to 2009, Florida again held a 7–3 advantage over Tennessee.

text: Urban Meyer left Florida after the 2010 season, and while the program suffered through sub-par seasons under coach Will Muschamp (who was the Gators' coach from 2011 to 2014) their win streak over Tennessee continued during the first half of the decade. The Volunteers simultaneously suffered through some sub-par seasons of their own under coaches Derek Dooley (Tennessee's coach from 2010 to 2012) and Butch Jones (who arrived in 2013). The Gators ran their series win streak to eleven with a 28–27 comeback win in Gainesville in 2015, the first year under newly appointed head coach Jim McElwain. The 2016 and 2017 would also feature second half comebacks. Tennessee came back from a 21-0 first half deficit in 2016 to beat the Gatos and end Florida's series-long winning streak at 11 games, and Florida won in 2017 with a Hail Mary pass on the last play of the game.

text: While the rivalry was still important to both schools, it lacked its previous national impact and attention during the first half of the decade. In 2013, both Tennessee and Florida failed to qualify for a bowl game during the same season for the first time since 1978. In 2014 and 2015, both teams came into their game unranked, something that had not happened since the 1950s.

text: During the second half of the decade, both programs took steps forward under coaches McElwain and Davis. Florida made back to the SEC Championship Game in 2015 and 2016, and both Florida and Tennessee were ranked in the AP top 25 coming into their 2016 and 2017 meetings.

text: As of the 2017 game, Florida holds a 7–1 edge over Tennessee in the decade.

text: Notable games[edit]

text: 1928: Unbeatens in the mud[edit]

text: Coming into their 1928 regular season finale, the Gators under head coach Charlie Bachman held an 8–0 record and had outscored their opponents by a nation-leading margin of 324–31.[2] Coach Robert Neyland's Vols had been dominant as well; they were quarterbacked by Bobby Dodd and had outscored their opponents 236–39 and held an 8–0–1 record—the only blemish being a scoreless tie with Kentucky.[5] Still, the Gators were favorites when the teams met in early December, and rumor had it that they would be in line for a Rose Bowl invitation had they prevailed in Knoxville.[6]

text: They did not. Stymied by a stingy Vol defense and two failed point after touchdown attempts, the Gators fell, 13–12.

text: In what would become a trend in the series, controversy swirled around the contest. By all accounts, the playing surface had been a muddy mess. Some Gators claimed that the home team had watered down the field in an effort to slow down the speedy Gator stars, including halfbacks Red Bethea, Carl Brumbaugh and Royce Goodbread; fullback Rainey Cawthon, quarterback Clyde Crabtree, end Dutch Stanley, and Florida's first-ever first-team All-American, end Dale Van Sickel[7] The Vols protested that the sloppy conditions were simply the result of heavy rain the night before the game.[8]

text: The teams would not become regular opponents for decades, and the Gators would not earn its first victory over the Vols for nearly a quarter century.

text: 1930: Dodd's final game[edit]

text: In the final game of Bobby Dodd's playing career, Tennessee defeated Florida in Jacksonville 13–6. Buddy Hackman scored both of Tennessee's touchdowns.[9] An account of Dodd's trickery: "Against Florida in 1930 he got his teammates in a huddle and told them about a play he had used in high school. When the ball was snapped, it was placed on the ground unattended. The players ran in one direction. Then the center returned, picked up the ball, and waltzed to the winning touchdown."[10] This play would later come to be popularly known as the "fumblerooski", after Nebraska famously used it in the 1984 Orange Bowl versus Miami.[11][12]

text: 1969–70: Coaching carousel[edit]

text: The 9–1 SEC champion Vols and the 8–1–1 Gators were not on each other's schedule in 1969. However, they were invited to play in the 1969 Gator Bowl, setting up a rare all-SEC bowl matchup and the only time the squads have faced off outside of the regular season.

text: The expected high-scoring battle featuring UF's "Super Sophs" passing attack against UT's powerful ground game led by quarterback Bobby Scott never materialized,[13] as both defenses were superb in the Gators' 14–13 win. Quarterback John Reaves connected with wide receiver Carlos Alvarez for the Gators' only offensive touchdown, and the Gator defense stopped the Vols at Florida's one-yard line late in the game to preserve the victory. Fittingly, the game's MVP was a defensive player – Florida linebacker Mike Kelley, who had an interception, a fumble recovery, a blocked punt recovered for a TD, a sack, and 17 tackles.

text: However, the 1969 Gator Bowl is much more memorable for the coaching changes and rumors of coaching changes that surrounded the contest. Throughout December 1969, rumors had been circulating that Florida's head coach and athletic director Ray Graves, who had been the captain of Tennessee's 1941 football team, would retire from coaching at the conclusion of the season to become UF's full-time AD.[14][15] Though both Graves and university officials denied the rumor, speculation among fans, players, and media was that Graves would leave the sideline and popular defensive coordinator Gene Ellenson would be promoted to head coach.[16]

text: The situation intensified in the days preceding the game when word leaked out that Vol head coach Doug Dickey, who had been Florida's starting quarterback in the early 1950s and had grown up in Gainesville, planned to leave UT and replace Graves at UF after their respective teams met in the Gator Bowl. Dickey admitted to reporters that he had been offered the position at Florida, but Graves and UF president Stephen C. O'Connell continued to deny that personnel changes were imminent, with Graves stating that "there is utterly no truth to the rumor."[17][18][19]

text: Despite these denials, Dickey was introduced as the Gators' new head football coach five days after the Gator Bowl contest by Florida's new full-time AD, Ray Graves.[20] Players on both the Florida and Tennessee squads were upset by the move and the NCAA conducted an investigation to determine whether ethics policies were violated.[21][22][23] However, no wrongdoing was discovered and Dickey was the Gator head coach for 1970.[24]

text: The teams did not meet very often in the SEC schedule, but following Georgia Tech's departure, the regular season rotation coincidentally had them facing off in Knoxville the following October. UT fans, who denounced Dickey as a "traitor", eagerly anticipated the match-up and were not disappointed, as the Vols beat his new Florida squad 38–7 behind quarterback Bobby Scott's then-school record 385 passing yards.[7][17] The Gators assisted the rout by committing four turnovers, including two John Reaves interceptions returned for touchdowns.[25]

text: Both Dickey and Graves remained in their respective positions at UF until the late 1970s, with Dickey fired after the 1978 season and Graves retiring in 1979. During his last season as Florida's coach, Dickey hired a recently retired Florida alum to his first coaching job as the Gators' quarterback coach: Steve Spurrier. In yet another twist, Dickey returned to Knoxville in 1985 to serve as UT's athletic director, replacing Bob Woodruff. Woodruff had played football at Tennessee, but he had been Dickey's head football coach at Florida and had also served as UF's athletic director immediately preceding Ray Graves.[26]

text: Dickey was the head of UT's athletic department during the intense UF/UT Spurrier/Fulmer rivalry of the 1990s and retired in 2002, after which he moved to Jacksonville, Florida.[27]

text: 1990: Homecoming[edit]

text: Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater in 1990 to become the Gators' head ball coach. In yet another link between the programs, Spurrier had been a star quarterback at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee during the early 1960s. Although Knoxville is nearby, he did not seriously consider attending UT because he was an excellent passer and the Vols ran a single-wing offense at the time which featured a running quarterback.[28] Instead, he choose to return to the state of his birth (Spurrier was born in Miami Beach[29]), eventually becoming the Gators' first Heisman Trophy winner in 1966. Tennessee and Florida did not face off during Spurrier's time as the Gators' quarterback. However, he did return to Knoxville in 1988 when he was the head coach at Duke, and his Blue Devils upset the Vols, 31–26.[30]

text: Emotions ran high when Spurrier brought his first Gator squad to Neyland Stadium in October 1990. Florida was 5–0 and ranked No. 9 coming into the matchup with Johnny Majors' 3–0–2 and No. 5 Vols, marking the first time in series history that both rivals were ranked in the AP top-10 when they faced off. The game began as a defensive struggle, with UT holding a slim 7–3 lead at the half. However, the Vols' Dale Carter returned the second half kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown, igniting the home crowd at Neyland Stadium.[31] The Gators fumbled on their next possession and would turn the ball over six times in the second half. The opportunistic Vols took full advantage, turning Spurrier's homecoming (and, coincidentally, Tennessee's homecoming game) into a 45–3 rout, the largest margin of victory in series history.[32]

text: 1991: "Faxgate"[edit]

text: In the week before the 1991 game, media reports began circulating that former UT assistant coach Jack Sells, who had been fired before that season for his role in recruiting violations, had allegedly faxed UF defensive coordinator Ron Zook, himself a former Tennessee assistant, the Vols' offensive gameplan. At first, Zook denied receiving any information, but he soon clarified his statement and said that Sells had sent him a fax of "newspaper clippings" about the upcoming game.[33]

text: Florida won the contest 35–18 behind 245 yards and three touchdowns from Gator quarterback Shane Matthews and five Vol turnovers, but the "faxgate" controversy continued after the final whistle.[34] A follow-up newspaper investigation in Knoxville located an employee of a local Kinko's copy center who said that he had noticed Sells faxing copies of a UT "playbook" and insisted that Sells stop the transmission after over a dozen pages had been sent. The employee had saved the fax cover sheet, which detailed a transmission sent three days before the UF–UT game by a "Jack Sells" to a "Ron Zook" at a Gainesville telephone number.[35]

text: Head coaches Johnny Majors and Steve Spurrier downplayed the incident, and although Tennessee athletic director (and former Gator quarterback and head football coach) Doug Dickey expressed concern about Sells' actions, Spurrier later said that he and Dickey spoke about the incident on the phone and "laughed about it".[1] Right after the game, Spurrier pointed out that UT gained over 400 yards of offense (including 392 passing yards) in the game and joked that it certainly didn't seem like his defensive staff had any inside information. For his part, Fulmer later admitted that the UT staff had copies of the Gators' offensive playbooks at the time.[36] An SEC investigation concluded without punishment.

text: Jack Sells, the person at the center of the incident, left the coaching profession and successfully sued Kinko's for privacy violations, though he temporarily moved out of the state of Tennessee after being assaulted by an angry Vols fan in Chattanooga.[7][37] After a stint as an assistant coach in the NFL, Zook succeeded Spurrier as the Gators' head coach in 2002. He was reluctant to talk about "Faxgate" during his tenure at UF (2002–04), though when asked, he admitted that Sells' infamous transmission had actually been a set of hand-drawn Volunteer offensive plays. However, Zook insisted that they "were so immaterial, and it made no difference and had no relevance, it was nothing."[38]

text: 1995: Second half rain[edit]

text: For the third time in five seasons, the No. 8 Vols and No. 4 Gators were both undefeated and ranked in the top ten coming into their annual contest. The squads featured talented young quarterbacks in UT sophomore Peyton Manning and UF junior Danny Wuerffel, and many pregame prognosticators accurately predicted an offense shootout, with Sports Illustrated planning on putting Manning on the cover of their magazine the week after the game.

text: The Vols struck quickly. On the first play from scrimmage, Manning connected with receiver Joey Kent for a 72-yard gain. On the next play, Manning threw a touchdown pass to Marcus Nash, giving UT a 7–0 lead only 15 seconds into the game.[39] After another Manning touchdown pass and two Gator turnovers, the Vols held a 30–14 advantage late in the second quarter in front of a stunned Florida Field crowd.[40] Wuerffel led the Gators to an answering score, cutting the lead to 30–21 with a touchdown pass in the last minute of the first half. That would be the beginning of a historic run, as Florida scored 48 straight points despite a torrential second half downpour and won in a 62–37 rout. Many records were broken in the game: Wuerffel threw an SEC record six touchdown passes; Tennessee set school records for most points scored in a loss and most points given up in the modern era.[39][40] After the game, Sports Illustrated chose to put Wuerffel on its cover instead of Manning.[41]

text: Florida would go 12–0 through the regular season and the SEC Championship Game and played for the national championship in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, losing in a blowout to Nebraska. Tennessee would not lose another game all season, finishing 11–1 after a Citrus Bowl victory over Ohio State. The schools finished No. 2 and No. 3 in the final polls, with the AP Poll placing the Gators ahead and the Coaches' Poll reversing the order.[42][43]

text: The Coaches' Poll was another cause of controversy. Two coaches had voted the Gators out of their top ten, allowing the Vols to slip above them in the final rankings. Since the ballots were submitted secretly, the coaches in question were never identified, but some in the UF program suggested that UT's coach Fulmer had purposely skewed his ballot to improve his team's ranking at the expense of their rival. Fulmer insisted that he had not voted Florida out of his top ten, but did admit that he had ranked them behind his own team.[44]

text: 1996: First half rain[edit]

text: Once again, the late September matchup between Tennessee and Florida found both teams ranked in the top 5, with the Volunteers ranked No. 2 and the Gators No. 4 in the AP poll. The game was played in newly expanded Neyland Stadium, and an NCAA record crowd of over 107,000 were in attendance for one of the most highly anticipated games of the college football season.[45]

text: The tone for the game was set on the Florida's first possession, when the Gator drive stalled and they faced a 4th down and 10 from the UT 35 yard line. Not wanting to attempt a long field goal in the steady rain, and, spurning the punt team, coach Steve Spurrier decided to leave his offense on the field. On the ensuing play, quarterback Danny Wuerffel connected with Reidel Anthony on a post route over the middle for a touchdown that put the Gators up 7–0 and stunned the Volunteer crowd.[45] Teako Brown intercepted Manning on the Vols' first drive, and it took Wuerffel only one play to find the end zone again, hitting Terry Jackson from 10 yards out to extend the lead to 14–0. UF doubled its lead in a 52-second stretch early in the 2nd quarter, as Ike Hilliard and Jacquez Green became the third and fourth different receivers with touchdown receptions on the afternoon, sandwiched around a James Bates interception of Manning. Anthone Lott's 27-yard fumble return stretched the lead to 35–0, before Manning finally got UT on the scoreboard before halftime on a 72-yard strike to Peerless Price.

text: With the Gators switching to a more conservative game plan in the second half, Tennessee cut the lead to 35–22 with 8 minutes left with 2 more touchdown tosses, including a second to Price. Andy McCellough's 14-yard reception brought the Vols within 35–29 with 10 seconds left, but Florida recovered the ensuing onside kick to secure the six-point victory. Manning threw for 492 passing yards on 65 attempts (both school records) and four touchdowns on the day, but also tossed four interceptions.[45]

text: Florida went on to win its 4th straight SEC championship and first ever national championship.

text: 1997: Spelling "Citrus"[edit]

text: During the mid-1990s, the second highest ranked SEC squad was usually invited to play in the Citrus Bowl after the season. Florida won four consecutive SEC titles from 1993 to 1996, beating Tennessee each time and twice sending them to the Citrus Bowl. Spurrier, who was often known to poke fun at rivals, made jokes at Tennessee's expense during off-season Gator Booster dinners in the spring of 1997, pointing out that "you can't spell Citrus without UT" and suggesting Peyton Manning had returned for his senior season at UT because "he wants to be a three-time Citrus Bowl MVP".[7][46]

text: Ironically, even after UF beat UT 33-20 in 1997 for their fifth straight victory in the series, upset losses to LSU and Georgia put the Gators in the Citrus Bowl. Meanwhile, Tennessee and Manning won their first SEC Championship Game and went on to play in the 1998 Orange Bowl.

text: 1998: Fulmer breaks through[edit]

text: After Peyton Manning and several other star players moved on to the NFL after the 1997 season, most preseason prognosticators saw Tennessee's 1998 squad as taking a step backward from championship contention.[47] However, they were still ranked No. 6 when the No. 2 Gators rolled into Knoxville looking to beat their rivals for the sixth straight year.

text: It was not to be. Led by junior quarterback Tee Martin and a stout defense, the Vols recovered four Gators fumbles, held their opponent to -30 yards rushing, and slowed UF's two-quarterback passing attack, which featured Doug Johnson and Jesse Palmer alternating plays. The game was close throughout, with the score knotted at 10 at halftime and 17 at the end of regulation. Tennessee was held to a Jeff Hall field goal during their first possession of overtime. When it was UF's turn, placekicker Collins Cooper missed an answering 32-yard field goal attempt, giving UT a 20–17 win and inspiring the jubilant home fans to rush the turf of Neyland Stadium and tear down the goalposts.[48]

text: It was not the first last-minute win for the Vols that season, and it would not be the last, either. UT survived several close calls to complete their first perfect season (12–0) since 1938 and claimed their first national championship since 1951 with a 23–16 victory over Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl[49]

text: 2000: The "Catch?"[edit]

text: In front of a record crowd in Neyland Stadium, the Vols were leading the 2000 UF/UT contest on the strength of stifling defense and 175 rushing yards from running back Travis Henry. However, an inability to finish drives led to a school record five field goals from kicker Alex Walls and a slim 23–20 lead.

text: Down by that score late in the fourth quarter, UF took possession of the ball at their own 9-yard line. Gator quarterback Jesse Palmer steadily led his team down the field, and with 14 seconds left in the game, they found themselves with a first and goal at the Vols' 3.

text: After a touchdown pass was called back because of an ineligible man downfield penalty, Palmer's next pass was to wide receiver Jabar Gaffney in the endzone. Gaffney held the ball for a brief moment before it was quickly slapped away by Volunteers cornerback Willie Miles. The official in the area signaled a touchdown, ruling that Gaffney had had possession of the ball long enough to be considered a catch. After a brief conference with the referee, the call was confirmed despite strident protests from the UT coaching staff and loud boos from the crowd. The extra point gave Florida a 27–23 victory.[50]

text: After the game, Volunteer fans were incensed by the call, as they believed Gaffney never gained possession of the ball and that the pass should have been ruled incomplete. Vanderbilt alumnus Al Matthews, the line judge official who made the initial call, received death threats after the game and was not assigned to officiate any games in Knoxville until after Fulmer left.[51][52]

text: 2001: Season finale[edit]

text: As usual, the Gators and Vols were slated to meet on the 3rd Saturday of September during the 2001 season. However, the SEC canceled all games on the weekend following the September 11 attacks, and they were rescheduled for December 1, 2001, requiring the SEC Championship Game to be pushed back a week as well.

text: As the season progressed, the postponed game took on greater and greater importance. Each squad suffered only one close loss (#6 Tennessee lost to Georgia 26–24, #1 Florida lost to Auburn 23–20) and entered the contest with Tennessee ranked #5 and Florida ranked #2. The winner would represent the SEC East and face LSU in the SEC Championship. With a win in that game, the Gators or Vols were likely to receive an invitation to the Rose Bowl to face the undefeated Miami Hurricanes with a national title on the line.[53]

text: But in 2001, despite the teams' identical records and much to the chagrin of the Vols, the Gators were 17-and-a-half point favorites at kickoff.[54]

text: Gators starting running back Earnest Graham had been controversially injured in UF's win over rival Florida State the previous week and was unable to play.[55] The star of the game would turn out to be the running back for the other squad, as UT's Travis Stephens rushed 19 times for 226 yards (the second highest total ever given up by a Florida defense) and two touchdowns to lead the Vols' attack. Without Graham, Florida managed only 36 total yards on the ground. Gator quarterback Rex Grossman threw 51 times for 362 yards and two touchdowns, but his pass on a potentially game-tying two-point conversion attempt with 1:10 left in the 4th quarter fell incomplete. The Vols held on for a 34–32 upset victory, ending a 30-year winless drought against Florida in Gainesville.[56][57]

text: Ultimately, neither team would win any championships that season. UT was upset by LSU in the SEC Championship Game the following Saturday and missed their opportunity to play for a second national title in four years. The Vols ended up beating Michigan 45–17 in the Citrus Bowl.[58] Florida was invited to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Maryland 56–23.[59]

text: The teams' December meeting would become even more historical in early January, when Steve Spurrier announced that he was resigning as Florida's head coach after 12 seasons. The 2001 game was thus the last matchup in the Spurrier-Fulmer chapter of the rivalry (they would meet several additional occasions after Spurrier became South Carolina's head coach in 2005) and Spurrier's last home game at Florida Field.

text: 2004: Unsportsmanlike conduct[edit]

text: Like the game in Knoxville four years previously, the 2004 UF/UT contest on Tennessee's home field also ended in controversy involving an official's call.[60]

text: Holding on to a 28–27 lead, Florida was attempting to run the clock out late in the fourth quarter. Florida gained one first down, then were stopped on the subsequent third down play and began to send in the punt team with under a minute left in the game and the clock running.

text: After the play, however, Gator receiver Dallas Baker and Vols defensive back Jonathan Wade got into an altercation, with Wade head-slapping Baker and Baker responding with a head slap of his own. Referee Bobby Moreau appeared to have a clear view of the incident, but only Baker was called with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The officials had stopped the clock with 55 seconds left in the game to call the penalty and move the Gators back 15 yards, but then incorrectly neglected to restart the clock before the ball was snapped for the punt.[61]

text: UT received the punt and quickly drove to the Florida 33-yard-line. With six seconds left, placekicker James Wilhoit, who had missed wide right a game-tying extra point earlier in the quarter, earned redemption by hitting a 50-yard field goal, giving his team a 30–28 victory.

text: The Gator squad and fans were incensed by both the penalty and the subsequent failure to restart the game clock, feeling that the combination of calls had given the Vols an undeserved chance to win the game. Bobby Moreau, the official who called the penalty on Baker, received death threats after the game. SEC director of officials Bobby Gaston subsequently removed Moreau from working games in Gainesville.[62]

text: 2009: Kiffin versus Meyer[edit]

text: Lane Kiffin replaced Phil Fulmer as Tennessee's new head coach before the 2009 season. At his introductory press conference, Kiffin boldly predicted that he would "sing Rocky Top all night" in Gainesville after his team beat Florida the following September. Soon after, he incorrectly accused Florida coach Urban Meyer of breaking recruiting rules over a player that ended up going to Tennessee, sparking a series of public jibes between the coaches that continued all through the off-season and helped to make the 2009 meeting the most anticipated game in the series in several years despite the fact that Gators were ranked No. 1 and the Volunteers were unranked.[63]

text: The game was a relatively uneventful 23–13 Florida win, but the coaches' verbal sparring continued in the post-game press conferences. Meyer suggested that Kiffin had not played to win but had simply tried to "keep it close" and mentioned that the Gators' sluggish play on the afternoon was partly due to the fact that several players, including their star quarterback Tim Tebow, had the flu. From the visiting locker room, Kiffin sarcastically responded that "after we're not excited about our performance, we'll tell you that everybody was sick."[64] Eventually, SEC commissioner Michael Slive publicly warned the coaches to end their war of words, and later sent an official letter of reprimand to Kiffin when he continued to criticize opposing coaches and SEC officials.[64][65] In January 2010, Kiffin resigned to become the head coach at Southern California, abruptly ending his feud with Meyer after only one season.[64]

text: 2014: Fourth quarter comeback[edit]

text: For the first time since 1955, both teams came into Knoxville unranked. It was mightily a defensive struggle for both teams, with Tennessee leading 9–0 at halftime on a trio of field goals by kicker Aaron Medley. Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel performed his worst outing in his career, going 11–of–23 passing for a paltry 59 yards while throwing three interceptions. Tennessee had a chance to capitalize on a scoring opportunity deep in Florida territory after a Driskel interception to start the second half, but quarterback Justin Worley's pass was picked off at the goal line. Florida coach Will Muschamp pulled Driskel from the game late in the third quarter in favor of backup quarterback Treon Harris. The strategy paid off, as the Gators finally scored on a Matt Jones touchdown run to cut the Vols' lead to 9–7. Florida's next drive was capped off by a 49-yard field goal by struggling kicker Austin Hardin, giving the Gators the lead for good at 10–9. Tennessee looked poised to end the Gators' nine-game series winning streak on its final drive, but Worley's pass near midfield was intercepted by Florida defensive back Keanu Neal, preserving the Gators' slim victory.

text: 2015: Another fourth quarter comeback[edit]

text: For just the second time since 1955, both teams came into this game in Gainesville unranked. However, both teams had higher expectations, with the Gators led by first head coach Jim McElwain, and Tennessee under Butch Jones a media favorite to win the SEC East, and the 2015 contest was billed as one of the most hyped up games in recent memory.[66]

text: The Gators opened up an early 7–0 lead on a touchdown run by Kelvin Taylor, but the Vols scored touchdowns on a reverse pass to quarterback Josh Dobbs and a fourth down jump pass from the Florida goal line and led 17–7 at halftime. The Gators cut the lead to 20–14 by the end of the third period, but a Jalen Hurd touchdown run with 10 minutes left in the game extended the Tennessee lead to 27–14.[67]

text: Led by freshman quarterback Will Grier, Florida responded with a 17-play, 86-yard drive that included two fourth down conversions and ended with a touchdown to make the score 27-21. The Gators got the ball back with two minutes left, but soon faced a fourth down and 14 yards to go situation. Grier threw to Antonio Callaway on a curl in route on the right hash marks near the first down marker, and Callaway wheeled past defenders and ran untouched down the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown that gave the Gators a 28–27 lead with 1:26 to play.[67] This was the Gators' fifth successful fourth-down conversion in as many attempts in the game.

text: Tennessee mounted a last-minute drive, and with three seconds left, kicker Aaron Medley lined up to attempt a 56-yard field goal to win the game. The kick was badly off target to the right, but Florida coach Jim McElwain had called timeout right before the snap because his team had 12 men on the field.[68] Medley's second attempt sailed just wide to the right, and Florida held on for their 11th straight win in the series.[67]

text: Buoyed by the dramatic win, the Gators would go on to win the SEC East for the first time since 2009.

text: 2016: Duck Pulling a Truck[edit]

text: Tennessee came into the 2016 season as the "overwhelming" favorite to win the SEC Eastern Division and make it to their first SEC Championship Game since 2007.[69][70] However, close victories against heavy underdogs in two of their first three contests saw them drop from their preseason top ten ranking, and they were ranked No. 14 despite an undefeated record heading into their rivalry game with Florida.[71] Meanwhile, Florida had begun 2016 on the edge of the top-25 after losing four straight contests to end the previous season, but three easy victories in which the starting defense did not allow a touchdown had the Gators ranked No. 19.[72]

text: With Gators starting quarterback Luke Del Rio out with a knee injury and the game being played in Knoxville, Florida was a 6.5 point underdog, and many prognosticators predicted that Tennessee would break their 11-game losing streak against their rivals.[73] However, prior to the game, Florida cornerback Quincy Wilson confidently predicted that the streak would continue. "Nobody has ever seen a duck pull a truck", he said to reporters. "Florida Gators are going to win, simple as that."[74]

text: Behind backup quarterback Austin Appleby, Florida jumped out to a 21–0 lead midway through the second quarter. Tennessee twice had a first down inside the Gators' five yard line during the first half but were unable to score a touchdown, and they trailed 21–3 at the break.[75] The second half started off no better for the Volunteers, as Joshua Dobbs threw an interception deep in Florida territory. But then the game saw a complete reversal of fortune. Dobbs led Tennessee's turnaround, accounting for five touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) after intermission while the defense shut down a Florida attack which had gained 300 yards in the first half. Starting with a field goal late in the first half, Tennessee scored 38 consecutive points to take a 38–28 victory and break the Gators' long series win streak.[76] "That duck is pulling that truck, baby!" commented Tennessee coach Butch Jones in the postgame news conference.[77]

text: Game results[edit]

text:
Florida victories
Tennessee victories

text:
No.
Date
Location
Winner
Score

1
October 28, 1916
Tampa, Florida
Tennessee
24–0

2
October 22, 1921
Knoxville, Tennessee
Tennessee
9–0

3
December 8, 1928
Knoxville, Tennessee
Tennessee
13–12

4
December 6, 1930
Jacksonville, Florida
Tennessee
13–6

5
December 3, 1932
Jacksonville, Florida
Tennessee
32–13

6
October 28, 1933
Knoxville, Tennessee
Tennessee
13–6

7
October 26, 1940
Knoxville, Tennessee
#5 Tennessee
14–0

8
October 14, 1944
Knoxville, Tennessee
#15 Tennessee
40–0

9
November 15, 1952
Knoxville, Tennessee
#7 Tennessee
26–12

10
November 14, 1953
Gainesville, Florida
#18 Tennessee
9–7

11
November 13, 1954
Knoxville, Tennessee
Florida
14–0

12
November 12, 1955
Gainesville, Florida
Tennessee
20–0

13
December 27, 1969
Jacksonville, Florida
#14 Florida
14–13

14
October 24, 1970
Knoxville, Tennessee
#11 Tennessee
38–7

15
October 2, 1971
Gainesville, Florida
#12 Tennessee
20–13

16
October 23, 1976
Knoxville, Tennessee
#11 Florida
20–18

17
October 22, 1977
Gainesville, Florida
#19 Florida
27–17

18
October 13, 1984
Knoxville, Tennessee
#18 Florida
43–30

19
October 12, 1985
Gainesville, Florida
#7 Florida
17–10

20
October 13, 1990
Knoxville, Tennessee
#5 Tennessee
45–3

21
October 12, 1991
Gainesville, Florida
#10 Florida
35–18

22
September 19, 1992
Knoxville, Tennessee
#14 Tennessee
31–14

23
September 18, 1993
Gainesville, Florida
#9 Florida
41–34

24
September 17, 1994
Knoxville, Tennessee
#1 Florida
31–0

No.
Date
Location
Winner
Score

25
September 16, 1995
Gainesville, Florida
#4 Florida
62–37

26
September 21, 1996
Knoxville, Tennessee
#4 Florida
35–29

27
September 20, 1997
Gainesville, Florida
#1 Florida
33–20

28
September 19, 1998
Knoxville, Tennessee
#6 Tennessee
20–17OT

29
September 18, 1999
Gainesville, Florida
#4 Florida
23–21

30
September 16, 2000
Knoxville, Tennessee
#6 Florida
27–23

31
December 1, 2001
Gainesville, Florida
#5 Tennessee
34–32

32
September 21, 2002
Knoxville, Tennessee
#10 Florida
30–13

33
September 20, 2003
Gainesville, Florida
#12 Tennessee
24–10

34
September 18, 2004
Knoxville, Tennessee
#13 Tennessee
30–28

35
September 17, 2005
Gainesville, Florida
#6 Florida
16–7

36
September 16, 2006
Knoxville, Tennessee
#6 Florida
21–20

37
September 15, 2007
Gainesville, Florida
#3 Florida
59–20

38
September 20, 2008
Knoxville, Tennessee
#4 Florida
30–6

39
September 19, 2009
Gainesville, Florida
#1 Florida
23–13

40
September 18, 2010
Knoxville, Tennessee
#10 Florida
31–17

41
September 17, 2011
Gainesville, Florida
#17 Florida
33–23

42
September 15, 2012
Knoxville, Tennessee
#18 Florida
37–20

43
September 21, 2013
Gainesville, Florida
#19 Florida
31–17

44
October 4, 2014
Knoxville, Tennessee
Florida
10–9

45
September 26, 2015
Gainesville, Florida
Florida
28–27

46
September 24, 2016
Knoxville, Tennessee
#14 Tennessee
38–28

47
September 16, 2017
Gainesville, Florida
#24 Florida
26–20

Series: Florida leads 27–20

text: Series record sources: 2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide,[78] 2011 Tennessee Football Media Guide,[79] and College Football Data Warehouse.[80]


document_title: Bonanza

question_text: how many times was ben cartwright married on bonanza

root

text: Bonanza

text: Premise[edit]

text: The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss" Cartwright (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe" (Michael Landon). Via exposition (S01:E01 – "Rose for Lotta") and flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ancestry: English (S02:E65 – "Elizabeth My Love"), Swedish (S03:E95 – "Inger My Love") and French Creole (S04:E120 – "Marie My Love") respectively. The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung). Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were billed equally. The opening credits would alternate the order among the four stars.

tag: p

text: The family lived on a thousand square-mile (2,600 km2) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range].[10] The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" (2,000 km2) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa." The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell).

text: Bonanza was considered an atypical western for its time, as the core of the storylines dealt less about the range but more with Ben and his three dissimilar sons, how they cared for one another, their neighbors, and just causes. "You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but Bonanza was the first series that was week-to-week about a family and the troubles it went through. Bonanza was a period drama that attempted to confront contemporary social issues. That was very difficult to do on television. Most shows that tried to do it failed because the sponsors didn't like it, and the networks were nervous about getting letters", explains Stephen Battaglio, a senior editor for TV Guide magazine.[11]

text: Episodes ranged from high drama ("Bushwhacked", episode #392, 1971; "Shanklin", episode #409, 1972), to broad comedy ("Hoss and the Leprechauns", episode #146, 1964; "Mrs. Wharton and the Lesser Breeds", episode #318, 1969; "Caution, Bunny Crossing", episode #358, 1969), and addressed issues such as the environment ("Different Pines, Same Wind", episode #304, 1968), substance abuse ("The Hidden Enemy", episode #424, 1972), domestic violence ("First Love", episode #427, 1972), anti-war sentiment ("The Weary Willies", episode #364, 1970), and illegitimate births ("Love Child", episode #370, 1970; "Rock-A-Bye Hoss", episode #393, 1971). The series sought to illustrate the cruelty of bigotry against: Asians ("The Fear Merchants", episode #27, 1960; "The Lonely Man", episode #404, 1971), African-Americans ("Enter Thomas Bowers", episode #164, 1964; "The Wish", episode #326, 1968; "Child", episode #305, 1969), Native Americans ("The Underdog", episode #180, 1964; "Terror at 2:00", episode #384, 1970), Jews, ("Look to the Stars", episode #90, 1962); Mormons ("The Pursued", episodes #239-40, 1966), the disabled ("Tommy", episode #249, 1966) and "little people" ("It's A Small World", episode #347, 1968).

text: Originally, the Cartwrights tended to be depicted as put-off by outsiders. Lorne Greene objected to this, pointing out that as the area's largest timber and livestock producer, the family should be less clannish. The producers agreed with this observation and changed the Cartwrights to be more amiable.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Though not familiar stars in 1959, the cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation. The order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week. The main cast of actors portraying Cartwrights is listed here in the order of their characters' ages, followed by an array of recurring supporting players:

text: Lorne Greene – Ben Cartwright[edit]

text: Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Russian-Jewish parents,[12][13] Lorne Greene was chosen to play widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. Early in the show's history, he recalls each of his late wives in flashback episodes. A standard practice with most westerns was to introduce some romance but avoid matrimony. Few media cowboys had on-screen wives. Any time one of the Cartwrights seriously courted a woman, she died from a malady, was abruptly slain, or left with someone else.

text: Greene appeared in all but fourteen Bonanza episodes. Greene was 44 years old at the beginning of the series while Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker, who portrayed two of his sons, were both 31, only thirteen years younger.

text: In 2007, a TV Guide survey listed Ben Cartwright as television's #2 favorite dad.[14]

text: Pernell Roberts – Adam Cartwright[edit]

text: Pernell Roberts played eldest son Adam, an architectural engineer with a university education. Adam built the impressive ranch house.[15][16] Roberts disdained the assembly-line mindset of serial television[citation needed] (a rigid 34 episode season), and fought with series writers regarding Adam's lack of independence, noting that his 30-plus year old character was dependent on his "Pa's" approval. Despite the show's success, Roberts departed the series after the 1964–65 season (202 episodes) and returned to stage productions.

text: Attempts to replace Adam with Little Joe's maternal half-brother Clay (Barry Coe) and Cartwright cousin Will (Guy "Zorro" Williams), were unsuccessful.[17] Creator David Dortort introduced a storyline that would keep the character of Adam in the mix, but with a lighter schedule. During season five Adam falls for a widow with a young daughter, while making Will Cartwright a central figure. Roberts decided to stay an additional season, so the scripts were quickly revised by having Adam's fiancée and her daughter depart the series prematurely with Guy Williams' Will, with whom she'd fallen in love. It was Landon, not Roberts, who objected to the infusion of any new Cartwrights.[13][17] After Roberts did leave the following year, it was eventually mentioned that Adam had gone "to sea", and in the later movies he had emigrated to Australia. In mid 1972, the series producers considered inviting Roberts back in the wake of Dan Blocker's death: "One suggestion was to return Pernell Roberts, who had played another Cartwright son when Bonanza first premiered on NBC fourteen years ago. We only considered that briefly, [producer Richard] Collins says... Some people felt it was a logical step—the oldest son returning at a time of family need—but most of us didn't think it would work.'"[18]

text: Dan Blocker – Eric "Hoss" Cartwright[edit]

text: Dan Blocker was 6-foot-4, 320-pounds[19] when chosen to play the gentle middle son Eric, better known as "Hoss". The nickname was used as a nod to the character's ample girth,[20] an endearing term for "big and friendly", used by his Swedish mother (and Uncle Gunnar).[21] In the Bonanza flashback,[22] his mother Inger names him Eric after her father. To satisfy young Adam, Inger and Ben agree to try the nickname Hoss and "see which one sticks." Inger says of "Hoss", "In the mountain country, that is the name for a big, friendly man." According to a biography,[13] the show's crew found Blocker to be the "least actor-ish as well as the most likeable" cast member. According to producer David Dortort: "Over the years he gave me the least amount of trouble."[13]

text: In May 1972, Blocker died suddenly from a post-operative pulmonary embolism following surgery to remove his gall bladder. The producers felt nobody else could continue the role. It was the first time a TV show's producers chose to kill off a young major male character (though it was done twice previously with young female leads—in 1956 on Make Room For Daddy, and again in 1963 with The Real McCoys). Not until the TV movie Bonanza: The Next Generation was it explained that Hoss had drowned attempting to save a woman's life.[citation needed]

text: Although "big and lovable", Blocker was also tough. Several years after his death, Landon appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and related the following anecdote. During the shooting of one episode, Blocker's horse stumbled and fell, throwing Blocker and breaking his collarbone. Blocker got up and the bone was actually protruding from his skin. The crew wanted to call an ambulance but Blocker refused and stuck the bone back in place himself and resumed filming. At the end of the day he was convinced to go to the hospital where they set the broken bone and gave him strict instructions, no riding for six weeks. According to Landon, evidently Blocker's horse forgot what it was like to carry the big man during his convalescence because the first time that Blocker swung up into the saddle on his return, the horse collapsed under his weight and the cast and crew collapsed in fits of laughter.[citation needed]

text: Michael Landon – Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright[edit]

text: The role of "Little Joe" was given to Michael Landon, who had earlier played the title role in I Was a Teenage Werewolf. He portrayed the youngest Cartwright son, whose mother (Felicia in the pilot, and later changed to Marie) was of French Creole descent. Landon began to develop his skills in writing and directing Bonanza episodes, starting with "The Gamble." Most of the episodes Landon wrote and directed were dramas, including the two-hour, "Forever" (1972), which was recognized by TV Guide as being one of television's best specials (November 1993).[vague] Landon's development was a bit stormy according to David Dortort, who felt that the actor grew more difficult during the last five seasons the show ran.[23] Landon appeared in all but fourteen Bonanza episodes for its run, a total of 416 episodes.

text: Beginning in 1962, a foundation was being laid to include another "son", as Pernell Roberts was displeased with his character. In the episode "First Born" (1962), viewers learn of Little Joe's older, maternal half-brother Clay Stafford. The character departed in that same episode, but left an opportunity for a return if needed. This character's paternity is open to debate. In the 1963 flashback episode "Marie, My Love", his father was Jean De'Marigny. Then in 1964, Lorne Greene released the song "Saga of the Ponderosa",[23] wherein Marie's previous husband was "Big Joe" Collins, who dies saving Ben's life. After Ben consoles Marie, the two bond and marry. They choose to honor "Big Joe" by calling their son "Little Joe". So, whether to Stafford, De'Marigny or Collins, Marie Cartwright was previously married. In the last of the three Bonanza TV movies, it is revealed that "Little Joe" had died in the Spanish–American War – a member of the "Rough Riders".

text: Ray Teal – Sheriff Roy Coffee[edit]

text: Veteran character actor Ray Teal essayed the role of Sheriff Roy Coffee on 98 episodes from 1960 to 1972.[24] He appeared in more than 250 movies and some 90 television programs during his 37-year career. His longest-running role was as Sheriff Roy Coffee. He had also played a sheriff in the Billy Wilder film Ace in the Hole (1951). Teal co-starred in numerous TV westerns throughout his career: he appeared five times on Cheyenne, twice on The Lone Ranger, on The Alaskans, a short-lived series starring Roger Moore, three times in different roles on another long-running western series, Wagon Train, on NBC's Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson, on the ABC western series Broken Arrow, five times on the ABC western comedy Maverick starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, on the CBS western series The Texan with Rory Calhoun, the NBC western series The Californians, twice on Colt .45 with Wayde Preston, once on Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen and as "Sheriff Clay" for a single 1960 episode of the NBC western series Riverboat with Darren McGavin, and four times on a western series about the rodeo entitled Wide Country.

text: Teal was a bit-part player in western films for several years before landing a substantial role in Northwest Passage (1940) starring Spencer Tracy. Another of his roles was as Little John in The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946). Notable film roles include playing one of the judges in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) with Spencer Tracy, and an indulgent bar owner to Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in The Wild One (1953), which was the second of three times that Teal appeared with Brando, having done so already as a drunk in Brando's debut in The Men (1950) and later in Brando's only directorial effort, One-Eyed Jacks (1961), as a bartender.

text: Sheriff Coffee was occasionally the focus of a plot as in the episode "No Less a Man" (broadcast March 15, 1964). A gang of thieves has been terrorizing towns around Virginia City and the town council wants to replace Coffee, whom they consider over-the-hill, with a younger sheriff before the gang hits town, not realizing that they'd been spared earlier because the gang's leader was wary of Coffee's longevity and only acquiesced to rob the Virginia City bank after extreme pressure from other gang members. Coffee ends up showing the town that youth and a fast gun don't replace experience.

text: Guy Williams - Will Cartwright[edit]

text: Guy Williams was slated in 1964, the year that Bonanza hit #1 in the ratings, to replace Pernell Roberts upon Roberts' departure, enabling the series to preserve the four-Cartwright format for the run of the series. His character, Ben's nephew Will Cartwright, was introduced and was the lead character in five episodes, receiving "Starring" billing after the four original rotating Cartwrights during his second appearance going forward, but Roberts changed his mind later and decided to stay for one more season, whereupon Williams found himself pushed out of the part; it was rumored that Landon and Greene felt threatened by the studio initiating a precedent of successfully replacing one heroic leading man Cartwright with a new one, particularly in view of Williams' popularity with viewers. Williams had previously portrayed the titular character in Walt Disney's Zorro television series, and went on to play the lead in Lost in Space, a science fiction television series, after the role in Bonanza ended.

text: David Canary – "Candy" Canadaiy[edit]

text: After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, David Canary was offered a left-end position with the Denver Broncos,[13] but pursued acting and singing. In 1967, he joined the cast as "Candy" Canaday, a plucky Army brat turned cowboy,[25] who became the Cartwrights' confidant, ranch foreman, and timber vessel captain. Dortort was impressed by Canary's talent, but the character vanished in September 1970, after Canary had a contract dispute. He returned two seasons later after co-star Dan Blocker's death, reportedly having been approached by Landon. Canary played the character on a total of 91 episodes.[24] Canary joined the cast in Season 9.

text: Victor Sen Yung – Hop Sing[edit]

text: Chinese American actor Victor Sen Yung played the Cartwrights' happy-go-lucky cook, whose blood pressure rose when the family came late for dinner. Cast here as the faithful domestic, the comedy relief character had little to do beyond chores. He once used martial arts to assail a towering family foe.[26] Though often referenced, Hop Sing only appeared in an average of eight to nine shows each season. As a semi-regular cast member, Sen Yung was only paid per episode. After 14 years, he was widely known, but making far less than his Ponderosa peers. The Hop Sing character was central in only two episodes: "Mark Of Guilt" (#316) and "The Lonely Man" (#404).

text: Mitch Vogel – Jamie Hunter/Cartwright[edit]

text: After Canary's departure in mid-1970, and aware of the show's aging demographic, the writers sought a fresh outlet for Ben's fatherly advice. Fourteen-year-old Mitch Vogel was introduced as Jamie Hunter in  "A Matter of Faith" (season 12, episode 363). Vogel played the red-haired orphan of a roving rainmaker, whom Ben takes in and adopts later in a 1971 episode, called "A Home For Jamie."

text: Tim Matheson – Griff King[edit]

text: During the final season, in 1972–1973, Tim Matheson portrayed Griff King, a parolee who tries to reform his life as a worker at the Ponderosa Ranch under Ben Cartwright's tutelage.

text: Lou Frizzell - Dusty Rhoades[edit]

text: Following Canary's departure, Frizzell's character accompanied Jamie Hunter to the Ponderosa and became the Cartwright's foreman.

text: Cast episode count[edit]

text:
Lorne Greene – Ben Cartwright - 417 episodes (Season 1-14)
Michael Landon – Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright - 416 episodes (Season 1-14)
Dan Blocker – Eric "Hoss" Cartwright - 401 episodes (Season 1-13)
Pernell Roberts – Adam Cartwright - 173 episodes (Season 1-6)
Victor Sen Yung – Hop Sing – 107 episodes (Season 1-14)
Ray Teal - Sheriff Coffee – 98 episodes (Season 2-13)
David Canary – "Candy" Canaday - 91 episodes (Season 9-11, 14)
Mitch Vogel – Jamie Hunter Cartwright - 47 episodes (Season 12-14)
Tim Matheson – Griff King - 12 episodes (Season 14)
Guy Williams - Will Cartwright - 5 episodes (Season 5)

tag: ul

text: Episodes[edit]

text: SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedNielsen ratings[27]First airedLast airedRankRatingTied with132September 12, 1959 (1959-09-12)April 30, 1960 (1960-04-30)N/AN/AN/A234September 10, 1960 (1960-09-10)June 3, 1961 (1961-06-03)1724.8N/A334September 24, 1961 (1961-09-24)May 20, 1962 (1962-05-20)230.0N/A434September 23, 1962 (1962-09-23)May 26, 1963 (1963-05-26)429.8The Lucy Show534September 22, 1963 (1963-09-22)May 24, 1964 (1964-05-24)236.9N/A634September 20, 1964 (1964-09-20)May 23, 1965 (1965-05-23)136.3N/A733September 12, 1965 (1965-09-12)May 15, 1966 (1966-05-15)131.8N/A834September 11, 1966 (1966-09-11)May 14, 1967 (1967-05-14)129.1N/A934September 17, 1967 (1967-09-17)July 28, 1968 (1968-07-28)425.5GunsmokeFamily Affair1030September 15, 1968 (1968-09-15)May 11, 1969 (1969-05-11)326.6N/A1128September 14, 1969 (1969-09-14)April 19, 1970 (1970-04-19)324.8N/A1228September 13, 1970 (1970-09-13)April 11, 1971 (1971-04-11)923.9N/A1326September 19, 1971 (1971-09-19)April 2, 1972 (1972-04-02)2021.9N/A1416September 12, 1972 (1972-09-12)January 16, 1973 (1973-01-16)N/AN/AN/A

tag: table

text: Broadcast history and ratings[edit]

text: Initially, Bonanza aired on Saturday evenings opposite "Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show" and "John Gunther's High Road" on ABC, and Perry Mason on CBS. Bonanza's initial ratings were respectable, often coming in behind Mason but ahead of the ABC line-up. Ironically, executives considered canceling the show before its premiere because of its high cost. NBC kept it because Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color, including scenes of picturesque Lake Tahoe, Nevada, although most of the episodes were obviously filmed on soundstages until the seasons near the end of the series. NBC's corporate parent, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), used the show to spur sales of RCA-manufactured color television sets (RCA was also the primary sponsor of the series during its first two seasons).

text: NBC moved Bonanza to Sundays at 9:00 pm Eastern with new sponsor Chevrolet (replacing The Dinah Shore Chevy Show). The new time slot caused Bonanza to soar in the ratings, and it eventually reached number one by 1964, an honor it would keep until 1967 when it was seriously challenged by the socially daring variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS. By 1970, Bonanza was the first series to appear in the Top Five list for nine consecutive seasons (a record that would stand for many years) and thus established itself as the most consistent strong-performing hit television series of the 1960s. Bonanza remained high on the Nielsen ratings until 1971, when it finally fell out of the Top Ten.

text: During the summer of 1972, NBC broadcast reruns of episodes of the show from the 1967–1970 era on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. under the title Ponderosa while also rerunning more recent episodes on Sunday evenings in the show's normal time slot as Bonanza.[9] In the fall of 1972, off-network episodes were released in broadcast syndication to local stations by NBC under the Ponderosa name.  After the series was canceled, the syndicated reruns reverted to the Bonanza name.

text: Awards[edit]

text:
1964: Logi Award for Best Overseas Show
1965: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment - Color Consultant, Edward P. Ancona Jr. (color consultant)
1966: Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievements in Film Editing - Marvin Coil (editor), Everett Douglas (editor), Ellsworth Hoagland (editor)
1969: Bambi, TV Series International - Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon and Pernell Roberts
1970: Bronze Wrangler Award, True Television Drama - For episode "The Wish".
1971: Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition - For a Series or a Single Program of a Series (First Music's Use Only) David lean (composer) For episode "The Love Child".
2003: TV Land Award for Best in the West
2011: OFTA TV Hall of Fame Television Programs

text: Other nominations[edit]

text:
1961: Writers Guild of America, USA - Episodic, Longer Than 30 Minutes in Length - Donald S. Sanford For Bonanza: The Last Hunt (1959).
1962: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Television - Walter Castle (cinematographer) and Haskell B. Boggs (cinematographer)
1963: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design - Hal Pereira (art director) and A. Earl Hedrick (scenic designer)
1964: Golden Globes Award for Best TV Show
1964: Golden Award for Best TV Star Male: Lorne Greene
1964: Eddie Awards for Best Edited Television Program - Marvin Coil For episode "Hoss and the Leprechaun".
1965: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment - Cinematographer - Haskell B. Boggs (cinematographer) and William P. Whitley (cinematographer)
1966: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Dramatic Series - David Dortort (producer)
1966: Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievements in Music - Composition David Rose
1966: Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievements in Cinematography - Cinematography -  Haskell B. Boggs (cinematographer) and William P. Whitley (cinematographer)
1966: Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievements in Cinematography - Special - Edward P. Ancona Jr. (color coordinator)
1966: Troféu Imprensa, Brazil - Best Series (Melhor Série)
1967: Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievements in Cinematography - Cinematography Haskell B. Boggs (cinematographer) and William P. Whitley (cinematographer)
1970: Eddie Awards for Best Edited Television Program - Danny B. Landres For episode "Dead Wrong".
1971: Primetime Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming - For a Series or a Single Program of a Series - Ted Voigtlander For episode "The Love Child".
2003: TV Land Award for Favorite Made-for-TV Maid - Victor Sen Yung

text: Production[edit]

text: Costumes[edit]

text: From the fourth season on, the Cartwrights and nearly every other recurring character on the show wore the same clothing in almost every episode. The reason for this is twofold: it made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles (Hal Burton, Bob Miles, Bill Clark, Lyle Heisler, Ray Mazy) and it cut the cost of refilming action shots (such as riding clips in-between scenes), as previously shot stock footage could be reused. Below is a survey of costumes employed:

text:
Ben Cartwright: Sandy shirt, tawny leather vest, gray pants, cream-colored hat, occasional green scarf.
Adam Cartwright: Black shirt, black or midnight blue pants, black hat. Elegant city wear. Cream-colored trail coat.
Hoss Cartwright: White shirt, brown suede vest, brown pants, large beige flat-brimmed, ten-gallon hat.
Little Joe Cartwright: Beige, light gray shirt, kelly-green jacket, tan pants, beige hat. Black leather gloves from 10th season on. In season 14, he and Greene occasionally wore different shirts and slacks, as the footage of them and the late Dan Blocker together could no longer be reused.
Candy Canaday: Crimson shirt, black pants, black leather vest, black hat, grey/ pale purple scarf.

text: It was not unusual for Little Joe Cartwright and Candy Canaday to appear shirtless in various scenes involving manual labor.

text: Hair styles[edit]

text: In 1968, Blocker began wearing a toupee on the series, as he was approaching age 40 and his hair loss was becoming more evident. He joined the ranks of his fellow co-stars Roberts and Greene, both of whom had begun the series with hairpieces (Greene wore his modest frontal piece in private life too, whereas Roberts preferred not wearing his, even to rehearsals/blocking). Landon was the only original cast member who was wig-free throughout the series, as even Sen Yung wore an attached queue.[28]

text: Theme song[edit]

text: Bonanza features a memorable theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that was orchestrated by David Rose and arranged by Billy May for the television series. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[29]

text: The Bonanza theme song famously opens with a blazing Ponderosa map and saddlebound Cartwrights. The melodic intro, emulating galloping horses, is one of the most recognized television scores. Variations of the theme were used for 12 seasons on the series. Although there were two official sets of lyrics (some country-western singers, avoiding royalties, substituted the copyright renditions with their own words), the series simply used an instrumental theme. Three of the cast members bellowed-out the original lyrics, unaccompanied, at the close of the pilot (Pernell Roberts, the sole professional singer of the quartet, abstained and untethered the horse reins). Before the pilot aired (on September 12, 1959), the song sequence, deemed too campy, was edited out of the scene and instead the Cartwrights headed back to the ranch whooping and howling. In a 1964 song, the Livingston-Evans lyrics were revised by Lorne Greene with a more familial emphasis, "on this land we put our brand, Cartwright is the name, fortune smiled the day we filed the Ponderosa claim" ("Bonanza", Bear Family Box set, Disc #2). In 1968, a slightly revamped horn and percussion-heavy arrangement of the original score introduced the series- which was used until 1970. A new theme song, called "The Big Bonanza" was written in 1970 by episode scorer David Rose, and was used from 1970–1972. Action-shot pictorials of the cast replaced the galloping trio. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast.

text: The theme song has been recorded by numerous artists in a diverse variety of styles. The first recorded and released version was an instrumental by Marty Gold, on his 1960 album Swingin' West. This was followed by the February 1960 single by Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra, which included vocals. Morrow's version also appeared on his 1960 album Double Impact which featured several other then-recent television themes. In December 1960, another vocal version was issued only in the United Kingdom by Johnny Gregory (bandleader) and his Orchestra and Chorus released on the Fontana label. All aforementioned vocal versions, including the television pilot, used lyrics written by Livingston and Evans contained in the first published sheet music for the song, though not all the lyrics were sung. A Bonanza soundtrack album released in late 1961 included a version by David Rose; Rose also had a 1960 single and included the theme on his 1961 album Exodus in a different mix. The biggest hit version is a guitar instrumental by Al Caiola, which reached number 19 on Billboard in 1961. Other versions were released by Billy Vaughn, Valjean, Lorne Greene, Johnny Cash and Nelson Riddle.

text: Country singer Johnny Cash was first to record a full length vocal version of the theme song. He and Johnny Western discarded the original Livingston and Evans lyrics, and wrote new ones, though the revised lyrics still make direct reference to the Cartwrights and the Ponderosa. The song first saw release by September 1962 as a single. Sometime after June 1963, it was released as a track on his sixteenth album: Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. This version was later covered by Faron Young for his 1963 album Aims at the West. Singer Ralf Paulsen recorded a German-language version of the song in 1963, released in mid-June 1963 on Capitol Records in the United States. His German version (lyrics attributed to "Nicolas") was sung in the same style and mood in which Cash had recorded it, and was fairly close in translation.

text: Carlos Malcolm & His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms released a ska version of the song as "Bonanza Ska" on Trojan Records in 1964. This version was later covered by Bad Manners (1989) and the Hurtin' Buckaroos (1997). Michael Richards, as Stanley Spadowski, sang a bit of the theme song while being held hostage by Channel 8's news goons in UHF (he did not know the words to the song he was originally supposed to sing, "Helter Skelter"). Michael Feinstein was the last to record the song in 2002 on his Songs of Evans and Livingston tribute CD. The Little House on the Prairie theme (also by Rose), was heard first in a 1971 episode of Bonanza. The overture for The High Chaparral composed by Harry Sukman can be heard briefly at the start of the 1966 episode "Four Sisters from Boston". On January 29, 2011, Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives performed the song on episode 56 of The Marty Stuart Show. The band often includes the song in their live shows.[30]

text: Set[edit]

text: The opening scene for the first season was shot at Lake Hemet, a reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, and later moved to Lake Tahoe. During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, Mannix, and The Brady Bunch. In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12th season entitled "The Night Virginia City Died", Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires (reflecting a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City). This allowed for a switch to the less expensive Warner studios from September 1970 through January 1973. The script was initially written for the departing David Canary's Candy, but was rewritten for actors Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee) and Bing Russell (Deputy Clem Foster), who rarely appeared together on the show.

text: The program's Nevada set, the Ponderosa Ranch house, was recreated in Incline Village, Nevada, in 1967, and remained a tourist attraction until its sale thirty-seven years later in September 2004.

text: Social issues addressed[edit]

text: Bonanza is uniquely known for having addressed racism, not typically covered on American television during the time period, from a compassionate, humanitarian point-of-view.

text: Bigotry, and specifically anti-semitism,[31] was the subject of the episode "Look to the Stars" (Season 3, Episode 26; original air date March 18, 1962). A bigoted school teacher Mr. Norton (oblivious of his prejudice) routinely expels minority students. When he expels the brilliant Jewish student Albert Michelson, a scientific genius whose experiments on the streets of Virginia City often cause commotion, Ben Cartwright steps in and confronts Norton on his bigotry. Ashamed, the school teacher vows to reform.[32]  A coda to the episode reveals that Michelson went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

text: In the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers" (Season 5, Episode 30; original air date April 26, 1964), the Cartwright family helps the opera singer Bowers, an African American freedman, after he encounters prejudice while in Virginia City to perform. Bowers winds up arrested as a fugitive slave. At the beginning of the episode, Adam is shown to be outraged at the Supreme Court's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (placing the time as 1857), which he discusses with his father.  According to David Dortort, sponsor General Motors was anxious about the episode. As producer, Dortort ensured that the episode re-aired during the summer rerun seasons, though two TV stations in the South refused to air it.[33]

text: In the episode "The Wish," directed by Michael Landon, Hoss protects an African American former slave's family when confronted with racism after the American Civil War. In  "The Fear Merchants," discrimination against Chinese immigrants who attempt to assimilate in American society is addressed.[34][35] "The Lonely Man" presents the controversial interracial marriage between the Cartwrights  longtime Chinese chef (Hop Sing) and a white woman (Missy).

text: A merchandising bonanza[edit]

text: Bonanza has had a highly profitable merchandising history. Currently, Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. The original series has spawned: several successful novelty western/folk albums from 1962–1965; three dozen Dell and Gold Key comic books from 1962 through 1970; a short-lived comic book adaptation by Dutch comics artist Hans G. Kresse between 1965-1966,[36] Jim Beam Whiskey Ponderosa Ranch decanters 1964–1966; a series of "Big-Little" books from 1966–1969; Revel Bonanza model character sets from 1966–1968; a chain of Bonanza and Ponderosa steakhouses from 1963–present; the Lake Tahoe-based "Ponderosa" theme park from 1967–2004; a line of American Character action figures in 1966–1967; Aladdin lunch buckets and thermos bottles in 1966–1968; View Master slide sets in 1964, 1971; Ponderosa tin cups from 1967–2004; a series of Hamilton collector plates in 1989–1990; and most recently, Breyer Fiftieth Anniversary Ponderosa Stable sets, with horses and Cartwright figures in 2009–2011. Fourteen Bonanza novels have been published: Bonanza: A Novel by Noel Loomis (1960); Bonanza: One Man With Courage by Thomas Thompson (1966); Bonanza: Killer Lion by Steve Frazee (1966); Bonanza: Treachery Trail by Harry Whittington (1968); Winter Grass by Dean Owen (1968); Ponderosa Kill by Dean Owen (1968); The Pioneer Spirit by Stephen Calder (1988); The Ponderosa Empire by Stephen Calder (1991); Bonanza: The High Steel Hazard by Stephen Calder (1993); Journey of the Horse by Stephen Calder (1993); The Money Hole by Stephen Calder (1993); The Trail to Timberline by Stephen Calder (1994); Bonanza: Felling of the Sons by Monette L. Bebow-Reinhard (2005), and Bonanza: Mystic Fire by Monette L. Bebow-Reinhard (2009). There is also a collection of Bonanza stories: The Best of Bonanza World: A Book of Favorite Stories, published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2012). Bonanza Gold (2003–2009), a quarterly magazine, featured detailed information about the show, including interviews with guest actors and other production personnel, articles about historical events and people depicted in the series, fan club information, and fan fiction.  Seasons 1-8 (as of 06/2015) are available on DVD, as well as several non-successive public-domain episodes (sans original theme music). The prequel series, The Ponderosa, as well as the three sequel movies (see below), are all available on DVD.

text: Cancelation and resurgence[edit]

text: In the fall of 1972, NBC moved Bonanza to Tuesday nights – where reruns from the 1967–1970 period had aired the previous summer under the title Ponderosa[9] – opposite the All In The Family spinoff show, Maude, a virtual death sentence for the show. The scheduling change, as well as Dan Blocker's death several months earlier, resulted in plunging ratings for the show. David Canary returned to his former role of Candy (to offset Hoss' absence), and a new character named Griff King (played by Tim Matheson) was added to lure younger viewers. Griff, in prison for nearly killing his abusive stepfather, was paroled into Ben's custody and got a job as a ranch hand. Several episodes were built around his character, one that Matheson never had a chance to fully develop before the show's abrupt cancellation in November 1972 (with last episode airing January 16, 1973). Many fans, as well as both Landon and Greene, felt that the Hoss character was essential, as he was a nurturing, empathetic soul who rounded out the all-male cast.

text: For 14 years, the Cartwrights were the premier western family on American television and have been immensely popular on cable networks such as TV Land, INSP, Family Channel, and the Hallmark Channel. The series currently airs on Me-TV, TV Land, INSP, and Encore Westerns. TV Land airs Bonanza from only the first season to the 1969-1970 season. INSP first aired only selected first and second-season episodes of Bonanza and began to air the Bonanza Lost Episodes packages which contains episodes that originally aired from 1965-1973. Family Channel and the Hallmark Channel were two other channels that have also only aired the Bonanza Lost Episodes package. In October 2015, Me-TV additionally began airing the Bonanza Lost Episodes package.[37] As of December 2016, Me-TV returned to airing the original episodes package.  Ever since March 2018 Me-TV has been airing the Lost Episodes, wanting to play the entire series from beginning to end.

text: Television movies[edit]

text: Bonanza was revived for three made-for-television movies featuring the Cartwrights' children: Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988), Bonanza: The Return (1993), and Bonanza: Under Attack (1995). Michael Landon Jr., played Little Joe's son Benji while Gillian Greene, Lorne Greene's daughter, played a love interest. In the second movie, airing on NBC, a one-hour retrospective was done to introduce the drama. It was hosted by both Michael Landon Jr., and Dirk Blocker, who looks and sounds much like his father Dan Blocker. According to the magazine TV Guide, producer Dortort told Blocker he was too old to play the Hoss scion, but gave him the role of an unrelated newspaper reporter. Clips of his appearance were heavily used in advertisements promoting the "second generation" theme, perhaps misleading audiences to believe that Blocker was playing Hoss' heir. Hoss' son Josh was born out of wedlock, as it is explained that Hoss drowned without knowing his fiancėe was pregnant. Such a storyline might have been problematic in the original series. (The Big Valley, however, had a major character in Heath, who was presented as illegitimate. The Gunsmoke movies of the early 1990s employed a similar theme when Marshal Matt Dillon learned he had sired Michael Learned's character's daughter in a short-lived romance. The initial story was first introduced in 1973, when depiction of fornication courted protests, so CBS insisted their hero Matt have the encounter when he had amnesia.)

text: Prequel[edit]

text: In 2001, there was an attempt to revive the Bonanza concept with a prequel, Ponderosa – not to be confused with the 1972 summer reruns under the same title[9] – with a pilot directed by Simon Wincer and filmed in Australia. Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam was a teenager and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling than the original. Bonanza creator David Dortort approved PAX TV (now Ion TV)'s decision to hire Beth Sullivan, formerly of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which some believe gave the series more depth as well as a softer edge. The Hop Sing character is depicted not only as a cook but also a family counselor and herbal healer. The series takes place in Nevada Territory in 1849, which is actually an anachronism.  The Nevada Territory did not split from the Utah Territory until 1861, meaning that until at least the 5th season (the episode "Enter Thomas Bowers" establishes that year as 1857), Bonanza is also set in what in real life would have been Utah Territory.

text: Home media[edit]

text: Several early episodes have fallen into the public domain. These episodes have been released by several companies in different configurations, with substandard picture and sound quality, edited, and by legal necessity with the copyright-protected Evans-Livingston theme song replaced with generic western music.

text: In 1973, NBC licensed the distribution rights to the series, along with the rest of its pre-1973 library, to National Telefilm Associates, which changed its name to Republic Pictures in 1986. Republic would become part of the Spelling Entertainment organization in 1994 through Worldvision Enterprises. Select episodes ("The Best of Bonanza") were officially released in North America in 2003 on DVD through then-Republic video licensee Artisan Entertainment (which was later purchased by Lionsgate Home Entertainment). Republic (through CBS Television Distribution, which holds the television side of Republic's holdings) still retains the syndication distribution rights to the series. CBS Home Entertainment (under Paramount Home Media Distribution) is the official home video rights distributor at present.

text: Starting in September 2009, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has to date released the first eight seasons on DVD in Region 1.  All episodes have been digitally remastered from original 35mm film elements to yield the best picture and sound quality possible with current technology. CBSHE has released each season in two-volume sets (available together and separately). Each and every set contains exclusive multiple and rare bonus features, more than any other vintage long-running television series released on DVD. Classic series collections usually have bonus features included with the first season release only, if at all.

text: In Region 2, AL!VE AG released the first seven seasons on DVD in Germany between 2008–2010.  These releases are now out of print as AL!VE has lost the rights.  In 2011, StudioCanal acquired the rights to the series and have begun re-releasing it on DVD, and all seasons have now been released but have not been remastered.

text: Episodes of the series have also been officially released as part-works on DVD in France and the United Kingdom.

text: Bonanza "the official first season" was released in Scandinavia during 2010. The first season is released in 4 volumes. The first two volumes were released on October 20, 2010, and the second two volumes on April 27, 2011.

text:
Region 1

DVD name

Ep #

Release date

The Official 1st Season, Vol. 1

16

September 15, 2009[38]

The Official 1st Season, Vol. 2

16

September 15, 2009

The Official 2nd Season, Vol. 1

18

December 7, 2010[39]

The Official 2nd Season, Vol. 2

16

October 11, 2011[40]

The Official 3rd Season, Vol. 1

18

July 17, 2012

The Official 3rd Season, Vol. 2

16

July 17, 2012

The Official 4th Season, Vol. 1

18

October 2, 2012

The Official 4th Season, Vol. 2

16

October 2, 2012

The Official 5th Season, Vol. 1

18

February 12, 2013

The Official 5th Season, Vol. 2

16

February 12, 2013

The Official 6th Season, Vol. 1

18

July 9, 2013

The Official 6th Season, Vol. 2

16

July 9, 2013

The Official 7th Season, Vol. 1

17

September 2, 2014

The Official 7th Season, Vol. 2

16

September 2, 2014

The Official 8th Season, Vol. 1

17

June 2, 2015

The Official 8th Season, Vol. 2

17

June 2, 2015

Region 2

Season

Release dates

Germany

Scandinavia

Season 1

December 8, 2011

December 20, 2010April 27, 2011

Season 2

February 16, 2012

No release of seasons 2-14

Season 3

April 19, 2012

Season 4

June 21, 2012

Season 5

August 23, 2012

Season 6

October 18, 2012

Season 7

November 1, 2012

Seasons 1–7

December 6, 2012

Season 8

January 24, 2013[41]

Season 9

February 21, 2013[42]

Season 10

April 18, 2013[43]

Season 11

June 6, 2013

Season 12

August 1, 2013

Season 13

October 2, 2013

Season 14

November 21, 2013

Seasons 8-14

December 5, 2013

Region 4

DVD name

Ep #

Release date

Season 1

32

November 2, 2011

Season 2

34

February 8, 2012

Season 3

34

May 9, 2012

Season 4

34

October 3, 2012

Season 5

34

January 15, 2014

Season 6

34

February 10, 2016

Season 7

33

May 4, 2016

text: Legacy[edit]

text:
Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) on an elephant.The film Twin Town alludes to, or even parodies Bonanza. Some of the central characters are members of a Cartwright family, and live in a home called Ponderosa.[44]
The 1969 German school comedy Hurra, die Schule brennt! features its co-star Peter Alexander wearing a duplicate of Ben Cartwright's outfit and singing a cover version of the Bonanza theme at a school play originally meant to be a dramatization of Schiller's William Tell.
In American Desperado, co-authored by Jon Roberts (né John Riccobono) and award-winning journalist/author Evan Wright, Roberts shares in Chapter 3 that he missed his "Sea Hunt and Bonanza, [his] favorite TV shows", when his mother sent him to Palermo to live with his father, Nat Riccobono. (Roberts confides in the book that Riccobono – a mobster and illegal alien - had been deported to Sicily following the Apalachin Meeting.)  After returning to the United States ("after a few weeks"), Roberts found that, "Watching Bonanza on TV was one thing I had in common with normal kids. [...] But when I listened to how other people talked about Bonanza, I was amazed. [...] My way of seeing it was different.  To me the Cartwrights had the might and power, and they used it to take over all that land on their Ponderosa ranch. [...] From the way I saw it, the Cartwrights were the same as my father and uncles in the Mafia. They understood force."  Roberts further discloses that, upon his return to the United States: "Because of all the stories in the news about my family, Riccobono was a bad name.  My mother told me I had to change my last name.  I changed my name to John Pernell Roberts, after Pernell Roberts, who played the oldest son on Bonanza. I liked him best because he wore black.  His hat, his vest, his gun belt were all black.  He was the top enforcer for the family. He was the kind of guy I wanted to be. I wanted to steal my own Ponderosa when I grew up."[45]  Roberts repeats this explanation for his name change in other media, as well, such as the documentary Cocaine Cowboys.
On the first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, episode "Homo Homimi Lupus", Detective Robert Goren is able to catch and arrest Simon Matic, a former Serbian soldier wanted for extortion and rape by calling Matic's cellphone after following him into a crowded restaurant. His victim had told Goren that his ringtone was the theme to Bonanza. Matic also goes by the name of "Little Joe."[46]
The couch gag for an episode of The Simpsons, titled "We're on the Road to D'ohwhere", is a parody of the show's title sequence featuring a map of Springfield burning to reveal the Simpson family riding toward the camera.
In the TV series The Golden Girls, an episode titled "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy", Blanche (Rue McClanahan) gives her former nanny, Viola Watkins, a music box and she opens it and the Bonanza theme song plays, to which Blanche says "The Theme from Bonanza".
In the TV series Blossom's episode "The Departure", Joey (Joey Lawrence) asks if Little Joe, Hoss, and Hop Sing have their own islands.
Some resources suggest that Ben Cartwright was the basis for Jeff Tracy and that the Tracy family as a whole was based on the Cartwrights in Gerry Anderson’s popular Supermarionation series, Thunderbirds.
In the TV Series Maverick episode "Three Queens Full" Bart (Jack Kelly) is blackmailed by Joe Wheelwright (Jim Backus), owner of the Subrosa ranch, into escorting mail order brides for Wheelwright's three sons Aaron, Moose and Small Paul[47].
The German Western comedy Der Schuh des Manitu borrows the name of the Ponderosa Ranch for a beauty ranch named "Puderosa" (engl.: "Powderosa").