116 Fun Facts About Bonanza

Bonanza, the Western about the Cartwright family, ran from 1959 to 1973 on which US network?

NBC aired Bonanza for all 14 seasons, from September 1959 to January 1973, making it the network's longest-running Western.

What is the name of the Cartwright family ranch?

The Ponderosa takes its name from the ponderosa pine, the tall yellow pine common across the mountain West and the Sierra Nevada.

Who played patriarch Ben Cartwright?

Lorne Greene. Fourteen seasons as Ben Cartwright made him a household name.

The Cartwrights' ranch in Bonanza sat on the shore of which body of water?

Lake Tahoe. The setting became so famous that a replica of the Cartwright ranch house, built on the lake's Nevada shore, drew tourists for decades from 1968.

What was Hoss Cartwright's real first name?

Eric was his given name, after his mother Inger's father; she offered 'Hoss' as a mountain-country name for a big, friendly man, and the nickname is the one that stuck.

How many sons did Ben Cartwright have when Bonanza began in 1959?

Three sons rode with Ben at the start, each by a different wife; he had been widowed three times before the series began.

Which Cartwright son was the architect who built the ranch house?

Adam was the college-trained architect; in 1964 the writers gave him a fiancée so he could be married off if his actor quit, but fans protested and she left with his cousin instead.

Who played the family's cook, Hop Sing?

Victor Sen Yung played Hop Sing; the cook won so many fans that creator David Dortort wrote him the featured part in episodes such as 'Mark of Guilt' and 'The Lonely Man'.

Where does Bonanza's title come from?

Miners' slang for a rich vein of silver ore gave the show its title, a nod to the 1859 Comstock Lode strike beneath the Cartwrights' nearest town.

How many episodes of Bonanza were made?

Bonanza made 431 episodes across 14 seasons between 1959 and 1973, second only to one other network Western in longevity.

Which Western is the only one that ran longer than Bonanza on American network TV?

Gunsmoke ran 20 seasons on CBS, though it nearly stopped at twelve: the network planned to cancel it in 1967 and backed down after an outcry from viewers.

Which set of ancestries was given to the mothers of Ben Cartwright's sons?

English, Swedish and French Creole: Marie, Little Joe's Creole mother, died when her horse threw her, the last of the losses that left Ben raising his sons alone.

Why did the network keep the expensive Bonanza when executives considered cancelling it?

It sold RCA color TV sets: RCA owned the network, so a Western filmed in color, at extra cost, was worth keeping as a showcase for what the new sets could do.

Which sponsor took over when Bonanza moved to Sunday nights for its third season?

Chevrolet came aboard when Bonanza took over The Dinah Shore Chevy Show's Sunday 9 pm slot in 1961, and the move lifted the Western to No. 2 in the ratings.

Which sitcom was Bonanza scheduled against in the fall of 1972, hastening its cancellation?

Maude, the new CBS hit, was Bonanza's Tuesday-night opponent in fall 1972; the move from Sunday plus the loss of Dan Blocker sent ratings plunging, and the last episode aired in January 1973.

What was the name of Ben Cartwright's horse on Bonanza?

Buck was Ben's buckskin; Little Joe's paint horse was called Cochise after the Apache chief, while Hoss rode the big dark-brown Chub.

Which songwriting duo behind 'Que Sera, Sera' also wrote Bonanza's theme song?

Jay Livingston and Ray Evans wrote it between film songs that won them three Oscars; they also wrote the Mister Ed theme, which Livingston ended up singing himself.

What happened to the Bonanza pilot's closing scene of the Cartwrights singing?

It was cut before broadcast as too campy; the Cartwrights ride home whooping instead, and for the rest of its run the series used the tune only as an instrumental.

Whose orchestra took an instrumental Bonanza theme to No. 19 on the Hot 100 in 1961?

Al Caiola's guitar-led orchestra took an instrumental 'Bonanza' to No. 19 on the Hot 100 in 1961, the same year his 'The Magnificent Seven' theme also charted.

Which country star recorded a version of the Bonanza theme with rewritten lyrics for a 1962 single?

Johnny Cash wrote new words with his friend Johnny Western, but 'Bonanza!' only grazed the Hot 100 at No. 94, and the series never used it.

Ben Cartwright's actor had a 1964 spoken-word number one about which real Old West outlaw?

Johnny Ringo was the outlaw the actor said 'Ringo' was about, though its tale of a gunman sparing the lawman who once saved his life strays far from the real man's story; it topped the Hot 100 in December 1964.

In which country was Ben Cartwright's actor born?

Canada: he was born in Ottawa in 1915, and as a CBC radio newsreader during the war his grim delivery earned him the nickname 'The Voice of Doom'.

Ben Cartwright's actor later played which role in the original Battlestar Galactica?

Commander Adama led the last human survivors in a ragtag fleet hunting for Earth with his son Apollo among his pilots, so the actor was once again a father leading his sons.

Which sport did Dan Blocker star in at Sul Ross State?

Football: Dan Blocker was a star player at Sul Ross State, but a small part in a campus play there turned him toward acting, and he left in 1950 with a drama degree.

In which war did Dan Blocker serve as an infantry sergeant, earning a Purple Heart?

Korean War: he was drafted straight after a summer of stock theatre in Boston, fought with the 45th Infantry Division and was wounded in combat.

Which restaurant chain did Dan Blocker part-own and promote in character as Hoss?

Bonanza Steakhouse began in 1963 with Dan Blocker as part-owner and pitchman; decades later one company bought both it and its closest rival.

What caused Dan Blocker's death in May 1972?

A pulmonary embolism after gallbladder surgery killed Dan Blocker at 43; Robert Altman had just cast him in The Long Goodbye and dedicated the film to him.

In the 1972 Bonanza episode 'Forever', what happens to Alice soon after she marries Little Joe?

She is murdered by men collecting her brother's gambling debts; Little Joe's actor had written the love story for Hoss and reworked it for Joe after Dan Blocker died.

Little Joe's actor was born under what name?

Eugene Maurice Orowitz felt the name would never suit an actor, so once in Hollywood he went through the phone book and picked a new one.

Which 1957 horror film made Little Joe's actor a teen sensation before Bonanza?

I Was a Teenage Werewolf became one of American International's biggest hits, and five months later the studio had I Was a Teenage Frankenstein in cinemas to repeat the trick.

Which series did the actor playing Joe Cartwright star in the year after Bonanza ended?

Little House on the Prairie began in 1974; having learned to write and direct on Bonanza, Little Joe's actor now did both while starring and serving as executive producer.

Little Joe's 1972 two-hour wedding episode was originally written with which character as the groom?

Hoss was the intended groom; Little Joe's actor rewrote his own 'Forever' script after Dan Blocker died in May 1972, giving the wedding to Joe instead.

Why did Pernell Roberts quit Bonanza in 1965, at the height of its success?

He disliked the scripts, complaining that a man in his thirties still had to ask his father's permission for everything; he served out his six-year contract and went back to the stage.

Which later series gave Pernell Roberts its title role as a chief surgeon?

Trapper John, M.D. was spun off from M*A*S*H; the actor who had quit Bonanza scorning series television stayed with this one for all seven seasons.

How did Bonanza explain Adam's absence after Pernell Roberts left?

He had 'moved away' was all the show offered at first; later episodes variously put him at sea, in Europe or on the East Coast.

Which 1950s TV action hero joined Bonanza in 1964 as Ben's nephew Will Cartwright?

Guy Williams, Disney's TV Zorro, played Will Cartwright in five 1964 episodes; slated as a permanent lead, he was written out when Roberts agreed to stay another year.

Which character became the Cartwrights' ranch foreman when he joined Bonanza in 1967?

Candy Canaday was David Canary's ranch foreman; producer David Dortort cast him after seeing him in the 1967 Paul Newman Western Hombre.

David Canary later won five Daytime Emmys for playing Adam Chandler on which soap opera?

All My Children hired him as Adam Chandler at the end of 1983; a year later he also became Adam's meek twin Stuart, whom viewers at first took for Adam himself.

Red-haired orphan Jamie Hunter, adopted by Ben in the final seasons, was played by which child actor?

Mitch Vogel joined in 1970 as Jamie, the son of a travelling rainmaker; after his father's death the boy turns up trying to end a drought himself, and Ben gives him a home.

Which future Animal House star played parolee Griff King in Bonanza's final season?

Tim Matheson's Griff King was paroled into Ben's custody in a bid for younger viewers, but the series was cancelled within months, before the character had a chance to develop.

Who played Sheriff Roy Coffee?

Ray Teal had already played dozens of screen sheriffs, among them the corrupt one in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole, when Bonanza cast him as the honest Roy Coffee in 1960.

The actor who played Deputy Clem Foster was the father of which Hollywood star?

Kurt Russell is the son of Bing Russell, who played Deputy Clem; Bing later played Vernon Presley opposite Kurt's Elvis in the 1979 TV film.

During what 1972 incident was Hop Sing's actor shot in the back?

An airliner hijacking: he was a passenger on a Pacific Southwest flight seized by two gunmen and was hit when FBI agents stormed the plane; he survived and went back to work.

Hop Sing's actor, a skilled chef, published which book in 1974?

The Great Wok Cookbook, published in 1974, came from a genuine skill: Hop Sing's actor was an accomplished cook who gave Chinese cooking demonstrations.

Which studio backlot held Bonanza's original town set from 1959 to 1970?

Paramount's Western street housed the town set until 1970, when the producers moved to the cheaper Warner Bros. lot; the same street had doubled as towns on Have Gun – Will Travel.

How did Bonanza's 1970 season premiere clear the way for a move to a cheaper studio?

Fires destroyed the town, set night after night by the deputy's fire-obsessed fiancée; the story was written so that a rebuilt street on a new backlot needed no other explanation.

Why did Bonanza's Cartwrights wear the same clothes in nearly every episode?

So stock footage could be reused: with each outfit fixed from the third season, editors could splice in old riding shots, and stunt doubles needed only one matching wardrobe.

Which original Bonanza star was the only one who never wore a hairpiece on screen?

Michael Landon alone kept his own hair; Greene and Roberts wore hairpieces from the start, Roberts so reluctantly that he left his off for rehearsals, and Blocker joined them in 1968.

In which Nevada community was the Bonanza theme park located?

Incline Village got the park because, by their own account, tourists kept arriving at Bill and Joyce Anderson's ranch there asking where the Cartwrights lived.

How many Bonanza episodes were actually filmed at the Nevada theme park?

Shuttling cast and crew to Lake Tahoe every week proved too expensive, so most ranch scenes were shot on a Paramount sound stage.

Bonanza creator David Dortort also created which other Western, which ran from 1967 to 1971?

The High Chaparral, set in Arizona Territory, ran from 1967 to 1971 on the same network; Dortort's attention shifted to it, leaving Bonanza largely to his associates in its last years.

What was the first of the three reunion TV movies, aired in 1988?

Bonanza: The Next Generation was meant to bring the original Ben back, but his actor died shortly before filming, so the ranch passed to Ben's brother Aaron, played by John Ireland.

In the 1993 film Bonanza: The Return, Adam is revealed to have emigrated to which country?

Australia: Adam never appears in the film; his son A.C. arrives at the ranch in his place, bringing word that his father has prospered there.

Who played Ben Cartwright in the 2001 prequel series about the young Cartwrights?

Daniel Hugh Kelly, earlier of Hardcastle and McCormick, played a younger Ben Cartwright in the 2001 PAX prequel, which followed the family's first years in Nevada.

Which Star Trek actor played outlaw Frank James in the 1995 movie Bonanza: Under Attack?

Leonard Nimoy's Frank James, by then a reformed outlaw, takes shelter on the Cartwright ranch, and a renegade Pinkerton detective and his gang descend on it to get him.

Which future Nobel physicist appears as an expelled Jewish schoolboy in the Bonanza episode 'Look to the Stars'?

Albert Michelson really did spend part of his boyhood in the Comstock boomtown; in the episode the Cartwrights take on the schoolmaster who expelled him and stood between him and the Naval Academy.

Where was Hoss born, according to the family backstory?

On a wagon train in Nebraska: he was born during the family's trek west, and his mother Inger was killed by an arrow at Ash Hollow soon afterward.

What did Ben Cartwright do for a living before heading west?

He was a seaman: Ben sailed under Captain Abel Stoddard and married the captain's daughter Elizabeth, who died soon after giving birth to their son.

Before Bonanza, Dan Blocker played an alien goon opposite which comedy team in a 1957 short?

The Three Stooges met him in Outer Space Jitters, where the future Hoss lumbered about as a creature from another planet and was billed as 'Don Blocker'.

The Cartwrights' adventures on Bonanza unfold during and just after which American war?

The Civil War: the stories run from about 1861 to 1867, as Nevada went from new territory to state; before 1861 the Cartwrights' land would really have lain in Utah Territory.

Who played Little Joe's son Benj in the reunion TV movies?

Michael Landon Jr. played Benj in all three films; in the first, the daughter of Ben's actor played his love interest, so two stars' children shared the screen.

Which courtroom drama beat Bonanza in its Saturday-night slot during its first two seasons?

Perry Mason outdrew Bonanza on Saturday nights for two seasons; only when the Western moved to Sundays in 1961 did it jump to No. 2 in the ratings.

In Bonanza's 'Enter Thomas Bowers', what is the profession of the freedman a ladies' cultural society invites to town?

Opera singer: Thomas Bowers, modelled on a real Philadelphia singer and played by William Marshall, is jailed as a runaway slave before the Cartwrights clear him.

What happened to Nevada's Bonanza theme park in 2004?

It was sold and closed: software billionaire David Duffield bought the land and shut the park that September; it had outlived the series by three decades, and most of the original cast.

At which California reservoir was the opening scene for the first season shot?

The reservoir sits in California's San Jacinto Mountains, where extra horses were also rented from stables in Idyllwild.

In which state was Dan Blocker born and raised?

Texas: born in De Kalb, he taught school in Sonora before heading to California for more graduate study, where acting jobs soon overtook the classroom.

Which object is seen ablaze in Bonanza's opening titles, just as the Cartwrights appear on horseback?

A map of the ranch blazes on screen as the theme begins, and autographed copies of it were sold as souvenirs at the Nevada theme park for decades.

In a 1963 comic episode of Bonanza, Hoss Cartwright brings home a strongbox of gold that he says belongs to whom?

Leprechauns get the credit, and once a newly arrived Irish professor confirms that the creatures are real, the whole town goes out searching for them.

Which rival Western spoofed Bonanza with rancher Joe Wheelwright of the Subrosa and sons Aaron, Moose and Small Paul?

Maverick did it in the episode Three Queens Full, where Jim Backus plays Wheelwright and blackmails gambler Bart into escorting mail-order brides for the three sons.

Howard Duff guest-starred on early Bonanza as which future literary giant, then a crusading young journalist out West?

Mark Twain appears under his birth name, Samuel Clemens, as a satirical newspaperman in an episode titled Enter Mark Twain.

Which young performer, later a Las Vegas institution, acted and sang on Bonanza as Andy, a baby-faced ranch hand?

Wayne Newton played Andy Walker in two episodes, and it was during the filming of Bonanza that he first met Elvis Presley, who became a good friend.

Dirk Blocker, son of Bonanza's Hoss actor, later spent years as Detective Hitchcock on which police sitcom?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine kept him busy from 2013 to 2021, and he also turned up in two Bonanza reunion movies, cast as a newspaper reporter instead of a Cartwright.

Which Golden Girls star co-hosted Macy's Thanksgiving parade for nearly a decade with Bonanza's Ben Cartwright actor?

Betty White was his parade partner for nearly a decade. In later years he turned to wildlife television, hosting and narrating the nature series New Wilderness.

David Rose, who scored Bonanza's episodes and won an Emmy for it, also wrote which chart-topping 1962 instrumental?

The Stripper was written in 1958 for a television special saluting burlesque and only became a hit four years later. Rose's Emmy for Bonanza followed in 1971.

The Cartwright family ranch on Bonanza takes its name from a species of which tree, common across the American West?

Pine trees named the Ponderosa: producer David Dortort said he was inspired by the many ponderosa pines that grow at the ranch's fictional site.

In which later series did Bonanza's Little Joe actor play Jonathan Smith, an angel on probation sent to help people?

Highway to Heaven was the only show he ever owned outright, and he created it to keep a promise he made while his daughter lay in a coma.

The songwriters behind Bonanza's theme won an Oscar for which song from Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much?

Que Sera, Sera brought the pair the third of their Best Song Oscars, and they also wrote the theme tune for the sitcom Mister Ed.

The daughter of Bonanza's Ben Cartwright actor, seen in a reunion movie, married which horror director in 1993?

Sam Raimi, maker of The Evil Dead and later the Spider-Man trilogy, married her in 1993. In the 1988 reunion film she plays the love interest of Little Joe's son.

Bonanza's Ben Cartwright actor spent the 1970s as the television spokesman for which brand of dog food?

Alpo put him in its commercials through the 1970s, and those adverts are one suggested origin of the business phrase about eating your own dog food.

After Bonanza wrote out Ben's nephew Will Cartwright, the actor went on to lead which science fiction series?

Lost in Space cast him as the father of the Robinson family in 1965, after his star billing on Bonanza led nowhere once the eldest son's actor chose to stay another year.

Bonanza's original Western town set, in use until 1970, also turned up in episodes of which family sitcom?

The Brady Bunch borrowed the standing street, as did Mannix and Have Gun, Will Travel, before Bonanza left it for a cheaper studio in its final seasons.

Four years after Bonanza ended, its Ben Cartwright actor played John Reynolds in which landmark television miniseries?

Roots cast him as John Reynolds, the first master of the enslaved Kunta Kinte, a sharp change from the kindly patriarch of the Ponderosa.

Which game show host turned actor to play a man named Mort in the 1960 Bonanza episode 'Denver McKee'?

Bob Barker was already hosting Truth or Consequences when he played Mort, one of the very few times he appeared on screen as anyone but himself.

The actor who played Bonanza parolee Griff King had earlier voiced which animated boy adventurer of the 1960s?

Jonny Quest was a part he recorded as a teenager, and decades later he played Vice President John Hoynes in The West Wing.

Before 1861, the real-life site of Bonanza's Cartwright ranch was officially part of which larger territory?

Utah Territory covered the land until Nevada Territory split away in 1861, which makes the 2001 prequel, set in Nevada Territory in 1849, an anachronism.

Beth Sullivan, who oversaw the 2001 Bonanza prequel about the young Cartwrights, had created which 1990s frontier drama?

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was her creation, and her hiring is credited with giving the prequel a softer edge, with less gunfire and brawling than the original.

Jonathan Harris guest-starred on Bonanza in 1963 as which visiting British novelist, whose arrogance riles the town?

Charles Dickens arrives in the episode A Passion for Justice and is soon embroiled in controversy with the locals.

Which star of The Ten Commandments played entertainer Lotta Crabtree in the very first episode of Bonanza?

Yvonne De Carlo, later Lily in The Munsters, plays a real stage star who is hired to lure Little Joe away so that he can be held for ransom.

Which Robert Altman film is dedicated to Bonanza's Dan Blocker, who died before he could play its Roger Wade?

The Long Goodbye went ahead with Sterling Hayden in the part. Altman had befriended Blocker years earlier while directing episodes of Bonanza.

In the Bonanza reunion movies, Little Joe Cartwright is said to have died fighting in which conflict?

Spanish–American War service is the fate the sequels give him; his son Benj appears in all three films and his daughter Sarah in the later two.

Which future Alien and Top Gun actor played the deranged soldier who stalks Little Joe in Bonanza's final episode?

Tom Skerritt plays Corporal Bill Tanner in The Hunter, an episode both written and directed by the star who played Little Joe.

A first-season Bonanza episode dramatises which real invention by German-born mining engineer Philip Deidesheimer?

Square-set timbering, inspired by honeycombs, braced weak ground with heavy timber cubes. John Beal plays the engineer in the 1959 episode named after him.

Bonanza's creator wrote its pilot script at night while spending his days producing which John Payne Western?

The Restless Gun also gave early work to two future Cartwrights: Little Joe's actor appeared in its pilot and Dan Blocker played several roles across five episodes.

Which actor and civil rights activist guest-starred as a freed slave helped by Hoss in the Bonanza episode 'The Wish'?

Ossie Davis starred in the 1969 episode, which was written and directed by Little Joe's actor and won a Bronze Wrangler at the Western Heritage Awards.

The young actor behind Bonanza's Jamie Hunter earned a Golden Globe nomination for which film of a Faulkner novel?

The Reivers put him opposite Steve McQueen in 1969, the year before he arrived on the Ponderosa as a red-haired orphan.

Four years before Bonanza, Pernell Roberts won a Drama Desk Award off-Broadway in which Shakespeare tragedy?

Macbeth won him the award in 1955, and he went on to play Mercutio and to appear at the American Shakespeare Festival before television came calling.

Before acting, Bonanza's Pernell Roberts played tuba and horn in the band of which branch of the US military?

The Marines had him for two years from 1946, and besides tuba and horn he was also skilled on the sousaphone and percussion.

Stanley Kubrick approached Bonanza's Dan Blocker for a part in which film, only for his agent to reject the script?

Dr. Strangelove missed out when his agent turned the script down, and the part went to Slim Pickens, who made the ride down on the bomb famous.

What was Dan Blocker's profession in Texas and New Mexico before he was cast as Hoss on Bonanza?

Schoolteacher was his trade: he taught high-school drama in Sonora, then sixth grade in Carlsbad, and he held a master's degree in the dramatic arts.

Which track and field event won Bonanza's Little Joe actor a scholarship to the University of Southern California?

Javelin was his event: his 1954 throw was the longest by any American high schooler that year, but torn shoulder ligaments ended his days as a college athlete.

Reading the wartime news on the radio earned Bonanza's future Ben Cartwright which nickname?

The Voice of Doom stuck as his deep, resonant delivery carried ever more distressing war news. He also invented a countdown stopwatch for radio announcers.

David Canary, who joined Bonanza as a ranch foreman, was reputedly a great-great-nephew of which frontierswoman?

Calamity Jane was born Martha Jane Canary, and the actor and his two brothers were said to be her great-great-nephews.

Before Bonanza, the actor who played Hop Sing was known as Jimmy, the number two son of which film detective?

Charlie Chan had him as son Jimmy in eleven films between 1938 and 1942, after Keye Luke, who played the number one son, left the series.

On Bonanza, Hoss Cartwright's nickname is explained as his mother's endearing term for what kind of man?

Big and friendly is the meaning, a nod to his ample girth. His given name, chosen to honour his mother's father, is hardly ever used.

What was the first name of Hoss Cartwright's mother, the second wife Ben married in Illinois on the journey west?

Inger Borgstrom is killed in an attack at the Ash Hollow station on the way west, leaving Ben to carry on to Nevada with two boys.

In Bonanza's backstory, what killed Little Joe Cartwright's mother when the boy was only five years old?

A fall from a horse killed Ben's third wife outside the family home. The 2001 prequel rewrote her death, having her killed in town instead.

On a trip to sell beaver pelts, Ben Cartwright of Bonanza met and married his third wife in which Southern port?

New Orleans was home to his third wife, a widow whose first husband is given three different names across two episodes and a spin-off song.

The Bonanza reunion movies finally explained Hoss Cartwright's absence from the last season: how had he died?

He drowned while trying to save another person's life, a detail given only in the 1988 film. The series itself merely implied that he had died.

From Bonanza's third season on, Little Joe Cartwright wore a corduroy jacket of which shade in nearly every episode?

Green corduroy became his trademark, and the jacket later hung on display beside his brother's suede vest at the Nevada theme park.

TV Guide's 2004 list of the 50 greatest TV dads put Bonanza's Ben Cartwright second, behind which sitcom father?

Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show took first place. Ben, three times a widower and raising sons by each of his late wives, came second.

Jamie Hunter, the young orphan Ben Cartwright adopts on Bonanza, was the son of a travelling what?

Rainmaker was the family trade, and the boy tries it himself during a drought before Ben takes him in and later adopts him.

On Bonanza, Griff King is paroled into Ben Cartwright's custody after nearly killing which abusive relative?

His stepfather was the victim. The character first appears in an episode where Ben inspects the Nevada State Prison and its inmates take him hostage.

During a 1960s contract dispute, Bonanza's David Canary was shortlisted to take over which Star Trek role?

Mr. Spock nearly needed a new actor during the dispute, and the producers' list of possible replacements included Canary, as two of them later revealed in a book.

Which tough-guy film star played the unhinged prospector who enslaves Adam Cartwright in Bonanza's 'The Crucible'?

Lee Marvin plays Peter Kane, who has Adam at his mercy in the desert and works him like a slave in the hope of driving him to murder.

Where did Bonanza's Little Joe actor find the stage name he adopted on a Los Angeles talent agent's advice?

A telephone book supplied the new name while he was working at a gas station across from the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank.

In which state did Bonanza's Ben Cartwright actor build himself a replica of the show's ranch house?

Arizona is home to the Ponderosa II House, which he built in the town of Mesa and which now appears on its register of historic properties.