Bonanza - Season 1

Western chronicling the adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons. When Ben refuses to sell his timber to Troy, he recruits Lotta to kidnap Ben's son.

When antelopes are slaughtered by poachers, the Cartwright's agreement is desecrated and sets events in motion which could start an Indian war.

Hoss falls for an invalid traveling with unscrupulous prospectors who want to mine the Ponderosa.

Wilson assaults two Paiute maidens and points the finger of blame at Adam, threatening a war between the Native Americans and the Californian militia.

The Cartwrights help Virginia City reporter Samuel Langhorne Clemens investigate suspected shady goings-on between a railroad company and a local judge.

Little Joe falls for cynical saloon owner Julia Bulette, despite family objections and warnings from a rival.

Annie asks Adam to help her open a restaurant in her father's honour, but they face stiff competition from an old friend staking a claim to her deeds.

Adam and Hoss put their lives in danger to help German engineer Philip Diedesheimer convince mine owners to adopt his innovative approach to preventing cave-ins.

The story of seasoned con man Henry Comstock comes to light when an old timer stakes a claim on the Cartwright's land; Little Joe romances a Paiute woman.

Ben considers marrying an actress when she comes to town, but his sons have some issues. The woman's former lover creates trouble when he also arrives in town.

Caught in the middle of a longtime family feud over a disputed piece of land, star-crossed lovers Joe Cartwright and Amy Bishop try to convince their stubborn fathers to resolve their differences as tension escalates into violence.

Adam and Little Joe form a posse to seek revenge on the murderers of Vannie Johnson. They become more like a lynching party the longer it takes to catch the killers.

When one of the Morgan brothers is shot and killed by Ben during a bank holdup, they vow revenge. The friends he thought he had in town decide to hide away while a wounded Ben lays up waiting for them to ride into town. 

Adam has a duel with someone who insulted a saloon girl he likes. Ben is concerned that his son is getting involved with a girl who's past hasn't been very rosy. When she is shot and killed in his arms, he is arrested for her murder while the real killer he shot at gets away.

Hoss and Little Joe soon discover that the Shoshone Indian brave who tries to rob their hunting camp is actually a soon-due, pregnant Shoshone woman who refuses to tell them why she left her tribe and appears to be making her way towards Virginia City.

After tangling with bandits on the way to California to buy a prize bull for the Ponderosa, Little Joe fends off a pretty senorita and her jealous fiancé, while Hoss discovers that the bull has been spirited away by a little boy who is convinced that the Cartwrights plan to kill and eat his big bovine friend.

The Cartwrights come to the aid of Leta Malvet when she is ostracized by the community after her father and brother are hanged by a lynch mob for killing two men while trying to rob the stagecoach that they thought carried the Ponderosa's payroll. But Adam is sure that the gang will try again when they find out that the Malvets came up empty-handed and suspects that it's no coincidence when Leta's beau, bad boy Clay Renton, comes back to town. 

Ben tries to uncover the reason gold and silver exporter, Frederick Kyle, has befriended Little Joe before the shadowy businessman's hidden Civil War agenda tears Virginia City, and the Cartwright family, apart. 

On a cattle buying trip to Texas, Hoss and Little Joe are mistaken for a pair of hired killers recruited by a feuding family in their bid to wipe out a rival clan. Their efforts to convince the town otherwise are hindered by the fact that the Cartwrights are dead ringer for the gunfighters in question - Big Jack and Shorty Jim Slade. Written by David Bassler

The Cartwrights come to the aid of a Chinese-American stable hand accused of murder. Opposing them is a manipulative mayoral candidate who wants all "foreigners" to leave Virginia City. 

The Cartwrights try to disprove the validity of a Spanish land grant to stop the De La Cuesta family from seizing part of the Ponderosa and all of the Carson Valley settlers' homestead lands. 

Jeb Drummond is a murderous sheep herder that has Adam taken hostage to try and force Ben to sign over a large section of Ponderosa land to him. 

As is often the case on Bonanza, things are not always as they first seem. Hoss and Adam eventually learn who is the good guy and who is not. When a brutal U.S. Marshal arrests one of the Ponderosa's workers for murder to transport him to Los Angeles for trial, and a doubtful Hoss and Adam come along in the stagecoach, along with a Dr. and his beautiful daughter, to make sure the Marshal doesn't kill him before they get there. The question also arises later of whether the ranch worker is really guilty and dangerous after all. 

Inspector Leduque comes from New Orleans to Virginia City to take Ben Cartwright back for a 20 year murder. When Ben declares publicly that he is withdrawing from the Governor's race, the townsfolk are upset not just about this but Little Joe has also been accused of gunning down Leduque's deputy in cold blood.

Three deserters escaped from an Army stockade to the Ponderosa. When a Captain comes looking for them, Ben realizes what they've had to deal with and promises to let his good friend in charge of that fort know the real truth. 

Ben and Adam are locked in jail, about to be hung for a crime they didn't commit. Joe and Hoss must find out why the witnesses to the alleged crime have perjured themselves before the execution takes place. They receive help from an unexpected source, a drifter called Lassiter who is searching for the men who committed a lynching in Kansas years ago.

When an English couple comes to the Ponderosa on vacation, the beautiful wife slowly makes it clear that she is no longer proud of her great hunter husband, because he has become less of the action man she married and more of a peaceful man, but that could all change when they are kidnapped for ransom along with Adam Cartwright.

The Cartwrights, with Hop Sing, finish a cattle drive in San Francisco. Ben warns the other men of the dangers of the big city. Nevertheless, some of the men are careless and naive. Two of the hired hands disappear, and Ben suspects that the men were shanghaied. With invaluable assistance from several of Hop Sing's cousins, the Cartwrights locate the missing men and break up the racket.

A neighboring rancher, Andy, is good friends with Ben, but his son (Todd) wants to sell their land for mining operations which will spoil the water rights agreement that Andy and Ben made years ago. 

A woman dies. Her husband is in prison, and the sheriff needs someone to look after the boy until the boy's uncle can come to claim him. The Cartwrights begin to take care of the boy at the Ponderosa. When the boy arrives at the ranch, he does not know that his father is in prison. The boy learns the truth about his dad, and news reaches the Ponderosa that the convict has escaped from prison. The Cartwrights deal with the possibility that the boy's father may be coming their way

Little Joe comes upon a gypsy girl. Frightened, she runs and falls becoming unconscious. When she wakes, they discover that she believes she is bewitched and so do her people who banished her. Her birth under a dark star has fostered this belief. Little Joe, smitten, must rescue her from this belief, her people and someone posing as a wolf.

It's a sad day in Virginia City when Farmer Perkins shoots a store clerk down in cold blood right in front of his wife, then is allowed to walk after his trial. But if the Cartwright's have anything to do with it, he'll be rearrested, tried, and hung.