Season 13 on Bonanza premiered on September 19, 1971 on NBC and ended on April 2, 1972. This season started with the episode The Grand Swing and ended with One Ace Too Many.
Episodes[]
# | Image | Title | Airdate | |
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | The Grand Swing | September 19, 1971 | ||
Against Ben's orders, Jamie drives a supply wagon on a route he's not supposed to; he loses control and wrecks the wagon. Jamie escapes uninjured but one of the horses is so badly hurt it has to be shot. To teach Jamie a lesson in responsibility, Ben decides to take his adopted son on an extended tour of the Ponderosa... | ||||
02 | Fallen Woman | September 26, 1971 | ||
An alcoholic woman lashes out at Hoss after his testimony sends her husband to prison. She gets back at him by forcing Hoss to take custody of her young son, Petey. Hoss must decide whether to ask the court to adopt him, or help the mother deal with her alcoholism. | ||||
03 | Bushwhacked | October 3, 1971 | ||
Two ranchers find a seriously wounded Little Joe in the Nevada desert. As he struggles for life, Joe mumbles incoherently about his surrealistic nightmares about a teepee and a wagon wheel. Ben and Hoss are left to decipher what Joe is talking about and determine what happened. | ||||
04 | Rock-a-Bye, Hoss | October 10, 1971 | ||
A "beautiful baby" contest that Hoss is judging quickly turns into a circus, thanks to the fortune-hunting parents who are determined to win at all costs. | ||||
05 | The Prisoners | October 17, 1971 | ||
Little Joe helps an old-time sheriff escort cunning outlaw Hank Simmons to jail. The crafty Simmons kills the sheriff and injures Joe, but Joe turns out to always be one step ahead of Simmons. | ||||
06 | Cassie | October 24, 1971 | ||
Ben and a pregnant woman are held hostage by a gang of robbers, who are plotting a stagecoach robbery and are determined to prevent interference by anyone with the name Cartwright. | ||||
07 | Don't Cry, My Son | October 31, 1971 | ||
Traumatized by the death of her baby, Ruth Sloan walks out on her husband, an overworked doctor. These two events are more than Dr. Sloan can handle; he snaps and takes the newborn of one of his patients, thinking it his his own child. | ||||
08 | Face of Fear | November 14, 1971 | ||
Jamie's girlfriend, Neta Thatcher, witnesses a drifter named Griff Bannon rob and kill a man at a roadside camp. Bannon - who assumes his victim's identity and inherits his fortune - is aware that Neta has witnessed the crime and begins stalking her. Neta is terrified to tell anyone about the crime she witnessed. | ||||
09 | Blind Hunch | November 21, 1971 | ||
Will Hewitt is a man with a crime to solve. Blinded in the final battle of the Civil War, he gets Jamie's assistance in tracking down the man who killed his brother. | ||||
10 | The Iron Butterfly | November 28, 1971 | ||
Vengeful Sen. Carson pins the blame on Hoss when his son is killed by his ex-girlfriend. The Cartwrights do all they can to stop Carson from destroying the Ponderosa. | ||||
11 | The Rattlesnake Brigade | December 5, 1971 | ||
A prison wagon full of murderous criminals stops in Virginia City. Led by Doyle, they escape and take Jamie and three other teenagers hostage. Doyle and his cronies lock them in a remote cabin while they demand $50,000 of the townspeople for the hostages' safe return. | ||||
12 | Easy Come, Easy Go | December 12, 1971 | ||
In the third episode featuring the Calhouns, Luke is bankrupted after a stock investment gone bad, so he and his daughter, Meena, move to the Ponderosa until he can get back on his feet. Without Ben's permission, Luke turns the Ponderosa into a casino, with lap dances and gambling all over the place. Meanwhile, Meena continues her frantic search for a husband, where she left off in season eleven's "Meena". | ||||
13 | A Home for Jamie | December 19, 1971 | ||
Ben begins the process to adopt Jamie as his son, but the process is complicated when Jamie's maternal grandfather, Paris Callahan, comes forward wanting custody. Ben must bear the heartbreaking news to Callahan that Jamie has bonded with the Cartwright family. | ||||
14 | Warbonnet | December 26, 1971 | ||
Joe is caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between an aging Native American chief and the man who stole the Indian's warbonnet years ago as a saloon decoration. | ||||
15 | A Lonely Man | January 2, 1972 | ||
While on a vacation prospecting for gold, Hop Sing meets a shy, sheltered woman who's run away from her parents. The two fall in love and want to marry, but learn the law prohibits interracial marriage; when in Virginia City to meet with a judge, the townspeople display their bigotry. | ||||
16 | Second Sight | January 9, 1972 | ||
A woman is blessed with the gift of "second sight", or clairvoyance. Jamie is missing and the Cartwrights would like Judith to use her talent to locate him. Her fiance, a minister, objects to her using her skills. | ||||
17 | The Saddle Stiff | January 16, 1972 | ||
Ben's decision to let a ranch hand go for incompetence gets the old man riled up. Cactus Murphy challenges the Cartwright patriarch to do the work he usually does in a week, and without using his status to get it accomplished. Ben accepts the challenge and goes to work incognito on the Ponderosa. | ||||
18 | Frenzy | January 30, 1972 | ||
Ben's friendship with the Kosovos, a young immigrant family from Serbia, puts him in danger when family patriarch Nick suffers a psychotic snap, goes on a rampage and barricades them in their home. Ben does all he can to reason with Nick, whose wife and son have become deathly afraid of him in the process - especially since the consequences could be deadly if Ben says the wrong thing. | ||||
19 | Customs of the Country | February 16, 1972 | ||
In a comic episode, Joe and Hoss visit the small Mexican town of Agua Santos where they enforce some peculiar laws. Even the most mundane things get you tossed in jail, as the Cartwrights soon discover. Hoss wants to get out of jail as quickly as possible, but Joe's in no hurry. He's being spoiled by a bevy of senoritas who cater to his every whim. | ||||
20 | Shanklin | February 13, 1972 | ||
A former confederate soldier and his gang demand $25,000 from Ben and shoots Hoss, leaving him gravely injured. In an twist of fate, Hoss' life rests in the hands of the soldier who shot him. | ||||
21 | Search in Limbo | February 20, 1972 | ||
Ben closes a land transaction with Sid Langley, a man he despises because of his shady business practices. After being overcome with a terrific headache, Ben awakens and realizes he remembers nothing of the past day. During that time, Langley was shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Unsure if he was the gunman, Ben tries to reconstruct the activities of the past day to prove his innocence. | ||||
22 | He Was Only Seven | March 5, 1972 | ||
A 7-year-old boy is killed when he walks into the bank during a robbery by the ruthless Springer gang. Joshua, the boy's angry, grieving, and wheelchair-bound grandfather, wants revenge. Joe, Jamie, and Joshua head towards Mexico to track down Springer. | ||||
23 | The Younger Brothers' Younger Brother | March 12, 1972 | ||
Hoss - who is on a delivery run for the Ponderosa - is mistaken as a member of the bumbling Younger Brothers gang. Ben and Joe are eventually able to convince the authorities to let Hoss go, but not after a series of misunderstandings wherein they too are involved with the Youngers' gang. | ||||
24 | A Place to Hide | March 19, 1972 | ||
The Cartwrights are asked to act as intermediaries when fugitive Confederate Col. Cody Ransom wants to turn himself in. Union Maj. Donahue has been pursing Ransom for many years after the war ended and has refused to accept anybody's terms of surrender especially since Donahue considers capturing Ransom a personal matter. | ||||
25 | A Visit to Upright | March 26, 1972 | ||
Ben's ability to close a livestock contract with a widow who's part of the temperance movement hinges on the sale of a dilapidated saloon in Upright. The Cartwright "boys" decide to hold on to the dive after the town drunk insists there's a fortune hidden somewhere in the building. | ||||
26 | One Ace Too Many | April 2, 1972 | ||
While Ben's away in Carson City, his doppelganger, crafty and crooked Bradley Meredith, returns to assume his identity. His scheme to get his hands on the Cartwright's properties involves pretending "Ben" is seriously ill and selling off the Ponderosa a piece at a time. |
Trivia[]
- This was the last season to star Dan Blocker before his death.
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