According to David Dortort, Michael Landon grew difficult during the last five seasons of the show: "Nearly every line, every scene, every set up, everything would halt for endless story conferences on the set, it got increasingly bitter toward the end."
During the filming of one episode at Paramount Studios, Lorne Greene was required to jump off a ship, into a water tank (known as the "B Tank"). Michael Landon recalled that when Greene did the stunt, he jumped into the water feet first and went completely under, but his hair piece came off and floated on the surface. Landon and co-star Dan Blocker watched to see what would happen next. After a minute, Greene's hand shot up out of the water, grabbed the hairpiece, and pulled it down. Greene emerged from the water tank, wearing his hairpiece slightly askew. He walked nonchalantly past the snickering crew, and went into his trailer without saying a word.
Dan Blocker owned a chain of restaurants called "Bonanza." They were steakhouses similar to the "Golden Corral" chain. When the ownership later changed, all of the restaurants were later renamed "Ponderosa."
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