Catch as Catch Can

This Bonanza story has all the regulars going to a one horse town to sell some hides to the town's leading citizen who Lorne Greene did business with some years back. When they get there however all kinds of bad luck happens to the Hoss, Little Joe, and Candy.

This is all no accident, the worst is that it's all around town that the Cartwrights are broke. A rumor started by Paul Richards the guy who was going to buy the hidea.

That's the biggest problem with the story. Even in this one horse town I think if the Ponderosa went belly up there might have been news about that from other than Richards's gossip mongering. Makes it all a tad unreal.

Still Richards delivers a nice performance and Slim Pickens has a fine part as a hick sheriff who turns out to be a lot smarter than everyone thought.

All Bonanza episodes are good. This one is a bit different, as it seems a whole town is out to frame the Cartwrights, and the mystery continues. Ben, Joe, Hoss, and Candy arrive in a small town to sell a wagon-load of hides when a rumor starts that they are destitute. Candy is framed as a card cheat, Little Joe as a pickpocket, Hoss as a drunk. The telegraph lines are down and they just can't get a break. But Why? the feller who promised to buy the hides cuts his price in half, the brands on the hides show they were stolen, little Joe has to eat muskrat stew while in jail, Hoss can't enjoy his sarsaparilla, Candy is sent for help, but will he get back in time? Is the sheriff (Slim Pickens) in on their troubles? It doesn't look good for the boys.

I love Bonanza, but the plot for this episode was too ridiculous to believe. The execution of the set up would be impossible to pull off, remember, con the entire Cartwright family at one time. Not hardly. This is the wisest, most successful, and experienced family of ranchers and business men the west has ever known. Candy, Hoss, and Joe were all systematically set up without the knowledge of knowing what was happening. Bonanza is my 2nd favorite western, 2nd only to Gunsmoke, but this episode was farfetched and hard to watch. I only stayed with it because I love watching the characters. It was hard to be negative, but it's how I saw it.

This episode shows that even the best people can be slandered, vilified, and have their lives destroyed by corrupt people sewing misinformation, planting counterfeit goods, and other false measures to sway a public opinion and steal people's livelihood. Very realistic and very prophetic. It has been a real plot since the beginning of humanity and it continues to this day. It has been parodied in movies like Canadian Bacon where the whole Canadian nation was vilified. It is how elections at all levels are won these days. It is how stocks are traded and corporations rise and fall. It is a scary reality that this episode shows in its purest and most open and made easy for the viewer to understand. I always liked Bonanza for how the Cartwrights where above reproach. They were portrayed as a pure and truthful family with a wealth earned by hard work and honesty. This episode personifies that quality the most. A corrupt city with corruptible officials and corruptible citizens tries to destroy the Cartwrights by lies in order for one man to make a profit by devaluing someone else. A real life lesson that needs to be updated for the clueless people of this generation over 50 years later.