Ponderosa Matador

This has to be probably the most hilarious BONANZA episode ever. And-let's face it-it is almost impossible to keep your eyes off of the beautiful Hill lady who plays well the Mexican senorita whose charm is strongly vied for by the Cartwright sons. In the story the Mexican guests at the Ponderosa are the older Senor Francisco Tenino and his beautiful daughter Dolores Tenino. The Cartwright sons will compete among themselves to win the affection of this lady, and the handsome, educated, and charming Adam who does well by speaking Spanish fluently and serenading her with his guitar, will definitely win her, and will "have her in the palm of his hand," he strongly believes. Or will he? Even the distinguished-looking widower Ben may win her over. In any case, since she is interested in bull-fighting, Hoss and Little Joe try to impress her with their knowledge of the sport, knowledge which does not exist on the part of either one of those two. But since Joe does seem to want to be a matador, Hoss finds a mean, cantankerous bull for his younger brother to fight. A bull-fight is scheduled to take place in Virginia City later. But how will Joe fare? Again, with which of these three will Dolores be taken? There will be no spoilers found here; it is enough to say that this episode is a scream!

Probably more than any other western family on the big and small screen the Cartwrights of Bonanza are in the cattle business. So they know from bulls. But they raise T-bone steaks essentially. Their visitor to the Ponderosa in this episode raises bulls for the arena in his native Mexico.

Nestor Paiva and his daughter Marianna Hill are visiting Lorne Greene and all three of the sons go into overdrive heat. Pernell Roberts decides music and charm are the key.

But Dan Blocker and Michael Landon decide to give the sport of bullfighting a whirl. It gets kind of nasty when one of those arena bulls gets loose in Virginia City. Takes all three Cartwright to deal with the bull and they get banged up pretty good.

Another Bonanza episode with the accent on comedy.

If you haven't had a chance to see this episode of Bonanza, then please make an effort to do so. It's very very funny. Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon have wonderful comedic timing with each other and the music and their facial expressions will keep you smiling and laughing. I won't give any spoilers. But I do highly recommend this episode, if you want to have some good laughs. The whole family will enjoy this.