Television series

Bonanza

Name: Bonanza
Genre: Drama, Action, Western
Released: 1959
Cast: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts, Victor Sen Yung

Bonanza is the sunlit, big-hearted western that ran nearly fourteen seasons on NBC, following widower Ben Cartwright and his three very different sons as they defend the Ponderosa ranch and dispense frontier justice with remarkable gentleness. It's comfort television — colour, wide skies, moral clarity — for anyone who wants a western that trusts family over gunfights, ideal for slow Sunday afternoons.

TVMaze rating

7.8

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Gunsmoke1955

NBC's other titan of the era, and the one Bonanza was built to compete with — Dodge City's Marshal Dillon offers similar weekly moral puzzles with a harder, dustier edge and none of the ranch-house comfort.

But Twenty seasons is a genuine commitment, and the early black-and-white years feel stiffer than Bonanza's warm colour episodes.

The Virginian1962

Same network, same era, a similar sprawling ranch-family format, but told in a more novelistic, slower style with a rotating cast of guest stars passing through the Shiloh ranch.

But The pacing is even more leisurely than Bonanza's, and the title character stays frustratingly opaque throughout.

The Big Valley1965

Flip the Cartwrights' gender and you get Barbara Stanwyck's Victoria Barkley running her own ranch and her own squabbling sons — a sturdy, satisfying mirror of the family western.

But It leans harder into melodrama and coincidence than Bonanza usually does, and the production values are a notch cheaper.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Succession2018

It's Bonanza's succession plot stripped of sentiment: the same question — who inherits the father's legacy, and what it costs the sons to want it — asked without a shred of the Cartwrights' decency.

Same skeleton as Bonanza — an aging patriarch, grown children jockeying for his approval and his empire — but transplanted from a Nevada ranch to a Manhattan media conglomerate, and rewired for cruelty.

But It's savage, profane, and largely populated by people you'll actively dislike, about as far from the Ponderosa's warmth as television gets.

Little House on the Prairie1974

Michael Landon left the Ponderosa and built his own family saga, gentler and more overtly sentimental, following the Ingalls family through frontier hardship with real warmth.

But It's aimed at a younger, more tearful audience and trades Bonanza's action beats for schoolroom lessons and quiet suffering.

Lonesome Dove

A miniseries that takes the retired-cowboy, found-family idea Bonanza trades in and gives it real weight, grief, and a genuinely epic cattle drive across the plains.

But It's far bleaker and more elegiac than anything Bonanza attempts, and the ending hits hard.

Yellowstone2018

A modern-day descendant of the ranching-patriarch drama, with a father defending land and legacy against sons and enemies alike, just with a far bigger budget than horses used to cost.

But It's considerably more violent and cynical, and the family here is much harder to root for.

The High Chaparral1967no page yet

Another NBC ranch-family western from the same decade, set in Arizona territory with a similar patriarch-and-sons structure but a sharper focus on the Mexican border and its tensions.

But It never matched Bonanza's popularity, and some episodes reach for a depth they don't quite land.

Dallas1978

Take the patriarch-and-sons formula out of the saddle and put it in an oil boardroom — the loyalty, rivalry, and legacy questions Bonanza raises get a soapier, glossier 1980s makeover.

But It trades sincerity for scheming almost entirely, and the tone is far more cynical than anything in the Cartwright household.

Rawhide1959

A trail-drive western from the same golden age, following a rotating cast of drovers rather than one family — a good companion for the itchy-feet, open-road side of the genre.

But There's less emotional throughline than Bonanza's family focus, and it can feel more episodic and disposable.

Red River1948

This is where the patriarch-and-sons-on-a-cattle-empire template Bonanza later softened for prime time originally came from, minus the gentleness.

A decade before Bonanza aired, John Wayne played a cattle baron whose adopted son challenges him for control of the herd and the family name — the Cartwright dynamic played for real danger.

But It's black-and-white, unhurried by modern standards, and the father-son conflict turns genuinely violent rather than resolving in a fireside chat.

Deadwood2004

It's the frontier-town machinery Bonanza runs every week — justice, land, order versus chaos — rebuilt from the ground up with all the mess and cruelty the earlier show sanded off.

The same frontier world — camps, claims, sheriffs, moral order being built from scratch — but filthy, profane, and morally murky where Bonanza is scrubbed clean and reassuring.

But The dialogue is dense and Shakespearean-filthy, the violence is unflinching, and there's no cozy family at the centre to anchor you.