By Laura Salas
Bonanza suffered very low ratings during its first season as it aired every Saturday night to dismal ratings and was nearly cancelled. However, because it was the first TV show filmed and broadcast in color, and NBC was intent on keeping the show running due to its color production, they moved it to Sunday evenings, where its ratings soared. Bonanza eventually reached number one in 1964.
David Canary joined Bonanza as ”Candy” Canaday to help fill the gap that was left when Pernell Roberts left the show. Before Bonanza, Canary was among the candidates to take over the role of Mr. Spock in Star Trek. Canary died of natural causes in November 2015.
Because of the success of the show, many Bonanza fans traveled to Incline Village, Nevada, the location of the fictional Ponderosa. However, they were disappointed because there actually wasn’t anything there. Sensing opportunity, land developers Bill and Joyce Anderson partnered with the producers of the show to develop a large theme park in Incline Village, which included a complete recreation of the ranch house. Portions of the show were even filmed at the park, and it continued to attract fans until it closed in 2004.
Because of the stock footage used, the production saved thousands of dollars per episode. It was a simple but very effective trick that cut out plenty of big shoots that would have inflated the show’s budget.
Even if the production saved money using stock footage and using the same clothing, the network was spending between $100,000 and $150,000 per episode. That made Bonanza one of the most expensive scripted shows to produce on a weekly basis. It was also one of the best performing TV shows, which helped justify the large amount of money spent on each episode.
