The best of 'Bonanza'

'Bonanza': These Are The Most Popular Episodes Of All Time

Across 14 legendary seasons, Bonanza aired a whopping 431 episodes. Over the years, there were no doubt some hits and misses, but a select few episodes tend to stand out as the greatest and most popular ones. Here, we'll take a look at the episodes that fans, critics, and voting sites name as the best of Bonanza.

Bonanza was a very popular western series
There are still fans of the show today
Learn more about the most popular episodes

Bonanza fans know well the hundreds of episodes following the adventures of the "Cartwrights" on the Ponderosa ranch.

To be exact, "Ben" (Lorne Greene), "Little Joe" (Michael Landon)," and "Hoss" (Dan Blocker) — plus "Adam" (Pernell Roberts) and the later-season stars — brought 431 episodes to NBC across 14 seasons from 1959 to 1973. Let's take a look at the most popular episodes of Bonanza, according to a variety of fan-voting and online sources.

Bonanza: The Most Popular Episodes

IMDb User Ratings

On IMDb, viewers have given ratings to every Bonanza episode. And it turns out the fans are actually tough critics. Most episodes have between 50 and a few hundred ratings (given between 1 and 10 stars), but users never rated an episode with an average score above a 9/10. IMDb's best Bonanza episodes came in a three-way tie for first place, all scoring an 8.3/10. They are:

"The Wish" (S10): "Hoss" sees a Black boy steal a candle and gets involved with his family
"The Saddle Stiff" (S13): An aging "Ben" takes an alias to prove he can still work as a rancher
"Forever" (S14): "Little Joe" falls in love with and weds "Alice Harper"

Ranker's WATCHWORTHY List

On ratings site Ranker, Bonanza's top-episode list is dominated by classic season 1 favourites. The High Noon-style "Vendetta" comes in at no. 1, closely followed by "Blood on the Land" and "Stranger" in second and third place.

Bonanza Episodes on YouTube

Meanwhile, on YouTube, season 2 episode "Silent Thunder" has amassed the most views (at nearly 2.1 million) of any Bonanza episode on the site. This episode that keeps fans coming back for more follows "Little Joe" as he attempts to teach sign language to a mistreated girl who is deaf.

The Best Comedy and Weird Bonanza Episodes

Fans often name season 5 episode "Hoss and the Leprechauns" as a favourite for Bonanza comedy—and it cracked IMDb's Top 5 list as well. The oddball episode sees "Hoss" convinced that he's found the gold of leprechauns.

MeTV, which airs Bonanza reruns today, also chose "Hoss and the Leprechauns" as no. 1 on its "Weird and Eerie Episodes" list, followed by "Twilight Town"—another memorable season 5 episode, which finds "Little Joe" in a strange desert ghost town.

Did they get it right, or was your favourite Bonanza episode left off the list? For more Bonanza, see 9 Facts About the Legendary Western or test your knowledge with our quiz.