Bonanza

We're approaching the halfway point of season one, and by now we know that it's not a good thing to romance a Cartwright--bad things are going to happen! In this case, the young lady that falls for Joe pays the ultimate price.



It's somewhat predictable, and the only question is how the romance will end. Bonanza seems to be on a mean streak at this point, and this budding relationship's finish is a violent one.



We know that the Cartwrights rarely approve of any outsiders, and this particular love affair is complicated by a rather petty controversy about a small piece of land. Still, the romance does seem to have a possibility of actually bearing fruit, at least until the fight in the barn...



The barn fight is a great one. It's easy to hate Coburn's slimey character, and we're ready for Joe to teach him a lesson. One might think that Jackie Chan had a hand in choreographing this battle, as no farm or barn implement seems to go unused in this long and violent showdown. Ultimately, after the blood and dust has settled, Joe's victory takes a tragic turn, as a thrown pitchfork has consumated the relationship once and for all.



Despite the predictability, this episode is a good watch, from start to finish...and we should know that Bonanza doesn't always have a happy ending, especially when a Cartwright is in love.

This episode feature the first of many times that Little Joe falls in love and wants to get married. It is also the first time the girl meets a tragic fate before the marriage can take place. I always thought that Amy was the best match for Joe, among his many loves. The scene where he is at her bedside when she dies is a real tearjerker. James Coburn plays a really nasty bad guy in this one and he and Joe have a truely classic fight scene, with some rather grusome, but creative uses of farm equipment commonly found in a barn. This is a very memorable episode and I highly recommend it!

This wasn't a very plausible episode on several fronts, of which I will only go into one (I have better things to do than write Ph.D theses about TV shows).



The way in which Little Joe Cartwright's love interest, Amy Bishop, was killed was absurd. She was killed by a pitchfork accidentally during a fight between Little Joe and the piece's villain, Pete Jessup. The fork simply wasn’t thrown hard enough or close enough to have possibly killed her.



PS: I'd like to know what the final "death" count was on the Ponderosa during its 14 year run. It sure seems like a lot of people got killed down there.