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| Image Alt: | Cast of Bonanza in 1959 |
| Starring: | |
| Num Episodes: | 16 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Episode List: | List of Bonanza episodes |
The fourteenth season of the American Western television series Bonanza premiered on NBC on September 12, 1972, with the final episode airing January 16, 1973. This was the final season for the series. The series was developed and produced by David Dortort. Season fourteen starred Lorne Greene and Michael Landon, the first season following the death of Dan Blocker. The season consisted of 16 episodes of a series total 431 hour-long episodes, the entirety of which was produced in color. Season fourteen moved to a new timeslot of Tuesdays from 8:00pm9:00pm on NBC. The final season fell out of the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings.[1]
Bonanza is set around the Ponderosa Ranch near Virginia City, Nevada and chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family. In season 14, this consists of Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his son Joseph (Michael Landon) and Jamie Hunter Cartwright (Mitch Vogel), a teenage orphan who is adopted by Ben. Veteran actor Victor Sen Yung played the ranch cook, Hop Sing. In the ninth season, David Canary was added to the cast as ranch hand/foreman Candy Canady. Tim Matheson was introduced as ex-prisoner and newly hired ranch-hand Griff King.
See also: List of Bonanza characters.
Season 14 included a number of changes in casting. Dan Blocker died in May 1972 after season thirteen ended, leaving only Greene and Landon as original top billed cast. David Canary, who had left over a contract dispute after four seasons returned as Candy Canady with opening credits billing. Tim Matheson was introduced as ex-prisoner and newly hired ranch-hand Griff King.
See also: List of Bonanza episodes.
For season fourteen, Bonanza was moved from its previous Sunday night 9:00pm10:00pm timeslot to Tuesdays from 8:00pm9:00pm on NBC. On Tuesdays, it was opposite Maude and Hawaii Five-O on CBS and Temperatures Rising and the Tuesday Movie of the Week on ABC.
The move from Sunday to Tuesday did not help the show's declining ratings. Hawaii Five-O was already the leader on Tuesdays, at 12 overall in the Nielsen ratings for the previous season.[2] By the 1972 season, Hawaii Five-O gained in the ratings, lifting Maude along with it, topping the Tuesday ratings and securing the number 3 and 4 spots respectively overall. Bonanza fell out of the top 30.