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TNTrue
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Who is your favorite Bonanza character?: Hoss

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Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by TNTrue »

Been lurking for a while, thought I'd try posting.

Although it was first broadcast before I was born, I watched a fair bit of Bonanza when it first aired. My grandmother was a fan, too. My father always teased me about watching Bananas. :mad Hoss was my favorite character growing up, and that hasn't changed any, although I appreciate Adam as an adult in ways I did not as a child. :whistling Still love Pa, as I always have, and Little Joe still suffers well.

I've been rewatching episodes with my two older daughters the last few years, which has been fun. Eldest daughter most likes Hoss; middle daughter most likes Little Joe. Middle daughter spent the summer working with horses up on Mackinaw Island and has some interesting observations sometimes based on that. Usually really exciting stuff like,"Yuck! Don't grab that wagon wheel; don't you know what it's been running through?"

My grandfather counted bullets, and my mother was a nurse who'd regularly point out that dad's favorite hero (Mannix) should have been suffering severe brain damage, all the times he'd been knocked out (the Cartwright boys were just as bad, although their injuries were stretched out a bit more). So I'm used to watching TV shows with running critiques, which is probably a good thing.

I liked other westerns, too -- Alias Smith and Jones, Big Valley, The Monroes (which lasted one whole season), The Wild, Wild West, The Rifleman, The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show (is that considered a western, or just cowboys?) -- but Bonanza was always in the lead by a goodly margin. I've been reading a lot on the era Bonanza is set in, versus the times of other westerns, and it's interesting how many things changed over the period western movies cover. A lot of what we think of as "western" was more true of the turn of the century than of the era the Cartwrights were living in. I've seen people make fun of Bonanza because none of the gunbelts carried bullets, for instance, but that's actually pretty accurate to the times.

The cowboy hats, alas, are not -- John Stetson didn't start up his hat company until 1865, and his earliest hats had flat brims and plain, rounded crowns. Apparently the cowboys themselves modified the hats by curling the brims and reshaping the crowns, and then Stetson followed their lead and added new ideas, but it was a slow process. Pa's, Adam's and Little Joe's are not too wrong for the period -- they all look a bit like cavalry hats in use then -- but Hoss's ten gallon hat may not have been developed until the twentieth century. And a lot historians believe most cowboys that early were wearing bowlers, an idea I still can't get my head around. As my husband says when it comes to explosions and whatnot, "I don't believe I care to watch a movie that sticks to reality on that."

I read somewhere that Dan Blocker put on Hoss's hat initially as a joke, but then everyone thought it worked brilliantly for the character, and I wonder if that isn't true, because that would explain why it's so out of time, when they really did make some effort for accuracy. Well, so long as it didn't interfere with the sexiness -- the Cartwrights wear much tighter pants than they probably should, and they should be wearing suspenders rather than belts and thing. Don't get me started on some of the things the ladies wear! Or the women's hair styles. Heh.

But I love this show, soundstage sets and historical inaccuracies and sixties hair and all. It could be kind of uneven -- there are a couple of episodes I'm convinced are based on stories heard fourth hand, because those are not the Cartwrights I know and love! -- but most episodes were at least entertaining, and it had heart.
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by January »

:welcome to Bonanza Boomers TNTrue

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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by Dori »

:howdy2 and :welcome to Boomers!
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by CowgirlAtHeart »

:howdy2 Welcome to Boomers, TNTrue!
What, are you practicing to be a burglar, bettin' that kind of money on a two-card draw?
Joe, "Queen High"

:dg
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by dougsgirl »

:howdy2 TNTrue and :hi1 to :boomwagon
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by Sierras »

Welcome, TNTrue!

:ranch2 :welcometoboomers
"Like father like sons." Echoed by Little Joe in "Springtime"
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by Julianna »

HOWDY DO TNTRUE



:flowerpink
Last edited by Julianna on Thu Feb 28, 2019 1:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by Gillie »

:howdy2 TNTrue! Glad to meet you! :welcome
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by Bejules »

:howdy2 and :welcome
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Re: Howdy, fellow fans of heroes on horseback!

Post by ali »

:howdy Welcome to Boomers TNTrue :boomwagon
:dg
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