An Englishman with a passion for challenging ridiculous laws shows up on the Ponderosa grazing in a land-rowing boat mounted on a wagon.
Guest Stars:
Laurence Naismith, Foster Brooks, Troy Melton, Jill Townsend
A young woman, Jenny Winters who is prone to telling tall tales, claims she witnessed the Logan gang holding up a stagecoach. The Cartwrights hide her at the Ponderosa, but that is only the beginning of what Jenny will learn from spinning tall tales.
Guest Stars:
Melissa Murphy, Jack Gordon, Stefan Gierasch, Connie Hines, Matt Clark
A young boy positively identifies Candy as the man wanted in Stillwater for robbery, arson and murder.
Guest Stars:
Pat Hingle, Strother Martin
When he is called to testify in an out-of-town lumber shark case, Roy recruits Hoss to temporarily serve as sheriff. Hoss quickly finds his hands full dealing with a reluctant groom, who plans a robbery to make himself less appealing to his assertive fiancé; and a persistent salesman wanting to sell stock for a resort in the Virginia City area. Will Virginia City ever be the same?
Guest Stars:
Ray Teal, Jack Gordon, Tom Bosley, Robert Emhardt, Jay Novello
Will Griner is acquitted of murder which upsets the folks of Virginia City. They feel Griner silenced witnesses and are ready to lynch him. Ben works to reopen the case by finding out the truth about the case before it is too late.
Guest Stars:
Ray Teal, Jack Gordon, Ted Gehring, Mills Watson, Stacy Harris
Dan Logan, a former army scout and lawman who works for the Cartwrights, has his hands full with rustlers, a range war, and a one-time prostitute whose devotion is questionable.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Miriam Colon, Steve Forrest, Sammy Shack, Warren J. Kemmerling
Ben lends a hand to a down and out war veteran, Matthew Rush, who received the Congressional Medal Of Honor.
Guest Stars:
Victor Sen Yung, Jack Gordon, Hal Taggart, Dean Stockwell, Susan Howard
Candy helps the widow of a man he shot and killed in self defense, unaware she is plotting revenge against him.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Charlotte Stewart
Little Joe and Candy defend Meena Calhoun and her crusty father, Luke, from horse rustlers. In the process, Joe helps Meena become assertive and stick up for herself.
Guest Stars:
Ann Prentiss, Dub Taylor, Victor French, Robert Donner, John Harmon
A Virginia City store clerk decides to take advantage of his co-worker's paralyzing sensitivity to bright light.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Sandra Smith, Gregory Walcott, Dabney Coleman, Bill Zuckert
While in Sunville on business for the Ponderosa, the town's storyteller, Salty - who has a talent for grossly exaggerating his tales - identifies Hoss and Candy as outlaws Big Jack (Hoss) and Sid (Candy). After a frustrating endeavor of convincing Salty of their real identities, Candy and Hoss get him to help stage ""Big Jack's"" death in a gunfight, unaware that the real Big Jack and Sid are in Sunville and plan to take advantage of the townsfolks' distraction to rob the bank.
Guest Stars:
Arthur Hunnicutt, Mike Mazurki
Ben is sorry to learn that two of his oldest friends are on opposite sides of the law, after 27 years. Charlie Shepard once worked a mining claim with Ben, along with Jess Waddell, now a bounty hunter, and will stop at nothing to kill Charlie, regardless of what anyone tries to persuade him to do otherwise.
Guest Stars:
Victor Sen Yung, Bing Russell, Robert J. Wilke, Morgan Woodward
Joe agrees to help the man who tried to steal his horse, Abner Willoughby, who has returned to claim the box of gold he hid years ago, before going to sea.
Guest Stars:
Emmaline Henry, Irene Tedrow
A prejudiced Virginia City banker spurns Ben's recommendation of a recent widower (with an infant daughter to raise) for a bank teller's job because he's a midget. The midget, a former circus performer, steals money from the bank to support his daughter.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Jack Gordon, Michael Dunn, Roy Engel, Angela Clarke
Ben needs to haul three beams that are 30 feet long and the Cambeau Freight Company will not do it. A new, independent freight hauler may be the answer. However, when Ben meets Gunny, he orders him off the Ponderosa. Ben and Gunny served together in the Mexican war, and chose opposite sides. Ben puts his differences aside with Gunny and helps him win the government contract away from Cambeau Freight Company.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Robert Lansing, Anna Navarro
Candy has inherited a fortune from an Indian he helped. He quits his job on the Ponderosa and becomes a vice president for a land promotor who is selling beautiful, fertile land. When it is discovered that the land promotor is selling barren desert land, Candy and the Cartwrights set out to expose the land promotor as a fraud.
Guest Stars:
Victor Sen Yung, Jack Gordon, Walter Brooke, Robert F. Simon, Richard Stahl
Ben comes to the aid of Amy Wilder, an eccentric animal lover whose mental competency is questioned when a neighbor declares an interest in her land for mining. The neighbor asks the court for a hearing to have Amy declared senile so he can obtain her land, setting off Ben's race against time to track down Amy's relatives to defend her mental state.
Guest Stars:
Donald Moffat, Jo Van Fleet, Linda Watkins, Harriet Medin
A new wealthy Ponderosa employee with a weakness for women becomes the target of con artists.
Guest Stars:
Bing Russell, Elaine Giftos, Ralph Waite, Lou Frizzell, Christopher Connelly
When the daughter of a friend declares her love for him, Ben agonizes over what to do.
Guest Stars:
Mariette Hartley, Victor Sen Yung, John McLiam, Roy Engel, Jack Gordon
Ben seriously doubts an angry young man committed several murders to which he has confessed to.
Guest Stars:
Ray Teal, Jack Gordon, Mercedes McCambridge, David Cassidy, Foster Brooks
Ben gambles the future of the Ponderosa when a convincing meat packer from Chicago, sets out to ruin the local cattle industry.
Guest Stars:
Ray Teal, Tony Colti, Jack Gordon, Mark Tapscott, Billy Green Bush
En route to San Francisco, actress Lotta Crabtree arrives in Virginia City for a special performance. Hoss is smitten by the beautiful actress, which makes her leading man jealous. When he is killed during a performance, Lotta and then Hoss are suspected of the death. It is up to Ben to set things straight.
Guest Stars:
Ray Teal, Jack Gordon, Sally Kellerman, David McLean, Joyce Bulifant
Two drifters come to the Ponderosa and they try to rob the Cartwrights but are driven away. Joe becomes close to the young Mexican, Ramon, who is with them. After they get into a little disagreement they throw Ramon out. The drifters then discover that Ramon has found gold. Ramon returns to the Ponderosa and is welcomed. The Cartwrights learn that Ramon's father, who had to take care of his large family, sold his son to the two men. The two drifters grab Ramon and force him to tell them where he found the gold. They are about to make their claim when the Cartwrights stop them and let Ramon claim the gold as his. Ramon then goes back to Mexico with his fortune.
Guest Stars:
Bruce Dern, Ross Hagen, Tony De Costa, Charles Thompson
Ben and Joe stop in Los Robles for a couple of beers and a night's rest. Ben sees the town boss, John Walker, bullying the saloon waitress, and he comes to her defense. When Ben steps outside of the saloon, Walker shoots him in the back. Badly wounded, Ben shoots back, killing Walker just before he falls unconscious. While Joe keeps a vigil at Ben's bedside, the priest tells him Los Robles had always been ruled unquestionably by John Walker and his son Jed. Now Jed will certainly want revenge. Sure enough, he tells Joe if he doesn't hand Ben over in 24 hours, he will kill every citizen in Los Robles, one an hour. To complicate matters more, Walker's foreman, Garth, deliberately tells Jed that Ben shot his father in the back, in hopes that Joe will kill Walker, so he can run the Walker ranch. When Joe tries to mobilize a few citizens to fight Walker and his army of men, he finds a town full of cowards. The biggest coward of all is the doctor. He purposely left the bullet in Ben's back, hoping that he'd die within 24 hours. Jed and Garth make final plans to blow up Los Robles with dynamite, unless Joe surrenders Ben to him.
""Here comes Hoss Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail... "" That's what the folks of Virginia City were probably thinking when a Quaker woman talks a reluctant Hoss into dressing as the Easter Bunny for the orphanage's children. While hippety-hopping and waiting for Easter to be its way, Hoss - while dressed in the Easter Bunny costume - contends with a group of inept outlaws, who commit a comedy of errors in their attempts to rob stagecoaches.
Guest Stars:
Allyn Ann McLerie, Victor Sen Yung, Jack Gordon, Marc Lawrence, Len Lesser
In this second episode to feature Meena Calhoun and her father, Hoss and Joe's plans to sell horses from the livery stables in town is thwarted. Virgil and his two brothers also go into the livery business which creates troubles for Hoss and Joe.
Guest Stars:
Ann Prentiss, Dub Taylor, Victor French, Lou Frizzell, Robert Donner
Hoss meets two men. He forms a rapport with them and they tell him that they plan to rob the bank in the town they are going to. Hoss tries to stop them but he fails. Hoss decides to go into the town to warn the sheriff but is too late. The sheriff then arrests Hoss.
Guest Stars:
John Beck, Slim Pickens, Dabbs Greer, Tol Avery
Little Joe stays back at the Ponderosa to tend to its operation as Ben, Hoss, Candy and Hop Sing leave for a cattle drive, who leave as a severe thunderstorm approaches. Joe goes to the barn to calm a horse that was spooked by the thunder and lightning. But just when it seems like the horse has settled down, the horse goes wild, knocking down Joe and crushing his left arm and breaking his leg. Joe goes in and out of consciousness and, after struggling against driving rain and winds to get into the house, treats his wounds. However, the arm is infected and Joe, fearing gangrene has set in, debates whether to amputate the wound.
Guest Stars:
Victor Sen Yung, Ted Gehring, Vincent Van Patten, Harry Holcombe
Guest Stars:
Joe De Santis, Anakorita, Ted Cassidy

33 Episodes