Bonanza is a classic Western television series that ran for 14 seasons, making it the second-longest-running
Western television series in history, behind only Gunsmoke.
Many attribute the end of the series to the tragic and untimely death of actor Dan Blocker,
who played the character of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright on the beloved program.
Dan died soon after filming of the show’s 13th season wrapped, and this drastically
affected the outcome of the ensuing 14th season.
The show dropped significantly in ratings following the loss of one of the audience’s
favorite characters, and its 14th season would end up being its last.
Many think of Dan Blocker’s last episode to be the series’ true finale, and it can
be a little difficult to sit through for sensitive viewers who know their television history.
Join Facts Verse as we explore why Dan Blocker’s last episode of Bonanza is hard to watch.
Dan Blocker Played Eric “Hoss” Cartwright for 13 Seasons
Bonanza was a Western television series that came on the air in 1959 and quickly became
an audience favorite!
The show was so successful that it went on to become the second-longest-running Western
television series of all time, after only Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons, while Bonanza only ran for 14.
However, Bonanza may have had a chance to best Gunsmoke in its number of seasons if
it weren’t for the tragic death of Dan Blocker in 1972.
Since the show’s 1959 inception, many Bonanza fans had come to consider Dan Blocker’s
character of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright to be not only an important member of Bonanza’s
central Cartwright family but also an honorary member of their own!
The cast and crew of Bonanza felt the very same way about Dan Blocker, and they were
devastated upon learning the actor had suddenly and tragically passed away.
The final episode of Bonanza to feature Dan Blocker as the character of Hoss aired in
April of 1972, and it was the finale of the show’s 13th season.
Everyone expected the successful series to go on for many more moons, and the planned
premiere of the show’s 14th season was intended to revolve around the character of Hoss getting
married.
Sadly, the untimely death of Dan Blocker necessitated a script rewrite.
Dan Blocker’s Last Episode The last episode of Bonanza to feature Dan
Blocker portraying the character of Hoss was called “One Ace Too Many”, and it wasn’t
exactly a Hoss-centric episode.
Instead, the main focus of the episode was the antagonistic guest character of Bradley
Meredith, as portrayed by series lead Lorne Greene.
Lorne Green, of course, was the actor who played the main character of Ben Cartwright.
Ben Cartwright was the patriarch of the series’ central Cartwright family, and thus the show’s
main character.
Meanwhile, Bradley Meredith was a character that looked absolutely identical to Ben Cartwright,
and who had appeared in one episode prior to “One Ace Too Many”.
As an antagonist in the episode, Bradley can be seen trying to trick people into believing
that he’s Ben Cartwright while the real Cartwrights are away from their venerable
ranch.
Bradley Meredith is nearly successful in his endeavor to trick the populace, sell off all
of Ben’s assets, and make off with the profits, but his dastardly plan is thankfully foiled
before the end of the episode.
The finale of Bonanza’s 13th season came and went and likely wouldn’t have much historical
merit if it weren’t for the fact that it ended up featuring Dan Blocker’s very last
appearance as the character of Hoss.
Around a month after the season finale’s airing, Dan tragically passed away from complications
related to a seemingly innocuous surgery.
Dan Blocker was having issues with his gallbladder, and he went in for a routine surgery to have
it removed.
Once the surgery was finished, things went tragically wrong.
The actor ended up developing several blood clots in his lungs, and these blood clots
caused him to die of a pulmonary embolism.
How the Cast and Crew Took Dan’s Death When the cast and crew of Bonanza learned
that Dan Blocker had passed away, they were devastated.
Not only were they devastated at the loss of the man, but they were also saddened to
learn that their beloved friend and coworker had passed away from such seemingly preventable
causes.
Most had known that Dan was going in for gallbladder surgery, but the surgery was so run-of-the-mill
that no one could’ve predicted anything was going to go wrong.
Dan was only 43 years old at the time, and was considered to be fairly healthy and strong
for his age.
The actor was 6’ 3”, and on-screen father Lorne Greene made note of this fact when eulogizing
the star.
According to Lorne, he couldn’t believe that such a seemingly simple issue could take
out someone so big and strong as Dan.
Dan Blocker played the middle Cartwright child, with his character’s old brother on Bonanza
being Adam Cartwright and his character’s younger brother on the series being Little
Joe Cartwright.
Little Joe Cartwright was played by a relatively fresh-faced Michael Landon, who would later
become better known for his work on another classic Western television series, with that
being Little House on the Prairie.
In addition to performing on Bonanza in the role of Little Joe Cartwright, Michael Landon
was also a director and writer on the series by the time of its 14th season.
After Dan’s passing, the pressure was put onto Michael Landon in several ways.
Not only was Michael tasked with creatively handling the premiere of the show’s 14th
season, which now needed to be rewritten from the ground up, but his character of Little
Joe Cartwright was also going to have to become more of a central figure on the series to
fill the new void.
Creatively, Michael Landon decided to deal with the loss of Dan Blocker in a fairly subtle
way.
The character of Hoss was killed off on the series, and the news of his death was communicated
to the audience by an offhand remark.
A reason for Hoss’s death wasn’t even initially given, though the story of the character’s
death did eventually make its way into one of Bonanza’s made-for-television reunion
films.
Though the character’s death was barely even mentioned on the series, the fact that
Hoss was killed off made television history.
It was the very first time that a popular character on a television series was killed
off after the death of an actor.
Previously, characters would be written off in more innocent ways, or simply disappear.
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Making History Wasn’t Enough for Bonanza Despite the fact that Bonanza found a fairly
novel way to deal with Dan Blocker’s death and ended up making history because of it,
the show still had a very hard time drawing in audiences once its 14th season began airing.
The 14th season of the show would end up becoming its last, as fans just couldn’t handle the
loss of beloved character Hoss.
While the character of Hoss was killed of on Bonanza during the premiere of the show’s
14th season, a true reason for how Hoss had died wasn’t given to audiences until many,
many years later.
The story of how Hoss died was finally conveyed to audiences via the 1988 made-for-television
reunion film Bonanza: The Next Generation.
The film made the character of Hoss a posthumous hero by revealing that he had died trying
to save a woman from drowning.
Fans loved that the made-for-television film finally cleared up what had happened to Hoss,
which granted them some closure.
Most of the cast and crew on Bonanza had known and been working with Dan Blocker for well
over a decade by the time of the actor’s tragic and untimely death.
The actor had portraying the character of Hoss on the series since its inception, and
one of the people who had grown closest to Dan was the aforementioned Michael Landon.
Michael played Dan Blocker’s younger brother on the screen, and he felt like a younger
brother to the actor in real life.
Michael took the loss incredibly personally, and his grief was made worse by the fact that
the loss of Dan put so much pressure on him when it came time to film Bonanza’s 14th
season.
While the cast and crew of Bonanza attempted to persevere, there’s little doubt that
the loss of Dan Blocker inevitably led to the cancellation of the series around a year
later.
In addition to attempting to fill the void left by the loss of Hoss with more time on
the screen for Little Joe Cartwright, the series also attempted to introduce a new character
by the name of Griff King.
Portrayed by actor Tim Matheson, Griff King was a parolee who showed up on the Cartwright’s
ranch looking for work in an effort to turn his life around.
Michael Landon Got Choked Up During His Tribute to Dan
Upon the filming of Bonanza’s 14th and final season, Michael Landon gave a speech to the
cast and crew commemorating the late Dan Blocker.
While giving the speech, Michael apparently got pretty choked up.
Despite his grief, Michael tried to keep things light and happy on the set of the series and
was said to have maintained a good sense of humor over the course of filming the show’s
14th season that made the shoots more tolerable, even if there was little that anyone could
do to truly make things right after the loss of Dan.
It was Michael Landon who decided how to write the character of Hoss off of the show, and
he claimed to have done it in the way that he thought Dan Blocker would’ve wanted.
Michael didn’t want to draw too much attention to Hoss’ absence; he just wanted things
to stay the same!
Although the crew of Bonanza tried their absolute best to make things work after the death of
actor Dan Blocker following the show’s 13th season, the series’ 14th season ended up
being its last.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Bonanza’s Dan Blocker died from
complications after undergoing routine surgery and that on-screen brother Michael Landon
was the one who had to decide how to write Dan’s character off of the series?
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