Was there a story line written for Adam leaving the show or did the writers just ignore his disappearance?
Basically, he just moved away.
I seem to recall it mentioned that he went off to sea, Merchant Marine or something. Adam was the son of Ben’s New England wife, so I guess the sea was in his blood.
There were a few throwaway lines about his departure from the Ponderosa. I believe Ben once mentioned needing to write to him, and there was some reference to his traveling the planet. Australia I think was mentioned once.
There was an inside joke on one show, in that Hoss was practicing Shakespeare for a show in Virginia City that went something like:
Hoss: I gotta practice my lines. ‘To be or not to be…’
Little Joe: Naw, we got rid of him…
Joe, or Michael if you will, was referring to Pernell’s literary pretentiousness which was a sore point all around.
But other than that, yes, they mostly ignored his absence. They nearly did the same thing to Hoss after Dan Blocker died. A strange show in many ways, but I liked it.
IIRC he went to sea.
Which brings me to one of my favorite minirants. Originally, Roberts was going to leave the cast of Bonanza at the end of Season 5. The producers knew about it, and planned for it by bringing in a love interest for Adam (Laura Dayton, played by Kathie Browne), so they could get married and move away. Adam even started building a house for them. The producers also introduced a replacement, Will Cartwright (Guy Williams), nephew of Ben and cousin of Adam, Hoss and Joe.
Then Roberts decided to hang around for one more season. Abruptly, Laura discovered she was actually in love with Will, and the two of them rode off, never to be mentioned again.
So Pernell Roberts did one more season of Bonanza and Guy Williams wound up with Lost in Space.
I thought Adam was attending college in England.
I remember an episode, maybe the season after Roberts left, where Ben comes home & finds someone in seagoing garb in the house. Ben, seeing the person from behind, exclaims, “Adam!”. It turns out to be someone who has sailed with Adam. That might be the last time Adam was mentioned on Bonanza.
I read an interview with him back when TRAPPER JOHN was on and had replenished his coffers to a degree and he’s one of the few actors ever to admit regret on letting his political convictions and conscience get the better of him.
Many of the things he did back in the 60s were admirable, and especially from a guy with a solid flyover fanbase and born and raised in Waycross Georgia: he was a major supporter (in presence and with money) of the civil rights movement, marched with MLK, and spoke out against the lack of minorities in show biz (particularly when Mexican actors were used to play Indians), but being an actor it didn’t end there. He became, by his own admission, a jerk to the writers for not pushing the envelope more (on BONANZA of all shows) and to the co-stars who were less vocal in their support of liberal causes, he wanted Adam to marry an American Indian played by an A.I. actress (Sasheen Littlefeather?) and episodes about slavery and the KKK. (Bonanza was in a time warp- sometimes Lincoln was president, sometimes the Civil War happened long before, sometimes it was the 1870s and sometimes the 1860s, and it didn’t really matter which season it was.)
Ultimately he left by mutual decision: he was fed up with the show and they were fed up with him.
Then he did next to nothing other than the occasional guest appearance for a long time. He did regional theater (including the 70s abomination- dinner theater) and lost his house and money due to divorce and not working as often or as lucratively and by the late 1970s he was considering leaving the business altogether when he got TRAPPER JOHN.
So, he actually said something to the effect of (my words, not his, but the Lorne Greene quote was at least that blunt) "This is an insane business and the money is as crazy as the business itself. I told Lorne I was quitting the show and he told me I was insane. I said "the writing was dreadful’ and he said “I agree, I wouldn’t wipe my ass with most of the scripts they give me, but they’re also giving me $40,000 a week, and when this show is over I’ll have residuals and money in the bank and can sit on my ass or become a rabbi or go perform King Lear in a fish cannery if that’s what I want to do and not have to worry about how to keep my kids in college or the pool heated!”
Roberts said “I should have listened, you have no idea how much I should have listened. So my advice to actors, if you’re raking in the big money, keep raking it in til it’s gone. When it’s gone go shoot your mouth off about anything you want to talk about. And don’t have a lifestyle you can’t support if your income nosedives.”
Damn. Check out this “We like ourselves, don’t we?” comment by Roberts in a 1965 interview:
Sherwood Schwarz once said that if Robert Reed “bombed in Hamlet he’d blame the poor writing”. Sounds like a similar thing. Though I’ll give Reed that Schwarz was probably the worst writer in Hollywood between Ed Wood and Tyler Perry.
See? If Bonanza taught us anything, it was always, ALWAYS, listen to Ben Cartwright!
The Holy War comes in whether to listen to Adama as well, and then a second Holy War on whether it’s just Lorne Greene’s Adama or Olmos as well.
That was the explanation I remember, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were others. No one cared about continuity then.
Sure. That explains Schwartz’s miserable commercial failures like Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch.
You write for the cash customers, not for the critics. if the cash customers are forking over the cash, you’re doing your job just fine.
And Dusty’s Trail! Don’t forget Dusty’s Trail! 
(Anyone noticing a naming convention? 
)
He ran off with Chuck Cunningham.
I’m not sure he wrote them so much as the cast made them up as they went along after having been given a general “You’re running from a monkey or something… work in something about an island” instruction.
I thought Williams got Zorro first and then a ways down the road he got Lost in Space.
As for Roberts, I seem to remember Adam was first in San Francisco representing the family (that was when there was still hope Roberts would still come back), then at sea and finally doing something in England.
And my favorite bunch of castaways in It’s About Time. The wiki includes a link to a youtube of the catchy title song.
That’s really interesting. I recently saw an episode which centered around the Dred Scott decision (so definitely pre-Civil War). I was sort of shocked that the show would tackle an issue like that.
Historically, Virginia City dates from 1859. You’d expect the Cartwright’s to settle in the area then. Wouldn’t the Cartwright sons be young kids then? Seems like the show should have been placed around 1870.
I guess continuity really didn’t matter back then.