You’re exactly right on the timeline. Williams was in Zorro from about 1957-1962, then he went to Europe and made a couple of bad movies, came back to the U.S. and played Will Cartwright during the latter part of the 1963-1964 season. Lost in Space came along in 1965.
They brought in some kid in the last season also, I suppose to take the place of Hoss (not that this was possible- the show died when Hoss died). Does anybody remember his name? I know that the actor who played him was later on LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE for a few episodes.
Dan Blocker’s lookalike son Dirk was also on LHOP, though neither Lorne Greene nor Pernell Roberts ever were. There were also some episodes of LHOP that were extremely similar to eps of BONANZA (I assume because either Landon or another writer worked on both and had a deadline to meet). Greene and Landon later reunited on an episode of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN but to my knowledge neither ever worked with Roberts again.
Trivia: Rob Zombie lives in Dan Blocker’s former houseand claims (though probaby tongue in cheek) that he’s encountered his ghost there. Blocker was a major owner of the BONANZA steakhouse chain (in which I think other cast members also had interests) and was particularly close friends with Sen Yung who played Hop Sing on the series. The same year Blocker died, Sen Yung was seriously injured in a skyjacking which forced his retirement from acting (wiki cite).
I wonder if Isaac Stern ever picked his nose on camera the way Pernell Roberts did in “The Auld Sod” episode of Bonanza?
The kid’s name’s was Jamie who was adopted by Ben. He was played by Mitch Vogel and was certainly not brought on board to replace Hoss as Dan Blocker was very much alive when his character was introduced. In fact, there was I believe two seasons separating the two events.
What purpose did Candy serve?
He was my favorite character. IIRC he was Little Joe’s buddy. Candy always seemed to have more gunfights and action scenes. He was impulsive and hot tempered.
Hell yes. He didn’t have a Daddy refusing to let him go into town and have a beer by imself even though he was thirty years old. 
Tim Matheson had the unenviable task of “replacing” Dan Blocker.
So, wait. Guy Williams went from playing Will Cartwright to being the TV dad of Will Robinson and Angela Cartwright?
See, this is why people believe in That Which Transcends Beliefableness…
It’s a cliche that bringing in a kid is the surest sign a show’s on life support, but was Bonanza the first?
When you bring in a kid on Bonanza, his mama will marry Little Joe and die…
Lucy and Ricky had “Little Ricky.” I would bet that TV show was one the earliest ones to bring in a kid.
Irving Gaynor Neiman, who wrote for Plahouse 90, Robert Montgomery Presents and other live TV drama programs, said Dame Judith Anderson (who did her share of TV drama) once shook a script at him and said “Oh, my God, who wrote this?” To which Neiman looked her in the eye and said, “Shakespeare.”
Perhaps the play was Titus Andronicus?
Yeah, like none of them ever had any bullets…check it out. Look at their gun belts.
I got turned off from Bonanza when I found out that Lorne Greene was afraid of **both **horses and guns. It just wasnt the same after we knew that and seeing their empty gunbelts with no bullets just was a constant reminder.
I remember Little Joe using a cap and ball speed loader…he changed cylinders. They didn’t have brass cartridges ( bullet is the lead projectile) in that episode, they had paper wrapped cartridgeswith a firing cap on the back of the cylinder chamber.
Yeah, but in that case, it was a necessity rather than a contrived plot twist. The title character was very noticeably pregnant during filming of the series. They couldn’t exactly come back the following season without a baby. They didn’t have “very special episodes” of sit-coms dealing with infant death at that time.