Was the guy really Little Joe’s half-brother or was it a con? Did Ben know about his existence?
My favorite of the dead would-be-Mrs. Cartrwights was the fiancee of Little Joe’s who accidentally got pitchforked while he was fighting for her honor.
Pernell Roberts (Adam) was a super liberal from tiny-town Deep South originally who became very active in the Civil Rights movement. He wanted Adam to marry an American Indian and he wanted her played by an actual American Indian or at very least a mixed race actress. (This was in the days when Natives were as often or not played by Asian actors or at best Ricardo Montalban [worst offender: blue eyed and blonde Chuck Connors’ turn as Geronimo). He also became highly critical of the show and threatened to leave if they didn’t add on his Native wife as a character.
Lorne Greene, also a liberal involved in Civil Rights issues, had been through many ups and downs in his career, and Dan Blocker had struggled as a high school substitute teacher and other odd jobs to support his family while getting his acting break, and they both begged him to calm down on his demands. They basically told him “all right, the scripts might suck, but they suck to the tune of $25,000 per week- you can invest that and live in comfort the rest of your life when the show’s done, stay on-board and don’t rock the boat”, but he stuck to his guns. Consequently they married Adam off as he demanded, but wrote him out of the show in the same day. Because of his contract he didn’t get any residuals if he quit while the show was in production, and he was only able to get parts in lesser vehicles and TV guest work, and before long he was just another broke struggling actor. (Luckily Trapper John MD came along and he was dealt back into the game and solvency, though he’s been a recluse since the death of his only child a few years back.)
IIRC, Stafford was telling the truth, and there was no ulterior motive. There were hints to the omniscient viewer of what he wanted to tell Joe, but no one else had a clue (in the same way that no one at the Daily Planet can see through Clark Kent’s brilliant disguise).
The episode ended with Stafford riding off right after he’d showed Joe the picture/artifact and told him that they were half brothers.
And neither of which looks like either of the two previous Trapper Johns. (Pernell wore a rug, ovbviously, on Bonanza, as did Lorne Greene [who was the grandson of a very prominent Canadian rabbi, incidentally]).
More pointless Bonanza trivia: Rob “Dragula” Zombie is the current owner of Dan Blocker’s house and says it’s haunted (though I think he may have been saying it tongue in cheek). Blocker intended to quit show business, earn a Ph.D. and teach on the collegiate level when the show ended (though of course he died). He was the owner of the Bonanza Steakhouses that were fairly big for a while (you still occasionally see one).
I’d seen him. Riding in a black van with a big, mean, gold-wearing black dude; a crazy dude with a sock puppet; and an older fellow smoking a cheap cigar.
Last I heard, he was wanted for crimes he did not commit… Unlike Ben Cartwright, who was not wanted for crimes he did commit… until now.
All right, I think we’ve got a consensus. I’ll take the Delorean back to 1880-whatever and bring Cartwright back for trial. You guys get a holding cell ready.
Er, kind of. Clay Stafford was Little Joe’s half brother. Marie (she was French, not Mexican), Joe and Clay’s mom, was a widow of a ranch hand of Ben’s. That was how she met Ben (see above a few posts). BEFORE meeting Ben, when she was still married, she had a baby. That baby was Clay. HOWEVER, Marie had been told by her former husband’s mother that her son had died (Clay) when he really didn’t die (they were all sick with that fever junk) because, well, mother in law was a bitch (and she thought Marie had been cheating on her son when Marie hadn’t been - that was part of the “mystery” that surrounded her when Ben first met her - she was labeled a fallen woman when she really wasn’t.) In any event, Joe had shown Clay a picture of Marie - and then gave it to Clay at the end of that episode. I think that might be the “artifact” you’re talking about. Clay really WAS Little Joe’s half brother - it was confirmed when the judge they wrote to in New Orleans confirmed it.
Anyway, Clay had shot and killed a man who accused him of cheating at poker shortly after signing on to work for the Cartwrights and the miners try to run him out of town. Little Joe becomes his biggest defender.
Oh - astro, I do have an episode guide (I’m not THAT big a freak) but I did spend all of Saturday afternoon watching Bonanza. TVLand. Every Saturday. 1 PM to 7 PM. All Bonanza, all afternoon. Plus twice each weekday. We record it and watch it when we get home from work.
According to everything I’ve ever read (books, websites, etc.) the Adam character was never married. He did quit the series over differences, but it never was really “said” or addressed within the show where he went when he left the Ponderosa. (The first mention of him leaving was in “The Brass Box” - Season 7, Episode 205).
Oddly, when Dan Blocker died, they never really addressed it either on the show. The first real mention of it was in the show “Forever” - they show Ben looking at Hoss’ picture when Little Joe leaves - and there is a very touching scene where Ben and Little Joe cry in the remains of his burnt out house over the loss of Alice, when they were really crying for the loss of Dan. The final scene in Forever shows Little Joe in front of Alice’s grave - after that scene was shot, (rumour has it) that he took the styrofoam cross/grave marker and threw it up in the air as a last tribute to Dan.
