# Bonanza cast reunion at the Heavenly Ponderosa--Pernell Roberts dead at 81 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510 "2010-01-26T14:20:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/1 "2010-01-26T14:20:52Z")
[Pernell Roberts](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/afterword/2010/01/pernell-roberts-adam-cartwright-on-bonanza-dead-at-81.html), last member of the original Cartwright clan, is gone. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/2 "2010-01-26T14:27:50Z")
Trapper John! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/3 "2010-01-26T15:44:27Z")
Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/4 "2010-01-26T16:45:19Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? Sure, I sort of did. It was supposed to be 15 or 20 years after Korea. You’d expect Trapper John to be balder & fatter. He had matured and settled down. They had a young doctor that did the same rebellious stuff that Trapper had done decade earlier. Once in awhile Trapper would loosen up and you’d see glimpses of his younger personality. ---
**Author:** ![beatlejuice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@beatlejuice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beatlejuice)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/5 "2010-01-26T16:59:44Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > [Pernell Roberts](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/afterword/2010/01/pernell-roberts-adam-cartwright-on-bonanza-dead-at-81.html), last member of the original Cartwright clan, is gone. I doubt he’d be at the reunion. Didn’t he leave due to “creative differences?” ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/6 "2010-01-26T17:09:44Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? Hey, I was just a kid of the 70s who had never (at that point anyway) even seen M_A_S\*H to compare. So he’ll always just be Trapper to me. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/7 "2010-01-26T17:21:49Z")
He was _way_ the sexiest Cartwright. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/8 "2010-01-26T19:32:36Z")
I will always remember the MAD magazine introduction to their satire of “Trapper John MD,” both for the jokes and the dreadful factual error. It went something like this: Interviewer: So, you’re playing Trapper John in the new series. Did you play him in the movie? Roberts: No, that was Donald Sutherland (NOTE: Sutherland played Hawkeye. Trapper was played by Elliot Gould). I: DId you play him in the MASH TV series. R: No, that was Wayne Rogers. I: So what have you played on tV R: Well, I was on Bonanza. I: I remember that show. What is the actor who played your father doing now? R: He’s hawking ALPO dog food. I: What about the actor who played Little Joe? R: He’s living with a bunch of kids in a little house on some God forsaken prarier. I: And the actor who played your orher brother Hoss. R: He die in a horse related incident. I: Did he fall off of a house? R: No, he exploded after eating it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/9 "2010-01-26T21:16:07Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? Not I. After that thread that I started asking for examples of people who underwent drastic psychological changes, in that strict sense I can buy it. But to me they were two completely different people who just so happened to share the same name. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/10 "2010-01-26T21:25:35Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? Technically, Trapper John, M.D. was a spin-off of the movie, not the TV series. I suppose Pernell resembles Elliot Gould in an older, losing-his-hair kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonanza-cast-reunion-at-the-heavenly-ponderosa-pernell-roberts-dead-at-81/526510/11 "2010-01-27T01:26:03Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Yeah, did anyone ever buy that he was supposed to be the same guy as Trapper form M_A_S\*H? No. And neither did my girlfriend of the time who was a huge M_A_S\*H fan.