11 TV Westerns Michael Landon appeared in before Bonanza

He guest starred in forgotten series and beloved classics alike, and was oddly typecast in the same kind of role on a number of shows.

Image: The Everett Collection

Michael Landon became a household name playing Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza, who, after 14 seasons and 430 episodes, wasn’t so little anymore when the iconic series ended in 1973. He then went from the mountains of the Ponderosa to the plains of Minnesota, playing patriarch Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie

But before these two career-defining roles, Landon guest starred on dozens of shows, many of them Westerns. Eleven of them in fact. Here is a rundown of Michael Landon’s early career, including one type of role he was cast in over and over again.

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1. Cheyenne

Not counting a failed 1955 pilot for Luke and the Tenderfoot which also featured Leonard Nimoy and Lee Van Cleef, Michael Landon’s first Western role was a small, uncredited part as a soldier in a 1956 episode of Cheyenne. He was in good company in this troop (no pun intended) with a lieutenant played by James Garner and a Major played by future Bonanza sheriff Ray Teal. Landon came back for another episode of the Clint Walker series in 1958.

2. The Adventures of Jim Bowie

Two of Michael Landon’s earliest TV roles required French accents, and both were on The Adventures of Jim Bowie in 1956. In “Deputy Sheriff” Landon played a young man accused of murder who Bowie must defend against an angry mob. In his second episode, which aired just a few months later, Landon played a French aristocrat, Armand de Nivernais, living in New Orleans. Along with his accent, Landon also showed off is sword fighting skills in both stories.

3. Tales of Wells Fargo

The next Western Michael Landon appeared in was Tales of Wells Fargo. He was cast in three episodes, all originally airing in 1957. He guest starred alongside Chuck Connors in “Sam Bass” and played young gun Tad Cameron in both “Shotgun Messenger” and “The Kid.” The latter saw him yet again accused of a crime he didn’t commit, an oddly specific type-casting that would show up in many of his early roles.

4. The Restless Gun

Michael Landon appeared next in The Restless Gun as a hotshot gunslinger in a pilot episode that aired months before the series officially began. He tests the resolve of the show’s main character (named Britt Ponset in this episode but renamed Vint Bonner for the rest of the series) and learns a hard lesson in the process. The episode also guest starred William Hopper right before he became investigator Paul Drake in Perry Mason

5. The Texan

After appearing in an Old West episode of the anthology series Alcoa Theatre alongside Star Trek’s doctor DeForest Kelley and the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island Alan Hale Jr., Michael Landon guest starred in a 1958 installment of The Texan. He played yet another young man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. 

6. Zane Grey Theatre

Speaking of anthologies, Michael Landon appeared in two episodes of the Western anthology Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the 1957 story “Gift from a Gunman” he played a teenager who looks up to an aging gunfighter. Two years later, he starred as a rancher’s son hired to sabotage a cattle drive.

7. Trackdown

A year before he became Little Joe Cartwright, Michael Landon played two nefarious outlaws on Trackdown. First, he was the title character in “The Pueblo Kid.” In a strange subversion of the trope he had already played many times before, his character took credit for a number of murders he didn’t actually commit. Later that same year, Landon played an ex-con out for revenge in “Day of Vengeance.”

8. Wanted Dead or Alive

Michael Landon played another outlaw in his first of two episodes of Wanted Dead or Alive. In “The Martin Poster” Landon was wanted criminal Carl Martin who Steve McQueen’s Josh Randall must bring in, and in “The Legend” Landon was the son of a man determined to find lost gold in the desert.  

9. Tombstone Territory

Another Western Michael Landon guest starred on twice in the year leading up to Bonanza was Tombstone Territory. In “Rose of the Rio Bravo” he played a naïve young man who falls for the charms of the con artist title character. In “The Man from Brewster” he played, you guessed it, a kid wanting help from Sheriff Hollister after being falsely accused of a crime.

10. Frontier Doctor

Michael Landon played a troubled teen caught up in a murder in one episode of this short-lived series about an early 1900s physician. The episode “Shadow of Belle Starr” also featured future Batman villain Frank Gorshin.

11. The Rifleman

Two of Michael Landon’s most famous pre-Bonanza roles came during the first season of The Rifleman. In the classic Western’s third episode “End of a Young Gun” Landon plays an outlaw who stays at the McCain ranch after saving Mark’s life. In the last episode of season one “The Mind Reader” Landon plays, you’ll never believe this, a man accused of a murder he did not actually commit. It was his last Western role before Joe Cartwright, airing just three months prior to Bonanza's premiere.

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16 Comments

Steve2021 22 months ago
Missed Michael Landon, He was the best !
Runeshaper 22 months ago
In short, Michael Landon played a lot of people that were accused of crimes that they didn't actually commit LOL
bagandwallyfan52 22 months ago
I would like to see Highway To
Heaven and Little House On The Prairie on METV.
If you have COZI-TV in your cable system, LHOP is on M-F midday for 3 hours. H2H is also on that channel but at a ridiculous time early in the morning.
BrittReid 22 months ago
12. I Was A Teenage WEREWOLF.
DethBiz BrittReid 22 months ago
Definitely one of my favorite Westerns. Right up there with Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.
BrittReid DethBiz 22 months ago
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, another classic western.
DethBiz BrittReid 22 months ago
Definitely a classic!
DebbieU60 BrittReid 21 months ago
I was six when I saw I was a teenage werewolf in the mid 60s. I got teased for crying when his character died.
daDoctah 22 months ago
Landon was one of a handful of actors to play three memorable long-running TV characters (Bonanza, Highway to Heaven, Little House on the Prairie). Others in that elite group include Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian, Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Incredible Hulk) and arguably Buddy Ebsen (Davy Crockett, Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones). I'm not going to count Lucille Ball because all of her characters were basically the same person with different names.
daDoctah daDoctah 22 months ago
Forgot to mention a more recent three-fer actor: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker and Denny Crane.
MsRockford74 daDoctah 22 months ago
Hi:) I would like to add Lee Majors (The Big Valley, Six-Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy) and Kate Jackson (Rookies, Charlie's Angels, Scarecrow and Mrs. King). Does John Forsythe count (Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty) ?
Andybandit 22 months ago
Michael Landon's daughter Jen Landon look just like him. Except she has blonde hair.
Andybandit 22 months ago
Half of these shows I never heard of. I never heard of #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10.
Pacificsun 22 months ago
Oddly typecast?

Maybe that's because he had only two reactions! Visibly happy. Or deeply troubled.

The cornerstone emotions of Rope Opera Westerns (wink)!
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