Fans wrote letters of protest after Adam Cartwright became engaged on Bonanza

Trouble in Bonanza...

Those poor Cartwright men. It seems like every time one of them gets close to settling down, something happens to ruin their chance at love.

However, it turns out that one opportunity for love on Bonanza was actually thwarted by fans, rather than the series creators.

According to the Arizona Republic, the character of Laura Dayton, played by Kathie Browne, was introduced to the series with ulterior motives. The series had been having difficulties with one of its leads, Pernell Roberts, whose tumultuous history on Bonanza is the stuff of television legend.

Roberts left the show after six seasons, and in an interview with The Orlando Sentinel, he said, "I'm just sorry I wasn't able to get out of my contract and leave sooner."

He continued, "My problems with Bonanza were problems of communication. What we discussed would be, never was. I thought it would be a sophisticated show. Instead, it never went beyond the comic strip level."

But even while Roberts was still a member of the series main cast, there was still fear that he might depart the series suddenly, leaving producers struggling to explain the absence.

In an effort to remedy this, an NBC spokesman revealed to the Arizona Republic that Laura Dayton was included in the series to give Adam Cartwright a way out: Down the aisle. Provided that Pernell wanted to quit the series immediately, the series had ensured that Adam would be able to plausibly marry Laura, prompting his exit from the show.

The spokesman stated that the measure was "protection in depth." What they weren't anticipating, however, was the negative fan response begging the creators not to marry Adam off and separate him from the family. Ultimately, the failsafe wasn't necessary, and Browne's character ended up leaving Adam for the Cartwright's cousin, Will.

The fan mail also revealed that Bonanza had a previously unseen audience. The NBC spokesman said, "We even got letters from behind the Iron Curtain."

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17 Comments

zorob150 7 months ago
It didn't help that when they brought in Guy Williams as will a nephew of Ben's to replace Pernell Roberts that Michael Landon did everything in his power to get him fired from the series because he was jealous of him because he viewed him as a threat to his sex appeal with the women in the audience and didn't want to give up one iota of that fandom to a man who was better looking and more masculine. And then toward the end of the season Pernell Roberts agreed to come back for a sixth so will became redundant
Runeshaper 10 months ago
Well, you can't fault the fans for speaking their minds. If they knew Roberts wanted to leave, they may have thought/felt differently.
cperrynaples 10 months ago
Bonanza fans had nothing to worry about! Surely they must have known the love curse of the Cartwrights...LOL!
cperrynaples cperrynaples 10 months ago
PS Ironically Guy Williams was intended to replace Roberts! Of course he went on to Lost In Space!
Tresix cperrynaples 9 months ago
He also co-starred with Michael Landon in “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”.
Andybandit 10 months ago
I like the Adam character on Bonanza. I didn't like when he left Bonanza.
Mannixishot 10 months ago
I've seen Kathie Browne on other shows and she's a fantastic actress but the WRITING for her character on Bonanza sucked. I want to emphasize writing because there's only so much a good actor/actress can do with a lousy character or script.

Maybe fans would've had an easier time if the character Adam married was parallel to him. Adam is such a strong character and each episode Laura was in, she just seemed weak. Thought it from the very first episode she was in to the very last episode. I wanted to fall over when she wanted ADAM to tell her little girl that her daddy was dead. Like what was that? But somehow the little girl knew her daddy was dead because she didn't want to go to the area her daddy was buried at.

I thought Pernell had hot chemistry with "Woman of Fire".
cperrynaples Mannixishot 10 months ago
Browne of course went on to marry Carl Kolchak...LOL!
MrsPhilHarris 10 months ago
I always laugh when I read he thought the show would be “sophisticated “. It is not Masterpiece Theatre, it’s a tv western. How sophisticated did he think it would be?
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MrsPhilHarris Mannixishot 10 months ago
I don’t know if there were many serious half-hour shows on tv at that time but I think Robert Reed should have realized that anything by the creator of Gilligan’s Island would not be riveting drama.
MrsPhilHarris Adamtwelvia 10 months ago
I wonder. 🤔
zorob150 Adamtwelvia 7 months ago
He admitted the only reason he did trapper John was for the money. He was 51 years old at the time and realized that his time was ending as far as being an actor on weekly episodic television. It was his chance to get back in The graces of network executives and trust him with a series. But behind the scenes he hated that show too and said it was no better than Bonanza. And let's be honest the show trapper John was crap. It was a generic medical show shot with no sense of style originality or creativity it was an assembly line series badly written poorly executed and was just generic.
Adamtwelvia zorob150 7 months ago
Well, it lasted 7 years. So SOMEONE was watching and keeping it going!
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