The Worst Episodes of Bonanza
Every episode of Bonanza ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Bonanza!
The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Bonanza" is "The Hunter", rated N/A/10 from 0 user votes. It was directed by N/A and written by N/A. "The Hunter" aired on 1/16/1973 and is rated NaN point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "The Strange One".
NaN/10 0 votes#1 - The Hunter
Season 14 Episode 16 - Aired 1/16/1973
In what turned out to be the series finale, Little Joe is making a delivery for Ben when he meets Bill Tanner, a psychotic killer that is posing as a soldier he has killed. His delivery wagon stolen and sans supplies, food or water, Joe - whom Tanner has called his ""prey"" - tries to evade the well-stocked madman, who takes sadistic pleasure in his role as a predator.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
5.4/10 104 votes#2 - The Strange One
Season 7 Episode 10 - Aired 11/14/1965
Hoss and Joe find a woman abandoned by a wagon train because her gift of prophecy is considered a curse. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," says Ben, "if eveybody made a real effort to understand whatever's strange and unfamiliar rather to fear it and try to destroy it?"
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
5.6/10 87 votes#3 - Frenzy
Season 13 Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/1972
Ben helps shepherd a young family, the Kosovos (Nick; his wife, Anna; and his son, Sandor), who had recently immigrated from Serbia. Nick soon finds he can't handle the pressure needed to become successful in America and, one evening while Ben is visiting, his mind snaps. He goes on a rampage, trapping Ben (who becomes injured) and a terrified Anna and Sandor inside their home. Ben must do all he can to keep Nick at bay and try to reason with the mentally ill rancher.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
5.7/10 91 votes#4 - A Severe Case of Matrimony
Season 9 Episode 33 - Aired 7/7/1968
An untalented gypsy girl tries to get the Cartwrights to finance her career as an opera singer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
5.8/10 114 votes#5 - Saga of Whizzer McGee
Season 4 Episode 30 - Aired 4/28/1963
Hoss becomes concerned for the welfare of an insecure, belligerent fellow who is as small as Hoss is large. Interesting blend of comedy and pathos that ends unpredictably.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
5.9/10 134 votes#6 - The Frenchman
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1961
An irritating man who boasts of being the reincarnation of French poet Francois Villion shows up causing trouble for the Cartwrights.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 111 votes#7 - Square Deal Sam
Season 6 Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1964
A conman heads into town and takes advantage of the Cartwrights with a fake land deal. The conman ends up staying in Virginia city to run an orphanage.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 94 votes#8 - A Deck of Aces
Season 12 Episode 18 - Aired 1/31/1971
Bradley Meredith, a Ben Cartwright look-a-like, causes trouble when he sells land to the railroad. Ben has already turned down the deal, but Meredith, acting as Ben, accepts the deal, which stirs up all kinds of trouble.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.1/10 87 votes#9 - A Visit to Upright
Season 13 Episode 25 - Aired 3/26/1972
Ben's ability to close a lucrative livestock contract with a conspicuous widow hinges on the sale of a dilapidated saloon in Upright that Hoss and Joe had impulsively purchased. However, the boys put off the sale when the town drunk (who acts as ""saloon keeper"") insist the crumbling Trails End Saloon may house a fortune. Things get even more complicated when a woman, claiming to be the daughter of the deceased former owner, envisions turning the Trails End into a booming saloon, hotel and restaurant.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 137 votes#10 - A Pink Cloud Comes from Old Cathay
Season 5 Episode 28 - Aired 4/12/1964
A headstrong Chinese girl (Marlo Thomas) visiting the Cartwrights incites labor unrest among local workers.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 104 votes#11 - Hound Dog
Season 6 Episode 25 - Aired 3/21/1965
Cousin Muley Jones returns to the Ponderosa, along with a pack of noisy hound dogs, in this funny sequel to "The Saga Of Muley Jones".
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.2/10 110 votes#12 - Maestro Hoss
Season 8 Episode 33 - Aired 5/7/1967
Hoss is conned into buying a violin from a gypsy fortune teller, and everyone on the Ponderosa--except for Hop Sing--suffers the consequences.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 221 votes#13 - Dark Star
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 4/23/1960
Joe falls in love with Tirza, an undeniably strange gypsy girl who says she is cursed and never does seem to "snap out of it". The first episode of the series with a supernatural flavor, directed appropriately enough, by Lewis Allen, who made the classic ghost film "The Uninvited".
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 118 votes#14 - The Saga of Muley Jones
Season 5 Episode 26 - Aired 3/29/1964
The Cartwrights are visited by their second cousin, Muley Jones of Weedville, Missouri who sings with a window-shattering voice and stirs up trouble with Indian negotiations that Ben is trying to ensure.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 102 votes#15 - Devil on Her Shoulder
Season 7 Episode 6 - Aired 10/17/1965
Ben is attracted to Sarah Reynolds, a member of a religious order led by her fanatical uncle. When she is accused of being a witch, the Cartwrights step in.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 96 votes#16 - Clarissa
Season 8 Episode 32 - Aired 4/30/1967
The Cartwrights' cousin, Clarissa visits. Her assertive, snobbish ways result in nothing but trouble for Ben and his sons.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 106 votes#17 - The Sound of Drums
Season 10 Episode 10 - Aired 11/17/1968
In the third and final installment of the Rossi family, Georgio Rossi doesn't understand why he cannot allow Indians who have left the reservation to live on his land.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/10 90 votes#18 - An Earthquake Called Callahan
Season 12 Episode 28 - Aired 4/11/1971
The only person who can get Dusty out of jail is a professional fighter who will not return to Virginia City, so Joe stays on the man's heels no matter where he goes.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 194 votes#19 - The Last Trophy
Season 1 Episode 27 - Aired 3/26/1960
Adam takes Ben's friends, Lord Marion Dunsworth and Lady Beatrice, on a hunting expedition, and they are captured by a gang of crude thieves and murderers. During one early scene, after listening to Ben reminisce, Hoss says, "Always like to hear Pa get wound up. He don't do it often."
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 166 votes#20 - The Savage
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/3/1960
Adam's life is saved by a woman known to the Indians as White Buffalo Woman, but who is actually the daughter of Norwegian immigrants.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 107 votes#21 - The Miracle Maker
Season 3 Episode 34 - Aired 5/20/1962
Hoss blames himself when a young woman is crippled in a wagon accident, and hopes a faith healer can help her walk again.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 123 votes#22 - The Actress
Season 4 Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1963
Joe becomes romantically involved with a woman who considers herself a serious dramatic actress. Unfortunately, she is the only one who does.
Director: Christian Nyby
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 108 votes#23 - King of the Mountain
Season 5 Episode 21 - Aired 2/23/1964
When mountain man Jim Leyton decides to marry, he chooses Hoss as his best man. Julie's father, Grizzly, does not agree and Hoss must come to the rescue.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 77 votes#24 - The Genius
Season 7 Episode 27 - Aired 4/3/1966
Hoss chooses a difficult path when he decides to rehabilitate a famous poet, Will Smith, who is really William Warlock Evans, who spends too much time drinking and eventually his wife arrives at the Ponderosa.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/10 119 votes#25 - Napoleon's Children
Season 8 Episode 30 - Aired 4/16/1967
A gang of juvenile delinquents, led by an intelligent runt, who calls himself Napoleon, terrorizes Virginia City and the Ponderosa as well.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A