Bonanza: The Return portrayed Candy Canaday on the original series, was not involved with either TV-movie. The setting is The Ponderosa in the year 1905. Augustus Brandenburg (Dean Stockwell), a land baron, attempts to take the Ponderosa first by legal, and then by illegal means, in order to strip the land of its natural resources. The story includes several flashbacks to the original series. Bonanza: The Return Bonanza: The Return is a 1993 made-for-television film sequel to both the 1959–1973 television series "Bonanza" and the 1988 made-for-television film "". The movie was directed by Jerry Jameson and featured noted character actors Ben Johnson,
Movie ranch evenly split between movies and television episodes, were filmed at the ranch during its peak years. The long-running TV western "The Virginian" filmed on location at Iverson in the ranch's later period, as did "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke." By the 1960s, the ownership of the ranch was split between two of Karl and Augusta's sons, with Joe Iverson, an African safari hunter married to Iva Iverson, owning the southern half of the ranch (the Lower Iverson) and Aaron Iverson, a farmer married to Bessie Iverson, owning the northern half (the Upper Iverson). In the mid-1960s the state of California began construction