Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse under the Metromedia Restaurant Group. The names of the restaurants were derived from the classic TV series "Bonanza", which was set at a place called Ponderosa Ranch. In 1963, Dan Blocker, who played Eric "Hoss" Cartwright on "Bonanza", started the Bonanza Steakhouse chain. The first Bonanza opened in Westport, Connecticut. Sam Wyly and his brother Charles Wyly bought the small Bonanza restaurant chain three years later. The company grew to approximately 600 restaurants by 1989, when the Wylys sold it to Metromedia. In 1965, Dan Lasater, Norm Wiese and Charles Kleptz founded Ponderosa in Kokomo, Indiana, moving the headquarters to
U Lazy S Ranch split some of the acreage into farms. In 1949, Lott started flying an airplane to drive the cattle and spray herbicide. In the 1950s, the land was faced with a draught. By 1954, Lott planted 1,400 acres of guar to improve the land. He was also the first Texas rancher to use a roto-pitter to break up the rangeland. Two years later, in 1956, Lott's range improvement program had worked. In 1965, Macy split her section of the ranch and renamed it the Running M Ranch. Meanwhile, the U Lazy S Ranch was managed by Lott's son, Jack Lott. By