Bonanza Bonanza Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, "Bonanza" is NBC's longest-running western, and ranks overall as the second-longest-running western series on U.S. network television (behind CBS's "Gunsmoke"), and within the top 10 longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family that live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon and later featured (at
The Cowboys (TV series) The Cowboys (TV series) " The Cowboys " was a short-lived Western television series based on the 1972 motion picture of the same name starring John Wayne. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network from February 6 to May 8, 1974. The television show starred Jim Davis, Diana Douglas, Moses Gunn, A Martinez, Robert Carradine, and Clay O'Brien. David Dortort, best known for "Bonanza" and "The High Chaparral", produced the series. The television show, like the movie, followed the exploits of seven boys who worked on a ranch in 1870s New Mexico. "The Cowboys" began as an