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
Bonanza first season to the 1969-1970 season. INSP first aired only selected first and second-season episodes of "Bonanza" and began to air the "Bonanza" Lost Episodes packages which contains episodes that originally aired from 1965-1973. Family Channel and the Hallmark Channel were two other channels that have also only aired the "Bonanza" Lost Episodes package. In October 2015, Me-TV additionally began airing the "Bonanza" Lost Episodes package. As of December 2016, Me-TV returned to airing the original episodes package. Ever since March 2018 Me-TV has been airing the Lost Episodes, wanting to play the entire series from beginning to end. "Bonanza"