In much later interviews, Roberts denied statements about "Bonanza" attributed to him. "I did not enjoy "Bonanza" anymore...but I never said those things people said I said." He was, however, "too smart not to recognize its weaknesses." In a 1963 interview, he asked a reporter, "Isn't it a bit silly for three adult males to have to ask father's permission for everything they do?" "They told me the four characters (Lorne Greene, patriarch Ben, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared; none of it ever happened," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. He objected to how "Bonanza" portrayed the relationship between the "father" and adult "sons," describing it as "adolescent".