I liked Little Joe the best and maybe Hoss second, but, yeah, the body count!

Remind:

The Cartwrights first rode through Virginia City, Nev., in the Western TV drama series Bonanza on Saturday, Sept. 12, 1959, on NBC, and it was the first Western to be televised entirely in color. Bonanza lasted 14 seasons, making it the second-longest-running TV Western behind Gunsmoke. In honor of the occasion, we ponder some bullet points from the Ponderosa Ranch:

Bonanza’s unmistakable theme song was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and dozens of renditions have been recorded over the years. The song originally had lyrics (“I’ve got a flair for women everywhere, bonanza!”), but they were never sung on the show. In 1962, Johnny Cash recorded a version with his own words (“The claim we hold is as good as gold, bonanza!”).

The Cartwrights weren’t lucky with the ladies. Ben (Lorne Greene) was a three times a widower, and his sons didn’t fare much better — their wives or fiancées tragically died or ran off. Joe (Michael Landon) proposed to 11 women, four of whom died.

An intrepid viewer watched the entire series and kept track of the Cartwrights’ body count, estimating that Ben and his three sons killed 170 people over the show’s run. Joe led the pack with roughly 67 solo kills (and he had help with four more).