<P> In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time . The time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 (Season 1) and 1867 (Season 13) during and shortly after the American Civil War . </P> <P> During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967--1970 period in prime time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa . </P> <P> The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice - widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss" Cartwright (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe" (Michael Landon). Via exposition (S01: E01--"Rose for Lotta") and flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ancestry: English (S02: E65--"Elizabeth My Love"), Swedish (S03: E95--"Inger My Love") and French Creole (S04: E120--"Marie My Love") respectively . The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung). Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were billed equally . The opening credits would alternate the order among the four stars . </P> <P> The family lived on a thousand square - mile (2,600 km) ranch called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada opposite California on the edge of the Sierra Nevada range). The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" (2,000 km) on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa ." The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West . The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell). </P>

How many times was ben cartwright married on bonanza