We need a new Bonanza

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Besides encapsulating my childhood with its incredibly successful run of 14 years on television, Bonanza, from 1959 through 1973 and beyond, was a major influence on a TV watching generation when TV was the only box entertainment available to the masses.

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I didn’t watch Bonanza religiously when I was a child but as an adult it is easy to see how the Cartwright role models were part of the American Ethos, including being compassionate and yet protecting our personal property and liberty. This is probably a big reason why I am so unexpectedly attracted to it now.

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There are some inherent and salient points that today’s media has conspicuously drifted away from that stand out in Bonanza. Mr. Ben Cartwright, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe are all strong, outspoken, honorable men who are wise, smart, and can handle themselves in any bar-room brawl or gunfight they manage to get stuck in.

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There is a strong attractiveness of the open land and the wilderness around the Ponderosa: Lake Tahoe, the Sierras, with its majestic redwoods, the desert. The beautiful scenery of the Lake and surrounding areas are a cinematic feast for the eyes and fortunately to this day are still one of my favorite vacation spots. The old West, the frontier, has had such a major influence on American values, a TV show like Bonanza, through a masterful mix of Hollywood-ish entertainment, insatiable romanticism, and historical nostalgia, exudes with the classic idealisms setting the back drop for the many portrayals of the darker side of humanity.

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Aside from the gratuitous skirt chasing by Little Joe, and the predictable ‘death sentence’ for every woman who decides to get married to a Cartwright (to maintain the show’s ongoing theme), through the variety of criminal and social conflict situations encountered, you can count on the either fatherly or the morally straight message, not only at the end of the show, but exuding through each of the main characters throughout the show.

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Is it so bad to have a mass media role model that has a straight moral compass, especially a family of grown men who are hard-working, educated, responsible, chivalrous, morally straight, courageous, loving, manly affectionate, and self-sufficient?

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I like to aspire to the achievements of those who are better than I am. I am not offended by high standards that we can all strive for to be better people, even if the role model seems honed to a sort of perfection in the final analysis. I believe we need people and especially leaders who are willing to at least strive for the higher moral road and dare to live up to the roles they are filling.

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When a good example is given, leadership by personal example, it’s much easier to do better and to believe you can.

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