Reviews (7)

BONANZA Restored To Its Original Quality!
Bonanza is at last available as its meant to be...Digitally Mastered, original music, the burning map, and the beautiful watercolor drawings of the opening and closing credits.

The various repeat airings on television since the series ended were edited by up to 10 minutes to allow for more commercial time. This DVD presents the episodes in their original form. And the picture quality is no doubt better than the quality of the then-new color TVs when the series originally aired.

May this Volume 1 sell enough that Republic/Artisan continue to remaster the original prints from the series. There are many classic episodes that have never seen release on video, and were sadly edited in tv repeats...

Springtime, The Hayburner, Hoss and the Leprechauns, The Wooing of Abigail Jones, etc.

The original masters of the Bonanza series need to be restored and preserved on DVD.

For die-hard Bonanza fans only
The class act in classic TV westerns seems to be Have Gun Will Travel, which works on many levels and effectively engages the modern audience. Bonanza fans may appreciate the excellent DVD transfer, gorgeous settings and selection of episodes in this product. But the rest of us would be better advised to select something with vision and adult-level dialogue going for it.

Why not Season Box Sets?
This is a great compilation of classic episodes of one of the best shows in TV History.My only complaint is the lack of the deserved respect for such a show.Many classic shows from the 60s and 70s have been released in wonderful quality season box sets.Why not Bonanza?

A Western classic!
So,the waiting time is over.A beautiful DVD in Top Quality of the great Bonanza TV-Show.I am astonished about the remarkable Choice about the episodes.The Crucible and All about Walter,one dramatic and one funny,are truly some of the greatest from the complete Run.And the Orginal Sound and Opening Sequence let the heart jump.Bonanza Fans,this is the first real deal on DVD.Buy it and lets hope there will be more.And my wish is that there will be more classic shows like Branded,Man called Shenandoah,Lancer,High Chapparal,Bronco,Laramie or Gunsmoke.I think there is a big market for these treats.

great all around dvd
this is the best dvd yet and i would highly recommend. i too will be waiting for future editions from artisan. now if we can only get alias smith and jones by someone like "artisan"!!!! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

it all comes back!
Bonanza was the first series I watched on tv and it's great to see it back. This is a real good buy: eight episodes of good image and sound quality. The stories are a bit too simple for these times, but these episodes sling you right back forty years ago when you were a twelve year old kid. Great! Everything seemed clear and simple then. Hum. Curious but fun.

Bonanza Episodes.
This dvd has two discs with a total of 8 episodes. A snap case and double sided.[Brentwood home video] Episodes are,Disc 1 side A.1. Escape to Ponderosa.2. The Ape.Disc 1 side B.1. The Bloodline.2. Death at Dawn.Disc 2 side A.1. Blood on the Land.2. Badge withouit Honor.Disc 2 side B.1. Day of Reckoning.2. Desart JusticeThe sound and picture is very good you can hear clearly and see clearly but the bad thing is how many times are they going to re..release the same episodes over and over again???Features are simple....play,choose sceen and the story of Bonanza.If you don't have these episodes on dvd or vhs do buy this one, because of the picture and sound it's worth the money.I bought this in a video store just a short time ago and I couldn't pass it up so I thought I'd pass some info to other amazon buyers. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Compression workaround
I have to agree with the comments on video quality of these two features.
I was able to display the image without the compression by setting my DVD player for a 16 x 9 aspect ratio on my standard 3 x 4 TV. Of course you will have to return the settings to their correct value before watching any other DVD.

Tarzan and the Trappers/Tarzan the Fearless
This disk contains two features, "Tarzan and the Trappers" (1958) with Gordon Scott and "Tarzan the Fearless" (1933) with Buster Crabbe. While both are reasonably entertaining films, there is absolutely nothing positive to say regarding the video quality. On the disk I viewed, the Gordon Scott feature (which is letterboxed) is noticeably compressed in such a way that the images are grossly out of proportion. Truck tires and the ends of sawed-off pieces of bamboo are both oval rather than round, and characters appear shorter and wider than should be the case. The Scott film is no cinematic masterpiece anyway, but seems to consist of two separated unrelated features thrown together. (Note the radical change in the "Boy"-type character's hair style from the first half of the film to the last.) The Buster Crabbe film is clearly a more ambitious project, and of historical note for Tarzan fans if only for the opportunity to hear Crabbe's ludicrous attempt at a Tarzan yell. The picture quality of the Crabbe feature is, however, mediocre at best - grainy, with no hint of the clarity one would expect from DVD. In fact, there are VHS copies of both the Crabbe film and the Gordon Scott feature with much better video quality. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

What A Wonderful Episode
This is an excellent episode.Hoss finally gets to meet his uncle Gunar who turns out to be a comanchero.Nevile Brand is great playing the long lost uncle who in the end is not what he appears to be after all. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very emotional Bonanza.
But fun. It's about a boy who's struggling to get over his father's death when Ben killed him in self defense. It's fun, emotiomal, dramatic, and many more adjectives I can't think of right now. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I'm very dissapointed with this pack
I though I have made a good election but this 2 dvd pack has two lenght episodes but the sound is quite bad is very hard to hear some sentences and the most important the famous theme has been changed by a ridiculous country theme.

Gladdly I didn't pick the 5 dvd pack made by the same studio.

Don't buy this please,try something else.

Could have been much better
Good story and good acting, but audio is quite poor. The familiar theme music is missing entirely and the dialogue is spotty at best. Several sentences were hard to hear, and then the background music would blast you out of your chair. Glad I didn't buy the 5-pack. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good eps, so-so quality
These are classic "Bonanza" episodes. I would prefer that the videos include the original theme music, but I understand that copyright issues prevent that. The technical quality of the video is not the best, but the DVD is quite watchable. I'm happy to see "Bonanza" being released in DVD format, and look forward to more eps on DVD!

Struggles for justice amidst violence and lawlessness
Bonanza is the famous television western series, set in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, during the years of the Civil War, soon after the discovery of the fabulous Comstock Silver Lode. Bonanza is the saga of the Cartwrights, a prosperous family of ranchers. The stories relate their struggles for justice amidst violence and lawlessness as they attempt to maintain and operate their timberland ranch, known as the Ponderosa Ranch. Many of these classics were produced in the early years of filmmaking. This means that primitive audio recording technique will be more noticeable in the DVD format, so will glitches in picture. These movies ("Desert Justice" & "Badge Without Honor" have been rescued from the film vaults in most cases and have not been restored. "Desert Justice" is the story of Dave Walker, one of Ben's ranch hands. Dave is accused of murdering the wife of Marshall Dowd. After the Cartwrights discover that Dave was beaten while in jail, they decide to accompany him to Los Angeles where his trial is to be held. "Badge Without Honor" is about a man named Gerald Eskith who comes to town claiming to be a Deputy Marshall. He wants to take the Cartwrights friend Jason Blaime to San Francisco to testify against the Murdock Gang. Adam, however, has his suspicions and decides to go along with them..... On the DVD (one episode on each side) you'll also find Interactive Menus, Interactive Film Trivia about Bonanza and information about the actors. A pity is the missing well-known "Bonanza"-tune. Now all the episodes start with a nasty kind of music. See Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright, a three time widower; Pernell Roberts as his eldest son Adam; big Dan Blocker as son Hoss; Michael Landon as the youngest son, Little Joe. It's nice to see all the famous characters back on the screen. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A very different type of Bonanza.
They don't mean ape literally. They mean a man who has lived like an ape all his life and is now scaring everyone in Virginia City. Nobody likes him when they meet him, except Hoss. The ape loves a girl, who he thinks loves him back, but is really laughing behind his back. After the law goes after the ape, it's up to Hoss to lead him the right way. I'm pretty sure you will find this weird Bonanza entertaining. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

2 Great Bonanzas!
The Blodd Line is an emotional Bonanza about a boy who must get over his father's death. But Death at Dawn is really fun. The murderer, Farmer Perkins, laughs throughout the show. I know it's supposed to be a mean laugh, but it's hilarious. This guy killed a store cashier in cold blood and only the cashier's wife was an eyewitness to the murder. They sentence Perkins to hang, but his friend has held Ben to hostage to free Perkins. It's up to the three boys to save their pa and still hang Perkins. This is probably the best Bonanza dvd that you'll find. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Terrible Hossless...
No Hoss. Poor fellow died prior to this episode, so we don't get to see the big guy. But that's not what makes this episode terrible. If you want to see what really killed off this series, watch Landon (Little Joe) overacting in this reinterpretation of "The Miracle Worker". Painful! Poor Altman and Landon were just doing their jobs. The blame goes to the scriptwriter and producer of this wasted effort. IMPORTANT NOTE: The DVD does NOT use the original "Bonanza" title theme, which was probably too expensive for them to procure, but substitutes a nice little alternative country-music ditty. Should be banned from all reissue. Not worth watching, even for Altman fans, which begs the question ... why is it that [junk] like this is available, but Robert Altman's wonderful films "Three Women" and "Images" remain unattainable?

I don't know about the quality, but I know about the episode
Little Joe is in one of his best episodes in this one. He tries to teach a deaf girl to talk with her hands and needs the help of the girl's daughter. But there's another man who don't care about her talking; he just wants to kiss her and all. Anyway, so Little Joe gets a book to help teach her and she soon catches on. Until she says she's in love with Joe. The Joe gets mad, but apologizes. They go back to normal later and then it has a surprising ending. A great early Bonanza to own. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Outstanding fun and suspense.
This is a definite dvd to add to your Bonanza collection. It's about a cold blooded murder by a murderer who denies killing a storeowner. Her wife testifies in court of the cold blooded murder and it makes the murderer to be sentenced at dawn to be hanged by the neck until death. But the murderer'd friend takes Ben into hostage into a stable so that if they hang him, Ben gets hung. It's up to Joe, Hoss, and Adam to go on with the hanging and save their father. Such a suspicious and entertaining Bonanza; so fans, don't pass this by. ... Read more