Bonanza
The Trail Gang
TV Flash files “The Trail Gang” as hour 43 of 431 in the TV Flash guide — Bonanza (1959–1973) on NBC, season 2, episode 11, aired 1960-11-26, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E11: listed hour 43 of 431 in the Bonanza guide, hour 11 of 34 in season 2. It aired 1960-11-26 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Last Viking” (S02E10). Next is “The Savage” (S02E12). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
About to set out on a cattle drive, Ben hires a young drifter named Sam Jackson as one of his drovers. What he doesn't know is that Jackson is really outlaw Johnny Logan, who signed on to the drive because he knew it was going to pass near the town of Waycross, and Logan is determined to kill the Waycross sheriff--who is also his father.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Trail Gang sit in the Bonanza guide?
S02E11 is listed hour 43 of 431 — hour 11 of 34 in season 2, season 2 episode 11.
When did Bonanza S02E11 air?
The Trail Gang aired 1960-11-26 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need to watch 14 seasons of Bonanza in order?
No. It is an episodic family western. The Cartwrights continue; plots reset. Sample famous hours, then wander by season if the ranch takes. A thermos-and-scholar marathon is optional.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Sunday-night NBC color as ritual: a family western that treated the Ponderosa like a parish. Watch it for glossy production, rotating guest-star ethics, and the Cartwrights as household gods before prestige TV invented the phrase.
Sunday night, 1959, and NBC is not merely airing a western. It is selling color sets as furniture. Bonanza walks into the living room in a palette the neighbors can envy through the window: the Ponderosa as parish, Lorne Greene's Ben Cartwright as patriarch with a three-son chord, and a Virginia City orbit that could host a moral, a guest star, and a fistfight before the late news. The western was already television's default weather. This one proved the genre could be glossy, emotional, and endlessly…
Filed against
- Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright
Lorne Greene patriarch-ed Bonanza as Ben Cartwright, color TV’s family western as Sunday ritual. Ponderosa warmth and authority made the Cartwrights a franchise before the word was fashion — NBC selling color sets as furniture while the…
- Michael Landon as Little Joe Cartwright
Michael Landon’s Little Joe Cartwright is the matinee face of Bonanza — the youngest son as Sunday-night color, the through-line who remained when the Ponderosa roster broke. NBC’s glossy family western treated the ranch like a parish;…
- Dan Blocker as Hoss Cartwright
Dan Blocker’s Hoss Cartwright was Bonanza’s gentle giant — color TV’s family western as Sunday ritual, heart the camera could not fake under NBC’s glossy parish. A death the company had to write around because he was not a replaceable…
- Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright
Pernell Roberts’s Adam Cartwright was Bonanza’s restless chord — the son who walked off the Ponderosa while NBC was still selling color sets as furniture. Fourteen seasons of Sunday ritual outlasted him. TV Flash still files the empty…