Airing between 1959 and 1973, Bonanza had a total of 431 episodes. It became NBC’s longest running TV series and was a show beloved by several generations.

Telling the story of an all-male family that lived in Ponderosa—a fictional, thousand-square-mile ranch near Lake Tahoe—around the time of the American Civil War, there wasn’t a family in America that wasn’t familiar with its cast of characters.

The producers of Bonanza wanted all four leading male actors in the show to have equal screen time. It was important to them that no single actor would overshadow the other three, thereby truly making them an ensemble.

Every script was closely developed, making sure all four were equally represented, and it paid off; the characters didn’t just balance each other out, they also allowed fans to have different favorites, and to root for them equally. It also ensured that if one of the characters didn’t work for a certain viewer demographic, there would be at least one other character for them to empathize with.

Amongst other popular names, Bonanza saw Michael Landon playing the role of Little Joe Cartwright. While he had played characters on screen in a few small roles before Bonanza, his portrayal of Little Joe was his major breakthrough.

Michael Landon may have had one of the most recognizable names in the industry, but did you know that it was, in fact, only a stage name? Born to a Jewish father and Catholic mother in Brooklyn in 1936, Michael’s birth name was Eugene Maurice Orowitz.

When he began to seek out a career in the entertainment industry, Bob Raison, a Los Angeles agent who took him under his wing, suggested he change his name to something that would be more accessible to audiences. Following this advice, Michael selected the name “Landon” from a phone book.

When Michael Landon took on the role of Joseph “Little Joe” Cartwright, his commitment was total. The actor took part in the show in every way possible. He didn’t just act but actually wrote some of Bonanza’s most popular episodes and appeared in 402 episodes out of a total of 416.

His initial attempts at scriptwriting failed and he got several rejections from producer Dortort. He worked hard honing his writing skills and eventually, his scripts were good enough to be accepted, proving that persistence and commitment pay off.

Landon’s commitment to the show wasn’t always a good thing. The more he got involved behind the scenes, the more difficult it became for the production team to work with him. Reportedly, his dedication, perfectionism and total immersion were some of the major reasons for production delays and long shooting days. But it wasn’t just this that made Landon a difficult actor to work with.

Landon was very protective of his own role in the show, as well as of those of his fellow actors, and never wanted new characters to be introduced by the writers.

Michael Landon was 5’9″—not short by any standard—but still too short for his liking, especially when he was shown standing next to the towering Dan Blocker. To deal with this, Landon wore lifts in his shoes throughout the entire filming of the series, which helped make him look a little bit taller.

“Ride the Wind” was Bonanza’s 17th episode of Season 7. The episode, which dealt with Joe deciding to join the Pony Express and Ben’s dissatisfaction with his choice was especially long and had to be split up into two parts, shown one week after the other.

The two episodes were later combined and screened in a theater in Mexico for a special event. No other episode was released this way.

Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide more than twenty times—a record surpassed only by Lucille Ball.

Following his work on Bonanza, Landon continued to play hugely successful roles on television, portraying Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie for nearly a decade (1974-1983), and Jonathan Smith on the short-lived but successful Highway to Heaven (1984-1989).

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