'Bonanza' TV show fans to hold 2014 Roundup Convention in Carson City
A fan club of the TV Show "Bonanza" has announced it will hold its 2014 Bonanza Roundup Convention in Carson City at Gold Dust West.
The event is set for June 26-30, 2014 and marks a return to the Silver State, which hosted a similar Roundup in 2009.
According to the official Bonanza Roundup website, Carson City organizers have planned to open up many locations and homes that were a part of the popular TV show that ran from 1959 to 1973 with 430 episodes.
Plans include tours of Lake Tahoe, Carson City, Virginia City, sites where the TV show was filmed, casino nights, Bonanza character nights, music, food, entertainment and a trip along the V&T Railroad from Carson City to Virginia City.
"They are letting us do things at the Elley Orrum/Sandy Bowers mansion — the house where Julia Bulette "worked" (and the) the Mackay (Virginia Consolidated Mine) Mansion," according to the website.
The fictional Old West show "Bonanza" was about the Cartwright family, who live in the area near Lake Tahoe, Nev. during the Comstock Lode era. The show starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon and David Canary. In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
The series currently airs on Me-TV, TV Land, My Family TV, The Inspiration Network and Encore Westerns. Locally "Bonanza" reruns can be seen at 2 pm Monday-Friday on MeTV, KAME ch. 21.2
According to Wikipedia, the opening scene for the first season was shot at Lake Hemet, a reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, Calif., and later moved to Lake Tahoe.
The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of "Have Gun – Will Travel," "Mannix," and "The Brady Bunch." In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12 season entitled "The Night Virginia City Died," Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires. (Chosen, in part, as a real 1875 fire destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City.)
The program's Nevada set, the Ponderosa Ranch house at Lake Tahoe was recreated in Incline Village in 1967, and remained a tourist attraction until its sale in September 2004.
January 16, 2013 marked the 40 anniversary of Bonanza’s last episode that aired on NBC television. That episode #430 titled “The Hunter” was written and directed by Michael Landon who played Joe Cartwright on the show, according to Virginia City historian Chic DiFrancia. Go here for the story.
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