"The black sheep of "Bonanza""
Pernell Roberts was born on May 18, 1928, in Waycross, Georgia. Rebellious by nature (a quality that was to limit his stay with "Bonanza"), Roberts failed out of college in the late '40s. "I disinguished myself primarily by flunking out of college three times," Roberts said. Pernell flunked out twice in one year while pursuing extracurricular activities, including four plays for the University Theater, modeling in art classes and hopping tables. After being asked to leave from his third University Pernell Roberts decided for heading east to pursue an acting career full time. He moved to New York and performed on Broadway in "The Lovers" and "The Clearing in the Woods". After many other stage roles, he won the prestigious Drama Desk Award in 1955 for his off-Broadway performance in MacBeth.
In 1957 he moved to Hollywood, appearing in a supporting role in the film adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's "Desire Under the Elms" with Burl Ives, Anthony Perkins, and Sophia Loren.
After frequent character acting work made him, in the words of David Dortort, "a familiar face on the lot", Pernell finally got his big break when he was cast as the eldest Cartwright son Adam on "Bonanza". From the beginning, however, he apporached this assignment as though work on a weekly television series was somehow beneath his dignity as an actor. Indeed, until his departure from "Bonanza" in 1965, Pernell Roberts/Adam Cartwright was usually viewed as the black sheep of the cast.
Adam Cartwright, the paler version of father Ben
Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright), Michael Landon (Little Joe), and Dan Blocker (Hoss) all cultivated warm personal friendschips with each other. The three men shared a common business manager, and frequently indulged in horseplay to break the occasional tense moment on the set. Pernell remained aloof from these activities and was most often found complaining about the quality of the scripts (unless, as David Dortort later recalled, that particular week's episode was centered around his character). Unfortunately, Adam Cartwright was never given a clearly defined personality. He was supposed to be an intellectual and almost always dressed in sombre black, but aside from these trademarks the oldest son often came across as merely a paler version of family patriarch, Ben.
While the other actors bolstered their popularity by making weekend personal appearances as their "Bonanza" characters at state fairs and civic events, Roberts would have none of it. When senior editor John Poppy visited the set in 1964 to write a feature profile of the show for the very popular Look magazine, Roberts could not contain his disgust for his surroundings:
"I just get on, ask somebody for the lines, and say them. That's all the attention this kind of operation deserves. They have to turn out 34 episodes a season, one every six days, so the idea is to stay on schedule, get the shot, fill up the 50 minutes and get on to the next episode. There simply isn't time to stop and inquire about things like dramatic honesty."
Far from disdaining the commercial aspects of the show, the other cast members candidly referred to "Bonanza" as simply "The Product". In the same Look article, Lorne Greene offered a withering appraisal of Pernell's attitude: "He's so unprofessional. He complains that he's just one quarter of a character. Well, a lot depends on how much character you put in."
Bye, Adam Cartwright
Fan mail, or rather a comparative lack thereof, indicated that Roberts was the least popular of the featured players. His contract committed him to the show for five years. When he started to make noises about leaving "Bonanza" after that, NBC threatened him with career oblivion and brought in actor Guy Williams (from the television show "Zorro") to make several appearances as Ben Cartwright's younger brother Will, should a substitute for the character of Adam be needed. At this point "Bonanza" was the most popular program in the U.S.A., and no one saveRoberts wanted to tamper with its chemistry. He backed off temporarily and renewed his contract for a year, but there was no holding him when that extension expired in 1965. It was explained that Adam had travelled east to study at a major university, a plot device that left the door open for his return to the show.
Pernell Roberts never came back, and spent most of the next fourteen years in relative obscurity, making television quest appearances and acting in stage plays.
Ironically, it was another weekly television series that revived his career in 1979 when he assumed the title role of Trapper John, M.D., which ran on the CBS network until 1986.
Pernell Roberts is today the only surviving member of the original featured cast of "Bonanza".
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