Bonanza

The Continuing Story


BONANZA: The Next Generation
Also known as: "Bonanza: The Movie"
           1988


BONANZA: The Return
           1993
It might not seem much of a stretch, but Michael Landon Jr. had to feel comfortable with his own identity before he could play his father's son on "Bonanza: The Return".
"I really had to become my own person, said Landon, whose late father played Little Joe cartwright on the NBC series "Bonanza".
"People think it's a handout, he said, "but you have more of a chance of falling on your face than anybody else in the show does."
Because Landon is blond and bears little physical resemblance to his father, he tried to capture the original Little Joe's spirit.
"I'm hoping certain qualities came across that kind of remind you of my father, he said.
Bonanza: The Return "Bonanza: The Return" also stars Dean Stockwell, Linda Gray, Jack Elam, Ben Johnson and Richard Roundtree.
Dirk Blocker - the son of the late Dan Blocker, who played Hoss in the original series - also appears in the movie, but as a newspaper reporter. Someone else was hired to play Hoss's son.
The movie's creator and executive producer, David Dortort, served as creator-producer on the original series, and the director of photography, Haskell Boggs, worked on "Bonanza" from 1960 until its final episode and on Michael Landon's later series "Little House on the Prairie", "Highway to Heaven" and "Us".
Michael Landon Jr. acted with his father on "Little House on the Prairie" and began making 8mm movies when he was 13.
Then, when he was 15, a divorce split the family and his father left to marry makeup artist Cindy Clerico.
"He was the best dad in the entire world, take away all the fame and fortune, Landon said. "I'm talking about the bare essece of what a dad is all about."
"So when he left, I was confused and hurt, all of the above. You don't come to realize until later in life how painful it is for that person, because he knew what he was doing to his wife and children."
For a time after the divorce, the younger Landon stopped studying and began hanging out with a wild crowd. When he was kicked out of college, he worked as a busboy at a restaurant.
Over time. however, his resentment toward his father eased and he gained insight into how being the son of a famous man had distorted his sense of self.
"One of the main realizations that any child of a movie star that has been as successful as my father is, I might just be an ordinary guy who's going to live an ordinary life," he said. "It's not easy."
Landon began working as a film loader and camera assistant for his father's company, studied directing at the American Film Institute, and later directed a tribute to his father.
He is married to Sharee Gregory, whom he met when her sister guest-starred on "Highway to Heaven". They have two children.
In the late 1980s, Landon played Little Joe's son in an unsuccessful syndicated TV-movie, "Bonanza: The Next Generation".
"The first time was terrible," he said. "It was the script, and it was really the music. It was the worst score I'd ever heard. Tou couldn't even sit down and watch it."
For "Bonanza: The Return", Landon said, there is quality in both the script and the crew, many of whom worked on his father's productions.
The story concerns the younger generation of Cartwright cousins returning to the Ponderosa Ranch to save it from an unscruppulous businessman.
Landon's character initially wants to sell the ranch, which throws him into conflict with his siter and the ranch foreman. Gradually, though, the cousins begin to feel like a family.
Landon currently is developing a movie of the week he hopes to direct, about how exposure to pornography can rob a young boy of his innocence.
"I think the main problem right now in our society is our child no longer get to have their childhood," he said.
Like his father, he prefers projects about values and relationships.
"It's not because I want to follow in his footsteps," he said. "It's because it's what I love and want to do."


BONANZA: Under Attack
           1995


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