Old TV Westerns on youtube.

[Tommy Tainant]

I never really got into Bonanza. It was the first Western TV series to be broadcast entirely in color and the director was careful to include scenes that took advantage of it. Bonanza was NBC's Sunday night feature program just after Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

In 1959, Americans were buying color TV as fast as dealers could provide them. When Bonanza first aired in 1959, NBC was leading the pack in providing color broadcasts. This gave both Bonanza and NBC a huge boost in viewers. The beauty of living color in your living room was hard to resist. The whole Bonanza cast and characters became household names. The stories and the scripts were not very original but within a couple of years the program had become so intrenched with TV audiences that it lasted 14 seasons.

I can remember watching Bonanza at a neighbors house, the only one on the block who had a color TV. They had a 50 foot antenna so they got broadcasts from a neighboring town. By todays standards the reception was terrible but we thought it was great. Within 2 years there was a station in our town and we had a color TV, so ever Sunday night watching Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Bonanza was required viewing.

My Nana and Taid were the first in the village to get a colour TV. It was on order for over a month. Everybody rented TVs in tjose days.
My Mam said I could go round their house after I had finished my dinner ( lunch).
When I got there I had to squeeze in the front room because half the village had just popped round without realising they had a colour TV.
We all watched Lancer on BBC2 in colour. Everyone agreed it was awesome apart from my Taid.
Saturday afternoon was his time for watching the horse racing. My Nana wouldnt allow it when they had company. Gambling being a sin..