Little Joe stays back at the Ponderosa to tend to its operation as Ben, Hoss, Candy and Hop Sing leave for a cattle drive, who leave as a severe thunderstorm approaches. Joe goes to the barn to calm a horse that was spooked by the thunder and lightning. But just when it seems like the horse has settled down, the horse goes wild, knocking down Joe and crushing his left arm and breaking his leg. Joe goes in and out of consciousness and, after struggling against driving rain and winds to get into the house, treats his wounds. However, the arm is infected and Joe, fearing gangrene has set in, debates whether to amputate the wound.

A Matter of Circumstance

Lorne Greene

Dan Blocker

Michael Landon

David Canary

Season 12

What Are Pardners For?

An Englishman with a passion for challenging ridiculous laws shows up on the Ponderosa grazing in a land-rowing boat mounted on a wagon.

Another Windmill to Go

A young woman, Jenny Winters who is prone to telling tall tales, claims she witnessed the Logan gang holding up a stagecoach.  The Cartwrights hide her at the Ponderosa, but that is only the beginning of what Jenny will learn from spinning tall tales.

The Witness

A young boy positively identifies Candy as the man wanted in Stillwater for robbery, arson and murder.

The Silence at Stillwater

When he is called to testify in an out-of-town lumber shark case, Roy recruits Hoss to temporarily serve as sheriff. Hoss quickly finds his hands full dealing with a reluctant groom, who plans a robbery to make himself less appealing to his assertive fiancé; and a persistent salesman wanting to sell stock for a resort in the Virginia City area. Will Virginia City ever be the same?

A Lawman's Lot Is Not a Happy One

Will Griner is acquitted of murder which upsets the folks of Virginia City.  They feel Griner silenced witnesses and are ready to lynch him.  Ben works to reopen the case by finding out the truth about the case before it is too late.

Anatomy of a Lynching

Dan Logan, a former army scout and lawman who works for the Cartwrights, has his hands full with rustlers, a range war, and a one-time prostitute whose devotion is questionable.

To Stop a War

Ben lends a hand to a down and out war veteran, Matthew Rush, who received the Congressional Medal Of Honor.

The Medal

Candy helps the widow of a man he shot and killed in self defense, unaware she is plotting revenge against him.

The Stalker

Little Joe and Candy defend Meena Calhoun and her crusty father, Luke, from horse rustlers. In the process, Joe helps Meena become assertive and stick up for herself.

Meena

A Virginia City store clerk decides to take advantage of his co-worker's paralyzing sensitivity to bright light.

A Darker Shadow

While in Sunville on business for the Ponderosa, the town's storyteller, Salty - who has a talent for grossly exaggerating his tales - identifies Hoss and Candy as outlaws Big Jack (Hoss) and Sid (Candy). After a frustrating endeavor of convincing Salty of their real identities, Candy and Hoss get him to help stage ""Big Jack's"" death in a gunfight, unaware that the real Big Jack and Sid are in Sunville and plan to take advantage of the townsfolks' distraction to rob the bank.

Dead Wrong

Ben is sorry to learn that two of his oldest friends are on opposite sides of the law, after 27 years.  Charlie Shepard once worked a mining claim with Ben, along with Jess Waddell, now a bounty hunter, and will stop at nothing to kill Charlie, regardless of what anyone tries to persuade him to do otherwise.

Old Friends

Joe agrees to help the man who tried to steal his horse, Abner Willoughby, who has returned to claim the box of gold he hid years ago, before going to sea.

Abner Willoughby's Return

A prejudiced Virginia City banker spurns Ben's recommendation of a recent widower (with an infant daughter to raise) for a bank teller's job because he's a midget. The midget, a former circus performer, steals money from the bank to support his daughter.

It's a Small World

Ben needs to haul three beams that are 30 feet long and the Cambeau Freight Company will not do it.  A new, independent freight hauler may be the answer.  However, when Ben meets Gunny, he orders him off the Ponderosa.  Ben and Gunny served together in the Mexican war, and chose opposite sides.  Ben puts his differences aside with Gunny and helps him win the government contract away from Cambeau Freight Company.

Danger Road

Candy has inherited a fortune from an Indian he helped.  He quits his job on the Ponderosa and becomes a vice president for a land promotor who is selling beautiful, fertile land.  When it is discovered that the land promotor is selling barren desert land, Candy and the Cartwrights set out to expose the land promotor as a fraud.

The Big Jackpot

Ben comes to the aid of Amy Wilder, an eccentric animal lover whose mental competency is questioned when a neighbor declares an interest in her land for mining. The neighbor asks the court for a hearing to have Amy declared senile so he can obtain her land, setting off Ben's race against time to track down Amy's relatives to defend her mental state.

The Trouble with Amy

A new wealthy Ponderosa employee with a weakness for women becomes the target of con artists.

The Lady and the Mark

When the daughter of a friend declares her love for him, Ben agonizes over what to do.

Is There Any Man Here

Ben seriously doubts an angry young man committed several murders to which he has confessed to.

The Law and Billy Burgess

Ben gambles the future of the Ponderosa when a convincing meat packer from Chicago, sets out to ruin the local cattle industry.

Long Way to Ogden

En route to San Francisco, actress Lotta Crabtree arrives in Virginia City for a special performance. Hoss is smitten by the beautiful actress, which makes her leading man jealous. When he is killed during a performance, Lotta and then Hoss are suspected of the death. It is up to Ben to set things straight.

Return Engagement

Two drifters come to the Ponderosa and they try to rob the Cartwrights but are driven away. Joe becomes close to the young Mexican, Ramon, who is with them. After they get into a little disagreement they throw Ramon out. The drifters then discover that Ramon has found gold. Ramon returns to the Ponderosa and is welcomed. The Cartwrights learn that Ramon's father, who had to take care of his large family, sold his son to the two men. The two drifters grab Ramon and force him to tell them where he found the gold. They are about to make their claim when the Cartwrights stop them and let Ramon claim the gold as his. Ramon then goes back to Mexico with his fortune.

The Gold Mine

Ben and Joe stop in Los Robles for a couple of beers and a night's rest.  Ben sees the town boss, John Walker, bullying the saloon waitress, and he comes to her defense.  When Ben steps outside of the saloon, Walker shoots him in the back.  Badly wounded, Ben shoots back, killing Walker just before he falls unconscious.  While Joe keeps a vigil at Ben's bedside, the priest tells him Los Robles had always been ruled unquestionably by John Walker and his son Jed.  Now Jed will certainly want revenge.  Sure enough, he tells Joe if he doesn't hand Ben over in 24 hours, he will kill every citizen in Los Robles, one an hour.

To complicate matters more, Walker's foreman, Garth, deliberately tells Jed that Ben shot his father in the back, in hopes that Joe will kill Walker, so he can run the Walker ranch.  When Joe tries to mobilize a few citizens to fight Walker and his army of men, he finds a town full of cowards.  The biggest coward of all is the doctor.  He purposely left the bullet in Ben's back, hoping that he'd die within 24 hours.  Jed and Garth make final plans to blow up Los Robles with dynamite, unless Joe surrenders Ben to him.

Decision at Los Robles

""Here comes Hoss Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail... "" That's what the folks of Virginia City were probably thinking when a Quaker woman talks a reluctant Hoss into dressing as the Easter Bunny for the orphanage's children. While hippety-hopping and waiting for Easter to be its way, Hoss - while dressed in the Easter Bunny costume - contends with a group of inept outlaws, who commit a comedy of errors in their attempts to rob stagecoaches.

Caution, Easter Bunny Crossing

In this second episode to feature Meena Calhoun and her father, Hoss and Joe's plans to sell horses from the livery stables in town is thwarted.  Virgil and his two brothers also go into the livery business which creates troubles for Hoss and Joe.

The Horse Traders

Hoss meets two men.  He forms a rapport with them and they tell him that they plan to rob the bank in the town they are going to. Hoss tries to stop them but he fails. Hoss decides to go into the town to warn the sheriff but is too late. The sheriff then arrests Hoss.

The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community.

A Matter of Circumstance

Seasons14

Season 11 Episodes28

Cast4

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