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The Best Episodes of Bonanza Season 5

Every episode of Bonanza Season 5 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Bonanza Season 5!

Binge this in 20h 25m·Peaking at 8.3/10
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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Bonanza Season 5 Episode 12 - Hoss and the Leprechauns
    8.3/10(294 votes)

    S5:E12

    In what is arguably the best comedy of the series, Hoss swears he has seen green elves running around the Ponderosa and a smooth-talking Irishman complicates matters even worse.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 4 - Twilight Town
    8.2/10(261 votes)

    S5:E4

    Joe is bushwhacked in the desert and awakens to find himself in Martinville, a town that may or may not be populated by ghosts. An errie, surrealistic and well-produced episode.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 11 - The Legacy
    8.2/10(165 votes)

    S5:E11

    Adam, Hoss and Joe mistakenly believe their father was murdered. They split into 3 different directions to confront the supposed killers. In his heart, Ben knows his sons will not act outside the law; but he is not 100% sure that Joe will behave correctly.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 30 - Enter Thomas Bowers
    8.1/10(197 votes)

    S5:E30

    After a triumphant tour in Europe, a famous Negro singer encounters racial prejudice in Virginia City when he arrives for a concert.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 24 - No Less a Man
    8.0/10(147 votes)

    S5:E24

    The town council feels Roy Coffee can no longer do his job, and with the notorious Wagner gang on their way to rob the bank, everyone is in a panic. Ben and Adam disagree with the town council and do what they can to help Roy out.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 8 - Journey Remembered
    7.9/10(138 votes)

    S5:E8

    Ben finds an old journal that he kept while in a wagon train travelling from St. Joseph, Missouri to Ash Hollow. As he is reading it Ben remembers the journey he undertook with his wife Inger and a young Adam. During the trip Hoss is born and they have trouble with some Indians.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 17 - Alias Joe Cartwright
    7.9/10(155 votes)

    S5:E17

    A man who looks similar to Joe uses Joe's name and gets Joe in the position of facing the firing squad.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 13 - The Prime of Life
    7.7/10(138 votes)

    S5:E13

    Ben becomes irritable and reckless when the completion of an important timber contract is hindered by an old rival.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 9 - The Quality of Mercy
    7.5/10(142 votes)

    S5:E9

    Joe struggles to understand whether his friend was right in killing a dying man who pleaded to put out of his misery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 31 - The Dark Past
    7.5/10(144 votes)

    S5:E31

    Moody bounty hunter, Dev Farnum, shows up on the Ponderosa, where the Cartwrights are harboring the wife of the man he is after.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 34 - Walter and the Outlaws
    7.5/10(145 votes)

    S5:E34

    Hilarious sequel to "Any Friend Of Walter's" in which Obie leaves Walter in Hoss' care. The three outlaws, Macy, Teague, and Willard, kidnap Walter and hold him for ransom, leaving Hoss and the returning Obie to rescue him, but matters turn out the other way.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 3 - Rain from Heaven
    7.4/10(149 votes)

    S5:E3

    A destitute rainmaker and his family arrive in drought-stricken Virginia City. While Ben tries to help him make rain, Hoss tends to the man's seriously ill little girl.

    Director:Lewis Allen
    Writer:Robert Vincent Wright

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  13. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 6 - A Question of Strength
    7.4/10(148 votes)

    S5:E6

    Hoss and a pair of nuns, the younger one having a difficult time training for the order, are robbed and stranded at a way station.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 25 - Return to Honor
    7.4/10(130 votes)

    S5:E25

    Ben must travel to pay his respects after he learns of the death of his nephew Will. When he visits the grave, he finds his nephew barely alive with a bullet wound. He takes him to a doctor and Will insists that he leave, but Ben refuses. Will explains that the men after him must believe that he is dead. Ben decides his best bet is to take Will home. He and Will are followed by the same men who are interested in some valuables Will is carrying.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 1 - She Walks in Beauty
    7.3/10(172 votes)

    S5:E1

    Hoss wants to marry mysterious Regan Miller, a woman with less than a pristine past. When he thinks Adam is trying to steal her away, he loses control and beats Adam up.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 2 - A Passion for Justice
    7.3/10(154 votes)

    S5:E2

    Renowned English novelist Charles Dickens comes to Virginia City. In short order, he is accused of a crime he didn't commit. The problem then becomes how to convince the stubborn author to defend himself.

    Director:Murray Golden
    Writer:Peter Packer

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  17. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 5 - The Toy Soldier
    7.3/10(129 votes)

    S5:E5

    Adam encounters drunken artist James Callan, branded a "squaw man" because he is married to an Indian, and whose talent is going to waste in the town of Sheep Head.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 27 - The Roper
    7.3/10(133 votes)

    S5:E27

    Will is having second thoughts about staying on at the Ponderosa, and outlaws hit the ranch and take him with them. The leader, Lee Hewitt, is a young killer and plans on robbing the Ponderosa, so Will must take action to save himself, Hewitt's wife, the doctor, and his newfound relatives, the Cartwrights.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 7 - Calamity over the Comstock
    7.2/10(168 votes)

    S5:E7

    Joe has a run-in with Calamity Jane, and takes her home with him after promising her dying father to take care of her. At first the Cartwrights (besides Joe) think ""Cal"" is a boy, but they soon find out differently. Cal begins to fall in love with Joe, but Joe finds her attentions unwanted...especially when Cal's boyfriend, Doc Holliday, has it in for Joe.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 15 - Ponderosa Matador
    7.2/10(143 votes)

    S5:E15

    Adam, Hoss, and Joe vie for the attention of a pretty young lady named Dolores. Hoss talks Joe into entering a bull fight, but it doesn't work out quite as planned.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 23 - The Pure Truth
    7.2/10(124 votes)

    S5:E23

    Hoss is suffering from spring fever, goes to the wrong town and is accused of bank robbery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 10 - The Waiting Game
    7.1/10(128 votes)

    S5:E10

    Adam becomes involved with the recently widowed Laura Dayton and her little girl, Peggy.

    Director:Richard C. Sarafian
    Writer:Ed Adamson

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  23. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 16 - My Son, My Son
    7.1/10(138 votes)

    S5:E16

    Ben's plans to marry Katherine Saunders are upset when her son Eden is accused of killing his former girlfriend.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 14 - The Lila Conrad Story
    7.0/10(160 votes)

    S5:E14

    Joe and Adam protect a saloon girl, who has killed in self-defense, from an angry lynch mob. The accompanying Judge, along with his wife, takes a liking to Lila, and before it is all over, he and Lila discover much more about themselves.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Bonanza Season 5 Episode 18 - The Gentleman from New Orleans
    7.0/10(122 votes)

    S5:E18

    The new stranger in town claims to be the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, and Hoss believes him.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 5 Ratings Summary

"Hoss and the Leprechauns" is the best rated episode of Bonanza season 5. It scored 8.3/10 from 294 votes. Written and directed by Unknown, it aired on December 22, 1963. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Twilight Town".