Me-TV's wonderful lineup of old-fart programming

Bonanza was the usual western schlock of its day. No better, no worse. As a kid I enjoyed the episodes that featured Hoss, the big lovable galoot among the sons, because those generally reached for simple, ham-fisted humor as opposed to the never-ending plots about fighting injustice and damsels needing succor.

i used to love Lorne Green as a kid

and Michael Landon <3

he was in like every other show i watched as a kid

does Hop Sing even appear in that episode Grisso y/n?

Yeah, he's in it. In the ep, the Thomas character boasts of being educated by this famous revolutionary teacher whom the Chinese government had executed (and it's implied that how her character ended up at the Ponderosa is that she was thrown out of the country). She preaches for worker's rights, starting with making Hop Sing demand better cooking gear, and moving onwards to making some hired cowpunchers go on strike for better accommodations. Then the local Chinese foreman of the railroad construction shows up to claim her (he got Hoss' fireworks), and all hell breaks loose when she starts talking to his workers, who form a revolutionary cell of sorts. But everything goes back to normal at the end when Thomas falls in love with the foreman (after a ceremonial dual with Hoss), and in Green's words, "...trades politics for matrimony."

XP There's a cool episode of Johnny Staccato (John Cassavettes' detective show) with Landon as this fake Elvis singer* who's being blackmailed.

*His manager is called "The Governor"

sooo ... it's some bizarre half-baked vietnam analogy?

They must of had a period of doing socially conscious episodes. The one today featured William "Blacula" Marshall as a famous opera singer brought to Virginia City by the city mothers for a benefit concert, only to be greeted with hostility when it's discovered he's black (ironically, the concert was to benefit local Indians, or as one of the old ladies puts it, "our Red brethren"). He's then mistaken for an escaped slave who killed his master and Hoss keeps him a step ahead of a lynch mob.

The period detail in this one was pretty interesting. Pernell Roberts brings up the Dred Scott decision re:harboring fugitive slaves, and obviously the whole incident places the story pre-Civil War (or at least the war is never mentioned).

I wonder if Hoss would have protected an escaped slave who killed his master