What are you watching right now?

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Criminal Minds: "Amplification"

[ClarkKent_DC]

The Baron said:

Bonanza's one of them shows that I remember being on when I was a kid. I never knew the sons had three different mothers

Likewise, but I also didn't care about that then. But the sons having three different mothers is a simple way of explaining why the casting agent didn't bother to find three actors who resemble each other -- unlike, say, The Brady Bunch, where they went through hundreds of kids to find three boys who could credibly play brothers and three girls who could credibly play sisters.

[Richard Willis]

I remember that Ben had three different wives, each producing one of the sons. That goes a long way to explaining why there are no family resemblances.

The pilot episode of a show is often different than what follows. If I'm trying a new show I always watch the first few episodes before deciding whether to stick with it.

The Baron said:

Bonanza's one of them shows that I remember being on when I was a kid. I never knew the sons had three different mothers

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"But the sons having three different mothers is a simple way of explaining why the casting agent didn't bother to find three actors who resemble each other."

"That goes a long way to explaining why there are no family resemblances."

I don't think it's that so much as wanting to show the "mixing pot" heritage of the New West (all white, Anglo-Saxon males, I grant you). Also, Bonanza cast white actors as Native Americans.

S1 E2: Virginia City is still under construction at this point. Historically, the series opens just after the discovery of the Comstock Lode (1859), which places it pre-Civil War. The silver miners want the Ponderosa's trees to support mine shafts, but Cartwright needs it for his cattle land.In this episode, a businessman is slaughtering antelope, the Indians' main food source, and selling it to the miners at an outrageous $10 per pound! To put that into perspective, Cartwright sells his beef at $10 a head. The businessman tries to form a partnership with Ben to gouge the miners, but Ben wants only a fair price. I see everything through a political lens these days, but Ben Cartwright represents what are (or used to be), to me, solid Republican values. 

[The Baron]

I was watching MST3K Show 512 "Mitchell" last night and Crow and Servo were singing the words to the Bonanza theme.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, I love those lyrics! I wish I had a recording of it, but I don't think I do. I do have MST3K Mitchell, though.

[The Baron]

They only sing the first couple of lines in a throwaway scene,

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Oh, I love those lyrics! I wish I had a recording of it, but I don't think I do. I do have MST3K Mitchell, though.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

In a Flaming Carrot story, the Carrot is severely beaten and is brought out of a coma by his friends gathering around and singing the Bonanza theme.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Just finished the Netflix series Ratched last night.  It's a sort of prequel to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, depicting Nurse Ratched earlier in her career. But there's no connection to the book (or the movie version) other than the mental institution it's set in. It stars Sarah Paulson and the showrunner was Ryan Murphy, so it plays a lot like a season of American Horror Story. It's good lurid fun, with some truly horrific violence. I recommend it to AHS fans.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

BONANZA THEME WITH LYRICS

You realize, of course, that now I'm going to drive my wife crazy by singing along with the opening credits every night.

[Richard Willis]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Bonanza cast white actors as Native Americans.

Unfortunately, back then almost everybody did.

S1 E2: Virginia City is still under construction at this point. Historically, the series opens just after the discovery of the Comstock Lode (1859), which places it pre-Civil War. The silver miners want the Ponderosa's trees to support mine shafts, but Cartwright needs it for his cattle land.In this episode, a businessman is slaughtering antelope, the Indians' main food source, and selling it to the miners at an outrageous $10 per pound!

My inflation calculator tells me that $10 in 1859 would equate to $313 today. When gold and silver mining took off in the 1850's, California was made a state in 1850 (at the expense of establishing nation-wide slave catching). Nevada was made a state in 1864 in the midst of the Civil War. West Virginia was carved out of rebelling Virginia in 1863 as a new state, IMO because of the coal mining, though supposedly that part of Virginia opposed secession..

To put that into perspective, Cartwright sells his beef at $10 a head. The businessman tries to form a partnership with Ben to gouge the miners, but Ben wants only a fair price. I see everything through a political lens these days, but
Ben Cartwright represents what are (or used to be), to me, solid Republican values. 

I'm pretty sure that my late Republican parents wouldn't have approved of Trump.

[Richard Willis]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

BONANZA THEME WITH LYRICS

You realize, of course, that now I'm going to drive my wife crazy by singing along with the opening credits every night.

The lyrics to the MASH theme song are, I think, only heard in the movie version.

(If you haven't driven her crazy by now, I don't think this will.) 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE LONE RANGER: I'm currently watching both The Lone Ranger and Bonanza with The Rifleman waiting on deck. A common theme in all of these shows is the conflict between the ranchers and the farmers. On Bonanza, Ben Cartwright being a rancher, the cattlemen are most often depicted as the "good guys"; on The Rifleman, Lucas McCan being a "sod-buster," it is often the homesteaders. The Lone Ranger plays it pretty even-handed, sometimes favoring ranchers, other times farmers.

In the episode I watched yesterday, the ranchers were trying to elect a politician sympathetic to their cause, going so far as to enact a scheme to prevent the homesteaders from being able to vote. I have no clear preference between the ranchers and the farmers (you might say I'm "undecided"), but I am clearly against any party which interferes with the election. I see everything through a political lens these days. Is it just me?