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- Hoss takes two months of leave. He sees a little black boy steal a candle. He learns the boy wants the candle to make a wish. As he gets to know the boy and his family, he decides to try to help the family.
- Hoss scares a bear that has treed a green-clad little man, subsequently finds a buried strongbox filled with bags of gold dust and, when both the treasure and its owner disappear, unsuccessfully tries to convince his skeptical family that he'd discovered a leprechaun's hoard. But the whole town goes searching for the mythical men after a newly arrived Irish professor confirms the presence of multiple leprechauns...and their gold!
- A delusional mining tycoon has the Cartwrights and Candy arrested on false trespassing charges and sentences them to slave labor at a gold mine.
- A town bully humiliates Hop Sing by cutting off his ponytail. Joe goes to deal with the bully. Later the bully ends up dead and Joe is charged with the murder. Hop Sing clears Joe of the murder charges by using an ancient Chinese method for identifying a person's finger prints.
- Griff's friend, widowed farmer Jonathan May, wants to adopt two young orphans, one of whom is unable to talk. When Jonathan is told he cannot adopt the boys, Griff decides to set the adoption agency folks straight on what a loving father is.
- Little Joe is attacked by outlaws, but finds that his biggest challenge is fighting his way through the secrets of a town shrouded in mystery.
- Candy and Jamie are with Joe when Joe sees his house is on fire. He yells for his wife. Sadly, Alice and her brother are both murdered. Joe and Candy go looking for the killers to bring them to justice.
- To prove Candy's innocence when he is accused of murder, Little Joe and Hoss must track down the only eye-witness to the incident... the Paiute Indian who was trying to steal Candy's horse.
- Clint Watson and his two sons are hired by Ben Cartwright to deliver nitroglycerin to Virginia City. The journey entails hardship, recrimination and tragedy.
- Little Joe is blinded by an explosion and wallows in self-pity as he struggles to come to grips with his condition, which may be temporary or permanent. Ben hires a teacher from the Institute for the Blind to help Joe deal with his predicament.
- Candy and Ben are imprisoned in a mine for a month by a man set on revenge. Years before, the man was wrongly incarcerated by the testimony of Ben Cartwright.
- Little Michael Thorpe's father is accidentally shot and gravely injured. Believing that only God can save his father, and told by his Indian ranch hand that God lives on a mountain, Michael wanders off onto that mountain, and finds an old hermit who he thus thinks is God.
- Ben Cartwright finds himself in a fight for his life when he acts too late on his suspicion that there is more than meets the eye to an amiable, young drifter that Little Joe brought home to the Ponderosa.
- Ben and Adam are locked in jail, about to hung for a crime they didn't commit. Joe and Hoss must find out why the witnesses to the alleged crime have perjured themselves before the execution takes place. They receive help from an unexpected source, a drifter called Lassiter who is searching for the men who committed a lynching in Kansas years ago.
- When a new employee on the Ponderosa brings his Native American wife, a racist neighbor goes out of his way to stir up trouble against them and the Cartwrights.
- When their parents died, Mark's older brother raised him at times like he was breaking a horse. Partly because he was just a kid himself, and others because he didn't know any better. But Mark never doubted his brother's love but he has to show a new girl in town or die trying.
- The Cartwrights must try to get help for Adam, seriously wounded by an Apache bullet, and find out why Cochise and his warriors have threatened to kill them all if they don't hand over an army captain taking refuge in their trail camp.
- When Ben goes missing and presumed dead after being shot by a poacher he was hunting alone, his sons search for the seemingly likely suspects: three innocent ex-convicts who fear being so suspected.
- Cactus Murphy, an embittered ranch whom Ben fired, suggests that the Cartwright patriarch is getting a little old to "put in a real week's work." Ben's response: Take a job under the assumed name Ben Brown and show Murphy that he is still more than capable of sweating out the job of a rancher.
- A pretty woman arrives by stage and places this Notice up: "I will pay $1000.00 to the man who kills Joe Cartwright in a fair fight." When he finds out the story behind it, Joe tries to convince her she is wrong. Failing that, someone has already picked up the gauntlet to see Joe Cartwright dead.
- When Hoss is framed for murder, he puts his faith in court with his new friend, a lawyer with a worrying taste for alcohol.
- Attacked by outlaws, Hoss takes cover in a prospector's shack with the old prospector and with Walter, the old man's surprisingly communicative dog.
- When a powerful gang plagues Virginia City with a murderous protection racket, the Cartwrights are determined to stop it even as it threatens them.
- The Cartwrights and Candy come across a town deserted following an Indian attack. The sole survivor is a man locked up in the jail until a woman, claiming to have escaped the attack, turns up.
- Hoss comes upon a stagecoach whose passengers have been murdered, except for a little girl who's in a catatonic state due to shock. The Cartwrights take the girl in, hoping to find her relatives, but Hoss becomes so attached to her that he's reluctant to let her go. An uncle of hers is located and arrives in Virginia City to claim the child, but he has an ulterior motive.
- Not long after bad-tempered Frank Scott is hanged for murdering a young woman in a dark Virginia City alley, witness for the prosecution, Hoss Cartwright, sees a man in a Carson City saloon who looks just like Frank, hears him whistling the same strange tune the killer whistled that fateful night, and begins to fear that his testimony has sent the wrong man to the gallows.
- The Cartwrights are fully aware that Virginia City's new minister is a former gunfighter. But when one of the Ponderosa's ranch hands recognizes him as the man who killed his twin brother, he tries to goad him into a duel.
- Certain that he is too old to stand against a notorious gang of bank robbers when news arrives that Virginia City will soon be next in a long string of successful raids, the terrified townsfolk demand Sheriff Coffee's resignation to make way for a younger lawman.
- Ben becomes horrified while inspecting living conditions at the Nevada State Prison. So are the frustrated inmates, who take Ben hostage and make a series of demands to improve conditions. One of the inmates - Griff King - decides to act as a go-between to communicate the prisoners' demands with the state prison board. In the end, Griff is paroled to Ben's custody.
- When their spring-fever antics injure miserly businessman, Jedediah Milbank, requiring recuperation at the Ponderosa, Ben orders each of his sons to carry out one of Mr. Milbank's seemingly simple tasks, unaware that they may prove impossible for the kind-hearted Cartwright boys to complete.
- Hoss needs a lawyer but the only one available is an alcoholic. It's up to the Cartwrights and Candy to keep him sober until the trial.
- Intending to confront the card-shark who he believes bushwhacked and robbed him, Little Joe instead decides to get his money back by betting the shady gambler that big brother Hoss will win the Founders' Day flapjack eating contest against champion Big Ed Simpson. But Hoss isn't sure that winning the five hundred dollar first prize is worth suffering through his little brother's training program, especially when it includes meals consisting of only carrots, apples and water...and no beer!
- When an assassin's bullet strikes him down on the Ponderosa, Ben Cartwright decides to stay "dead" until he can find out who's behind the failed attempt...and why.
- Charlie Trent used to be an Army scout. Now he's the town drunk. Hoss helps him regain his self-esteem when he has him volunteer to lead a gold-bearing troop through the desert where there's very little water.
- The salt bed is now exhausted and the only supply left is in a warehouse and controlled by its new owner. Since everyone needs the salt and they need it now or their cattle will die, the biggest buyer tries to set the price. When a price is reached, they are all up in arms. But the monetary price is nothing to what is finally paid.
- The Virginia City bank is robbed and a clerk killed. Cully Maco, just released from prison, is the only suspect. When the posse catches up to him, he claims he didn't know about the latest incident anymore than he knew who sent him away to prison for 5 years. So who did kill and steal $121,000?
- Ben comes to the aid of Amy Wilder, an eccentric old woman and animal hoarder, when a scheming neighbor wants her declared incompetent so he can purchase her home and property.
- While Ann Wilson and her Uncle Fred are en route to her boyfriend Joe's birthday party, Fred suffers a sudden stroke and is rendered unconscious. A man claiming to be a Good Samaritan stops to help, only to rape and kill Ann. Joe is devastated and vows to track down the killer. While Fred is eventually moved to the Ponderosa to recover (and for his protection against anyone who might want to silence him), Joe undermines Deputy Clem Foster's investigation. Meanwhile, the killer - a munitions expert named William Poole - gets a job on the Ponderosa, since his expertise with a new substance called nitroglycerin can help clear old tree stumps off the ranch. Poole, who is staying with a widowed neighbor named Mrs. Gibson, tries to get at Uncle Fred, but Joe, who has been keeping a bedside vigil, stops him at every turn. Eventually, Joe sees Uncle Fred's hand move and begins questioning him. Fred is only able to scrawl a barely legible message before he goes numb, and suffers a subsequent (and ultimately fatal) stroke. Before Fred dies, Joe manages to figure out the note had something to do with "New Orleans Woman." Joe visits Mrs. Gibson, who produces sheet music to the song. After Joe leaves, Poole returns and Mrs. Gibson eventually realizes that he killed Ann. Poole, knowing he can be identified, kills Mrs. Gibson. Joe later hears an explosion coming from Mrs. Gibson's house and, knowing that Poole had finished his work and was supposed to be on his way, returns to investigate. Upon arrival, he sees Poole carrying Mrs. Gibson's burned corpse into the house, but Joe's suspicions that the explosion was no accident is confirmed when he sees the ripped up sheet music, pieces it back together and fingers Poole as Ann's killer. Poole, who reveals himself as a misogynist, threatens to blow the Ponderosa off the map and throws a vial at Joe, but Joe kills the villain in self-defense.
- Candy finally leaves the Ponderosa and the Cartwright family to marry his one-time fiancé, Lila, in River Bend. His life changes radically, however, when he arrives in the town and finds himself arrested and thrown in jail for something he didn't do. Getting word of his plight, the Cartwrights travel to River Bend, only to discover that the town is controlled by a murderous, corrupt sheriff and his equally crooked deputy.
- Hoss gets to play 'Pa' to two children while he visits their home to buy horses from the children's father who spends more time in the saloon than he does with his wife and children.
- Hoss and Little Joe chase a team of con-artists into the desert. There is not enough water for both to continue. Joe pursues while Hoss goes for help.
- A stubborn, career army sergeant appears to be his only hope when Little Joe is arrested after being robbed and knocked unconscious by a look-a-like escaped army prisoner and is unable to convince the fort commander that he isn't the man who has been sentenced to face the firing squad.
- When it's unclear which of their two bullets, fired simultaneously, brought down a wanted horse thief, Little Joe allows his friend, rancher Morgan Tanner, to take the credit and claim the much needed reward money. But when the outlaw's brothers come to town for his body and revenge, Joe must make a difficult decision that will save his friend, but may destroy their friendship.
- During a long ride back to the Ponderosa, thirsty Hoss and Candy stop at the Sunville saloon where Salty Hubbard, known for his tall tales and practical jokes, tells his cronies that Hoss is the notorious bank robber, Big Jack. The town folk initially scoff at Salty's claim but a series of unfortunate events gives the prevarication a ring of truth and there is talk of a hanging. When a contrite Salty admits to Hoss that he lied to impress his friends, Candy thinks of a way to save both Salty's pride and Hoss' life but, as with most best-laid plans, this one goes awry when the real Big Jack comes to town.
- While in Los Robles, Mexico, Ben is critically wounded by the town's cruel boss, John Walker. Ben manages to shoot and kill Walker, but now his son - the splitting image of his father - is hellbent on revenge. While Joe tends to his father's care, he tries in vain to embolden the town's residents, who for years have been intimidated into submission by Walker and his cronies. Eventually, Joe's efforts pay off and the Los Robles residents mount a stand against Walker's gang.
- A famous Italian opera singer is invited to sing at the local Virginia City opera house. One snag: he may resemble on paper a runaway slave they were just notified about; and some of the townspeople want him arrested or worse.
- Joe, Hoss and Candy drive a herd to Sand Dust. When they go into town to collect their wages, the buyer is robbed and killed with four witnesses to both crimes. When they are put up in the hotel under protective custody, the Slater gang makes several attempts to finish them all off so they can't testify against the one brother they managed to capture.
- Ben is researching county records in the basement of the court house when a mine below collapses. Ben is trapped with a man accused of murder, the chief witness against him, and two others. The accused man insists he's innocent.
- Ben finds Hoss in the barn waiting for a mare to give birth. Ben can't help but remember that's how Hoss' mother (Inger) was. He then finds an old journal wherein he wrote down their trek West. While Hoss waits, Ben reads it and recalls how their trek was arduous. And Inger was pregnant with Hoss and they had to deal with Indians and a drunken wagon master.
- Donnie Buckler has been shot getting away from a holdup. He buries a portion and then is found by Little Joe. They go to the Ponderosa and fetch the doc but by the time he arrives the Cartwrights have been seized by the rest of the gang. When Donnie doesn't give up the loot's location, the boss decides to use some different leverage - an old girlfriend he hadn't seen in about a year.
- Ben's militia troop is reactivated when the Paiute Indian Wabuska is captured and needs to be transported to the nearest fort. The Indians consider him to be a god which makes him very important to their people. When several of the soldiers are killed, the tribal chief sees for himself what they have been dying for.
- A white supremacist named Mr. Ganns plans to disrupt a peace-treaty signing between the people of Virginia City and the Paiutes by massacring the entire town, then pin the blame on the Indian tribe.
- After being robbed in the desert, Adam stumbles onto a seemingly chivalrous prospector named Peter Kane, who offers him a mule and supplies for three days work. However, Kane is a demented madman who is interested in psychological torture, hoping to drive a seemingly rational man like Adam to murder. As Ben, Hoss and Little Joe try to retrace the missing Adam's footsteps, Adam must rely on his own wits to defeat Kane.
- Little Joe is his family's only hope when he escapes from a kangaroo court that has framed the Cartwrights for a bank robbery and sentenced them all to hang.
- In a rare episode with Hop Sing in the spotlight, the Cartwrights' cook is panning for gold during a vacation when he falls in love with a white woman. The relationship blossoms into an engagement, but the marriage never takes place. Ben bears the heartbreaking news that a judge confirms: state law forbids interracial marriage.
- Ben and Joe Cartwright are part of a posse that is after Davis, who shot and killed an Army colonel. When Ben and Joe capture Davis in the desert, they are attacked by a rogue Indian tribe, and Ben is seriously wounded. While Joe crosses the desert on foot to seek medical attention (for his pa) and the posse (to take Davis into custody), Ben and Davis must set their differences aside to survive their hostile surroundings.
- When Adam is a witness to a murderous armed robbery by masked assailants, he is absolutely convinced he knows who one of them is, but there's ultimately only one way to prove it.
- The Cattlemen's Association hires a range detective to put an end to the cattle-rustling affecting all in their area. What they soon learn is that he has a shady past which includes killings with never any witnesses.
- Ben's cousin Matthew visits the Ponderosa, along with his ward Elizabeth and his son Jamie. Jamie is a spoiled and arrogant brat who constantly insults both his father and the Cartwrights. When Matthew decides to leave Jamie with the Cartwrights while he and Elizabeth visit San Francisco, Ben has his work cut out for him in teaching the young man a lesson in behavior.
- Joe's old friend, Dan Logan, is hired as a range detective to stop a cattle rustling outbreak. While the usual problems arise, Logan's job is jeopardized when a ruthless rancher shoots a suspected rustler in the back and then pins the blame on Logan.
- Attorney Cato Troxell is defending his brother against a murder charge. When he's found guilty, Cato threatens the judge in front of witnesses. When the judge is killed in his own barn, Cato is naturally brought up on charges. But several days before, a photographer was hired to take a group photo of the Ponderosa and some hands from several surrounding ranches. But how did Cato get in the picture? Everyone swears he wasn't there.
- A seasoned Army sergeant escapes from the stockade accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy. A man helps him escape and is killed; the sergeant is shot. Candy stumbles on him and his squaw wife; he believes him and decides to help, but an Army search party isn't far behind.
- Jamie's 7-year-old friend, Jonah Morgan, is badly wounded when he and Jamie walk into the Virginia City Bank during a robbery by the evil Springer gang. The boy later dies of his injuries. Joe and Jamie accompany Jonah's grief-hardened, paraplegic grandfather on the hunt for Springer and his cronies.
- A ruthless meat packer named Emmett Whitney schemes to monopolize the local cattle industry by buying the rail line that is used to transport the cattle to market, then force the cattle farmers to sell at deeply reduced prices. Ben, championing the smaller farmers and knowing that Whitney could drive many of the Cartwrights' friends out of business, devises a plan to drive Whitney out - even if it means he will lose the Ponderosa if his plan fails.
- Joe and Hoss are out when they are attacked by Indians, Joe hit with an arrow. With Joe needing medical attention, they come across a small wagon train of misfits, heading East. Their only doctor, dying and wanting to see his grandchildren before he dies, helps Little Joe.
- With Hoss being the lone hold-out during the murder trial of Johnny Mule, he will only have a short time to gather evidence before a new trial is set. But when Johnny breaks out of jail, things look bad.
- Mexican freedom fighters loyal to Benito Juárez take over the Ponderosa, gravely wound Little Joe, and force Ben to guide them to a wagon train loaded with gold being smuggled to California by Emperor Maximilian.
- Ben and Hoss are brought under siege with their friend, Sam Masters, and his daughter, Ellen, in an isolated miner's cabin by a former Union Army officer and his men who claim that Sam is really Confederate prisoner of war camp Commander Thomas Andrews who is guilty of Civil War crimes and on the run.
- Old-school Zach Randolph refuses to make amends with his gravely ill daughter, Etta, because her son had been born out of wedlock. Joe risks his family's friendship with the Randolphs to set the stubborn old man straight.
- Matt Jeffers is about to lose his land. Back taxes, no water and owes his foreman wages. When his foreman finds water on the land he hatches a scheme to buy the land and stick Little Joe with all the blame.
- Ben offers moral support to Medal of Honor recipient Matthew Rush when he comes down on his luck. But that's the least of Matthew's problems, for he must also contend with the embittered Nagel clan, who has been transplanted from Georgia after they lost their house and land to Yankees. When the Nagels' daughter, Laurie, falls in love with Matthew, she risks much more than just estrangement from her family and, in the process, the Cartwrights become involved.
- Ben sells a prize bull to an old friend, whose unscrupulous son has taken charge of the ranch from his father. The son double-crosses Ben over the agreed price of the bull, only offering to pay well below the selling price. Upset over the deal, Ben stays in town to seek proper compensation.
- Ben Cartwright doubts his fitness to run the Ponderosa when his impatience results in a logging camp accident that causes serious injury to himself and an old friend's death.
- Only a few brave souls remain in Muddy Creek to help Ben and Little Joe defend a town jail and its occupant from the Harper outlaw gang.
- Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) buys a teen-age girl's stallion from her father, Burt Loughlin (Tom Tully), with the intention of letting the girl, Trudy Loughlin (Kim Darby), ride the horse in a high-stakes race, but his plans are upset when the father falls in with Harper (William Bryant), a crooked gambler.
- Adam finds shelter overnight at a stagecoach way station. There he meets others ranging from a beautiful girl to a dangerous outlaw on the run.
- Hoss accidentally kills Willie the town drunk. His remorse may not be enough to stop Willie's hate-filled brother who only wants revenge even though the townspeople know it wasn't Hoss' fault.
- During a harsh winter that kills off the stock of many ranchers, Ben offers to test a new breed's endurance by herding a cow from the stock on Sawtooth Mountain. A rival rancher attempts to undermine Ben's plans by having his foreman shoot the cow, then claim it had succumbed to the cold.
- A friend of Ben's asks to stay at the Ponderosa for a time. Soon Ben discovers the woman is trying to plan a rendezvous with her husband who is a fugitive Confederate officer. Ben must decide where his loyalties lay.
- Ben's friend, April Christopher, is bitten by a rabid wolf during her visit. With no treatment available, the Cartwrights and April's family struggle to watch her condition deteriorate.
- Angered that his longtime friend, Ben Cartwright, would ask him to retire into easier work after 50 years of wrangling, aging ranch-hand Dan Tolliver falls in with two disgruntled drifters who plan to rob the Ponderosa payroll.
- Little Joe puts his life on the line to help sick friend-turned-gunfighter, Steven Friday, who is holed up in a second-story hotel room and waiting a challenge from a gunman, hired by the father of one of Friday's victims to avenge his son's death on the anniversary of the killing - Friday the 13th.
- Civil War veteran Will Hewitt returns to Virginia City, blinded and determined to solve the mystery behind the death of his brother.
- His search for the two men who kidnapped his bride-to-be, Su Ling, will soon take angry Chinese warlord, General Tsung, from San Francisco to the Ponderosa where Little Joe has been challenged to explain how he won the girl in a poker game.
- Little Joe devises a mission to claim some government land that would impede deforestation by a timber baron. He encounters a cantankerous old lady living on the land and Joe finds she is reluctant to file a claim.
- The back story behind Ben's three wives is up to Inger, Ben's second wife (and mother of Hoss). The story relates the first meeting between Ben and Inger, as Ben and a young Adam were traveling west.
- Circus midget and new widower George Marshall struggles to deal with the prejudice of Mr. Flint, the town's banker, when he refuses to hire him despite Ben's recommendation.
- A marshal's brother is shot by two men who held up the stage depot. Little Joe joins the posse who follows the trail left by those men. They come upon two men who say they didn't do it but since his brother may die, the marshal seems to have other ideas.
- A stubborn British widow hires Candy as an escort, then foils his attempts to retrieve her valuables from thieves.
- After Hoss injures traveling circus wrestler, Bearcat Sampson, during an exhibition match, Hoss and 'manager' Little Joe agree that Hoss will take the Bearcat's place in the ring while he recovers; but the circus owner squanders Hoss' winnings and the Cartwrights end up with an unconventional paycheck...Old Sheba, the circus elephant.
- Suffering from an infected foot, Hoss finds unexpected relief from Professor Poppy, an itinerant patent-medicine peddler who secretly carries a medical bag. But Hoss soon finds that the professor may really be Doctor P.A. Mundy who is being trailed by a vengeful Englishman claiming that Mundy murdered his wife.
- A band of rogue ex-Confederate soldiers comes to the Ponderosa to demand a $25,000 ransom. Hoss tries to disrupt the robbery and is critically wounded by the group's leader, Shanklin. While Jamie escapes and tries to search Virginia City's saloons for Joe, Ben learns that Shanklin is an outstanding surgeon and demands that since he wounded him, he can perform the surgery to save Hoss' life.
- Ben Cartwright's effort to help friend Ruth Manning defend her ownership of nearby Gunlock's town newspaper, The Clarion, earns him the wrath of a corrupt, powerful judge who wants The Clarion for himself and will do anything to get it.
- The Cartwrights convince the prison warden to free 23-year-old chain-gang convict, Danny Kid, imprisoned since he was an orphan of thirteen, and take him on as a ranch-hand to repay him for saving Little Joe from being dragged to death by a spooked horse.
- Unlucky Hoss loses his valuable Kentucky thoroughbred racehorse in a poker game then schemes with brother Adam to buy it back before the end-of-the-month entry deadline for the Virginia City Sweepstakes race.
- Ben is taken hostage by a gang of four outlaws, who are hoping for a $100,000 ransom from the Cartwrights for his safe return. As his sons formulate a plan to rescue their father, Ben devises one of his own after he senses dissension amongst his captors.
- A judge awards itinerant horse breeder Jim Acton's beloved mare to rancher Sam Whipple. Jim tries to buy her back, but Whipple refuses his offer, after which a fight ensues and Jim kills Whipple in self-defense. The Cartwrights want to bring Jim in to make sure he receives a fair trial, but an ambitious and overzealous deputy doesn't care how he brings him in.
- Little Joe helps an old-time sheriff escort cunning outlaw Hank Simmons to jail. The crafty Simmons kills the sheriff and injures Joe, but Joe turns out to always be one step ahead of Simmons.
- Candy and Little Joe grapple with a land baron who rules the town of Butlerville. Calvin Butler and his men have been burning out homesteaders - now murder has been added to their list of crimes.
- When an influenza outbreak strikes the Ponderosa, the treatment methods and philosophy of two women from different generations clash. A nurse named Harriet Clinton believes in old-fashioned methods, while the other nurse, Evangeline Woodtree, has studied up on more recent methods. Not helping matters: Doc Martin backs Harriet, in large part because he believes Evangeline's husband is a fraud.
- Burk knew his wife was sweet on Little Joe so he devises a plan to get rid of him. When his plan backfires, his twin brother, a lawman, returns to marry the widow and get rid of Little Joe for good.
- Harry Starr, a half-breed Comanche, is hired by the Cartwrights to work on the Ponderosa. When confronted with the prejudice of other hands he turns the other cheek. Meanwhile someone is stealing horses in the valley...is he involved?
- An old friend of Ben's, a U.S. Marshal recently retired, is still trying to fix loose ends at the expense of his relationship with his teenage daughter.
- A rich tycoon who is known for destroying anything that stands in the way of getting what he wants, vows to have the Ponderosa, no matter what the cost.
- The Cartwrights protect a deaf-mute boy and his mother from his outlaw stepfather.
- During a cattle drive, Ben finds himself involved in a power struggle between the trail boss the Cartwrights appointed and a fellow rancher's foreman, who schemes to take over the job.
- When one of the Morgan brothers is shot and killed by Ben during a bank holdup, they vow revenge. The friends he thought he had in town decide to hide away while a wounded Ben lays up waiting for them to ride into town.
- Joe is caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between an aging Native American chief and the man who stole the Indian's warbonnet years ago as a saloon decoration.
- Ben begins the process to legally adopt Jamie as his son, but the process is complicated when Jamie's maternal grandfather, Ferris Callahan, comes forward wanting custody. Ben must bear the heartbreaking news to Callahan that Jamie has bonded with the Cartwright family.
- While in small town Tin Bucket to sell Ponderosa cowhides, Candy is accused of cheating in a card game and the Cartwrights are dogged by a mysterious rumor that claims they have fallen on hard times and are desperate for money.
- The Cartwrights become unwitting pawns in a battle between wealthy rancher Gabriel Bingham and his penniless nephew Jayce Fredericks over the ownership of the valuable black horse Jayce needs to restart his herd and reclaim his ranch.
- Candy is kidnapped by retired Army Sergeant Mike Russell and his band of fellow former soldiers when he uncovers their plan to blast their way into the Carson City Mint to steal the pension they believe they deserve, but never received, from their long years of Army service.
- Jill Conway is an alcoholic mother whose husband was sent to prison (for robbery) on Hoss' testimony. In a pent-up rage, Jill demands that Hoss look after her son, Petey. Hoss, however, wants Jill to see this as an opportunity to reform herself and is determined to use tough love to help her realize it.
- A woman dies. Her husband is in prison, and the sheriff needs someone to look after the boy until the boy's uncle can come to claim him. The Cartwrights begin to take care of the boy at the Ponderosa. When the boy arrives at the ranch, he does not know that his father is in prison. The boy learns the truth about his dad, and news reaches the Ponderosa that the convict has escaped from prison. The Cartwrights deal with the possibility that the boy's father may be coming their way.
- Ben is appointed temporary sheriff after Sheriff Coffee is injured while bringing in one of the Lassiter boys, who has been sentenced to hang. Elizabeth Lassiter, bitter ever since the death of her husband and loss of her ranch, has turned her sons and her foreman into outlaws, and is now threatening to kidnap one Virginia City resident a day and kill them unless her son is freed. Little Joe becomes the third one taken hostage.
- A stagecoach accident in a windstorm leaves 5 stranded, after which Little Joe is accused when a man is found murdered with Joe's knife.
- Will and Charlie bury their father with the help of Hoss. He decides to help them get to their aunt but he finds out soon enough that he's taken on more than he bargained for when he finds out how their pa was killed.
- After Joe gets hooked on detective novels, he becomes suspicious of two strangers in town. He enlists Hoss' help to convince the deputy and Ben that they're really robbers before it's too late.
- Joe steps in as teacher when his school-mistress girlfriend Abby falls from a horse. Joe meets his match when he undertakes to teach the two sons of a hog farmer.
- A drought brings a rainmaker with a very sick daughter to Virginia City.
- Candy relives his past when he and the Cartwrights help a Cavalry unit that is pinned down by bandits. In that Cavalry unit is Candy's ex-wife, who he still has feelings for. Her new husband is the Captain of the unit.
- The Cartwrights join to help mystical blacksmith Sam Hill save the land his drunk, sea-dog father signed away to an old enemy, discover the circumstances behind his mother's death, and solve the mystery of why a tropical tree flourishes in spite of cold Nevada winters.
- While in San Francisco, two of Ben's hired hands get shanghaied and so does Ben in the process of looking for them.
- Angry with the way a beautiful deaf-mute girl is treated by her father, a sheepherder living in a remote mountain cabin, Little Joe takes it upon himself to teach her sign language so they can communicate better. His plan backfires when the young woman falls in love with him and the girl's brutish neighbor resents her lavishing attention on the youngest Cartwright.
- Tom Wilson saves Adam from drowning. This begins a friendship he starts to regret when Tom steals a girl from her longtime boyfriend, is found with her father's open strongbox and standing over his dead body.
- A former ballet dancer falls in love while teaching classical dance to the daughter of a traveling violinist. He wants to help her audition for the San Francisco ballet but meets resistance from her father who wants her to keep performing with him.
- Dev's line of work seems ordained given his past. When his quarry's wife turns out to be pregnant, he uses that to trap him, even if it might risk Little Joe's life.
- Hoss suffers a life-threatening injury. Only surgery by a doctor in jail for murder can save him.
- Hoss feels guilty about ending a boxer's career and vows never to fight again. However, his promise is put to the test when Joe is badly beaten.
- Adam's search for troublesome look-a-like Tom Burns lands him in the Placerville jail for two murders committed by Burns.
- After Candy shoots and kills armed robber James Campbell in self-defense, he learns that he left behind his widow, Lisa, and young son - and a farm to operate. A remorseful Candy decides to help the young woman out, not knowing that Lisa plans to hire a hit-man to kill the Ponderosa's foreman in revenge. However, Lisa learns that Candy has all the qualities that her husband never had and changes her mind, but then they must work together to stop the hit-man from completing his mission.
- Joe is in charge of selling a herd in Dry Wells to the Farrell brothers but he is swindled out of the cashier's check. Joe returns with Candy and Dude to take back what is his.
- The mines in the Comstock Lode seem tapped out. With the sharp rise in unemployment, the promise of silver found in the thunderhead could mean boom or bust to everyone in Virginia City. Can the Cartwrights make sure that it's kept?
- Ben visits his old friend Paul Rowan, the sheriff of Concho. His wife Katherine says he has been complaining of headaches for six months now. When he starts shooting innocent people he swore to protect, the whole town has to decide how best to keep from killing their good friend.
- Joe's friend Wade Turner, a storekeeper who is engaged and has been offered a promotion at work, tries to deal with a devastating brain tumor that leaves him with a paralyzing sensitivity to bright light and will soon render him blind. Turner lets his pride get in the way and decides to put off both his marriage and a surgery that could save his sight, but his attitude could be far more costly when a co-worker tries to rob him in a remote area.
- An orphaned rainmaker named Jamie Hunter comes to Virginia City, hoping to help relieve the drought-stricken area. When Jamie's efforts aren't immediately successful, Ben helps the lad fend off the frustrated ranchers.
- Hoss is seriously wounded by a member of the Brennan clan, Virginia natives who are settling out West, across the state of Nevada. The Brennans debate whether to seek much-needed medical attention for Hoss or let him die.
- At an old friend's request, Ben agrees to shelter a witness in a government case. He's a witness to several felonies and they've tried to kill him several times already. When he asks to see his wife, he puts them all in danger since she is being watched.
- While returning home from a horse-selling trip, Joe is verbally ambushed by seafarer Abner Willoughby, who has returned to Nevada to find a stash of gold he hid 17 years earlier in Glory Hole.
- While visiting a remote town to await the arrival of Ben, Little Joe and Candy, Hoss is wrongly arrested for the murder and robbery of a hermit miner. When a lynch mob starts to gather, cowboy Child Barnett breaks Hoss out of jail. Both are chased by a posse whose interest is not justice, but the retrieval of the money that the miner was thought to have stashed away.
- Hoss is rescued from a band of hungry Paiutes rustling Ponderosa cattle after a hard winter by Erin O'Donnell, an Irish woman who was raised by the Sioux and revered by the tribes as a medicine woman and mystic.
- Jamie becomes friends with Kelly Edwards, who is abused by her husband, Dan. The catch: the husband happens to be the new teacher at the Virginia City School, and he quickly becomes unpopular because he belittles the students. Soon, Jamie helps Kelly come out of her shell, which sets none to well with Dan, who orders an end to the friendship.
- Jamie's friend Carrie Sturgis, herself an orphan, is the subject of a heated custody battle between her scheming aunt and uncle, Gifford and Vella Owens, and her gravely ill grandfather. The point of contention: the grandfather owns a gold mine ripe to be harvested, and Carrie is believed to be the heir. The Cartwrights become involved when Jamie rescues Carrie, and the Owens couple want anyone named Cartwright arrested.
- Gideon Yates, a corrupt lawman whose wife had shot her soon-to-be ex-husband in cold blood, tries to silence the murder's only witness - Little Joe Cartwright.
- With tensions with a drought-stricken neighboring flatland rising, the Cartwrights decide to address the problem by helping a stubborn flatland homesteader dig a new well.
- Longtime hand 'adopted' into the Cartwright family as a baby decides to return to the Indian tribe to which he was born. Indian haters stir up trouble that puts the new treaty in jeopardy.
- Humiliated by a professional gunslinger in front of a bar crowd that included his girlfriend, timid Johnny Chapman asks Little Joe to teach him how to handle a gun. But, Johnny changes as he gains skill and confidence and Joe soon doesn't recognize his friend in the hard, ruthless man he's become.
- Initially suspected as being part of the bank-robbing Hollister gang while on his way to visit Tom and Ellie Blackwell's drought-stricken ranch, Little Joe is soon held hostage and his friends terrorized by the real desperadoes on the run to Mexico with a wounded man.
- Candy is arrested for an outstanding warrant in Olympus for killing A.Z. Wheelock's son. As Hoss investigates, he finds someone else who may have a motive for putting his son out of the way.
- After a 20-year stint in prison, Sam Logan is invited to stay at the Ponderosa because Ben believes that his friend doesn't know where the bank's gold is. With three people on the trail of the money, Sam has to decide if his loyalties are with them or his good friend Ben Cartwright.
- Charlie is well liked by everyone. He's always full of stories and plans for making money. One day, a man with a reward on his head tries to rob his livery stable and is accidentally killed by his own knife. When the man's family comes to town looking for revenge, Hoss has to try to let everyone know who was actually in that knife fight before Old Charlie gives up his life for the reward.
- A band of rowdy young punks accidentally kills a deputy in a barroom brawl. With Sheriff Coffee out of town, the mayor sends for legendary peace officer Wes Dunn to take his place temporarily and track down the gang. But it soon becomes apparent that Dunn is totally ruthless and brutal in the methods he uses to catch them.
- A "beautiful baby" contest that Hoss is judging quickly turns into a circus, thanks to the fortune-hunting parents who are determined to win at all costs.
- Hoss falls under the spell of a beautiful shady lady from San Francisco and asks her to be his wife, believing his love can change her even after she tries to seduce his brother Adam.
- After Eddie returns to town and learns Hoss accidentally shot his father, it's up to Hoss to gain Eddie's forgiveness and make amends, and at the same time foil a blackmail plot.
- Matthew Raine, once a world-class artist, has lost his sight due to disease. When befriended by Ben Cartwright, he realizes he has been feeling sorry for himself all this time and with his friend Ann's help, finds a way to turn his darkness into light.
- Ben confronts a former friend who has become a local strongman after monopolizing the freight business.
- Don Jose Ortega claims to have a brass box full of Spanish land grants, giving him ownership over most of the area around Virginia City, including the Ponderosa. Although Jose is reluctant to pursue his claim, his nephew, bitter over the loss of land in the Mexican War, would like to claim it back. Making things worse, many others living in the area are determined not to lose their land and will resort to any means to stop the Ortegas' claim.
- Jamie forms a bond with an Irish Setter he names April. However, April was a runt and - according to its rightful owner - should be put to sleep because it is a disgrace to the breed. When April competes in a field trial, the dog's owner soon learns that it's not the size of the dog that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.
- Hoss falls prey to the wiles of a beautiful woman with a gambling addiction and refuses to believe she's only interested in his money in spite of Adam's proof to the contrary.
- Ross Marquette's behavior over the past few months can't be easily explained -- beating his wife, rustling cattle, robbing a stage, killing a man. Adam is determined to find out why his friend is acting so strangely before it's too late.
- Little Joe and Adam join a posse bent on catching the murderers of Vannie Johnson. The longer they take to catch them, the more whipped into a lynching party they become, much to the liking of the grieving widower.
- During a delivery run, Joe meets Cpl. Bill Tanner, who turns out to be a war-deranged madman who enjoys stalking down his helpless victims before killing them. After stealing Joe's horse and his supplies, the psychotic Tanner explains that Joe just became his latest "prey," and that he intends to stalk him down and brutally murder him. With no help in sight, Joe must rely on his wits and intuition to defeat Tanner.
- Adam has a day and a half to deliver a large bankdraft. He is ambushed by an escaped convict. When he is mistaken for one of the escapees by the posse, Adam is hardpressed to prove his identity. All they want to do is hang him.
- The Cartwrights' neighbor Tom Edwards has lived as a paraplegic, ever since an accident involving Ben Cartwright and a gun. His ranch is going to waste. His wife Joyce is a longtime friend of Ben, and Ben decides to help the Edwards couple by making Tom a business proposition: the Cartwrights will build a grain mill on Edwards' land. In return, Ben only wants his investment money back, plus fifteen percent. Tom and his hired hand Ezekiel are suspicious of Ben, but Tom agrees to the deal. The Cartwright men build the mill, but tension begins to rise when Ezekiel makes comments which rekindle Tom's suspicion.
- Mean Big Charlie Monahan makes his son promise to kill Ben Cartwright after Ben's testimony sends Big Charlie to the gallows for the murder of an old prospector.
- Philip Diedesheimer, a Pied Piper, is refused payment after he saves Virginia City's silver mines from a cave-in.
- Little Joe struggles with his conscience, trying to believe that his friend, Seth Pruitt, did the right thing after Seth admits to the mercy-killing of his fiancée's father when the man was in agony from a broken back and begging for death.
- Wanting to prove his independence and (at the same time) break out of the shadows of his Pa and older brothers, Little Joe sets out to win a lucrative timber contract for the Ponderosa.
- The Cartwrights deal with cattle rustlers.
- Except for the Cartwrights and a little girl, Squaw Charlie has no friends just because he's an Indian. When the girl goes missing, the whole town wants his blood even though all the evidence against him is purely circumstantial.
- Joe is accused of murdering a girl. Her father and brothers want to hang Joe, and the Cartwrights race to prove his innocence.
- After Joe kills a man in self-defense who tried to set fire to the Ponderosa to clear himself some land, he has to take his lively, feisty, wild daughter home, and she and her relatives are now determined to kill Joe.
- A white woman, abducted by the Paiutes and thought to be dead, is brought back to Virginia City and reunited with her husband. When it is found she has an Indian baby with a Paiute chief, she is outcast by the towns people and her husband alike. Only the Cartwrights remain her friends.
- Tired of being considered the baby of the family by his older brothers, Little Joe accepts a temporary job of a small town sheriff. But he soon suspects he's been set up and wants answers. Meanwhile, others are plotting a crime that could end in murder.
- Hoss unwittingly volunteers to be named sheriff of an aptly named town named Trouble. While dealing with problems that one might expect to associate with the town, he must find a way to capture the nefarious Clanton gang.
- After Ben is seriously injured in a horse-riding accident far from home, Joe seeks help from valley settlers who are terrified of a corrupt rancher, Dawson, and his foremen. While Ben suffers from recurring nightmares of Joe being unable to help, Joe tries to persuade Ed Thornton to do the right thing.
- A young woman named Jenny Winters claims to have witnessed a stagecoach robbery which involves one man being killed. After she identifies the culprits as the Logan gang, Ben allows Jenny to stay in protective custody at the Ponderosa. However, the Cartwrights soon learn Jenny is not a very trustworthy person.
- Alone at the Ponderosa while everyone else is away on a cattle drive, Joe suffers a compound fracture in his left arm when he is kicked by a horse spooked by a severe thunderstorm. Joe fights to stay conscious and treat his wounds. When he becomes delirious, he fears that gangrene has infected his arm, leaving Joe with a difficult decision: amputate, or not amputate?
- Famous author Charles Dickens visits the Ponderosa, and finds himself embroiled in controversy.
- Bushwacked and suffering from amnesia, Hoss is found wandering down the road by the Vandervorts, an older couple who are happy to take the gentle giant into their family to replace the son they lost. But when Ben comes looking for his missing son, the Vandervorts lie about seeing him and refuse to tell Hoss who he really is, planning to take him to Michigan with them and away from his real family, and the Ponderosa, for good.
- Ed Payson, a reformed gunfighter, has returned to Virginia City to tend some property he owns. When he's welcomed with resistance by some of the townspeople, Adam decides to help him, even though everyone thinks he may have killed Dave, a shopkeeper's son.
- Two ranchers find a seriously wounded Little Joe in the Nevada desert. As he struggles for life, Joe mumbles incoherently about his surrealistic nightmares about a teepee and a wagon wheel. Ben and Hoss are left to decipher what Joe is talking about and determine what happened.
- In the series' only Easter-themed episode, a Quaker woman convinces Hoss to pose as the Easter bunny for the orphanage. While wearing a rabbit costume, Hoss must try to foil the efforts of a bumbling gang that is plotting to loot the Wells Fargo coach.
- While in the nearby town of Angelus to treat Candy's injured hand, Little Joe offers horse-wrangling work to an out-of-work miner friend, Steve Regan. But, when a rearing horse accidentally kills Steve, Little Joe and Candy stay to help the grieving widow and instead find themselves embroiled in a dangerous mine strike, resented by the angry Angelus miners, and discovering that there may be real cause to doubt the mine's safety...and their own.
- As is often the case on Bonanza, things are not always as they first seem. Hoss and Adam eventually learn who is the good guy and who is not.
- Adam helps an angry young man to confront the "hanging judge" who sentenced his father to death in a high-stakes miscarriage of justice.
- At the bedside of a seriously ill Adam, Ben thinks back to his days as a first mate on a sailing ship and his marriage to Adam's mother, Elizabeth Stoddard.
- The Cartwrights take in a young orphaned blind girl on Christmas Eve. Will they be able to reunite her with her embittered old grandfather?
- Ben helps ex-convict John Dundee re-adjust to society. However, Dundee's boorish attitude complicates matters, and it may have to do with his former business partners framing him for a crime he didn't commit.
- Hoss Cartwright's good deed results in hard feelings when the mail order bride he has volunteered to escort to a neighboring rancher falls in love with him before she reaches her intended groom.
- Joe and Candy compete for the attention of pretty Miss Meena Calhoun, who has come to Lynchville alone, leaving her irascible gold-panning father, Luke, at their cabin. While pursuing the young lass, they run into the Potter brothers, a trio of gold-claim jumpers who are convinced that Joe and Candy have more than love on their minds.
- During a wolf hunt, Adam accidentally shoots Little Joe, and must find help if Joe is to survive.
- In this sequel episode to "Riot," Ben helps parolee Griff King adjust to life outside of prison, giving him a job as a ranch hand. At first, Griff resists the Cartwrights' attempts to rehabilitate him, but he soon grows to appreciate their help and tries to change.
- Hoss meets 'Patch' while doing some menial labor in a deserted town. He invites him to work at the Ponderosa. Hoss soon learns the truth about his past and decides to help him if he'll let him.
- Brothers Hoss and Little Joe are sweet-talked by a pair of con men into "investing" in a pair of "exotic" animals who are indeed prolific--they're common rabbits.
- While Adam relies on his charm and guitar to impress a visiting senorita, Hoss and Little Joe scheme to win her heart in a more south-of-the-border way...a bull fight!
- Ben gets word that his nephew Will has been murdered in nearby Pine City. As it turns out, Will has been shot and wounded while on the run from a counterfeiting gang that wants back the engraving plates Will has "appropriated" from them.
- The Pony Express comes to Virginia City and Little Joe decides to join. Soon Indians react to express riders invading their lands.
- If the Pony Express is to survive, the growing Indian problem must be addressed. When things get out of hand, it is Ben Cartwright who steps in to save the life of the Indian chief's son and secure a peace treaty.
- Substitute teacher Adam Cartwright is unprepared for the violent resistance he meets when his research into the territory's history gets him too close to uncovering a long-buried Virginia City secret.
- An old friend of Ben Cartwright comes to town to liven things up.
- Coley Claybourne is unwanted in Virginia City. He announces that his father has died. Then he shows a pouch full of gold that he and his father had discovered. Ben and two other executors must decide what to do with Coley and the mine.
- Joe is given a beautiful, black stallion for his birthday present, but winds up sacrificing it when he rides to the rescue of a young boy who was accidentally shot by his outlaw father.
- Candy falls in love with a new arrival but she is being pursued by a blackmailer. When the blackmail plot is revealed, Candy seeks help from the Cartwrights.
- Maggie Dowling's father's indifferent insults about her appearance, and his embarrassing attempts at matchmaking, drive her to despair; but Little Joe intervenes to help her prod widower, Jared Wilson to declare his affections for her.
- Clay Stafford just arrived in Virginia City but already seems to know who Joe and the Cartwrights are. When he gets a job on their ranch as a cowhand, his past is revealed and hopes it will not affect his new relationship with them, especially Joe.
- Joe helps a young Mexican boy who has suffered from years of abuse by two sadistic slave owners who now want the lad's gold claim and will do anything to get it.
- Against Ben's orders, Jamie drives a supply wagon on a route he's not supposed to; he loses control and wrecks the wagon. Jamie escapes uninjured but one of the horses is so badly hurt it has to be shot. To teach Jamie a lesson in responsibility, Ben decides to take his "adopted" son on an extended tour of the Ponderosa, to see how various residents and employees deal with their mistakes. The lesson makes an impression on Jamie, who is then asked to carve his name on the "Witness Tree," signifying he is the latest "family member" to take "The Grand Swing" (Hoss and Little Joe had previously made the trip).
- Dr. James Wills is Virginia City's new town doctor. He's exceptionally gifted and can bring many new procedures to Nevada. However, Dr. Wills is addicted to morphine, which results in trouble - and in the end, tragedy.
- The Cartwrights hope that time and therapy will get bronc breaker, Johnny Lightly, back in the saddle after a bad fall. But Johnny soon faces thinly veiled hostility from the young nurse sent to help him, threats from a rancher who blames Ben Cartwright for his family's calamities, and a growing fear that he may never walk again.
- Meena Calhoun has gotten engaged to bumbling slacker Virgil Potter, who is now trying to make an honest living in the livery business. Virgil soon finds himself in a heated rivalry with Joe and Hoss, who've opened up a stable of their own.
- Vengeful Senator Bennett pins the blame on Hoss when his son is killed by his ex-girlfriend, Lola. The Cartwrights do all they can to stop Sen. Bennett from destroying the Ponderosa.
- Searching for missing Ponderosa cattle, Adam Cartwright stops to aid injured rancher, Matt Grant, takes him home and stays to help his wife and son while he recovers. But Adam doesn't know that Matt is part of a gang of rustlers responsible for the missing cattle, and now that Adam can identify him, they want him dead before their next job.
- Hoss faces scorn and accusations of bribery when he refuses to vote with his fellow jurors to convict a man for murder based solely on the testimony of the victim's brother who witnessed the act on a dark night.
- Hoss and Little Joe turn two old friends against each other and the town upside down when they become competing campaign managers in Virginia City's mayoral race.
- The Cartwrights may have to take the law into their own hands when Virginia City's temporary sheriff, rancher Asa Moran, uses his new badge as a license to kill.
- Joe Cartwright and the young widow of a family friend are held hostage on her isolated ranch outside Platte City by the same gang that robbed Little Joe in the town bank earlier that day.
- Joe is entrusted to see that Grandpa Coomb's deathbed wish is carried out. That his granddaughter is returned to the people she never knew -- the high society Harkers. Joe must teach her to be like them before they arrive as all she's known is the life of a sheepherder living in the mountains.
- The Cartwrights come to the aid of Leta Malvet when she is ostracized by the community after her father and brother are hanged by a lynch mob for killing two men while trying to rob the stagecoach that they thought carried the Ponderosa's payroll. But Adam is sure that the gang will try again when they find out that the Malvets came up empty-handed and suspects that it's no coincidence when Leta's beau, bad boy Clay Renton, comes back to town.
- Candy is accused of a string of serious crimes, including murder, robbery and arson in Stillwater, and when the Cartwrights come to his defense, the sheriff refuses to cooperate. Even worse: A young boy claims he positively saw the Ponderosa foreman commit those crimes. The Cartwrights work with the boy to jog his memory before an innocent Candy is convicted and sentenced to hang.
- While visiting the Ponderosa, Ben's old friend, sea Captain Matthew White, is forced to reveal a terrible secret after Little Joe Cartwright falls in love with and plans to wed the Captain's daughter, Laura, once a freckle-faced playmate from Joe's childhood in New Orleans, now grown into a beautiful woman.
- Inspector Leduque comes from New Orleans to Virginia City to take Ben Cartwright back for a 20-year-old murder. When Ben declares publicly that he is withdrawing from the Governor's race, the townsfolk are upset not just about this but Little Joe has also been accused of gunning down Leduque's deputy in cold blood.
- A murder suspect escapes a prison wagon. Sheriff Price Buchanan, who covets an appointment to Deputy U.S. Marshal, finds an injured Hoss. Buchanan, knowing his career is at risk if he fails his appointed duty, arrests Hoss and plans to substitute him in as his prisoner. Hoss befriends a fellow prisoner named Madge Tucker who knows Hoss was falsely arrested. Together, the two scheme to escape the wagon and Buchanan's clutches.
- Adam helps a beautiful woman, and her father, a peddler of devout Jewish faith.
- Obie is going to visit his sister. The last time he saw her was 16 years ago. While away, Obie entrusts the care of Walter to Hoss. This care includes playing music for Walter, especially the low notes.
- A stagecoach containing Hoss and two nuns is robbed. Later, one of the badly wounded robbers finds himself in their power.
- While riding posse after a band of vicious marauders led by a renegade ex-cavalry officer, Ben Cartwright captures a wounded comanchero and tries to protect him from the angry ranchers who want to lynch him, his own gang who wants the money he was carrying for them and an angry Little Joe who lost a friend when his ranch was raided.
- Will Griner is acquitted of a murder after two key witnesses disappeared before the trial. When a bloodthirsty lynch mob comes after him, thinking him to have silenced the witnesses, Griner goes to the Cartwrights for help.
- After a U.S. deputy marshal apparently saves Adam's life by gunning down two men who shot at him, he eventually reveals that he's in town to bring a close friend of the Cartwrights to Sacramento to testify in a statewide racketeering trial, but the deputy marshal's motives soon become suspect as to what he really wants to do with the reluctant witness.
- Ben needs to transport three large timber beams but the local freight company won't do it. When a new independent freight hauler is approached for the job, Ben recognizes "Gunny" O'Riley, a former soldier in the Mexican-American War, but on the opposite side. Ben finally puts his differences aside and helps Gunny win a lucrative government contract.
- The Cartwrights help Virginia City reporter Samuel Langhorne Clemens investigate suspected shady goings-on between a railroad company and a local judge.
- Jamie's girlfriend, Neta Thatcher, witnesses a drifter named Griff Bannon rob and kill a man at a roadside camp. Bannon - who assumes his victim's identity and inherits his fortune - is aware that Neta has witnessed the crime and begins stalking her. Neta is terrified to tell anyone about the crime she witnessed, but has even more problems on her hands: Her tough love father, who refuses to allow her to socialize with the Cartwrights. Meanwhile, Bannon takes a job at the Ponderosa using his victim's identity, and he and Jamie become friends. However, Bannon's cover is quickly blown when Neta fingers him as the killer. Just when Bannon has Jamie and Neta trapped, an unlikely hero saves their lives.
- Honest John, a drifter, is looking for a nest and hopes to settle on the Ponderosa through his rapport with the newly "adopted" Jamie. But John's breakthrough with the boy must be weighed against the seamier side of his character.
- Ben receives a "package" shipped via Wells Fargo Express. It is a little girl. She is the daughter of a cousin of Ben. The Cartwrights soon find she is a firebrand who doesn't want to stay on the Ponderosa.
- The Cartwrights encourage young genius, Albert Michelson, to pursue his scientific experiments while trying to discover why schoolmaster, George Norton, expelled Albert from school and seems determined to stand in the way of his appointment to the prestigious Annapolis Naval Academy.
- Two men whom Ben once worked with during a gold claim arrive in Virigina City ... on opposite sides of the law. Naturally, Ben is caught in the middle.
- An outlaw gang robs Virginia City's bank and makes off with almost all of its money. The youngest member of the gang manages to get a job on the Ponderosa as a bronc-buster with the intention of informing the bank robbers of any posses that may threaten their hideout. While Ben, Adam and Hoss welcome the newcomer, Little Joe becomes suspicious of his activities.
- The Cartwrights find Billy Horn, a young man who was taken captive and raised by the Shoshone. He comes to live with them and befriends them, as they try to re-accustom him to the white man's ways. However, a threat emerges with Milton Tanner, a wealthy landowner who is making a claim for one-third of the Ponderosa. Billy believes that Tanner should be fought head on, as the Indians had taught him, rather than in court, and the Cartwrights are unable to convince him otherwise. Billy decides to confront Tanner himself.
- Unsettling events that could spell financial ruin for the Ponderosa mysteriously coincide with the arrival of a wealthy countess who seems determined to win the love of Ben Cartwright, the man she spurned twenty years before in New Orleans.
- *SPOILERS* The Cartwrights challenge an arrogant and cruel British prizefighter, the Duke, and his alcoholic manager to a bout with John Heenan (the Benicia Boy), after the Cartwrights' meek friend J.D. gets pulverized by the Duke in a bar-fight. J.D. is adored by saloon girl Marge, but he has been too shy to return her affections. While the Cartwrights wait to see if Heenan will actually take the bout and come from San Francisco, the Duke pursues Marge and assaults her when she rebuffs him. When the manager comes to Marge's rescue, he too is beaten up by the Duke (who, it turns out, is the manager's brother). Infuriated by all this, Hoss Cartwright himself challenges the Duke, and knocks him out in the fourth round of a bare-knuckle fight refereed by Sheriff Roy Coffee. The Duke and his brother-manager reconcile in the humility of defeat, then learn that the Benicia Boy will accept the proposed bout, but only the Duke comes to San Francisco. The Duke apologizes to all he has offended while in Virginia City and heads west to fight Heenan.
- The Cartwrights come to the aid of a Chinese-American stable hand accused of murder. Opposing them is a manipulative mayoral candidate who wants all "foreigners" to leave Virginia City.
- Worrying that a hired gun may just cause more trouble for the ranchers, Adam Cartwright votes 'no' when the Cattlemen's Association asks ruthless range detective, Sherman Clegg, to stop a region-wide rustling problem; but when tragedy follows and Clegg is accused of murder, Adam appears to be the only one to take the side of the very man he originally opposed.
- Little Joe is off to buy a gift for his pa's birthday. He's unaware that where he is heading the local Indians are on the war path and they've got him in their gun sights.
- The Cartwrights fear they may have to fend off a gold-rush when word spreads that an old prospector struck it rich on Ponderosa land.
- Jennifer Flinch and her uncle Gideon come to Virginia City on the stage to see a client named Bullet Head Burke. They need to explain why his $5K investment has all been spent. Through a case of mistaken identity, now Bullet Head must figure out who is the real Gideon Flinch.
- The Cartwrights come to the aid of a Mormon rancher being persecuted for his beliefs.
- Mormon rancher Heber Clauson is forced out of town by bigots with his two wives -- one of whom needs medical attention.
- Hoss is riding back from his sweetheart Cameo's house when he comes up on a group of men that have just killed a young couple. Hoss recognizes one of the men as his friend Jim Applegate. Hoss is torn between his friend and the law.
- Feisty Annie O'Toole comes to Nevada with her old Da (aka "Himself") to mine silver and winds up feeding the silver miners, shanghaiing Adam Cartwright to be her partner in her tent-kitchen ("The Square Meal") and to be her attorney in Miner's Court when an old enemy challenges her right to her claim.