Bonanza (TV Series) The Tall Stranger (1962) User Reviews

There is only one bright spot in this routine plot.

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 25 March 2014]

As another reviewer stated, this is a situation that popped up way too many times during the series run. If it wasn't Hoss then it was Adam, or Joe or even Candy falling in love with a wide-eyed female and then getting their guts ripped out at the end of the show. In this episode it will be Hoss' time to fall in love only to get rejected during the show. But unlike most of the regular plots, we get to find out about how the woman's life turned out even after rejecting a Cartwright son.

This time a young female named Margie Owens, who is a life-long friend of Hoss, rejects Hoss in order to travel the world with a slick well-dressed man named Mark Connors. The well mannered gentleman that claims to have been all over the world slides right in and steals the heart of Margie right under the nose of Hoss. Leaving the viewer feeling for the large frame star that lost his life long friend.

This is a plot that was played over and over again during the fourteen years run. But unlike others, the bright spot was that the story continued and revealed what happened after the rejection. Without giving anything away, it was worth seeing the effect or people decisions.

Strange episode...

[glitterrose · 8/10 · 17 December 2021]

So you have another story of a Cartwright going into heat. Hoss is the star of this episode. Sometimes episodes like this can be like picking up a book, turning to the middle of the book and you start reading from the middle instead of from page 1. I have to go by what the episode looked like and it didn't really seem like Margie was interested in Hoss. Hoss was the one with stars in his eyes over Margie. Margie seemed like a nice lady and I could see the two of them being friends and Hoss just wants more than what Margie wants. It didn't seem like the two had been courting or anything like that.

I respect Margie's wishes. It was bizarre of her to settle down with anybody instead of doing what she wanted out of life. And maybe that's my modern day attitude talking. I realize Mark was filling Margie's ears with all this adventure talk, going places and that was what Margie wanted to do. She wanted to see the world instead of staying in one place. It was something Hoss didn't understand. He thought seeing the world meant just going to San Francisco*.

*I want to disagree with that line of the episode. I think if you married a Cartwright that you'd be happy with them (provided the writers didn't off you). Ben, Adam, Hoss and Joe all are gentleman and I think they'd bend over backwards to make their lady happy. Maybe it won't be a case of traveling all the way around the world in one go. Go some place, come back home for awhile and go somewhere else down the line.

It's a mystery why Margie wasn't doing all of this on her own instead of thinking she had to get married to do these things. This other guy (Mark Connors) seemed to come out of the wild blue and she's off marrying him instead of accomplishing what she wanted to do out of her life. And again, maybe that's modern day thinking getting mixed in with the past. It might've been scandalous for a woman to travel the world by herself.

Margie didn't have a good ending. I sympathize with the character. She wanted to go places and do things and the poor woman still ended up in San Francisco while married to a crook and carrying the jerk's child. Hoss shows up at the end and promises Margie that the little girl she's having will go back and stay with Margie's dad. I think she knew the writing on the wall about no longer having the will to live and she wasn't gonna pull through because she didn't want to pull through.

So going back to my header. I still call it a strange episode but it was still interesting enough to sit and watch all the way through instead of cursing at the tv once you see it's another episode about going into heat and either turning the channel or fast forwarding to the character you like. I must admit there's quite a few episodes I end up fast forwarding through to get to Pernell Robert's scenes since Adam's my favorite.

Heartbreak for Hoss

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 31 July 2020]

Unusual for a Bonanza story in that the romance comes to Dan Blocker. But like it did in so many episodes the woman does not make it to the altar.

In this case the woman is Kathie Browne, daughter of neighbor Russell Thorsrn who has a few bucks of his own. Said bucks are what attracts con man Sean McClorywho sweeps her off her feet and Browne jilts Bloxker and marries McClory.

What a no good rat of a human being McClory is is revealed at the very end of the story. McClory and Blocker have a fine and dramatic climax scene.

One of Dan Blocker's best episodes.

very sad but very sweet

[daviddaphnered · 9/10 · 11 August 2017]

This is definitely a favorite BONANZA episode for me personally, with the soft-hearted Hoss Cartright becoming also mean toward a character in the story who nobody could easily like, if they could like him at all; Sean McClory plays that part excellently. Cathie Browne plays well the part of Margie Owens, a good friend to Hoss for many years. (Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker must have understandably had crushes on Browne, since she was in this episode with Blocker and at least three episodes with Roberts.) In this story Hoss wants to marry Margie Owens, but at a party one night she meets a man who has been well-traveled, or so he says. Margie is swept off her feet by the bogus traveler, and after she tells Hoss that she does want to marry the "traveler" and thus breaks Hoss' heart terribly, a month later she does marry the con man. A few months later Margie's upset father regrets the mistake, and sends Hoss to San Francisco to bring the saddened lady back. Hoss goes to the hospital to see Margie who is upset before she delivers a baby; she dies in childbirth. Hoss goes to a saloon where he encounters the con man whom Hoss refers to as a miserable human being and tells him to his face that he is going to kill him. What will happen to Hoss at this point? Watch the episode. Brahms' First Symphony provides a fitting music score for this bitter-sweet episode. Again, it's well done, very touching.

Memorable episode

[kellielulu · 8/10 · 10 May 2023]

A few things set this episode apart from the typical Catwright man has his heart broken episodes .First as mentioned we see what happens to the woman afterwards. Second the story of in this case Hoss getting gets heart broken early and we see that the woman he wants to marry (Margie Owens) doesn't fare as well as most are assumed do. She instead marries a con man who has fooled Margie and her father. She ends up stranded and pregnant in San Francisco still not seeing the world full of the adventures she wanted. The jerk she marries keeps after Margie's not so well father for money .The father isn't up to checking on Margie and ask Hoss to do so. This seems kind of mean but it really doesn't play out that way the man is kindly and sick and he knows Hoss is a good caring person and that's what Margie needs.

The next thing that sets this episode apart is the a saloon woman Kathie with a heart and a mind with a weak spot for Mark. She is well played by Jacqueline Scott .Hoss finds he can trust the woman and she helps him with Margie and her baby girl. She did her best it seems to help Margie too .We can gather that Mark also made her a lot of promises he didn't keep. Kathie unlike Margie carried on and is much stronger despite not being able to move past her feelings for Mark. Margie is full of shame and has lost the will to live she paid and awful price for her choices .Margie has a baby girl but dies in childbirth. Kathie promises to help find a woman to help Hoss take the baby back to Virgina City .Mark however wants to use the baby to get more money from Margie's dad. Hoss handles him and Kathie tends to Mark while telling Hoss he should take the baby. She is still not over Mark but she knows he's a rat she's disgusted by his actions with his own daughter but can't help herself.

The epsiode ends with Hoss lookinng after a horse he's saving for Margie's daughter. He had planned to give the pony's mother to Margie.

What happens to the little girl with a ill grandfather is something that could have made for future episodes but was never picked up again. I also doubt they would have Hoss needing someoen to help him bring the baby home but it was a different time and they didn't take advantage of the lighter tone Hoss taking care of a baby on his own would have provided. Kind of a depressing episode but one that stands out.

grade-Z schmaltz -- set to Brahms

[grizzledgeezer · 4/10 · 24 May 2013]

This is the sort of episode that popped up too often on "Bonanza" and "The Big Valley". One of the patriarch's/matriarch's offspring falls in love, wants to be or is married, then (to maintain series stasis) conveniently dies or runs off.

In this case, it's Margie Owens, a young woman whom Hoss has supposedly known all his life (but the audience has never seen).

Naturally, she rejects Hoss, marries a man who promises a life of travel and excitement, is abandoned while she's pregnant, and (what else?) dies in childbirth.

The most interesting thing about this otherwise forgettable episode is that David Rose -- instead of writing his own music -- makes heavy use of Brahms' First Symphony. Really. I now have to listen to the piece to -- I hope -- wipe out the memory of its abuse.