Bonanza (TV Series) Bank Run (1961) User Reviews

Little Joe left in charge

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 April 2013]

Poor Hoss must have felt like Fredo Corleone the son the Don skipped over as a successor. Ben Cartwright puts Little Joe in charge when he and Adam go away. And Michael Landon handles it beautifully.

With the best of intentions Landon talks the gullible Dan Blocker into robbing the Harrison Bank of Virginia City. Ian Wolfe the Harrison in charge has ordered the Virginia City branch closed. Dan Tobin and Owen Bush decide to skip out with the bank's deposits before Wolfe steals it.

Using his decision making authority Michael Landon decides to rob the bank before any of them. All this leads to an episode laced with humor as these two financial geniuses try to avoid all kinds of criminal charges with a nervous Lorne Greene worried about losing the Ponderosa trying to make up for what his dimwit sons have done.

A few laughs guaranteed in this story.

How to Succeed in Virginia City Without Really Trying

[bfreedman-07716 · 9/10 · 7 March 2021]

Classic episode of the long running genre defying Western. This episode is purely goofy farce when Little Joe and Hoss become inadvertent bank robbers. One can only wonder how much director Robert Altman was responsible for the oddball ensemble performances. Just too many subplots to count. The conniving millionaire who spills milk on his Ponderosa map. The drunk Irishman with the fortune. The bankers who seem to have wandered over to Virginia City straight from the cast of How to Succeed. (One is even named Finch.) The wronged mule owner without a line of dialogue who beats the bejeebus out of Hoss and Little Joe. The telegrapher with the Victorian lamp obsession. The bank teller with three weeks and two days of vacation. The inexplicable running gag about Ben injuring his hand. And much more. Yet it all still holds together. Truly a treat for Bonanza aficionados. Bravo!

Outlaws int he family

[mitchrmp · 10/10 · 17 July 2014]

Cartwright characters: Joe and Hoss (Ben and Adam had smaller roles)

This is one of the humorous episodes. It's one of my favorites. I love seeing the bad boy side of Joe and Hoss. I can only imagine what they were like growing up. I'm sure they were taken to the woodshed a lot!

In this episode, Joe was playing telegrapher while his friend went to get something. Joe gets a message that a bank is closing. Before giving the message to the bank, he discovered that there was a scheme to hurt a nice, old man. So...

Joe and Hoss rob the bank. That's right - THEY ROB THE BANK!!! What follows is a series of events that leaves one laughing! I loved how Ben took everything so seriously, and in the end told Adam he would be pressing some charges against Joe and Ben. This shows how strict and loving of a father he was. Even though Joe and Hoss had the best of intentions, they still needed to be taught that their way of doing things was not good.

I loved Joe's confrontation with his father. Priceless!

Better yet: Nobody was hurt in the making of this episode...really!

the silliest Bonanza show that I watched in its entirety

[Thomas001 · 2/10 · 24 March 2017]

One of the silliest Bonanza shows. Somehow, I managed to watch it in its entirety anyway, without reaching for the remote control to abort this. No adventure, no western. Not even any dead bodies (sorry Michelle). And what's that jazz music in the background? Out of place, out of time. Fortunately, Bonanza produced hundreds of winners, this isn't one.

Goofy with bad jokes

[lorikbaker · 1/10 · 15 November 2019]

The worst Bonanza I've ever seen. So bad I had to google the writer. Shockingly Robt Altman directed this mess.

I despise this episode

[scottflacy · 1/10 · 2 April 2022]

If you believe TV characters are sock puppets for a director's imagination, as Robert Altman clearly did, you'll love this episode. But if you're invested in the consistency between Bonanza episodes and believe Joe and Hoss are honorable guys and not raffish buffoons, you won't.

Glad that weren't many episodes like this one.