A neighboring rancher, Andy, is good friends with Ben, but his son (Todd) wants to sell their land for mining operations which will spoil the water rights agreement that Andy and Ben made years ago. Ben and Adam find their neighbor Todd McCarren surveying the property line. Todd says, rudely, that
Hoss mentors a lonely, mentally challenged man who, with superhuman size and strength, becomes extremely dangerous when angered. These efforts are undermined by a saloon girl who only wants this giant man-child to manipulate him. In one of the local bars in Virginia City, one of the bar girls tells
Adam is bushwhacked by three deserters from the Army who are hiding out on the Ponderosa. When Ben pursues them, he is hindered by a Captain Bolton, the arrogant commander of a military posse who is also after the men. Three army prisoners have escaped Ft Dayton. Mertz still has chains around his w
When an Indian saves Ben Cartwright's life from a near fatal knife attack by another Indian, Ben later gives the Indian and his pregnant wife a strip of fertile farming land. Unfortunately the land is next to a very racist farmer and things turn deadly. Ben is ambushed on his own property by the so
Little Joe comes upon a gypsy girl. Frightened, she runs and falls becoming unconscious. When she wakes, they discover that she believes she is bewitched and so do her people who banished her. Her birth under a dark star has fostered this belief. Little Joe, smitten, must rescue her from this belief
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. An Army wagon train carrying gold is in Virginia City getting supplies. When their scout,
A bank robber takes a job with the Cartwrights to prevent the sheriff from tracking down his accomplices. After John Pardo and his gang rob the Virginia City Bank, they go into hiding on the Ponderosa. One of Pardo's men, Sam Kirby, goes to the Cartwrights. The plan is for him to hire on as a ranch
Joe and Hoss take their dates to a bizarre traveling carnival and Joe's girlfriend Jennifer disappears. She's abducted by the evil owner, Phillip Reed, and held for one million dollars ransom. Reed's girlfriend Della is jealous of the attractive hostage and spills the beans to Joe. He and Hoss tear
The Cartwrights take young Billy Allen to the Ponderosa following the death of his mother. Hoss is the only one that is able to penetrate the boy's hostility and bitterness. As the two begin to get close, Billy's father Vance breaks out of prison and comes for the boy. A young boy named Billy Allen
Ranchers are being killed, cattle stolen, and retired U.S. Deputy Marshall Denver McKee leads various posses after the suspects but never seems to be able to find them. In the meantime, McKee seems to have plenty of money to take care of his gorgeous daughter back home from schooling in the East. A
About to set out on a cattle drive, Ben hires a young drifter named Sam Jackson as one of his drovers. What he doesn't know is that Jackson is really outlaw Johnny Logan, who signed on to the drive because he knew it was going to pass near the town of Waycross, and Logan is determined to kill the Wa
When a brutal U.S. Marshal arrests one of the Ponderosa's workers for murder to transport him to Los Angeles for trial, and a doubtful Hoss and Adam come along in the stagecoach, along with a Dr. and his beautiful daughter, to make sure the Marshal doesn't kill him before they get there. The questio
