Today's Michael Berry Show is sponsored by Bonanza.

Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 1959 all the way to January 1973.

It lasted 14 seasons and 431 episodes. Bonanza is NBC's longest-running Western.

The second longest-running Western on U.S. network television behind CBS's Gunsmoke.

The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family that owned the 1,000-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch.

The family was headed by the thrice-wittled Patriarch Ben Cartwright played by Lauren Green.

Ben had three sons, one from each of his wives. Adam Cartwright is played by Prinnell Roberts.

Eric Cartwright was played by Dan Blocker. You probably knew him as Hoss though. Then there was Little Joe played by Michael Landon.

Prinnell Roberts left the show in 1965 when he wanted to get back to the theater.

Dan Blocker, while he died in 1972 of a pulmonary embolism after a gallbladder surgery.

The show's producers didn't think they could replace Dan so they killed off the character of Hoss.

This was the first time and television history that a major male character would be killed off.

It was later explained on the program that Hoss had drowned attempting to save a woman's life.

After the show's cancellation, Lauren Green went on to star on a show called Battlestar Galactica.

Michael Landon went on to star in Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven.

In 1963, Dan Blocker, you know the fellow that played Hoss,

well he started the Bananza Steakhouse Chain in Westport, Connecticut.

He sold the Bananza Restaurant Chain three years later to the Wiley Brothers.

The company grew to approximately 600 restaurants by 1989 when the Wiley sold it to Metro Media, coincidentally.

Metro Media owned another Steakhouse Chain with almost 700 locations. That chain's name?

Ponderosa. As of the year 2022, there were only 17 Ponderosa locations that remained open and only three of the Bananza locations.

Hi, we want you to come to Bananza, so here's what we're going to do.

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