Pernell Roberts~A Hard Man To Convince
TV Guide~September 17, 1960

     Despite "Bonanza's" success, Pernell Roberts keeps arguing

     "I speak my mind.  I sound off.  I'm always asking why.  Maybe it's one of my failings as a human being".

     The speaker was 33-year-old Pernell Roberts, who plays Adam, Ben Cartwright's oldest son, in Bonanza.

     Roberts believes that Bonanza because of its character relationships, is a good as Western as there is on the air today, that potentially is the best.  He also believes that that does not necessarily make it good.

     "Let's face it.  Bonanza could be really good if the powers-that-be cared enough to make it that way", Roberts said.  "Everything in television is that monster, compromise.  Nobody really cares.  There isn't time."

     "I remember I used to say I'd never walk on a stage without knowing my lines and at least have an approach to the part.  But in television too often you arrive on the set in the morning, look at each other vaguely and say, 'Let's see, what are we saying to each other today?' "

     Robert's bark is a good deal worse than his bite.  He is a great admirer of and close friend of his producer, David Dortort, a man who believes it's healthy for actors to take an active interest in what they're doing.

     Dortort says, "Pernell is more aloof, rebellious, outspoken and analytical, a bit of his own man with his own ideas.  I don't always agree.  But I think his sounding off is good for the performance and for the show generally.  So I say more power to him".

     Roberts, almost from the moment he was born in Waycross, Georgia, has been a bucker of "the system".  The son of a soft-drink salesman, he distinguished himself by flunking out of college at three different occasions.  "I was very undisciplined", he says candidly.  "I still am".

     After leaving Georgia Tech he did a hitch with the Marines.  When he emerged, however, he still found college, this time at the University of Maryland, not to his liking.  It was a bore.  He didn't do any studying.  He managed to flunk out twice in one year ( once he was reinstated ).  Meantime he took up acting.

     "I did it out of lonliness", he says.  "It was a way to meet people".

     He did four plays for the University Theater, played stock in Cleveland, later went to the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., where he won a part in "The Firebrand".

     He was a permanent member of the Arena group for two years and still considers it the most valuable training, he has said.  From there he went on to New York, where he did a variety of things, including Mephistophilis in Equity Library Theater's "Doctor Faustus".  Later he went to Wisconsin for summer stock, then back to New York.  Eventually he hit Broadway--in "The Lovers", with Joanne Woodward.  That brought him to the attention of movie makers and Paramount signed him in April 1957 for "Desire Under The Elms".  A year or so later Dortort came along.

     Roberts is staunch enough in his beliefs to hold out for them.  During his lean years he waited on tables, modeled for art classes, cut tombstones.  If worst came to worst, he'd probably do it all over again.

     In regards to Bonanza, he argues long and lustily for less sentimental family "togetherness", as far as the conception of the four Cartwrights is concerned.  He is also adament in his belief that the show needs an extra day for rehearsal--"to learn a little about the material and about each other".  He thinks this should be conducted in privacy.

     "Let's scream and shout at each other, but let's do it within the four walls of a room.  Good things would come out of it."