Bonanza Statistics

Ponderosa Ranch:

1,000 square-miles/600,000 acres

Episodes Made: 430

Number Of Color Hours: 430

Number Of Stories: 428
(including 2-two part episodes)

Running time: 48 minutes

Choral Music and Cue Music:

25 minutes of choral (effects) music scored 5 days a week, during the filming season. In addition, miscellaneous cue music themes would be recorded at the start of the filming season for no more than one week per season.

Film Lab:

Consolidated Film Industries, Hollywood, Ca.

Studios Used:

Paramount Studios: Stages 16 and 17,
one street (Western Street, 1959-1970)

Dimensions of Stage 16:
170 feet long by 104 wide and 40 feet high

Dimensions of Stage 17:
186 feet long by 67 feet wide and 35 feet high

Warner Brothers Studios: Stages 19 and 25
One street and backlot used from 1970 to 1972

Dimensions of Stage 19:
160 long by 135 feet wide and 35 feet high

Dimensions of Stage 25:
160 feet long by 135 wide and 35 feet high

Backdrops Used:

Ponderosa Ranch on Stage 16:
Height: 30 feet tall
Length: 200 feet long

For other story settings, backdrops would be constructed in various sizes and sewn together for filming on Stage 16. Other sizes would be made for the Ponderosa and Virginia City sets on Stage 17.

Production Costs Per Season:

$110,052 (1959), $211,530 (1969),
$225,000 (1972). With added RCA
sponsorship, $250,000 per episode.

Costumes and Wardrobe by:

Cast wardrobe made by Paramount Studios and other costumes by Western Costume Company, Hollywood, California.

Sponsors:

General Motors (1959-72)
Ford Motors (1972)
Lucky Strikes
Eastman Kodak
Hall's Mentho-Lyptus
Chun-King
Coffee-Mate
Little Friskies
Efferdent
Polident
TV Guide
Rhys Lather
Pearl Drops
Playtex Living Bra
Sinex
Goodrich
P & C Markets (local)

Foreign Markets: 89 in 1969/30 in 2000

Owner and Developer:
National Broadcasting Company, Inc.

Original television syndication by:
NBC Television (May-August 1972)

Current owner of Bonanza film library:
CBS DVD (a CBS Corporation)

Languages: 12 (in markets where it's not dubbed, and a national language other than English, subtitles are used)

Number Of Crew: 34

NBC Staff: 7

Fenton Coe: director, film production

Alan W. Livingston: vice president, film
TV programs, West Coast

Tom Sarnoff: vice president, production
and business affairs

Fred Hamilton: director of film programs

Robert F. Lewine: vice president,
TV network programs

David Levy, vice president, TV network
programs and talent

Jerry Stanley, manager of film programs

Merchandise Manufactures: 25 (1969)

Shooting Schedule: 6 days

Number of Emmy Nominations: 10
Number of Emmy Awards: 3

1962~ Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Walter H. Castle, A.S.C.
Haskell Boggs, A.S.C.

1963~ Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design

Hal Pereira~ Art Director
Earl Hedrick~ Scenic Design

1965~ Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment

Haskell Boggs, A.S.C.
William F. Whitley, A.S.C.
Edward Ancona~ Color Consultant
(Emmy Award)

1966~ Individual Achievements in Cinematography

Haskell Boggs, A.S.C.
William F. Whitley, A.S.C.

1966~ Individual Achievements in Film Editing

Marvin Coil, A.C.E.
Everett Douglas, A.C.E.
Ellsworth Hoagland, A.C.E.
(all won Emmy Awards for best editing)

1966~ Individual Achievements in Music

David Rose~ Conductor and Composer

1966~ Outstanding Dramatic Series
David Dortort~ Producer
(lost to The Fugitive)

1967~ Individual Achievement in Cinematography

Haskell Boggs, A.S.C.
William F. Whitley, A.S.C.

1971~ Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Ted Voightlander, A.S.C.
(episode "The Love Child")

1971~ Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition

David Rose~ Conductor and Composer
(Emmy Award)

Below-the-line budget in 1959:
$77,000, in 1969: $114,000

Script Price in 1959-60: $2,500 per hour

Script Price in 1961-62: $3,000 per hour

Script Price in 1962-1967: $3,000 per
hour ($3,500 in season eight)

Script Price In 1969-70: $4,500 per hour

Michael Landon's Script Salary:
$3,200 per hour

Michael Landon's Directing Salary:
$3,500 per hour

Crew Wages:

Cameraman: from $14.73 to $19.86 per hour

Cableman: $3.42 to $5.24 per hour

Lamp Operator: $3.28 to $5.05 per hour

Grip: $3.39 to $5.20 per hour

Driver: $2.94 to $4.61 per hour

Key Make-up Artist: $5.57 to $8.01 per hour

Prop Master: $4.43 to $6.54 per hour
(figures are straight-time wages, plus
fringe benefits, less governmental fringes)

Color Costs: $20,000 per episode

Filming Costs At Lake Tahoe and other distant locations:
between $80,000 to $100,000 dollars per episode

Filming at Lake Tahoe and Truckee:

Season 1: July 1959 (2 days)
Season 3: June 1961 (2 weeks)
Season 4: June 1962 (2 weeks)
Season 7: June 1965 (3 weeks)
Season 9: Sept-Oct 1967 (3 weeks)
Season 10: June 1968 (3 weeks)

The filming at Lake Tahoe and Washoe Valley was only for a few days the first season in July of 1959. The company returned in June of 1961 for 2 weeks of location shooting for the third season of the series. By the time the seventh season began in 1965, shooting was expanded for three weeks, and subsequently for the ninth and tenth seasons of the series.

The first season filming at Tahoe was for the "Henry Comstock Story", mainly in the form of stock footage with no dialogue in the filming. Just riding shots were filmed in the region. In June of 1961, season three introduced filmed segments that were shot for half of one episode over 6 days, and the next 6 days would be for another half of another episode. The local and interior shots at the studio would be filmed before or after distant location filming. The company returned again for 2 weeks of segments in June of 1962.

The seventh season was expanded to 3 weeks that would cover three episodes and unlike the early years, as much as ninety to one-hundred percent could be filmed on location. The local and interior shots at the studio would be filmed before or after filming in the distant location filming. The ninth and tenth seasons were filmed in the same manner as the previous seventh season by the company.

Other distant filming regions would use this same shooting schedule, so they could shoot many segments on a seasonal basis for the series. While shooting segments, the crew would film thousands of feet of stock footage to be used for run-throughs and river crossings on location and used throughout the season and subsequently re-used in later seasons to save on production values.

Materials And Facilities Costs:

Coffee breaks and refreshments:
From $250 to $400 per episode

Animals, livestock,and wranglers:
$1,315 in 1959-60

$2,000 in 1969-70

Studio Rental Fees: $9,500 in 1959-60

Studio Rental Fees: $13,550 in 1969-70
(a $4,000 increase)

Stables Used:

Fat Jones Stables
North Hollywood, California

Myers and Wills Stables
San Fernando, California

Budget Comparison:
1959-60 versus 1969-70

1959-60....above-the-line costs:

Supervision: $6,300

Cast: $18,000

Script: $4,700

Music: $5,000

Miscellaneous: $2,700

Total in 1959-60: $36,700

1969-70....above-the-line costs:

Supervision: $22,900

Cast: $55,885

Script: $4,700

Music: $5,850

Miscellaneous: $5,530

Total in 1969-70: $98,005

1959-60...below-the-line costs:

Production Staff: $2,154

Camera: $2,333

Extras: $1,507

Set Operator: $3,200
Scenery: $5,248

Sound: $3,924

Makeup, wardrobe, hairdresser: $2,137

Set dressing and props: $3,247

Editing: $3,691

Film and lab, titles and opticals: $19,620

General transportation: $750

Stage and studio facilities: $9,500

Locations: $4,895

Payroll fringe benefits: $4,923

Miscellaneous: $6,613

Total: $77,300

Grand Total: $114,000

1969-70...below-the-line costs:

Production staff: $3,053

Camera: $5,379

Extras: $7,196

Set Operator: $6,869

Scenery: $6,276

Sound: $6,310

Makeup, wardrobe, hairdresser: $4,199

Set dressing and props: $5,722

Editing: $8,704

Film and lab, titles and opticals: $7,314

General transportation: $1,511

Stage and studio facilities in 1969-70: $13,550

Locations: $6,463

Payroll fringe benefits: $9,891

Miscellaneous: $6,614

Total: $113,530

Grand Total: $211,535