Bonanza (TV Series) San Francisco (1960) User Reviews

Shanghaied In San Francisco

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 25 August 2009]

When you have a ranch on the shores of Lake Tahoe your market will be San Francisco. Which is what the Cartwright clan has taken a herd to sell and then have a good time.

Leaving Adam behind, Ben, Hoss, and Little Joe head to San Francisco, but in that sin city of the Pacific there is always the danger of Shanghaing. In fact two of the Ponderosa hands, O.Z. Whitehead and Robert Nichols, have that happen to them. Which sends the Cartwrights into action.

In this episode they were fortunate that they brought cook Hop Sing along because it turns out that Victor Sen Yung was related to a whole lot of Chinese working on the waterfront. It was an espionage system that couldn't be beat.

Playing some diverse San Francisco types in this Bonanza episode are David White, Murvyn Vye, Richard Deacon, Herb Vigran, Tor Johnson, and Kathleen Crowley. She's most dangerous of all, a woman with her own definite agenda in Shanghaing business.

It was one of Bonanza's more memorable episodes from my youth.

We'll stay out of trouble this time

[mitchrmp · 8/10 · 6 February 2014]

Okay, I admit it, I really do love this episode. This is one of the "lighter" episodes, though maybe not as light-hearted as some of the other well-done episodes.

In this episode, Pa and the boys (minus Adam, who probably would have kept them all out of trouble) and even Hop Sing were in San Francisco. They act like this is the first time they've been there, but it's been referred to as a visiting spot in the past. Anyways, two of the Cartwright's best hands disappear and it seems, according to Hop Sing's Number 3 cousin, that they've been shanghaied! So Pa and the boys go out to investigate.

I won't go into detail of what happened, but it's a bust your guy episode at times, what with first Pa then Hoss getting it. My favorite part is Hoss wondering how much the woman sold his Pa for...

If you like the lighter side of Bonanza, definitely check this one out!

A Very Entertaining Episode Of Bonanza.

[Hotwok2013 · 7 October 2017]

This first season episode of Bonanza entitled "San Francisco" is the most entertaining I have ever seen. After transporting some cattle to the city the Cartwrights & two of their cowhands go for a few drinks in the notorious "Barbary Coast" district. The year is 1861 & at that time San Francisco's Barbary Coast had a terrible reputation. A contemporary journalist described it as, "The haunt of the low & vile of every kind. Petty thieves, house burglars, tramps, whore-mongers, lewd women, cutthroats & murderers are all found here". Anyway, two of Ben Cartwright's best hands get Shanghaied & the story revolves around Ben (Lorne Greene) and his sons Hoss (Dan Blocker) & Little Joe (Michael Landon) trying to find them. Ben first goes to the police but the desk sergeant tells him he doesn't have the manpower to go looking for a couple of men in a city where men come & go all the time. When Ben Cartwright stumbles into the bar from where his two hands were waylaid the same thing happens to him. The proprietor of this establishment is one Alexander Pendleton (Shanghai Pete) played by David White. He is a smooth-talking conman & David White plays him really well. When the boys find their father has gone missing they too eventually stumble into this dodgy bar. Big Hoss is by now in a very angry, aggressive mood & threatens to bang a few heads together if he doesn't get any answers as to the whereabouts of his father. Also co-starring in this episode is Kathleen Crowley playing an Irish tart-with-a-heart waitress called Quick-Buck-Kate, (implying she's also a prostitute), who helps to get the men out of trouble. Great stuff & well worth watching!.