Bonanza (TV Series) The Meredith Smith (1965) User Reviews

Will the real heir please stand up

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 5 November 2015]

Comedy is accented in this Bonanza episode as Burt Mustin all of 92 drops dead on the Ponderosa doorstep and Ben Cartwright becomes the executor of the estate. The frugal Mr. Mustin never made out a will, but he's worth several hundred thousand dollars and with his dying breath says it all goes to his next of kin one Meredith Smith.

By the time the six month deadline comes around Lorne Greene has more Meredith Smiths than he knows what to do with. Are any of them legitimate? This is of vital importance as Mustin held certain water rights on his property adjacent to the Ponderosa.

This story looks like an enlarged episode of To Tell The Truth. But that's half the fun. The other half is seeing Lorne Greene get rid of the unwanted Smiths.

Well comedic done episode of Bonanza

[soapergirl · 8/10 · 17 September 2017]

Far from being stupid, this was an intelligent gay comedy of To Tell The Truth as someone else mentioned. It was well done with a deft light hand, and it was wonderful seeing all the old classic character actors of that time period.

Great to see Burt Mustin and Strother Martin especially. It was a hoot seeing Ben Cartwright's increasing befuddlement as each Meredith Smith popped up to claim their inheritance from Jake Smith's (Burt Mustin) estate.

Another great detail was seeing the Desk Clerk's mustache reactions with a musical tweak to underscore each quirky response from the Meredith Smiths. A very well done episode indeed!

P.S. As I have not seen the closing minutes of this episode, I still have no idea who the real Meredith Smith is or was, and have no spoilers to offer. You'll have to watch it yourself to find out!

Groaningly awful

[chahagen · 1/10 · 16 January 2020]

Music that hits you in the face to tell you , "OK, laugh now", is the rotten cherry on top of a horribly labored, completely unfunny episode.

I've seen better

[glitterrose · 5/10 · 17 May 2022]

Not the worst episode of Bonanza but not the best either. I think I was more interested in the mystery of the hotel clerk and why he acted so constipated at getting more business than I was interested in the mystery of just who is "Meredith Smith" and are any of these people telling the truth about anything?! Seriously..why are you making faces when you should be shaking Ben Cartwright's hand for giving your hotel so much business with all the Meredith Smiths running around?

But yeah, this is basically our storyline in a nutshell. And elderly man is visiting the Ponderosa and he's even talking about wanting to make out a will. Sad thing is he passes away before he's able to do anything about that. Ben's now the executor of this man's estate and he has to track down Meredith Smith so this person can claim their inheritance. Well, you have a bunch of scam artists coming to town and claiming they are the real Meredith Smith. Ben definitely has a time on his hands weeding out all these fakes. It's sitcom shenanigans imo.