‘Bonanza’ Would’ve Cost Nearly $1 Million Per Episode to Film Today
NBC’s Western series, Bonanza ran for over a decade, and the network aired over 400 episodes of the Michael Landon show. Bonanza was the first Western to run in color and it cost a lot of money to film and air. Here’s how much money an episode of the series would cost to make in modern times.
Where did ‘Bonanza’ take place?
Bonanza shared the story of the wealthy Cartwrights, and it starred Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts, and Lorne Greene as members of the fictional family. The Los Angeles Times reports the family’s fictional land, Ponderosa Ranch, was in Lake Tahoe’s Zephyr Cove. The ranch in Nevada, which was heavily featured in the show’s opening credits, later sold for $38 million in 2020.
With Bonanza airing from the late ’50s to the early ’70s, the estate looks way different in the 2000s. The publication notes the property consisted of 24 acres and two homes. Both homes combined included nine bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, and 18,000 square feet.
The estate was on and off the market for five years and was initially listed for $59 million in 2016. Due to divisions in the land, the sellers reduced the price to $39.9 million. They finally settled on selling the estate for about a million dollars under their asking price.
‘Bonanza’ would’ve potentially cost $1 million or more to shoot each episode today
With such a beautiful estate and notable actors involved in Bonanza, the show cost a lot of money to create. According to Outsider, the episodes rose exponentially in price throughout the seasons. For the first few seasons, each episode cost about $110,000. But by season 14, each episode doubled in price to cost about $225,000. Outsider did the math and reasoned that if Bonanza still filmed today, the show would cost between $975,000 and $1.3 million to create per episode.
Plenty of funding went to the filming location, costuming, and set design — but the cast made a lot of money, too. IMDb reports that Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, and Lorne Greene each brought home roughly $10,000 per episode. When Roberts left the series, Landon joked that the three remaining main stars made even more money.
“After he left, we took one leaf out of the dining room table and we all made more money because we split the take three ways instead of four,” Landon noted.
Dan Blocker was shocked that the series aired beyond a few seasons
Bonanza nearly didn’t make it through the first season of the series. But after season 2, it moved to a better TV time slot — and it certainly made an impact. The series went on to win several Primetime Emmy Awards.
According to MeTV, Dan Blocker was shocked that Bonanza lasted past its initial seasons. “I have been superstitious about the first year, the second, the third, fourth, and so on,” he said. “I didn’t dream that the thing would go beyond the first year, and I pretty much had the same feeling every year since.”
Unfortunately, Blocker suspected the show would become an “economic burden” on the network after season 13. “It’ll be a burden for the network and the sponsors to an extent where they’ll probably drop it,” he added. “I foresee the show lasting another couple of years.”
Blocker wasn’t too far off. NBC canceled the series in 1973 after the show’s 14th season.
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