Bonanza - A Rose For Lotta

"A Rose For Lotta" is the first episode of Bonanza. It first aired on September 12, 1959. In the very beginning of it we learn the Ponderosa is a thousand square miles in size. We also learn that Little Joe's mother was from New Orleans and Michael Landon tries to do a bad southern accent which he soon gives up in future episodes. There seems to be a lot of yelling and a lot of friction (more than usual) between Joe and Adam as Adam makes a crack about Joe's "Your French Quarter mother". Their cook Hop Sing also appears in the first episode. The Cartwright's seem especially hostile to trespassers "We don't cotton to strangers" Adam says. Their attitudes soften up in later episodes. The area was pretty untamed in the early years so maybe some of it can be attributed to that.

Real life Movie star Yvonne DeCarlo stars in Bonanza's first episode as actress Lotta Crabtree who was a real actress during the time Bonanza was set (1859) but would only have been 11 or 12 at the time. Yvonne was 37.