RIP - Pernell Roberts

Pernell Roberts (far left in the pic)

b. : 18 May 1928

d. : 24 January 2010

. Time to start catching up on the RIP's. Pernell Roberts is best known for playing Adam on the immensely-popular TV Western from the early 60's - Bonanza. Adam was the eldest son of Lorne Greene's character, Ben. As can be seen above, Adam was the original Cowboy Goth - a good guy who almost always dressed head-to-toe in black. (*) . In 1965, Roberts left Bonanza after six seasons; claiming (correctly IMHO) that his character was getting shafted in the scripts. In hindsight, it didn't do his career much good. OTOH, Bonanza was getting stale by then too. . Pernell resurfaced in 1979 as the title character in Trapper John M.D. Which stupidly transformed the madcap (movie) M*A*S*H hero into a middle-aged Chief of Surgery in a dramatic series. Amazingly, that show enjoyed seven successful years in primetime TV. . (*) : Okay, Richard Boone's character, Paladin, in Have Gun Will Travel, was also a good guy who also always dressed in black. So there were two 60's Goth Cowboy heroes. . A word or two about Bonanza. It kicked Ratings butt - being the #1 TV show three years in a row. It was sponsored by Chevrolet, and was what every household tuned their TV's to at 9:00 PM each Sunday night. At 7:00 PM, every TV set was tuned to The Wonderful World Of Disney. And for the life of me, I can't remember what aired in between those two blockbusters. The FBI (with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) maybe? The Ed Sullivan Show? Perry Mason? Lawrence Welk? Perhaps it changed from one season to the next. .

They still run Bonanza in syndication, expecially if you have a big-screen TV and get that Western Channel up there around channel 197 or so. The stories are lame by today's standards. (**) But then again, all the other 60's Westerns that are shown on the cable channel are pretty bad as well.

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Pernell was the last surviving member of the Bonanza family shown above. And with his passing, a bit of Americana, lame or not, passes into history.

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(**) : With one notable exception. One episode featured Hoss crossing paths with a leprechaun. At least that's what he (and you, the audience) thinks for 3/4 of the show. It's an absolutely hilarious episode in the otherwise staidly dramatic Bonanza series.