The name of the ranch on TV’s Bonanza was the Ponderosa ranch. Bonanza ran from 1959 to 1973, airing a total of 431 episodes. Bonanza was the second-longest-running western series on U.S. television after Gunsmoke. Bonanza starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon and presented moral dilemmas with its episodes. The show has consistently ranked in the top 50 greatest TV shows of all time. The show told the story of the Cartwright family who lived on the Ponderosa ranch, a thousand square mile track on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. The ranch’s name is taken from the ponderosa pine, a common tree in the west.