LORNE GREENE A Legacy of LOVE

THE BONANZA LEGEND NEVER LOST SIGHT OF THE THINGS THAT MATTER MOST

- Katie Bruno

It started out as a shoot-’em-up. But in its 14 years on the air, Bonanza became an American institution — largely due to some early input from its star, Lorne Greene. “Every show began with one member of the family with a gun, pointing it at somebody, saying, ‘What are you doing on the Ponderosa?’ ” remembered Lorne, who debuted as patriarch Ben Cartwright in 1959. “Finally, I said to the producer, ‘If a stranger comes to the Ponderosa, why do we have to point a gun at him? Let’s be human beings, let’s not be antagonists.’ ” The producer listened, and the show evolved. Instead of just another western, Lorne said, “it became a story…about a four-letter word: love.”