Seasons & episodes
S3 · E7The Many Faces of Gideon Flinch 1961-11-05 · 49 min
Hoss and Joe become involved when "Bullethead" Burke vows revenge on an old man he claims cheated him in an investment deal.
S3 · E8The Friendship 1961-11-12 · 49 min
Joe befriends and takes responsibility for an ex-convict named Danny. Danny loves horses and is not used to people's ways on the outside of jail. Will his rough jailhouse upbringing mar any hopes of friendship?
S3 · E9The Countess 1961-11-19 · 49 min
A woman Ben once loved, Lady Chadwick, returns and attempts to trick him into marrying her by ruining his business. Ben says almost losing the Ponderosa will make him and his sons appreciate it more.
S3 · E10The Horse Breaker 1961-11-26 · 49 min
A professional wrangler working for the Cartwrights is paralyzed when thrown by a particularly mean bronco. The woman nursing him was once engaged to the late son of a neighboring rancher out to get Ben.
S3 · E11Day of the Dragon 1961-12-03 · 49 min
Joe wins a card game and an unexpected prize...a young lady. She goes to the Ponderosa and serves them, not wanting to be set free. Meanwhile, an army is looking for her and the Cartwrights.
S3 · E12The Frenchman 1961-12-10 · 49 min
An irritating man who boasts of being the reincarnation of French poet Francois Villion shows up causing trouble for the Cartwrights.
S3 · E13The Tin Badge 1961-12-17 · 49 min
Joe accepts the job of temporary sheriff in the town of Rubicon, unaware he is being used to facilitate a scheme involving murder.
S3 · E14Gabrielle 1961-12-24 · 49 min
In this Christmas story, inspired by Johanna Spyri's "Heidi", Hoss and Joe come across a blind girl whose family has been killed in a wagon wreck, learning later that her grandfather is a bitter hermit who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
S3 · E15Land Grab 1961-12-31 · 49 min
The Ponderosa is overrun with settlers bearing phony property deeds, and one of Ben's oldest friends is responsible.
S3 · E16The Tall Stranger 1962-01-07 · 49 min
Hoss plans to marry Margie, a pretty blonde, but Margie becomes fascinated with a tall, traveling stranger named Mark Connors. Margie marries Mark but soon finds it was far from a match made in heaven.
S3 · E17The Lady from Baltimore 1962-01-14 · 49 min
An overbearing friend of the family tries to force her daughter into marrying Joe, though she does not love him. The situation grows more complex when Adam stumbles onto the scheme.
S3 · E18The Ride 1962-01-21 · 49 min
Adam races against the clock to prove a man who was once his friend is guilty of robbery and murder and Adam is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt he is guilty.
S3 · E19The Storm 1962-01-28 · 49 min
Joe plans to marry Laura White, daughter of a man Ben once sailed with, but she is fatally ill. Ben consoles him with words spoken years before, by the father of Adam's mother.
S3 · E20The Auld Sod 1962-02-04 · 49 min
The Cartwrights pretend the Ponderosa belongs to the town lush, when his aging mother from Ireland arrives.
S3 · E21Gift of Water 1962-02-11 · 49 min
The Cartwrights dig a well, build a rig and a windmill for a drought-stricken farm family.
S3 · E22The Jackknife 1962-02-18 · 49 min
Adam gives a second chance to a family man he suspects is one of the rustlers who has been hitting the Ponderosa herds.
S3 · E23The Guilty 1962-02-25 · 49 min
When Ben fails to prevent the death of a friend's son, Adam and Joe, concerned by their father's depression, attempt to prove there was nothing he could have done.
S3 · E24The Wooing of Abigail Jones 1962-03-04 · 49 min
In order to keep peace on the ranch, Hoss and Joe try to help ranch hand, Hank Meyers woo the the plain-looking schoolteacher, Abigail Jones. When their first plan backfires, they convince Adam (who doesn't want to get involved) to help and this makes things worse because Abigail believes it is Adam who is wooing her and Hank Meyers believes Adam wants to steal her away.
S3 · E25The Lawmaker 1962-03-11 · 49 min
Ben supports the appointment of Asa Moran as Virginia City's temporary sheriff, but Moran goes overboard with his authority, jailing Adam in the process and pistol-whipping a Ponderosa hand.
S3 · E26Look to the Stars 1962-03-18 · 49 min
A young genius, Albert Michaelson, vies for a scholarship. Adam assists Albert in the boy's experiments. Albert only needs the school teacher's approval to be granted a scholarship-which will be very difficult to get considering Albert was expelled from school.
S3 · E27The Gamble 1962-04-01 · 49 min
In the town of Alkali, the Cartwrights are jailed on false charges of robbery and murder, but Joe escapes and returns with an army of Ponderosa hands.
S3 · E28The Crucible 1962-04-08 · 49 min
Adam is left to die in the desert after two thieves take $5,000 and his horse from him. Near death, he stumbles into an old prospector named Kane who offers to lend him a mule and supplies in exchange for three day's work at his mine. Kane, however, turns out to be a demented madman. He holds Adam prisoner and tortures him to prove his theory that anyone could be driven to kill, even a man as rational as Adam. This is Pernell Robert's favorite episode along with "The Wooing Of Abigail Jones".
S3 · E29Inger, My Love 1962-04-15 · 49 min
Ben indulges in a nostalgic reverie about Hoss's deceased mother. Having worked his way west to Galesburg, IL., Ben is befriended by a girl named Inger, the fiancee of the tavern owner who gave him a job.
S3 · E30Blessed Are They 1962-04-22 · 49 min
When two feuding families argue over the custody of two orphaned children, a reluctant Ben is called upon to straighten out the situation before real trouble erupts.