Season 5’s 'Hoss and the Leprechauns' is often cited as Bonanza’s best episode

Collider says one of Bonanza’s most celebrated outings is Season 5’s oddball hour “Hoss and the Leprechauns,” an episode that fans and critics often list among the long-running Western’s best.

The episode follows Hoss Cartwright after he rescues a small-statured man from a bear, finds a lockbox full of gold, and is mocked by Virginia City when his story sounds fantastical. An Irish professor, James McCarthy (Sean McClory), arrives and spins leprechaun tales that send the town searching the Cartwrights’ Ponderosa; the “little men in green suits” turn out not to be magical but former performers ruined by McCarthy who hope to bring their families to Nevada. The Cartwrights foil the crooked professor, and Hoss asks the townsfolk to accept the newcomers: "Now, these fellers are here for the same reason most of us are," Hoss tells them. "That's to help settle our town, make it grow, raise their families."

Seen as memorable for elevating Hoss and turning a gag into a message about prejudice, the episode is described as dated and outlandish but still a standout among Bonanza’s 14 seasons and 430 episodes. Bonanza is available for streaming in part on Tubi, and the piece notes that after Dan Blocker’s death the show ended prematurely without him, making this installment worth revisiting in his honor.

Key Topics

Culture, Bonanza, Hoss Cartwright, Dan Blocker, Sean Mcclory, Ponderosa Ranch