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Here's how David Canary ended up with a brand-new Corvette on the set of Bonanza
Turns out, cars could bring the Cartwrights together.
While Bonanza featured many big personalities, newcomer David Canary quietly made his mark when he joined the cast as ranch foreman Candy Canaday in the show’s ninth season.
Newcomers on Westerns weren't always welcomed—by the audience or the cowboys and lawmen on the show—but Canary said he received a very warm Ponderosa welcome.
In an interview with the Television Academy, Canary said he wasn’t the first newcomer to try joining the Bonanza cast in its later seasons.
"They had cast an actor—a very, very handsome actor—whose name I cannot remember, and Michael [Landon] didn’t like him," Canary said. "That’s the story I heard. So he was fired and replaced."
"I think Michael felt the actor was too good-looking and too much like him, and they wanted someone a little homlier. That worked out very nicely for me," Canary continued. "Michael was good to me from the beginning, and so was everyone else. Everybody treated me very well."
The show’s creator and producer David Dortort saw Canary in the film Hombre and thought he would be perfect for the part, which led to him being cast. Not only did his character have a lot to prove by joining the Cartwrights late, but he also had a lot to prove as a person.
According to the interview, the series was sponsored by Chevrolet. Each year, the Cartwrights were given loaner cars of their choice from the car company and returned them at the end of the year and received a new model.
It was good business — both for the Cartwright brothers, who liked driving shiny new cars, and for Chevrolet, which could market them easily thanks to Bonanza’s weekly audience of tens of millions of viewers.
"Mike Landon went to this fellow and said, 'Give David one.' That was my first clue that I’d been accepted, I guess," Canary said. "They felt, 'Well, come on. Let him prove his worth. Let’s see if he’s going to remain here. Give him a little more time.' He kept at them until they finally consented."
"He called them cheapskates, shamed them into it, and I ended up with a brand-new Corvette for each of the four years I was there — and that was thanks to Michael," Canary said.
Sitting behind the wheel of a brand-new Corvette, with Michael Landon vouching for him, was one way Canary knew he’d been accepted. He had finally built the relationship he wanted with the cast and crew—and had a cool ride to enjoy while doing it.
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