Lorne Greene was bitter about Bonanza's cancelation

14 years is hard to end!

CBS Television Distribution

After 14 years on Bonanza, Lorne Greene went right into another series, Griff. Unfortunately, that second show didn't have quite the same longevity and failed after half a season. The cancellation pushed Greene away from TV for a few years.

Greene expressed some healthy disappointment in Griff's flop status but said he wasn't heartbroken over the matter.

"You learn to live with ups and downs in this business," he told the Calgary Herald in 1974. "The most important thing is that producers and directors won't stop wanting your service."

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According to the actor, Griff fell flat because of a few different reasons. Most importantly, it had a bad time slot— 10 p.m. on Saturday night isn't exactly a fruitful place to be on the television schedule. However, it was the show's competition that really squashed its chances.

Between cutting-edge shows like All in the Family and M*A*S*H, Griff just seemed like a relic of the past.

"We didn't make it," said Greene. "Some people said we were too much like Barnaby Jones. I don't buy that— but when you get right down to it, how much originality is there in any detective series?"

While he didn't spend too much time lamenting Griff's cancelation, Greene did still have some strong feelings about how Bonanza wrapped up. After 14 seasons as one of the greatest TV Westerns ever, Lorne emphasized that he didn't like "the way they did it" when it was finally time to put the series out to pasture.

"They told us the day before we finished an episode that this was the end, that it would all wind up the next day— just like that, after 14 seasons. I think we deserved better than that," he said.

While he may have held some ill will towards his former studio, Greene would team up with Universal Studios for Earthquake that same year.

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4 Comments

Wiseguy70005 18 days ago
Another problem with Griff was that it premiered right after a writers' strike in 1973. Series had to scramble to get scripts ready and most series suffered because of it. The only real successes that season were Kojak and Police Story.
MaryMitch 1 month ago
After so many years and so much success, they deserved a finale episode.
Wiseguy70005 MaryMitch 18 days ago
The Jeffersons (11 seasons) and "Archie Bunker" (13 seasons of All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place) are other series that didn't get a finale. Archie Bunker ended the same season as M*A*S*H.
MrsPhilHarris 1 month ago
I have no idea what airs on network tv on Saturday night at 10 pm.
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