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Michael Landon was asked what he'd change about Bonanza if he were directing it — here's what he said
Would Little Joe change anything about his series?
He might have been "Little Joe" on Bonanza, but Michael Landon quickly grew into one of the most successful men on television.
Initially beginning as an actor, Landon held a starring role on Bonanza as the youngest of the Cartwright sons. It was a character he would play for years. While on Bonanza, Landon began his foray into work behind the camera and became an accomplished writer and director. No longer was Landon merely the camera's subject; he was its master.
But while Landon had a passion for his work, that didn't mean that it didn't require any effort.
Of course, the whole thing began very simply. "The writing bug first hit me about eight years ago," Landon wrote in an article for The Shreveport Journal. "I came home on a Friday night, after a week of work on the Bonanza stages, and decided to have a shot at writing a script."
A bit naively, Landon had assumed that writing a script would be a quick and easy accomplishment, an idea he very quickly understood to be incorrect. "I thought writing would be easy, especially since I knew the characters involved so well - but I was very wrong," wrote Landon "I wrote that first script in two days, but it was one of the toughest jobs I ever had."
Landon was able to explain himself much easier in hindsight, years later, after he had put in the practice necessary to become a good writer. "It's easy to think up ideas and stories, but very few people can force themselves to sit down at a typewriter or notebook and put that story on paper."
But one of the most important lessons Landon seemed to have learned is not to mess with a good thing. In an interview with the Kitsap Sun, Landon was pressed as to what he'd change if he'd been in charge of directing Bonanza, the series that made him a star in the first place.
"I'm not going to change success," he said. "The formula is a success and you can't beat that."
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