Bonanza The Lady from Baltimore (1959–1973) watch online HD

When the wife of a good friend shows up with her beautiful daughter in tow, Ben is happy to entertain them, not knowing that the mother plans to seduce Little Joe into marrying the daughter, so the girl can have the social standing the mother never had.

This episode is worth seeing simply for Mercedes McCambridge's nuanced performance as a manipulative, domineering woman who thinks that wealth is the only way to redeem her life's disappointments. (Her distinctive, faintly mannish voice works well with such characters.) Such good performances are rare on series TV.

The script is good, too, with some sharp dialog, such as the mother telling the daughter what she has to look forward to (and how she's obliged to obtain it), and Adam telling Melinda that ranching is built on the application of pain.

This episode isn't "great drama", but it eschews the loud, cheap theatrics that often mar "Bonanza". Even Lorne Greene uncharacteristically restrains himself.