Bonanza Classic Revived
Lawyer and Bonanza enthusiast Andrew Klyde shares the story behind the 50th anniversary DVD release.
By: Henry Cabot Beck 11/03/2009
What is unusual, and very welcome, about this collection are the notes on the inside jacket that give episode, plot and cast information, identify the director and writer, and tell the reader where and when the episodes were filmed. Credit for all this goes to package producer Andrew Klyde, who serves as Bonanza’s principal lawyer for merchandising and licensing. More important, Klyde is devoted to the series and gives presentations at Bonanza events all over the country.
True West spoke to Klyde just a few days before he was scheduled to appear at an event at Lake Tahoe, only a few minutes from what would have been the Ponderosa’s westernmost border.
True West: Did the location information and shooting dates in the liner notes come from you?
Andrew Klyde: I lobbied, I cajoled, I persuaded, I insisted that I have that stuff in there. Almost as important, the big, big boss was the one who said, “Okay, Andy. If you believe in it, I’ll put it in.”
I really wanted the episodes to be in chronological order on the discs, in the order they were made, not in the order in which they aired, which was at the time just the whim of some NBC programming guy who had to consider what CBS and ABC were doing that night. I lost that one. They said, “We have to put them on the disc in the order in which they were presented, but we’ll let you write in the filming dates.”
Then they copped out, and they put this little disclaimer way on the bottom that states filming dates are approximate. I said, “They’re not! They’re not approximate. I have shooting information and production reports and I know exactly—.” So, uh, “Okay, we’ll put it in there.” Then I said, “I want to be able to put locations, when known, and interesting credits of guest stars, when known,” so I did it all in increments. I was told things like, “Well, if you can get this to us by 3:00 this afternoon, if there’s room, we’ll put it in.” [Laughs.]
Everything was a battle. People in the legal department were saying, “Well, we’ve never done this before. We really can’t do it now. It’s just not done.” Well, that sounds like a good reason not to do something, because it hasn’t been done before. [Laughs.]
I have to say, I’m really grateful that Ken Ross [executive vice president of CBS Home Entertainment], who is the head of the whole operation, said, “Okay, do it.” I hope that others appreciate the work that I put into it ’cause that’s what I would want to see.
In the DVD collection, you have included Dortort’s historical drama “Man of the Comstock,” and it’s described as the “genesis of Bonanza.”
I knew it would be cool to include that because David Dortort has been telling me about it for years. He’s the one who described it as the genesis of Bonanza. But I’d never actually seen it—nobody had ever seen it—and I had to take a chance that it wasn’t terrible. It’s definitely a curiosity piece, and I think it deserves to be there.
Comments (2)
Great article!
The DVDs are fantastic and I can't wait for more to come out. Thanks to Andy Klyde for keeping the Bonanza flame burning.
Prof. F. Sheets, LI NY
I loved Henry Beck’s article on Bonanza. He wrote: “In the same way that John Meston guided Gunsmoke, Herb Meadow and Sam Rolfe drove Have Gun Will Travel, and Gene Roddenberry fashioned Star Trek...”
I found it interesting that he put Have Gun Will Travel and Star Trek together in the same sentence. Others have observed that Trek was really a western in Spandex clothing. If you have watched any of the Have Gun DVDs recently, you will find an eerie similarity between the preachy, moral lessons of Have Gun and those of Trek.
Read the credits. Many, perhaps most, of the Have Gun, Will Travel episodes were directed by, yup, you guessed it, Gene Roddenberry. It seems Paladin was unknowingly going where no man had ever gone...yet.
John Taylor
Show Low, AZ
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