Dynamite, cowboy boots, horse falls, and toupee hijinks with Steve McQueen’s costar Mitch Vogel
Pocketing a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actor in ‘The Reivers,’ the King of Cool’s red-haired apprentice also brought a teen demographic to ‘Bonanza’
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Mitch Vogel, the adopted rainmaker son of Ben “Pa” Cartwright during Bonanza’s twilight seasons, tenders a buffet of souvenirs about his late Ponderosa ranch family, Dan Blocker’s mic-dropping dynamite prank and toupee aversion, reuniting with Michael Landon in a shoeless Little House on the Prairie episode, James Arness’ exasperation with cowboy boots shooting Gunsmoke, his breakout, Golden Globe-nominated performance in Steve McQueen’s The Reivers, starring in the Walt Disney telefilm Bayou Boy, and hanging out with “kid sister” Jodie Foster during Menace on the Mountain.
After a two and a half-year delay aggravated by COVID and supply chain disruption, Vogel’s Bonanza tenure, i.e. the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth seasons, are out now. Every “episode is full-length with original music and has been completely remastered and restored from the original 35mm film elements for superior…
