#griff king

my thoughts may be a little more generic and perhaps more jumbled than previous posts of this nature, as it’s not analyzing a specific dynamic between a set of two characters. it’s more just a consideration of family as one of the main themes of this series. from the beginning but especially as the series continues, it really affirms the idea that family are the people you choose, that you rely on, that you make sacrifices for, that you teach and trust and protect and share with. that may be those you’re related to, but they don’t need to be. family is welcome; they always have a bed made up for them, there’s always a place at the table for them.

sometimes they are just simply called ‘family,’ with no distinction of what traditional role they may fit. adam tells hop sing that he’s family, and that they would not be complete without him. ben speaks of hop sing as if he has always been a part of them, there since the beginning.

other times it’s more explicit, an official welcoming to the family, such as when ben adopts jamie, and they become father and son; and yet even then, small subtleties come through. hoss calls jamie little buddy because that’s what adam called joe, and hoss, by then, had become the oldest brother on the ponderosa, and so the oldest continues the tradition of calling the youngest little buddy. even when adam has moved away, he’s still influencing and playing a part in the family.

candy is eventually given a room in the house with the rest of the family, because he’s become one of the family; there’s lots of discussion by fans, when considering the making of the show/behind the scenes, as to whether candy was a replacement for adam, whether he lived up to adam, etc., but regardless of that, i still think he is, if not another son or brother, another cartwright.

and it’s interesting the mix of tension and solidarity he has with griff when he comes in the final season, candy very protective of the cartwrights while also understanding and sympathizing with griff being a newcomer and feeling like an outsider.

sometimes family has clean and distinguishable lines; sometimes it doesn’t. sometimes people need those clean and distinguishable lines; sometimes they’re content with something more malleable. bonanza runs the gamut as far as this. in the end, what it does is portray various groups of- sometimes overlapping- people, who care about each other and share a home. even if they do not all live in said house at a certain time, it is a shared home, and they take the love of that place with them wherever they go.

there’s a cute exchange early in the series that i considered using for the caption, before i decided what ben said to hop sing fit better; joe asks “pa, how did you ever get involved with this family?”, referring to their own, and ben replies “i'll never know.” obviously this is played for laughs, the both of them teasing each other, but it’s also somehow a really sweet foreshadowing of where the series- not that the writers/cast knew it at that time- would go. ben regularly finds himself acting as a father, mentor, friend, to more and more people, and he seems to not even think about it- he just cares about these people, he feels he owes them his care. and when he thinks about it- like how little joe brings it to his attention- he probably is at a loss at how so many people became part of his family, at how many shenanigans and schemes and problems they all seem to get into; but he wouldn’t change it for anything. because it’s as he said to hop sing: that’s what the ponderosa was built for, to be a place of laughter and warmth and safety, and to be a home for his family.

[image one:

black text on a light blue background. the text reads: “It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons.”

an image of candy and ben huddled together and trapped at the bottom of a pit. candy is laying down and ben kneels at his side, one hand cupping the back of his injured head and the other holding candy’s wrist. both look upward at their captor, ben glaring.

black text on a white background. the text reads: “What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn’t just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, and the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them perfect, and we couldn’t expect them to be. You can’t make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build your world from it.”

an image of adam, joe, hop sing, ben, and hoss at an outdoor table in the front yard of the ponderosa. joe and ben hover close after helping an injured hop sing sit down, holding onto him. adam and hoss watch concerned, hoss leaning down to hear the man’s story.]

[image two:

black text on a white background. the text reads: “My little sister is small and silly. I'll always hold the umbrella more over her head even if my shoulder gets soaked. In other words, I'd carry her up to heaven on my back, or hold her hand all the way down to hell.” the excerpt “I'll always hold the umbrella more over her head even if my shoulder gets soaked.” is highlighted in light blue.

an image of hoss and jamie. hoss sits behind jamie, holding the exhausted boy to his chest. jamie tilts his head back and smiles up at hoss, looking both exhausted and relieved, and hoss grins in return.

black text on a gray background. the text reads: “Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?”

an image of joe, hoss, and candy; the latter holds a baby in his lap, who is playing with a makeshift teething toy. joe has his head ducked down to talk to the baby. hoss reaches forward to tickle the baby’s tummy, eliciting a smile from candy.]

[image three:

black text on a white background. the text reads: “You’ve held his hand and guided his path, Creating a bond that forever will last... He wouldn’t do this with just anyone. This is a special game shared between a father and a son. It doesn’t make a difference whose blood courses through his veins. You know in his heart he loves you just the same. He is your little buddy following you around, A love stronger than his could never be found. You’ve taken the place of the sun, moon, and stars in the skies. You are his father in his precious little eyes.” each sentence makes a new line in the poem.

an image of griff, ben, and jamie. griff and ben stand in the living room by the front door; griff turns his head, watching as ben and jamie greet each other with a big hug, patting each other on the back.]

[image four:

black text on a white background. the text reads: “It’s about family. Not necessarily the one we were born with, but the one we choose. This one. The people we trust to be part of our lives. The people we care about.”

an image of hop sing and ben in the kitchen of the ponderosa. ben has come up behind an angry and weeping hop sing, placing a hand on his shoulder and offering words of comfort.

black text on a light yellow background. it has been designed to look like writing on a legal pad. the text reads: “there’s a certain comfort in knowing that there are people who will love you regardless of biological relation. They become your home aud make you feel safe. Then, there’s the fact that the people chose you not because of blood relation but because they genuinely love you They're not obligated by blood relation, just the deep bonds you share”

an image of griff, joe, and candy standing in a jail, separated by bars. griff and joe look concerned, fidgeting; in the cell, candy stands with his hands on his hips.]

[image five:

black text on a white background. the text reads: “When you are an older sibling, you are given a responsibility. You are shown a life that matters so much more than yours. You keep that kid safe. It doesn't matter what you lose in the process or how many things you have to take apart to keep something else together. All that matters is that you do your job.”

an image of jamie and joe, joe seen in profile, almost from behind. he has turned around to check in with jamie. the boy looks exhausted and sad, but stubbornly determined, and joe takes this in, wondering where to go from there.]

[image six:

black text on a light brown background. the text reads: “When I sit at the front porch of our Cape house, in the sunshine and sea-freshened air, I think of them often: my parents and my brothers and sisters, all departed now save for Jean and myself. And each alive and vibrant in my memory. I remember how each of us, distinct and autonomous from one another though we were, melded wholeheartedly into a family, a self-contained universe of love and deepest truths that could not be comprehended by the outside world.”

an image of the cast-victor sen yung, pernell roberts, michael landon, lorne greene, and dan blocker- in costume as their characters, filming a commercial for the series sponsor, chevrolet. victor sen yung and pernell roberts stand close together, the latter with his arm around the former’s shoulders. chevrolet cars are visible in the background.