Make sure to watch it in higher quality (remember this YouTube trick):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C_zAVVuZaw&fmt=18
Dan Blocker is definitely a classic bearish icon who is definitely in the hallowed halls of the Great Pantheon of Bearish Gods. Mr. Blocker played an iconic character of the big Eric “Hoss” Cartwright with a heart of gold in the television series, Bonanza.
Also, definitely check out Bearotic for their great article on this classic woofy bear archetype.
Anyway, I just found out that I had screenshots of Big Hoss being shirtless in “Bonanza.” These were shared with me a few years ago and because I did not name them correctly, I had forgotten about them (I am involved in the long, arduous process of renaming my photos). Luckily, I stumbled upon them so that I could share them as they were meant to be shared.
Does anybody know which season and episode this scene occurred in? Based on the photos, it looks like Hoss was in a boxing match against a bigger and bald chub…
[FUN SITE: There's this Wikipedia parody for Gay Body Types, and it used Dan Blocker as the model for "Bear."]
The Boxing match is from an episode called ‘San Francisco’. The other guy is ‘Tor Johnson’.
Here is the imdb link;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0529643/
Thank you very much, brett!
And the other guy was Tor Johnson?! Whoa. I did not recognize him at all.
Another episode of Bonanza you should look up is one called ‘The Duke’. In this show Hoss fights an English boxer. Like the one above, it’s a good shirtless moment for Dan Blocker fans.
imb link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0529709/
Looks like Seasons 1 and 2 are the ones to find the shirtless Dan Blocker bonanzas… Thanks again, brett!
That’s veteran character actor James Hong in 3d and 4th pics talking with Hoss, isn’t it?
There’s a Bonanza episode called The Ape, where Hoss befriends a big child-like guy played by Cal Bolder. At one point in the episode, Hoss tells the Ape, “we’re bears.”
Thought you might enjoy that bit of trivia.