Episode Guide - Ponderosa Explosion
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Title Ponderosa Explosion
Episode No: 251 Season: 8
Summary: Joe and Hoss invest in two “Gerby Royal” rabbits in a money-making venture. With rabbit skins selling at $2 apiece, surely great riches await our intrepid heroes? Soon the Ponderosa is swarming with little hippetty-hoppeties, but there is just one problem…who will kill the furry darlings?
You’ll like this if: you like one of the classic, family comedies! Ponderosa Explosion shows Joe and Hoss at their scheming, feuding best…and vividly illustrates the close bond between the two actors. Ben does a wonderful job on the sidelines, shaking his head at their antics. And if you are a sucker for hunky men cuddling little animals, look no further!
Synopsis: The episode opens with Joe and Hoss trying to decide if they will buy two ‘Gerby Royal’ rabbits from some rather dubious business acquaintances of Ben’s: Barlow and Clyde. Of course, they end up with the rabbit, bringing them home in the hopes they can hide them from Ben, who instantly discovers that the boys plan to put a Gerby Royal coat on the back of every woman in America! Pretty soon, the rabbits are breeding like… well, rabbits! Joe immediately goes into overdrive, calculating future profits, while Hoss rapidly discovers he is becoming rather attached to the rabbits and resents his brother’s mercenary tendencies! And Hop Sing discovers one way of keeping the population under control, when he serves up a tasty dish of rabbit stew…This is the only occasion I can recall when Hoss literally cannot eat, but Joe is more concerned about the potential loss of breeding stock to his lucrative rabbit-raising enterprise!
But there is, of course, a catch; Hoss has been palming Barlow and Clyde off with excuses about the rabbits not being ready and when Joe discovers this, he vows to skin the rabbits right there and then. Hoss refuses to let him and Joe finds himself shut in a cage! However, Ben intervenes and points out that half the rabbits are Joe’s, so he can skin them if he wants. Wielding an extraordinary huge implement that looks more suited to cutting limbs off trees (it looks very like a sickle, though just what the Cartwrights are doing with this is beyond my comprehension) Joe prepares to do just that – and discovers that he’s got too soft a heart. Whew!! We knew the boy would come good!
There is much soul-searching between the brothers while Joe cuddles the cutest little baby rabbit, and tries to con Hoss into take responsibility for all the bunnies. Hoss, however, declines. Well done Hoss! All is sorted out after Ben is thrown from his horse when it’s spooked by an escaped rabbit. Barlow and Clyde try to steal the rabbits while Joe and Hoss are out looking for the horse and Ben is only too delighted to sell the rabbits to them. The boys are distraught when they finally get back, with the horse but minus its new saddle, but are cheered up when Ben tells them that he has persuaded Barlow and Clyde to sell the bunnies as pets. This state of relief only lasts until Ben points out how much money they owe him, since he had to buy his birthday present horse from the boys’ silent partner. In the epilogue, Joe is trying to be helpful by breaking in Ben’s new saddle, when what should appear and spook the horse? I’m sure you can guess.
Clothes: The familiar outfits.
Hoss: is wearing his usual white shirt, tan waistcoat and brown trousers.
Joe: is wearing his usual uniform of tan shirt, trousers and green jacket.
A special treat is available in the form of Joe modelling one of his many nightshirts and looking extraordinarily attractive. What a pity there isn’t a single glimpse of his tootsies…
Ben: Ben is wearing his usual aubergine shirt, tan waistcoat and green neckerchief.
JPM: Ben rescues Joe from incarceration in a surprising large cage, then tenderly brushes down his backside. Several times. He almost seems to be enjoying this just a little *too* much…
Token Female Interest: None. Nada. Rien. Not a single solitary female… unless you count Nellie the rabbit!
Sweet Dreams are Made of This
A lovely shot of the snoozing Joe, his curls attractively rumpled and a smile lingering on his lips. Plus his nose twitching, for all the world like one of the rabbits.
It’s a bloodless Bullet Wound
No real maims…well, not on-camera at any rate. Joe and Ben both fall off Ben’s new black horse, but neither of them appear to be injured, although Joe does a sterling imitation of Hoss by throwing his arms out wide when he lands. Presumably the three rabbits Hop Sing serves up for tea met a nasty end though…
Where am I? The pump is now near the kitchen. And the horse trough appears to have shrunk dramatically…
Joe’s bedroom has a door on the west wall and window on the north wall, in a familiar configuration. However, the bed has trundled across the floor to lie on the east wall, leaving space for Joe’s desk in its normal habitat on the west wall.
The Gentlemanly Art
Hoss stands his ground calmly, literally interposing his body between Joe and the rabbits, while Joe dances around in a fine show of boxing manoeuvres. Is that where Muhammad Ali learned his moves? Despite extreme provocation, Hoss does not bop Joe on the nose!! But he takes his revenge – stuffing Joe in a large cage, with his adorable feet sticking out of the top!
Continuity; what continuity?:
The road from Virginia City seems to have disappeared, as Joe and Hoss are riding across country.
Ben is supposedly friends with Barlow and Clyde, but doesn’t see any problems with his sons going into business with them. So he’s quite happy for them to be in league with a pair of crooks?
When he is released from the cage, Joe says “Thank you, father,” rather than the more normal “Pa”.
The very rare red cushions make a fleeting appearance in a crucial scene – one wonders where they are during all the other episodes? In the disappearing bunkhouse, perhaps? Certainly, there is not a single, solitary ranch-hand to be seen around the Ponderosa.
When Ben tells Joe and Hoss they owe him $100 – and then says that will be three months wages, surely this is wrong? At those rates, they would be earning just $15 a month…and the ranch-hands get a dollar a day! Small wonder Ben was rich – but surely Joe should have worked out he was being diddled by his father, given all the arithmetical calculations he makes in this episode.
Have you been following the plot?
Joe is seen reading the “Rabbit Breeders’ Catalog (sic)”. Strange that he never worked out that there is no such thing as a Gerby Royal…
It is set-up at the beginning that Barlow and Clyde are conning Joe and Hoss. Yet this plot-line is never developed. Had they been willing to sacrifice the bunnies, it appears that the brothers would have got $2 a skin.
Isn’t it a bit worrying that Hoss cannot tell Buck from Nellie? He grew up on a ranch, for heavens sake! Perhaps he was just confused that the rabbit had the same name as Ben’s usual horse.
This is the episode that provides fan-fiction writers with the tasty titbit that Joe can speak Chinese, when he apparently cheeks Hop Sing, as the latter is complaining about finding rabbits in the kitchen. Perhaps Joe should have been less rude and then Hop Sing might not have made stewed rabbit…
Knee Trembler ahead!
Well if the scenes of Joe, Hoss and Ben cuddling various bunny rabbits are not enough to make you go all a-quiver, how about the scene when Hoss calmly takes off his hat to reveal a tiny little baby bunny inside?
Joe’s vulnerability shines right through when he is miserably clutching the cushion! Don’t you just want to give him a big hug?
The Crucial questions no-one asks:
Given how squeamish Hoss is, how on earth does he ever face a nice juicy steak?
Ben asks Barlow and Clyde for $1.50 per rabbit, they counter with an offer of $1.25. Next thing, Ben suggests $150 for over 200 rabbits, thus loosing over $150 in a few seconds. And he’s a successful businessman?
You Can Quote Me On That:
“I don’t see how we can go wrong!”
“You’re going to be the rabbit barons of America?”
“My very own little brother — the fiend!”
“Mr Hoss have fine big belly!”