Part 4. Two Girls Too Many!

(The story so far: Thanks to a new company called "TimeRiver, Inc." (located right next door to my local Starbucks), I've traveled back in time, from 2015 to 1972, in hopes of grabbing the famous photo of Dan Blocker, stained with the tears of Lorne Greene and Michael Landon as they were filming a crucial scene in "Forever" - only to find that I've somehow stumbled into an alternate past, where the Bonanza star who's just died was Michael Landon, not Dan Blocker!)

I couldn't believe it! I had actually become one of the 0.01% of TimeRiver clients who had wound up in an alternate time stream!

But of course, I should have known, as soon as I saw that big sign that said "Paramount Studios". Because, as every TRUE Bonanza fan knows, in 1972, the show was being filmed at Warner Brothers, NOT Paramount!

(Where, only a couple of years later, a guy named Mel Brooks would film a hysterically funny movie called "Blazing Saddles", starring, among others, the not-yet-late-by-many-years-thank-God Dom Deluise!)

That should have been my first hint that something was wrong.

Oh well, I consoled myself, it'll make for a great thread on the Bonanza board, when I get back.

Meanwhile, why not hang around and see how this alternate future played out?

After all, TimeRiver had promised that, no matter where I landed - even if I wound up in the wrong place - I'd automatically be returned home 48 hours from when I left.

So I might as well hang around for a while and see how this played out.

After all, think about it for a second: I was about to see something that future "Bonanza" fans had scarcely dared to imagine - Dan Blocker actually acting in the episode that had been written just for him!

And even more wild: I'd also see the beginning of a future in which Michael Landon died in 1972, rather than 1991.

Think about that. REALLY think about it!

On the plus side: no blow-dried angel touching hearts and souls in Malibu --

-- which almost certainly means no blow-dried angels touching anyone else, later on!

On the negative side: no snotty yet hilarious Nellie Oleson - my fave!

Plus: No brave, inspirational, yet ultimately losing battle with cancer.

Negative: No jokes on Carson impugning Hop Sing's masculinity.

Plus: No untalented twins playing "Carrie" on "Little House" (sorry, but those gals couldn't act their way out of a paper bag, in my humble opinion - two girls too many in that role!).

So there were obviously pros as well as cons to this situation!

Still, one thing was clear: I was just a few hours away from seeing what no Bonanza fan had seen before: "Ben" and "Hoss" weeping over the death of -- "Little Joe"!

And alternate past or NO alternate past, no bratty redheaded actor was going to keep me from seeing this!

(TO BE CONTINUED!)