This Week's Poll: What's Your Favorite Family Western Series from the 1960s?

Western TV series that focused on big families and big ranches were a mainstay of television in the 1960s. The list below includes of five of the best, ranging from the long-running Bonanza to the short-lived Lancer. Which one was your favorite?

Bonanza - For 14 seasons, viewers invited the Cartwright family into their living rooms on Sunday nights. Patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) was a widower with three sons, each of whom had a different mother. They lived on the sprawling Ponderosa ranch in Nevada. The oldest son, Adam (Pernell Robert) was an architect; gentle giant Hoss (Dan Blocker) was the middle son; and impetutous Little Joe (Michael Landon) was the youngest. Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung) was the Cartwrights' cook. Roberts left the show in 1965. There were various attempts at adding a replacement character. The only one that "stuck" was teenage orphan Jamie Hunter (Mitch Vogel), whom Ben eventually adopted.

The Big Valley - In 1965, ABC launched its own version of Bonanza, starring the inimitable Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley, a widow who runs another sprawling ranch (this one in California). Her oldest son, Jarrod (Richard Long) was a lawyer; tough-minded Nick (Peter Breck) ran the ranch; daughter Audra (Linda Evans) was as strong-willed as her mother; and Heath (Lee Majors)...well, he was the illegimate son of Victoria's deceased husband. During the first season, the youngest Barkley child, medical student Eugene (Charles Briles), appeared occasionally...but he was written out of the show!

The Virginian - Owen Wister's novel provided the loose inspiration for this 90-minutes series about the Shiloh Ranch that ran on NBC from 1962 to 1971. Cast members came and went so frequently that the only actors to remain for the show's complete run were Doug McClure as easygoing ranch hand Trampas and James Drury as the quietly strong foreman, known only as The Virginian. The actors who played the Shiloh owners at various times were an impressive lot. Lee J. Cobb was original owner Judge Henry Garth for four seasons. Charles Bickford was second owner John Grainger for two seasons. When Bickford died in real life, John McIntire took over as Clay Grainger, John's brother. The final Shiloh owner was Colonel Alan MacKenzie, played by Stewart Granger. By that time, the series had been retitled The Men from Shiloh and underwent an unsuccessful facelift for its final year.

Lancer - Considered a poor man's Bonzanza, 1968's Lancer series had a star-in-the-making with charismatic James Stacey. He played Johnny Madrid Lancer, a gunslinger who opts for a more stable life when he agrees to help his Boston-bred half-brother Scott (Wayne Maunder) run their father's (Andrew Duggan) ranch. Despite likable performers, Lancer faded after two seasons. In 1973, a drunken driver hit Stacey and his girlfriend while they were on a motorcycle. She died and Stacey lost an arm and a leg. He returned to acting and gave a fine performance as a newspaperman in Kirk Douglas' 1973 cult Western Posse. In the 1960s, Stacey was briefly married to Connie Stevens and then Kim Darby.

The High Chaparral - David Dortort, who created Bonanza, produced this 1967-71 series for NBC. Leif Erickson portrayed Big John Cannon, an ambitious man who moves his family to the Arizona Terrority in the 1870s to build a new life. In the show's first episode, Big John's wife, Annalee, is killed by an Indian arrow--but not before she dubs the future ranch "High Chaparral" (named after a bush). When Big John enters into a treaty of sorts with his wealthy Mexican neighbor, Don Sebastian Montoya, the deal is sealed with John's marriage to the much younger Victoria Montoya (Linda Cristal). The mutual respect and frictions between the two families differentiated High Chaparral from competing family Westerns. The series also provided fine supporting roles for Cameron Mitchell (John's brother Buck) and Henry Darrow (Victoria's brother Manolito) as bickering brothers-in-law.

So, those are your five nominations! Cast your vote in the green sidebar on the right.