User Reviews

Then I came to the user reviews and got more aggravated. To those protesting the disguise of Marlo Thomas as a Chinese female, you are merely exposing your own lack of knowledge of television in those days. Marlo Thomas was likely chosen for role of a strong woman because in those days, Bruce Lee was refused the job the lead character for "Kung Fu". People in charge didn't think a Chinese main character would be accepted by the public. Hence the choice for the main character here to be Marlo Thomas. David carradine knew nothing about martial arts when he got the gig for "Kung Fu". It's too easy and simply lazy to simply pull the racist card out and wave it to readers while judging folks from the past.

You would think that after the cinematic disaster of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in "The Conquerer," that Hollywood wouldn't stoop so low as to have a white person playing somebody from the far east. Evidently, they didn't realize that the things that make minstrel shows offensive to Afro-Ameicans applied to the Chinese, Indians, and Native Americans as well. Nevertheless we see Marlo Thomas playing a Chinese mail-order bride in an 1964 episode of "Bonanza." I suppose in an atmosphere where another white guy like Yul Brenner can get away with playing the King of Siam without any controversy, nobody seems to give a crap.

A new railroad spur is being completed through the Ponderosa, and everybody seems to be celebrating, including the Chinese-American laborers who helped build the line. It's not exactly the Golden Spike between the Central Pacific and Union Pacific, but it's still an accomplishment. Back on the homestead, Hoss has ordered a bunch of fireworks from a trading company in San Francisco who got them from Canton, China to celebrate the occasion, but instead sent him a whole different type of firework; specifically in the form of an extremely reluctant mail-order bride named Tai Li. Tai Li was a student at a school for girls lead by a radical woman Miss Lau Chu who opposed traditional Chinese rule until the Qing Dynasty captured her and executed her. Now she's bringing political upheaval to Asian Laborers who may or may not be exploited by the white man, and aren't truly being exploited by the Cartwrights. Tai Li's politics seemed to be a mix of Feminism, Marxism, and improved labor relations.

Her first task is to convince Hop Sing not to serve the Cartwrights. Next, she talks the Chinese Labroers into striking against the railroad. Later she rigs a music box to blow black smoke in Hoss's face and he tosses her in a watering trough for horses, something which in real life gave her lingering back problems as Thomas mentioned in her 2010 autobiography "Growing Up Laughing." Once Na Shan (Bensong Fong) the man who was supposed to buy her finds out Hoss got Tai Li, he comes to claim her only to be put off by her radical views which he blames on Hoss and accuses him of "bewitching" her. After she finds out Na Shan is a railroad foreman, she goes to turn them against him in another strike. The Tong finally decides to kidnap Hoss and Na Shan challenges him to a what looks more like a traditional Bushido-type duel(Yes, I know that's not Chinese, but this is old television).

Even Thomas herself realized there was no way in hell the make-up department could make her look Asian in any way, shape or form. Plus she was still pretty as a fake Chinese Girl. Ironically, since the Thomas family is half-Lebanese, Marlo is more Asian than John Wayne. Still it's easy to see why Thomas chose this role in the days before she ended up playing Ann Marie on "That Girl." The Old West was a place where Chinese and other Asian-Americans were exploited on levels that exceeded those of slavery. And even if they never happened on the fictional Ponderosa, Tai Li was going to be a woman who was going to make damn sure that stopped.

Marlo's character got on my nerves and I managed to make it to the halfway mark before I ended up fast forwarding to see Adam's scenes.

We're in another funk when it concerns a lot of people being very unhappy about not being paid a livable wage. So I can admire what Marlo's character is saying in this episode. I just feel like she might be barking up the wrong tree when it concerns the Cartwrights? I don't look at Ben Cartwright and think "tightwad", "greedy", etc. Imo I think anybody that works for Ben Cartwright or any of the other Cartwrights would be paid a wage they could live off of.

Although I'll throw in this tidbit. Hop Sing probably does deserve a raise if he washes the Cartwrights clothing. They always wear the same thing so those clothes must stink to hell and back once Hop Sing's able to get ahold of them. ;)

Forget the moralizing idiots who want to apply today's moral yardstick to last year's behavior. It is ridiculous to make such a comparison. Marlo Thomas makes an engaging and very cute crusading mail order Chinese bride out to set the wrong's of the world right. Unfortunately, Hoss accidentally gets stuck with her when his fireworks he ordered from San Francisco get mixed up with the mail-order bride. The sparks fly, but not from the misplaced fireworks. If it bothers you that in 1964 a white woman played the role of a Chinese mail order bride, then just skip the show.

Wow - The makeup people did such a great job on Marlo Thomas as a Chinese mail order bride that I didn't recognize her at first. And just like Anjanette Comer in the episode Love Me Not, Thomas had trouble keeping her bad English bad. I made a statement in another review about Bonanza turning to comedy for a lot of the season 5 episodes. Some are fair and some are downright silly. I put this one one in the fair to middling category.

What the first reviewer didn't mention is that the character Tai Lee was of mixed race. Her mother was Chinese and her father was European. So the casting of Marlo Thomas was very good. The make up artist did a great job of making her look of mixed race. It's a funny episode, but it also dealt with the women's rights issue which wasn't discussed much back in those days (this episode is from 1964). Bonanza was ahead of it's time and still holds up very well today.

Marlo Thomas plays a fiercely independent Chinese would-be mail-order bride who mistakenly ends up with Hoss (who ordered Chinese fireworks, the joke being that is what he got).

Thomas' character anticipates the woman's movement of the mid-60s and 1970s (this is 1964) with her fight for woman's rights, organizing the cowboys to fight for better conditions, etc. However, as this is a comedy episode, it is played for laughs and the attitudes come across as more condescending and patronizing if not misogynistic.

Finally, Marlo Thomas being passed as Chinese is only embarrassing in retrospect. A single throw-away blink-and-you'll-miss-it line half-way through the episode about the character's father being a Persian (not European as another commentator noted) carpet merchant is meant to justify Thomas's obviously not Asian appearance appearance (Thomas is of Lebanese/Italian heritage). It is literally a throw-away line that seems to have been added as an after-thought and nothing else about this is mentioned nor does it become even a minor plot point. There is no effort beyond that one throw-away line to establish the character as being of mixed-race and the result is that they seem to be trying to make her pass as Chinese.

In the end, Thomas' character retires from activism for marriage. The broad comedy and slapstick might make it entertaining, but the whole tone seems more to be mocking of woman's rights than exploring woman's rights in the context of the Wild West.

Life is short and the woke movement is quickly losing steam. Grow up folks and enjoy true hollywood gold. We have Marlo Thomas here playing a great troublemaker as most feminists are. They give her so much respect when none is due. Kind of holds up since most feminists today lack respect for anything at all.