This was an amazing kick off for one of the best TV series ever on the air. I had no idea that these early episodes were done in color. We didn't get a color TV in our Family until about 1971, so I only knew them in Black and white. I'm sure if you were lucky enough to have a color TV back then you would have been blown away by Yvonne D Carlo as well as the scenery of the Ponderosa Ranch. It helped explain how the three brothers were from three different mothers. It must have been a major feat getting a big star like Yvonne D Carlo to do a TV show at the time. She has always been one the world's most beautiful and exotic looking actress's of all times, a true timeless beauty.
I also noticed a bit part by a guy named Ned Glass that I had recognized from a 3-stooges short (From nurse to Worse 1940)(he was in many 3-stooges and was a friend of Moe Howards) I remembered this as a kid but never could connect the dots until the invention IMDb. He always played a small time crook in many bits parts. Like Freddie the forger in Get Smart. He was from Poland born one year before my grandfather who was a Polish/Russian Immigrant also, that probably wouldn't have made it through WWII if he had stayed in Poland.
A Great start for one of the best and longest running westerns TV shows of all time! (I miss them all)