Roberts famously despised the superficial mechanics of network television. While other leading men of the era used every camera trick available to enhance their physical footprint, Roberts fought the studio over their insistence on artificial presentation.
By the time Bonanza hit the airwaves, Roberts was losing his hair. NBC executives worried that a balding Adam Cartwright looked too old to play Lorne Greene’s son, even though Greene was only thirteen years older than Roberts. The network mandated that Roberts wear an elaborate, glued-down toupee for filming. Roberts hated the hairpiece, calling it undignified and uncomfortable under the blistering hot studio lights.
He carried that same disdain toward footwear and artificial posture. Unlike peers who requested specialized camera risers or dramatic camera tilts to look larger-than-life, Roberts refused to play visual games. He wore flat-heeled staging shoes when possible and standard riding leather when mounted. When he walked away from Bonanza in 1965 after six seasons, walking away from millions of dollars in potential syndication earnings, it was largely because he felt the scripts and the studio’s rigid aesthetic constraints insulted the audience’s intelligence.
