 In the shows early episodes, the writers would typically have the  Cartwrights being hostile to visitors to their property.  Lorne Greene (qv) objected to this pointing out that with the  Ponderosa being as large as it is, the Cartwrights would be an  important business interest in the community. Thus visitors would  naturally come for economic and political reasons as well as social  ones and the Cartwrights would logically welcome them as such. The  producers agreed and altered the premise of the characters  accordingly.