The frontier-lawlessness myth is contradicted by a 14-season TV Western

Evidence

Another long-running Western, Bonanza, was a dominant television show that ran for 14 seasons. David Dortort, who wrote and produced this series, refuted the myth of frontier lawlessness combated by a gunslinging sheriff. The program favored character-driven plotlines rather than physical violence. In the series, the Cartwright pioneer family fought injustice, bigotry, and oppression and protected human rights rather than nonchalantly killing off evildoers. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 856

Categorization

• SEED: Bonanza as counterexample to the gunslinging-sheriff myth - could feed an essay on enduring myths of American frontier violence versus the historical record.