The ninth season of Bonanza began on September 17, 1967 with the episode titled "Second Chance". Ben Cartwright joins an army patrol to rescue his sons Hoss and Joe, who are presently at the mercy of renegade Indians. The boys are pinned down with a wagon party, consisting almost exclusively of society's outcasts: A group of thieves, two women of checkered reputation, a dying man, and a coward (appropriately enough, this episode went into production as "The Losers"). Also in the cast are James Gregory as Mulvaney, Bettye Ackerman as Estelle, Joe De Santis as Dawson, Douglas Kennedy as Frazier, Zane Zachery as Anna, and Ken Drake as Breck. Written by John Hawkins and Paul Sneider, "Second Chance" was one of several "classic" episodes rebroadcast during the Spring and Summer of 1972.