Casey Biggs is already well-known to television audiences for his recurring role on Deep Space Nine. But he may truly become a household name with his new role, playing a character who lived more than 500 years before the Cardassian Damar: Ben Cartwright, owner of the Ponderosa ranch.

The former DS9 actor has been cast in the role of Cartwright in The Ponderosa, the new prequel series to Bonanza that PAX-TV will be premiering this Fall. The series will pick up the story of the Cartwright family in 1849, when they first settled in the wilds of the Nevada territory. The principal characters in the series will be 35 year old Ben along with his sons Adam (18 years old), Hoss (15) and Little Joe (9).

Bonanza was one of the most successful television shows ever, running from 1959 to 1973 on NBC. The show began in the year 1859, at a time when all three sons were grown up, actively helping their father run the ranch and help the surrounding community. The original Ben Cartwright was played by Lorne Greene, who later had a starring role in Battlestar Galactica as Commander Adama.

Reruns of Bonanza have been airing twice daily on PAX-TV, and the great success the network achieved with its Bonanza marathons earlier this season convinced it that a new series set at the Ponderosa ranch would be viable. The show will be airing on Saturdays at 8:00pm, kicking off with a two-hour telefilm at the start of the season.

PAX-TV was launched three years ago as the nation's seventh broadcasting network, dedicated to airing family-friendly progams. The network started with affiliates in only a small portion of the country, but has been steadily growing over the past years. Though most of its schedule so far has consisted of reruns of shows such as Touched by an Angel and Diagnosis Murder, it has also beeen increasingly committed to creating original programming. Besides Ponderosa, next season it will also air original episodes of shows such as Candid Camera and Mysterious Ways.

More information on Ponderosa can be found on PAX-TV's official web site. Thanks go out to Holly Kim Wilson for this!

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