"Hoss and the Leprechauns" -This is the title of one of most memorable episodes (No. 146 aired 12/22/1963) on the western adventure BONANZA/NBC/1959-73. After Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) comes to the rescue of a little man in a green suit who was being being pursued by a bear, the little man disappears but left in his place are some very small tools and a strongbox full of gold. When Hoss tells his family he suspects the little green man may be a leprechaun, his brothers, Little Joe (Michael Landon) and Adam (Pernell Roberts) break into laughter. Later, that night the strongbox is retrieved by a gaggle of little green men who break into the Cartwright's home. The next day patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Green) and Hoss go to town to report the crime to the sheriff. When a Irishman in town, convinces the good folks of Virginia City, Nevada that the little green men are real, the Ponderosa homestead is overrun with gold seekers and leprechaun hunters in search of a quick fortune. The little men, of course, turned out to be runaway circus performers who were  living in the woods and looking to start a new life of their own. The gold in the strongbox was their collective earnings.