S01.E11: The Voice Of Tinker Jones

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

A deaf-mute traveling tinker may have the only solution after Rev. Alden's request for a new church bell starts the Kennedys and Olesons feuding over who will donate the bell and who will take the credit.

[Primetimer]

Walnut Grove's citizens can't agree on a bell for the church.

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[Jeffurry]

Chuck McCann is alive and tweeting. I look forward to hearing what Kim has to say...

[Lady Iris]

Good going Reverand Alden, dividing a community so badly over a bell! Turned the children into thieves for scrap metal and forced them to give up their toys. He could be a real tool sometimes.

[RedbirdNelly]

am I wrong or is this yet another character never to be seen again?

[RedbirdNelly]

and Kim answered my question at the end. I really wish they had fewer never to be seen again characters. Is it that hard to use the same actors at least as extras?

[wanton87]

On 6/7/2017 at 10:40 AM, Lady Iris said:

Good going Reverend Alden, dividing a community so badly over a bell! Turned the children into thieves for scrap metal and forced them to give up their toys. He could be a real tool sometimes.

Turns out that the real dude wasn’t all that upright of a fellow either. From the Pioneer Girl Manuscript (annotated version):

Quote

In November 1876, Edwin H. Alden, the Congregational minister during the Ingallses’ first stay in Walnut Grove, had been appointed United States Indian agent at Fort Berthold Indian Agency in northern Dakota. His appointment did not go well. An article in the New York Times called him “a pious fraud and a cheat,” who had “swindled in a small way.” Alden had drawn a fifty-dollar voucher for carpentry work and kept the money (his predecessor had embezzled forty thousand dollars) and had placed his wife in Minnesota on the payroll. The Times writer accused Alden of having lied “to the Indians until they came to regard him as the prince of liars, and threatened to kill him if he did not leave” (“ Swindling at the Agencies,” Aug. 15, 1878).

Trivia:

Just watched this one again. If you take notice amongst the scenes with the school children, you will notice a goofy looking blond kid that closely resembles a pre-Spicoli Sean Penn, because that is in fact who it is. This episode was directed by Leo Penn, father of Sean Penn, and so Sean had a background part (I was halfway expecting him to break the 4th wall and look straight into the camera, whip out a bong, and exclaim, “Hey prairie beyotch’s, let’s party” :D )

Also present as background characters once again, was the ‘Tall School Girl’ (referred to as Rosemary, in Town Party, Country Party) and that really cute little blond girl (Also present in Town Party, Country Party, and referred to as Helen in that episode). Both would disappear, along with Kristy Kennedy (Who was a real person, unlike the first two) after no more than about 20 episodes into the series.

Edited October 6, 2018 by wanton87