Young Laura vs. Adult Laura

[JulieTX]

Young Laura was so likeable and sweet.  She was spunky and scrappy but not mean and bitchy.  As Laura got older, she seemed to turn into more of a bitch.  She was always griping at Almanzo and the schoolchildren.  As much as she proclaimed to love Almanzo, she sure did make his life a living hell at times.  Granted, Almanzo could be awful too.  He could be a jerk at times himself.  Both he and Laura could behave so immaturely at times.  As a kid, Laura was very caring about others and always tried to be friends with everyone, especially the downtrodden.  Young Laura had a good heart, even so much as basically becoming Nellie's slave after Nellie faked her paralysis.  Young Laura certainly misbehaved at times, but it was mostly just kid's stuff and nothing too bad.  Adult Laura was bossy and a know-it-all.  She blamed poor Dr. Baker for her baby's death, YET she wasn't even upset with that woman who kidnapped Rose and didn't even think of pressing charges. 

Laura was even starting to become different after Mary went blind, and Albert came into the picture.  Suddenly she was the older sister, and she didn't play it as well as Mary did.  In the early years, it was usually Laura who wanted to do something and Mary who was the level-headed one that stopped her from doing it.  Then it became Albert who Laura tried to rein in, only she wasn't mature enough herself to do this without being a bitch.  Plus, unlike Mary, at times Laura would go right along with what Albert wanted to do, and the two would get in trouble together.  The only time Mary gave in to Laura's stupidity was when they spent the Sunday School money on the medicine bottles instead of a birthday gift for Rev. Alden. 

Acting mature and grown up just didn't seem to work for Laura.  I don't know if it was the writers or if it was Melissa Gilbert as she aged, or a little bit of both.  One of the funniest scenes is when Caroline reprimands the adult Laura.  Laura has gotten into a fight in the middle of the street with a woman who she thinks Almanzo is interested in.  Laura attacks this poor woman and says she's going to scratch her eyes out.  Caroline breaks up the fight.  Laura won't stop.  Caroline finally shouts, "You will be silent!!".  LOL!!  It's pretty bad when you're an adult, and your mother scolds you as if you were a 2-year-old!  And this was in front of the entire class.  The teacher was misbehaving and got reprimanded by her mother.  Plus Nellie was watching too, and Nellie by this time had long passed up Laura in the nice and maturity departments!  I think it's in that same episode where Charles also talks to Laura as if she's a child.  She is throwing another fit, and Charles says, "Halfpint, get in the wagon!".  Adult Laura minds her Pa just like a child, LOL.

[alegtostandon]

I was reading something just the other day about how hard it was for MG to transition into an "adult" on the show, in real life, she was 15, said there was no chemistry between her & Dean Butler (who knew he is married to the woman who played Mrs Martin in BH 90210???).  

The change in LIW character towards Manly was aggravating. For someone who wanted to marry this guy so badly, she treated him as if he were in the way.  

[wanton87]

On 1/6/2018 at 8:15 PM, alegtostandon said:

she was 15, said there was no chemistry between her & Dean Butler (who knew he is married to the woman who played Mrs Martin in BH 90210???).

She also played Mae Woodward in the very similar to little house series; Father Murphy. This short lived series wasn’t half bad, and anyone that likes little house might like this one as well. This series also featured Merlin Olsen (Formerly Jonathan Garvey in little house) and Moses Gunn (Formerly Joe Kagan in little house).

[alegtostandon]

On 1/10/2018 at 8:26 PM, wanton87 said:

She also played Mae Woodward in the very similar to little house series; Father Murphy. This short lived series wasn’t half bad, and anyone that likes little house might like this one as well. This series also featured Merlin Olsen (Formerly Jonathan Garvey in little house) and Moses Gunn (Formerly Joe Kagan in little house).

I never watched that show during its original run, but did watch when it was on one of the cable channels recently. I never connected her to being Donna Martin's mom!

[wanton87]

10 hours ago, alegtostandon said:

I never watched that show during its original run, but did watch when it was on one of the cable channels recently. I never connected her to being Donna Martin's mom!

I liked that show ALTSO. It wasn’t quite as good as little house, but it was still a decent show. That evil, Snidely Whiplash looking little dude that was always going after the orphanage, was kind of a hoot. That dude played the perfect evil villain.

I guess this would have roughly been about a decade before she played the role of Donna’s mother.

I’m kind of old, so I did watch this show in its original run :D

Edited January 13, 2018 by wanton87
spelling

[alegtostandon]

On 1/12/2018 at 6:37 PM, wanton87 said:

I liked that show ALTSO. It wasn’t quite as good as little house, but it was still a decent show. That evil, Snidely Whiplash looking little dude that was always going after the orphanage, was kind of a hoot. That dude played the perfect evil villain.

I guess this would have roughly been about a decade before she played the role of Donna’s mother.

I’m kind of old, so I did watch this show in its original run :D

lol to the Snidley Whiplash character! I knew I had seen that guy before...same type of character. Had to Google it, Of course, he was in LHOTP, the episode where Albert was addicted to morphine,, He played Charles boss in the clothing store. I'm sure he must have been in Bonanza & Highway to Heaven since they all seemed to be similar episodes & characters. 

I was in my early 20's when these shows first aired, just started high school when Little House began. I never watched these shows but did watch Waltons.  My mom got me hooked on Little House in the 90's when they were running on TBS all morning. I became addicted to it! I had been in a car accident and had to stop working. In the hospital TBS was about the only cable channel & it ran on east coast time, so LH started at 3 am my time. 

Edited January 14, 2018 by alegtostandon

[wanton87]

18 hours ago, alegtostandon said:

lol to the Snidley Whiplash character! I knew I had seen that guy before...same type of character. Had to Google it, Of course, he was in LHOTP, the episode where Albert was addicted to morphine,, He played Charles boss in the clothing store.

 

Thanks for the mention. I figured that the evil dude in Father Murphy must have appeared in little house at some point, so I’ll have to check that episode out again. I missed many of the later episodes of little house because I was in high school at the time (1979-1983) and had other things on my mind.

I watched The Waltons as well, but little house was my favorite. I’d like to get the complete DVD for little house at some point, because it seems that you can no longer find it as easily on youtube as you once could.

[wiseguy182]

Laura was NOT a nice person, even as a child. The worst of young Laura was when she wished for her baby brother to die (which actually did happen). Then while everybody was still mourning, she was celebrating by roping Pa into playing games all day. Then she ran away into the mountains and made everything about her. Brat. 

Or how about the time she got mean and jealous in "Gold Country" and led nice, poor, old Zachariah to his death? Both of those were from the early seasons. There are tons more examples.

Laura was constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY mouthing off, running away, stealing, lying, cheating, getting crap grades, neglecting her chores, on and on, even as a young child. And every time she ran away, she would force Charles to drop everything and go look for her. 

But what I really, REALLY hated was how she two-faced and manipulative she was. Whenever Ma or Pa or Mary or anyone would call her out on her actions, she would act all innocent and speak in this soft, little baby voice. Then when the issue breezed over, she would act all snotty and resume yelling at people over nothing. 

Pa *really* needed to spank her, but never did. Meanwhile, Andrew Garvey cheated because his tutor Nellie told him to and he got a whoopin from his pa, Big John Garvey.

Messed up.

[alegtostandon]

On 1/15/2018 at 2:23 PM, wiseguy182 said:

Laura was NOT a nice person, even as a child. The worst of young Laura was when she wished for her baby brother to die (which actually did happen). Then while everybody was still mourning, she was celebrating by roping Pa into playing games all day. Then she ran away into the mountains and made everything about her. Brat. 

Or how about the time she got mean and jealous in "Gold Country" and led nice, poor, old Zachariah to his death? Both of those were from the early seasons. There are tons more examples.

To this day, I cannot watch the episode where Ma tells her to remove the burrs from Jack's fur before she ran off to play. Laura was angry and was yelling at poor Jack, saying he was a bad dog, etc. Then came home to find he had died.  I always felt  Jack died of a broken heart over the way Laura treated him.

[Lisa418722]

Oh, I had forgotten about that.  Poor Jack  (sniff, sniff, sniff). 

[sistermagpie]

And then she's mean to Bandit for practically the whole episode!

[VCRTracking]

Another difference between young Laura and adult Laura is young Laura was thirsty as hell.

[Brn2bwild]

Even though she could be nasty and selfish, Young Laura seemed to be mainly optimistic and friendly.  Adult Laura mainly yelled and acted snotty or nasty.  Apparently no one gave Melissa Gilbert or the writers directions on how to make a believable adult version of the younger character.  When they finally had The Little House Years, or whatever it was called, they had her way too calm and maternal, and it felt like she was playing at being a grown-up rather than actually being one. 

 

ETA: It was an issue with Mary's character, too, albeit to a lesser extent.  Once Mary went blind, she went from being a basically decent, if sometimes bossy person, to sweetness and light.  And Nellie never, ever acted mean again once she turned "nice."  Note to writers: people don't change that drastically.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Brn2bwild

[wanton87]

20 hours ago, Brn2bwild said:

And Nellie never, ever acted mean again once she turned "nice."  Note to writers: people don't change that drastically.

Yep, never bought that transformation of Nellie for a second. And then all of suddenly Laura and her were besties?

She went from top to bottom in a matter of a season.

It don’t work that way in real life kids ?

[Brn2bwild]

2 hours ago, wanton87 said:

Yep, never bought that transformation of Nellie for a second. And then all of suddenly Laura and her were besties?

She went from top to bottom in a matter of a season.

It don’t work that way in real life kids ?

 

What would have been great, and possibly allowed the show to remain fresh enough to run longer, would have been if Laura and Nellie could have become "frenemies."  They wouldn't have hated each other's guts anymore, and would sometimes work together, but would still get petty and competitive.  Instead of permitting organic growth of the characters, the show went with a major reset.  And just like that, anything good and interesting in Laura and Nellie's relationship died.  

Edited March 18, 2018 by Brn2bwild

[sistermagpie]

32 minutes ago, Brn2bwild said:

What would have been great, and possibly allowed the show to remain fresh enough to run longer, would have been if Laura and Nellie could have become "frenemies."  They wouldn't have hated each other's guts anymore, and would sometimes work together, but would still get petty and competitive.  Instead of permitting organic growth of the characters, the show went with a major reset.  And just like that, anything good and interesting in Laura and Nellie's relationship died.  

True. Because it's one thing if Nellie was a brat as a kid and slowly grew up, but she was still awful for a long time, then suddenly transformed.

Then they got Nancy. And even if you believe Harriet would feel as strongly about a child who wasn't hers as she did Nellie, that kid was a sociopath. She almost killed somebody when she locked that girl in the ice house. She was a total bad seed here Nellie was just a terribly spoiled brat. It was weird.

[Blergh]

Not to mention (as per the Last Season Opening credits) that the Young Laura had very prominent buck teeth while the Adult Laura had flawlessly straight white teeth. Did they have a Little Orthodontist on the Prairie for her  hidden alongside  a Little Hairdresser on the Prairie for Pa?

[Blergh]

6 hours ago, wanton87 said:

Yep, never bought that transformation of Nellie for a second. And then all of suddenly Laura and her were besties?

She went from top to bottom in a matter of a season.

It don’t work that way in real life kids ?

 I guess they were going for the 'Taming of the Shrew' bit for Nellie! Still, I agree that it would have worked better had they become frenemies who sometimes would work together for common causes but otherwise would do their best to jab each other whenever possible.

 Ironically, re these photos. It seems that Margaret Hamilton was nice as pie while Billie Burke was a bit aloof -despite them playing roles of such opposite extremes!