Mary Ingalls: Little Prisspot on the Prairie

[Winipo75]

Come on! We need a thread for everyone's favourite (or not) prisspot bitch!

 

True confessions time: Mary was always my favourite in the show and in the books. (NO! Please! Stop throwing rotten tomatoes at me!) I was rather a prisspot when I was a child, so that's probably why. However, my liking for the character in no way precludes my ability to make fun of her (or to appreciate the snark of others). 

 

One of Mary's finest moments:

MYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABY!!

[SinInTheCamp]

I was always fascinated by how Mary's hair transformed over the years from long, straight, and blonde to a short and frizzy brown bob. I was even more fascinated by her extraordinarily long pinkie nails (I called them her 'coke nails' when I was younger).

 

I absolutely hated Mary in the books; I don't think she ever had a redeeming moment in my eyes. The worst for me was when she told Laura that "yellow" hair was prettier than brown. But I actually liked Mary on TV--that is, in the earliest episodes. I thought she was a beautiful little girl, and she wasn't as mean as Mary from the books. However, when she started to get older (around the time she was "engaged" to John Jr.), I could no longer stand her. I didn't even feel sorry for her during her MLINE?MLINE?MLINE?MLINE?MLINE? and MYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABYMYBABY and John-Jr-cheating-on-her moments. No pity for Mary.

[geekamonggeeks]

I think one of Mary's worst moments is when she actually abandoned her baby in the mline school as it was burning down. It's not so much the character's fault as it the writers'. I remember reading somewhere that it was obvious a man had written the scene. If a woman had written it, Mary would have grabbed the baby and run like hell. The maternal instincts would be too strong to ignore. Even as a mline woman, Mary would not have left the room until she had her son with her. There's no way she would have left him like she did.

[Snow Apple]

It bugs me how TV Mary think acting authoritative means bitchy. The look on her face and tone of voice with her students was so mean/harsh/scary even when lessons were going well. I know she's not *being* mean, but it just comes off that way due to the acting.

[sgittinger]

To this day, when I watch the pilot and get to the scene where Pa tells the girls not to let Jack loose, I want to slap the crap out of Mary: "Laura wanted to untie Jack, but I wouldn't let her". STFU, Mary, you annoying prisspot bitch.

[Creeper Jen]

Let's not forget that Mary is the only child in the known history of the universe who has ever been grounded from taking a test. 

[Rhondinella]

What's ironic is that the way my mother got me to learn my 7's times tables when I was in elementary school (for some reason that one was hard for me) was by locking me in my room about 30 minutes before Little House came on TV and said I had to be able to recite the chart perfectly before I'd be allowed to watch.  This was well before DVR's or VCR's and I was obsessed with the show as a kid.

 

I think I mastered it in 15 minutes.

[DoughGirl]

Why did Prisspot just not tell someone she couldn't see the damn blackboard in "Four Eyes"?

[Maherjunkie]

I assume vanity was the reason.

[Blergh]

Why did Prisspot just not tell someone she couldn't see the damn blackboard in "Four Eyes"?

 I agree! And the WORST part of that whole episode was that she [as well as Ma and Pa] reacted to her 'losing' the glasses as though she was a 1970's mallrat who lost a mood ring NOT a child  from an 1870's struggling farm family who'd likely had spent and gotten credit for a year's worth of income just to get her those glasses. At the very least, I'd have expected one of them to have said 'Well, we're all going to cover every square inch between the schoolhouse and this front door until those glasses are FOUND and after that you'd better kwitcher bellyaching over snotty kids' teases or else we'll give you something to REALLY blubber about!'

[Brn2bwild]

 

It bugs me how TV Mary think acting authoritative means bitchy. The look on her face and tone of voice with her students was so mean/harsh/scary even when lessons were going well. I know she's not *being* mean, but it just comes off that way due to the acting.

 

Older TV Laura had this problem as well.  The moment her hair went up in a bun, Laura's personality turned to shit.

[DoughGirl]

It bugs me how TV Mary think acting authoritative means bitchy. The look on her face and tone of voice with her students was so mean/harsh/scary even when lessons were going well. I know she's not *being* mean, but it just comes off that way due to the acting.

In "Whisper Country" when Joshua comes back to school and makes an innocent joke she screams at him and sends him home. What a bitch. No wonder the people were against her. "If he misbehaves, I'll send him home AGAIN!"

Older TV Laura had this problem as well. The moment her hair went up in a bun, Laura's personality turned to shit.

For years she pined and whined for "Manly" and then when she got him turned bitchy and seemed to do everything to turn him away.

[Maherjunkie]

Maybe that's why she was such a natural playing a witch in "Midnight Offerings".

[Maherjunkie]

Has MSA ever spoken to her on set reputation?

[juneday]

Has MSA ever spoken to her on set reputation?

I don't think she's ever specifically addressed it. She does mention in her book that she and some of the other cast members didn't get along 100% of the time or something to that extent.

[DoughGirl]

How annoying was Prisspot in the "Pride of Walnut Grove"? She whined the entire time in Minneapolis about how she just wasn't doing well. Over and over, "I'm just not doing well. They expect me to win." Caroline is so damn patient. After an hour I'd have told her she was going to withdraw and put her whiney ass back on the train.

Even after she comes in second she keeps pouting.

[Maherjunkie]

I wonder if MSA liked her character?

[merylinkid]

I made some observations about MSA after reading AA's book.   I think it was very hard for her on the set with all the pressure to be the "breadwinner" of her family due to her parent's divorce while being around other kids who were just there to act and have fun.   They weren't their families' only hope to keep a roof over their heads.  

[Maherjunkie]

I got the impression the mother was a hard ass.

[merylinkid]

Someone made a list of the 17 fictional characters who would make the worst roommates.    Mary made the list.   

 

I am still cracking up.

[Honeyskin]

It is about time someone added this post. I truly despised Mary Ingalls in the books. T.V Mary did not piss me off nearly as much -incidentally she never married let alone had a baby that died. She was an arrogant know it all. I hated her for provoking Laura to slap her when she said  that her golden hair was much prettier than Laura's brown(LHITBW) & pa whipped Laura. Mary should have been chastised to some degree. If you ever saw pictures of the Ingalls family Laura was far prettier of all the daughters as well as Ma. Still, it was sad when she went blind but afterwards she seemed to think it was all about her. Come on Charles & Caroline ,you had 3 other daughters. Laura, who worked her ass off to help put her through college, often wished she could be as good and kind as Mary. Bullshit! It should have been vice versa.

As young women of that generation was supposed to be ignorant of sex,I guess she was no exception (as well as Laura until she got married) therefore I guess she would not be expected to understand why Laura would not want to postpone her wedding to Almanzo (THGY) until the following summer so that she could be there. Since everything revolved around this perfectionist. I'm not surprised that ma & pa didn't expect Laura to give mary her garnet & pearl engagement ring ,after all it was the least she could do

[shipmate]

In the books it had me really angry when Laura did a bunch of teaching and PA takes her salary and spends it on a freaking ORGAN. For Mary of course. He should have insisted she keep it for her and Almanzo's start. No wonder you were always poor PA.

[ElderPrice]

I'm reading Pioneer Girl and LIW describes a scene where she is running around playing with the boys and Mary grabs her by the hair and holds on, trying to prevent her from being so "unladylike". What a bitch.

[Snow Apple]

Violence is really ladylike.

 

I need to get my hands on that book. Sadly, my library haven't ordered a copy (yet).

[scowl]

The first time Ma and Pa leave and let Mary take care of Laura and Grace, what happens? The homestead gets attacked by wolves.

 

To fight them off, she first uses a bag. When she discovers dogs have teeth, then she decides to use a pitchfork. 

 

This episode was just too funny. Imagine Ma and Pa coming home. "Laura and Grace? Sorry, the wolves got 'em." Since this is MSA acting in an emotional scene, it would have been something like, "Maap! Paap! Sniff sniff. Woofs gooot meeem! Woofs! It's not my faaaawwwwt!"

Edited January 28, 2015 by scowl

[PrairieSmoke]

I read the LHIBW section that Pioneer Girl covers, and I think the story about the brown vs blond hair being prettier never happened. It says Laura made up stories in her fictional (LH books) family, and the she told stories that accentuated the differences between Laura and Mary. 

Point being, Laura and Mary had very different personalities.

[VCRTracking]

Just watched a 1st season Murder She Wrote with Melissa Sue Anderson. Mary Ingalls with bad 80s hair *aaack*!

[Blergh]

On 12/14/2014 at 2:50 PM, ElderPrice said:

I'm reading Pioneer Girl and LIW describes a scene where she is running around playing with the boys and Mary grabs her by the hair and holds on, trying to prevent her from being so "unladylike". What a bitch.

 It's interesting that despite Mary going blind then winding up an old maid whose only pleasure seemed to be playing a pump organ while caring for the elderly Ma then got farmed out to their sighted sisters   before her comparatively early death, LIW did NOT let go how much of a pain she seemed to have considered her elder sister to have been when they growing up together.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Blergh
clarity

[VCRTracking]

MSA looking fab in this clip from the all-star roller disco episode of CHiPs in 1979. Victor French is also there, NOT wearing roller skates but still boogieing down!

[scowl]

My gosh! So much 70's television glitterati were in that scene! Did I see one of the Keane brothers?

I've read that in the 70's you could get nearly any television star to show up at anything in Los Angeles for a few hundred bucks. 

[scowl]

Wow, was that a disheveled Dan Haggerty sitting in the background looking bored? I bet he thought there would be more cocaine.

[RubiksCube]

That video was awesome. Dana Plato looked like she was being dragged across the floor. 

[VCRTracking]

On 9/25/2017 at 9:48 AM, scowl said:

I've read that in the 70's you could get nearly any television star to show up at anything in Los Angeles for a few hundred bucks. 

As this AV Club article on the history of "Battle of the Network Stars"(featuring Karen Grassle and Melissa Sue Anderson) I posted in the media thread has confirmed:

https://www.avclub.com/a-battle-royale-revisited-an-oral-history-of-battle-of-1797835884

Edited October 3, 2017 by VCRTracking

[MyAimIsTrue]

On ‎9‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 8:35 PM, VCRTracking said:

MSA looking fab in this clip from the all-star roller disco episode of CHiPs in 1979. Victor French is also there, NOT wearing roller skates but still boogieing down!

Very late to this party but I remember that CHiPs episode more fondly and with more glee than I probably should.

[VCRTracking]

1 hour ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Very late to this party but I remember that CHiPs episode more fondly and with more glee than I probably should.

No offense to Alan Silvestri who wrote a nice disco score for that scene, but I would have to have loved to hear the real music that was playing. Also seeing Victor French and Robert Mandan from Soap in "hip" late 70s fashion is weird.

Edited October 20, 2017 by VCRTracking

[scowl]

22 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

No offense to Alan Silvestri who wrote a nice disco score for that scene, but I would have to have loved to hear the real music that was playing. Also seeing Victor French and Robert Mandan from Soap in "hip" late 70s fashion is weird.

Some of the oddest and saddest things I've seen in old clips and movies have been middle aged men attempting to keep current with 70s fashion, yet not look like "hippies". Normally they'd wear fashionable clothes and jewelry like French and Mandan did, and grow their hair slightly longer -- but not too long! My favorite was DeForest Kelley who somehow grew his sideburns out and combed them back over his ears. No one at the time thought it looked odd.

[VCRTracking]

4 hours ago, scowl said:

Some of the oddest and saddest things I've seen in old clips and movies have been middle aged men attempting to keep current with 70s fashion, yet not look like "hippies". Normally they'd wear fashionable clothes and jewelry like French and Mandan did, and grow their hair slightly longer -- but not too long! My favorite was DeForest Kelley who somehow grew his sideburns out and combed them back over his ears. No one at the time thought it looked odd.

In That's Entertainment!(made in 1974) most of the stars introducing old clips look fine but then it gets to Peter Lawford:

[wiseguy182]

I liked Mary. She was a total badass. If she was moody at times, well, could you blame her? She was the good child, the one that got excellent grades, always did her chores, was kind and respectful. She had to watch as bratty Laura sucked up all of Pa's attention whenever he was in the room. Laura was constantly mouthing off, skipping school, being late for class, ducking out on chores, getting into trouble, starting fights and getting involved in crazy schemes and what not. Not to mention wishing death on her baby brother. Did Charles ever punish Laura? He was quick to threaten violence against other people's kids.

The worst was when Mary lost out on that dictionary and not soon after, Charles gave one to Laura (who hated it) as a birthday gift. I think that was his way of sticking it to Mary because she wasn't as tomboyish as Laura and he didn't have any use for her.

Anyways, Mary was at her best when she was sticking it to the assorted hicks and rubes that were all over the place back then. Like in "Money Crop" where the guy was like a day or two late with everyone's seed (he got in a wagon wreck) and the town was flipping its collective you-know-what. They all congregated on the steps of the Mercantile, swearing and yelling and driving away all the business and accusing the guy of running a scam, then accusing his wife, then Charles of being in on it. Mary, who was like a 12 year old girl at the time, went out to all those adult men and berated them. Tremendous.

An even better example was "Whisper County", an extremely backwards, anti-technology town run by a religious zealot named Miss Rachel Peel, who is constantly spreading lies and trying to prevent kids from learning anything but the Bible. At the end, Mary finally releases the chokehold this woman has over the community by taking her lies and exposing them in front of the whole congregation, until Rachel Peel can't muster any mumblings about "Fake News".

Laura was such a disruptive child and Carrie was so needy and helpless, I can't imagine either one of them functioning without Mary. Thank goodness she was there to help keep all the younger kids in line. Laura probably would have went on her way to murdering people had it not been for Mary.

[Blergh]

Well, I always wish when Mary virtually called Ma a Jezebel for being civil to "The Handyman", and Ma started calling her on her stuff, Mary ', blubbered 'Please love me again!' that Ma   said 'Oh, Mary. You're my daughter and as long as there's a breath in me, I'll ALWAYS love you!'

 Then hugged her very tightly.

 

 THEN a moment later shouted 'But right now, I don't LIKE you!'

 then let Mary start her blubbering again and let her stew in her own.

[wiseguy182]

Mary kept her siblings alive in "The Blizzard". Carrie wanted to give up and Laura wanted to go back for her calendar that she dropped. Mary was there to move everyone right along and was instrumental in them not freezing to death. Mary usually had her crap-taking meter set to zero and in this case, it prevented the deaths of the younger Ingalls children.

[alegtostandon]

Just saw for the first time in years "Country Girls", Mary and Laura's first day of school and their first meeting of Nellie. 

Not sure if it is the way the character was written orjust MSA's acting style, but boy, I sure would stay out of her way. 

In this episode, Ma bought 'yard goods' to make herself a new dress much against the advice of Harriet Oleson.  It came "very dear".  When Ma was showing the yard goods to the family, Laura started to touch it. I think the scene called for Mary to slap, Laura's hand away, but my hand hurt just watching how hard MSA hit MG!

I didn't even recognize Jonathon Gilbert as Willie, he was so little & chubby 

[savannah31401]

On 9/23/2017 at 8:35 PM, VCRTracking said:

MSA looking fab in this clip from the all-star roller disco episode of CHiPs in 1979. Victor French is also there, NOT wearing roller skates but still boogieing down!

Thank you for bringing this into my life.

[wanton87]

On 1/27/2015 at 4:24 PM, PrairieSmoke said:

I read the LHIBW section that Pioneer Girl covers, and I think the story about the brown vs blond hair being prettier never happened. It says Laura made up stories in her fictional (LH books) family, and the she told stories that accentuated the differences between Laura and Mary. 

Point being, Laura and Mary had very different personalities.

Yep. Much of what’s in the books is completely made up, and can’t be taken any more seriously than the TV series.

Many historians think that LIW completely made up the character of Mr Edwards. One theory is that he was several men that were kind to the Ingalls family throughout their various travels, and that she combined them all into one, in the form of “Mr Edwards”.

And most of you probably already know this, but Nellie was also such a compilation, and the character was actually based on 3 different girls that were enemies of the real LIW while growing up. Now one of these girls would come very close to the “Nellie Oleson” of the TV series, and her name was Nellie Owens. As with TV Nellie, her parents (whose actual names were William and Margaret, not Nels and Harriet) did own a mercantile in Walnut Grove, and she had a younger brother named William Jr (Willie). Unlike the TV series, Mrs Oleson was not portrayed as a bitch in the books, nor Mr Oleson as exceptionally kind.

Edited August 27, 2018 by wanton87
wording

[wanton87]

On 1/27/2015 at 4:24 PM, PrairieSmoke said:

I read the LHIBW section that Pioneer Girl covers, and I think the story about the brown vs blond hair being prettier never happened.

Glad that you mentioned this. I went ahead and ordered the annotated addition. It appears to have a lot of useless filler, but I figured that it’s worth it for the few extra worthy details that it offers. Also some maps and photos apparently. I also wishlisted The Three Faces of Nellie: The Real Story Behind Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Nellie Oleson". Since the little house stories were told from the perspective of Laura, I sometimes wonder if the “Nellie’s” were really as bad as Laura made them out to be, or perhaps that Laura was no angel herself? Television Laura certainly wasn’t.

[Jacqs]

MSA was better looking than real life Mary. That's Hollywood for you...

[wanton87]

Just came across this photo of the real family. I actually thought that the real Mary was quite pretty in her youth, but of course it’s tough to compete with someone as beautiful as MSA.

That Carrie had some rather hard features. And is it just me, or does Grace look like James Woods in drag :D

Left to right: Ma, Carrie, Laura, Pa, Grace, and Mary

[Jacqs]

I always giggle at Pa's hillbilly beard in contrast to ML...

[Zanzibar]

Just watched the episode where Mary and Adam got married.  I like that Mary was able to get a lovely French manicure on the prairie prior to her wedding...

[Jacqs]

On 9/15/2018 at 8:59 AM, Zanzibar said:

Just watched the episode where Mary and Adam got married.  I like that Mary was able to get a lovely French manicure on the prairie prior to her wedding...

Reminds me of the movie about Brandon Teena where Brandon has Hillary Swank's tan lines from a French bikini.

[Blergh]

On 9/6/2018 at 11:39 PM, JacquelineAppleton said:

I always giggle at Pa's hillbilly beard in contrast to ML...

Not to mention that there's NO photographic evidence Pa took his shirt off - and he followed 19th century convention of being photographed in a suit (and his wife and daughters were in formal dresses) despite not having two dimes to rub together!