Little House On The Prairie - General Discussion

[jird]

3 hours ago, Katy M said:

She only did that once.

This made me laugh way more than it should have - thank you!

Also, Miss Wilder inspired sufficient loyalty in the kids for them to beat up Bartholomew in order to keep her as a teacher. (Although clearly they hadn't learned enough from their teachers to remember that was also the solution to dealing with Bubba.) 

[debraran]

Caroline would have been a great teacher, even though she said as a Mom you are always one she had the personality to make most kids love her. I think Harriet would have great for a special subject or even to teach kids about starting a store or business, if farming wasn't attractive. Although she did it with Nel's, she for that time was a strong woman doing something most didn't. You could work at the mail room, sew, but a bank or have a store? You never saw that again. I liked that Nels said how smart she was with "most"decisions and good with figures or math.

Edited December 31, 2021 by debraran

[jason88cubs]

Jan 1, 2022- This year only cash on a barrel-Charles

Jan 2, 2022-I'm out of tobacco Mrs Oleson, can I charge it?-Charles

Harriet-Charles, we won't offer credit for something simple like tobacco

Charles-FINE I SEE HOW IT IS (storms out)

[Egg McMuffin]

My list of teachers, from best to worst: 

• Miss Beadle
• Eliza Jane
• Ma (tenure comment above taken seriously)
• Harriet
• Miss Plum
• Laura
• Mr Applewood
• Alice Garvey

[jird]

Watching The Rac(c)oon, and man, Pa just all set to shoot poor Jack because he's barking and wagging his tail. Apparently my dogs have rabies every time the UPS truck drives by.

[CheshireCat]

I caught a rerun of the Pilot this morning. I'm not a dog person but boy, what an adorable dog Jack is!

[Blergh]

14 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I caught a rerun of the Pilot this morning. I'm not a dog person but boy, what an adorable dog Jack is!

Yep, and no matter how broad and corny the show wound up or annoying Grown Up Laura became,   to the end  one could ALWAYS count on Jack running down the hill with the Spunky, Sympathetic Child Half-Pint in the Closing Credits

[Zella]

I never really forgave Pa for not ensuring Jack was on the wagon when they crossed or Laura for being so dismissive of him right before he died. Jack was a good boy. 

[Blergh]

11 minutes ago, Zella said:

I never really forgave Pa for not ensuring Jack was on the wagon when they crossed or Laura for being so dismissive of him right before he died. Jack was a good boy. 

And kudos must be given to the casting department for finding a working canine who not only looked EXACTLY like Mrs. Wilder's beloved  pal had been illustrated (and I'd like to think she had carefully described him to the illustrator as best she could)  but also had believably handled so many of the physical and emotional challenges his literary model had endured! Oh, and it should be noted that  as per the Books, Jack died peacefully of old age!   While he hadn't been as much a boon companion to Laura as she grew up as when she was a tiny child, she and the rest of the Ingallses DID value him to the very end! 

[CountryGirl]

42 minutes ago, Blergh said:

And kudos must be given to the casting department for finding a working canine who not only looked EXACTLY like Mrs. Wilder's beloved  pal had been illustrated (and I'd like to think she had carefully described him to the illustrator as best she could)  but also had believably handled so many of the physical and emotional challenges his literary model had endured! Oh, and it should be noted that  as per the Books, Jack died peacefully of old age!   While he hadn't been as much a boon companion to Laura as she grew up as when she was a tiny child, she and the rest of the Ingallses DID value him to the very end! 

RL/Book Jack was a brindle bulldog.

 

No offense to TV Jack, who was adorable, but being a member of the Shaggy Dog breed, he looked nothing like RL/Book Jack.

Just another example of ML not giving a fig for the books.

[Snow Apple]

Hate to burst anybody's bubble, but in real life, Pa traded the ponies, Pet and Patty, for horses and Jack went with them. Laura probably loved Jack which is why she wrote a sad but sweet ending for him in the books.

[greekmom]

On 12/22/2021 at 10:43 AM, Kyle said:

Very well put. They missed a golden opportunity with adult Nellie. Alison Arngrim was a versatile actress. They could have milked Nellie and Perciville’s romance over a whole season. And she didn’t have to be tamed so drastically. She could have reformed, but still have been feisty. And they could have slowly developed a friendship between her and Laura - that would have been dramatically satisfying after all the antagonism between them as children. Those two actresses had so much chemistry. But after Nellie was married, they hardly ever appeared in the same scene.

I thought they missed the boat with Nancy - good performer but terrible character (akin to Julia Duffy in “Designing Women”). Allison Balson could have pulled off a character who was mischievous but not evil.

They really missed an opportunity for a spin off.  Nellie in the Big City of NY.  Can you imagine the whole small town girl fish out of water meshing with her Jewish inlaws?  Gold Jerry. Gold.

On 12/22/2021 at 8:18 PM, Zella said:

I'm sure a crying and gratuitously shirtless Charles would have helped him work through it in a tear-jerker two-parter before they moved on and deported Nels to New York to join Mary and Adam. 

Nah.  The red headed Irish chick would have showed up and help console Nels.

[Mr. Sparkle]

8 minutes ago, greekmom said:

Nah.  The red headed Irish chick would have showed up and help console Nels.

As sure as grass grows green in Galway she would! 

[Zella]

10 minutes ago, greekmom said:

Nah.  The red headed Irish chick would have showed up and help console Nels.

I'd wondered about that, but I think they'd still get banished to New York after the end of the two-parter in which shirtless Charles comforts Nels and then Nels finds new life with his Irish girlfriend. Can't have anyone else's love story competing with the Ingalls family!

[Blergh]

20 hours ago, greekmom said:

They really missed an opportunity for a spin off.  Nellie in the Big City of NY.  Can you imagine the whole small town girl fish out of water meshing with her Jewish inlaws?  Gold Jerry. Gold.

Nah.  The red headed Irish chick would have showed up and help console Nels.

Oddly enough, despite BOTH the Cohens/Daltons and Kendalls spouses having been exiled to NYC, at no point is there any hint that either couple attempted to look up the other one- much less caught up with each other while strolling through Central Park eating roasted chestnuts out of newspaper cones (the fast food for 1880's city folk). And none of the Ingallses or Olesons asked about the other family's grown offspring living in the same city! 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Blergh

[jason88cubs]

I always thought it was crazy how many times Laura snuck out at night

 

No way that was safe at all back then. Walking all the way into town in middle of the night with no light but the stars?

[jason88cubs]

On 1/2/2022 at 4:53 PM, jird said:

Watching The Rac(c)oon, and man, Pa just all set to shoot poor Jack because he's barking and wagging his tail. Apparently my dogs have rabies every time the UPS truck drives by.

I know he's not a vet but wouldn't the Doc be able to see if he has rabies?

[jird]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad episode, but I cannot watch the episode where Mary and Laura buy medicine to get Rev. Alden a better Bible. I just can't take the secondhand cringe while they're trying to sell the medicine.

[BigBingerBro]

9 minutes ago, jird said:

the episode where Mary and Laura buy medicine to get Rev. Alden a better Bible.

That one actually has some pretty interesting one-time characters and residents of Walnut Grove.  The old lady who was actually an alcoholic and wanted Laura's medicine for the alcohol content only.  Also, the female pig-farmer that refused to pay for the pills the pigs ate.  Classic!

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, jason88cubs said:

I know he's not a vet but wouldn't the Doc be able to see if he has rabies?

I swear I read somewhere that he was actually a vet and not a people-doctor. I'm not sure of the source. 

I don't think Doc was based on anyone real. 

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

I know he's not a vet but wouldn't the Doc be able to see if he has rabies?

You mean when Charles was about to shoot him or shortly after being bitten by Jasper?  The former, I don't know. The latter, definitely not.  Vets can't even do that today.

[Blergh]

4 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

That one actually has some pretty interesting one-time characters and residents of Walnut Grove.  The old lady who was actually an alcoholic and wanted Laura's medicine for the alcohol content only.  Also, the female pig-farmer that refused to pay for the pills the pigs ate.  Classic!

Too bad Mary and Laura didn't just take her pigs to the butcher and see if they could have raised the bacon.

 

Come to think of, there WAS no butcher in Walnut Grove and yet somehow the Olesons never wanted to for meat. ..

[Egg McMuffin]

They bartered for meat I’m sure. There was no shortage of farmers with poor cash flow. Or farmers who wanted to unload bad mutton.

[debraran]

8 hours ago, Blergh said:

Too bad Mary and Laura didn't just take her pigs to the butcher and see if they could have raised the bacon.

 

Come to think of, there WAS no butcher in Walnut Grove and yet somehow the Olesons never wanted to for meat. ..

I wondered about that too, they surely ate well. You saw a vegetable garden once when the goat episode was shown, but never where they got items. Nel's hunted at times but not much talk about that either. When the neighbors did badly with crops, they seemed to eat fine, maybe a lot of eggs. ; )

I also wondered if fish was a big staple. What did Dr Baker and Hansen do for food. You never saw them do anything but maybe fish once and Doc got fruit and eggs but didn't really have a place to keep anything in his office/bedroom. Did he even have a kitchen?

Edited January 6, 2022 by debraran

[Snow Apple]

Seeing the food issue spelled out, I guess opening Nellie's restaurant makes business sense in a small town after all.

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

Seeing the food issue spelled out, I guess opening Nellie's restaurant makes business sense in a small town after all.

Yeah, but where did they get their fresh food from? 

 

BTW, Nellie's last dialogue as an LHOTP (and not in her Season Nine visit) was to ask 

"Who had the lamb stew?"

Considering all the turmoil with anthrax and mutton, I'm surprised Caroline's Restaurant  didn't  avoid anything to do with sheep much less  gone vegetarian!  I'm not sure it would have been wise to have trusted even a tamed Nellie with that dish!

[Snow Apple]

5 hours ago, Blergh said:

Yeah, but where did they get their fresh food from? 

In the book, The Long Winter, the town almost starved because the train with food and supplies couldn't get through. Maybe the restaurant can get regular deliveries from out of town suppliers. They may even have deals from the local farmers. They already buy eggs from the Ingalls and other families.

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

In the book, The Long Winter, the town almost starved because the train with food and supplies couldn't get through. Maybe the restaurant can get regular deliveries from out of town suppliers. They may even have deals from the local farmers. They already buy eggs from the Ingalls and other families.

Makes sense re The Books.

 

However, it seemed once they finished the Pilot Movie( which painstakingly depicted how every morsel of food was brought forth), the show became about as indifferent to the logistics of supplies as Gilligan's Island!

[jird]

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, jird said:

Did the elder Mr. Labyorteaux hang onto that shirt from the time he was three or was half-way (or half-heartedly) trying to emulate ML's showing off his chest? At least he didn't seem to get injured the way Charles Ingalls was supposed to have been!

[CountryGirl]

The half-shirt is appalling but it's still better than their Speedo shot.

I wish I was joking.

[Egg McMuffin]

I’m watching Wave of the Future, an entertaining if ridiculous episode. I don’t understand how that restaurant is so busy when it’s located in the sticks, in a town filled with poor people. I don’t buy that Harriet, who in the past has been portrayed as a shrewd businessperson, would jump feet first into that terrible franchisee deal. And don’t get me started on Colonel Sanders showing up and wanting to turn Nellie’s/Caroline’s into a KFC.

But it is a showcase for the Olesons, and that reason alone makes it a fun episode.

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, Kyle said:

I’m watching Wave of the Future, an entertaining if ridiculous episode. I don’t understand how that restaurant is so busy when it’s located in the sticks, in a town filled with poor people. I don’t buy that Harriet, who in the past has been portrayed as a shrewd businessperson, would jump feet first into that terrible franchisee deal. And don’t get me started on Colonel Sanders showing up and wanting to turn Nellie’s/Caroline’s into a KFC.

But it is a showcase for the Olesons, and that reason alone makes it a fun episode.

Agreed but I vote that we can just pretend that episode came from  a character's bad dream their minds concocted after eating some . .. off fried chicken on account of having the ice box being out of lamb or mutton!

[Mr. Sparkle]

3 hours ago, CountryGirl said:

The half-shirt is appalling but it's still better than their Speedo shot.

I wish I was joking.

No, I'm not googling that, and you can't make me. 

[Egg McMuffin]

Is there anything so awkward as a teenaged boy? Especially one who’s trying to be sexy?

[CheshireCat]

On 1/3/2022 at 12:28 PM, CountryGirl said:

RL/Book Jack was a brindle bulldog.

...

Just another example of ML not giving a fig for the books.

It's entirely possible that he didn't care. But it's also possible that there are rules with regards to which dogs can be used as a pet and/or as a pet around children.

[debraran]

2 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

It's entirely possible that he didn't care. But it's also possible that there are rules with regards to which dogs can be used as a pet and/or as a pet around children.

Barney was the dog who played Jack in Little House on the Prairie.

In the original book series, Jack was a bulldog. "But Michael Landon didn't care, he fell in love with Barney at first sight, Melissa Gilbert was crazy about him too."[1]

Barney's final appearance on the show was the first episode of Season 4 titled "Castoffs" where Laura found Jack dead in the barn. He was still seen running down the hill with Laura in the end credits through most of the series.

Barney also had a larger contract than some of the actors did on the show.

From LHOP A-Z and Kent McCray interview

[Egg McMuffin]

Re: Christmas at Plum Creek. A sweet episode, but Nels should have spilled the beans and told Charles that Laura had bargained for the stove. Instead, Charles had an extra eight dollars in his pocket after Christmas and Laura wound up weeping over giving Bunny to that demon spawn Nellie (I’m impressed that they picked up the Bunny story again almost two years later, though)

Of course, this is the same Nels who suggested that Charles spend his money on a china lamp or a knickknack shelf instead of the stove. Because the Ingalls had a lot of knickknacks or needed fancy decorations in their crapshack.

[BigBingerBro]

29 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

this is the same Nels who suggested that Charles spend his money on a china lamp or a knickknack shelf instead of the stove.

Yes!  I watched that episode over the holidays and had not remembered that from watching previously.  You'd think he would have suggested something equally as practical as the stove.   I guess ML decided to take the whole "christmas secrets" thing all the way, but yeah Nels in real life totally would have tipped Charles off regarding Laura's "deal"

[debraran]

1 hour ago, BigBingerBro said:

Yes!  I watched that episode over the holidays and had not remembered that from watching previously.  You'd think he would have suggested something equally as practical as the stove.   I guess ML decided to take the whole "christmas secrets" thing all the way, but yeah Nels in real life totally would have tipped Charles off regarding Laura's "deal"

No way in hell, Nel's would have bargained with a child who had good intentions but completely ridiculous. He also could afford (and did ) buy a horse later. Harriet would have done it in a heartbeat but not Nel's.  And  with all the fabric at Oleson's, Mary and Ma had to get the same one for Charles. (more believable but still) Someone knits him a scarf but what about Ma? Mary never thought of her mother, just her Pa. I never saw Caroline get anything but a cake from the kids, nothing homemade, a card, scarf, mittens.

In my fantasy ending, Charles tells Nel's, he's sorry, here's the 8.00, Bunny is staying and Nellie will have to deal with the 100 other gifts they got her. An 8 year old can't sell her horse. Then the saddle would go on her and that is that. ; )

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by debraran

[jason88cubs]

So did Nels not put the order in for the stove?

[debraran]

2 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

So did Nels not put the order in for the stove?

No, I'm sure he didn't. So Charles got 8.00 and no present for Caroline. ; )

[Egg McMuffin]

Maybe he should have gotten her a nice ham.

[Mr. Sparkle]

I know she enjoyed a piece of beef. 

[jird]

On 1/9/2022 at 4:10 PM, debraran said:

No, I'm sure he didn't. So Charles got 8.00 and no present for Caroline. ; )

What do we think Caroline did with the shirt she didn't give Charles? Do you think she just swapped the two each time she washed them so he never knew he had two identical shirts, like we did with my son's stuffed bunnies when he was two?

[Egg McMuffin]

Probably gave it to Chris.

[debraran]

9 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Probably gave it to Chris.

She should have and not gotten Mary so mad that she gave HER shirt to the hunk. She just should have said she saved a duplicate all this time for this special occasion. ; )

Edited January 11, 2022 by debraran

[Katy M]

On 1/9/2022 at 3:06 PM, jason88cubs said:

So did Nels not put the order in for the stove?

No, because the Ingalls don't need two stoves, nor would they have room for two.

[Blergh]

8 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Maybe he should have gotten her a nice ham.

Wasn't Caroline already married to one -even if he could fiddle without the bow ever touching the strings?

[Wonkabar5]

I have not been logged in for absolutely months (taking care of my aging mother), so I have just found out and read here re: Ma’s new autobiography.  I just requested it from the library. Hmmm.

I’m assuming this has been ghostwritten? Whether formally credited as such, or not…lol

I can only say that someone very near and dear to me has had professional dealings with her and while very nice, her manner can be a bit “curt, brusque but also very professional.”  That’s about all I can say here. In a very professional setting, she’s just not going to be “cuddly,” so to speak. 

And everyone has a very different style….