Little House On The Prairie - General Discussion

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 minute ago, ctlady said:

Never saw Dr. LeDeaux again either - even though he agreed to stay on

If I had the time and interest, I would make a list of "important" characters that were around for 1-2 episodes at the most and then were quietly dropped. 

Olga, Mary's friend from "Country Girls," Kezia, the list goes on... 

[jird]

5 minutes ago, Superclam said:

If I had the time and interest, I would make a list of "important" characters that were around for 1-2 episodes at the most and then were quietly dropped. 

Olga, Mary's friend from "Country Girls," Kezia, the list goes on... 

Tinker Jones, Little Lou, stuttering Anna, Jimmy Hill . .  

[Mr. Sparkle]

The Edwards family for a couple seasons there... 

[ctlady]

36 minutes ago, Superclam said:

Olga, Mary's friend from "Country Girls," Kezia, the list goes on...

Wasn't Christy Mary's friend?  When asked how school was, Mary replied, "there's a girl named Christy.  I think she's going to be my best friend".  Olga was the girl with the one leg shorter than the other from Town Party, Country Party.

We first meet Kezia in Castoffs and when the town goes to get her at the end, I believe there's a voice over by LI that she stayed in WG until she died.

We do see her again in The Lake Kezia Monster in S5 so there's some follow up

I would also liked to have seen what became of Anna, Laura's stuttering friend in The Music Box.  And what ever happened to Jason - Laura's friend whom Nellie also liked - from Bunny

Yeah - so many one-offs

[Egg McMuffin]

Rev Alden’s wife, Anna.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Sean Penn. 

[jird]

Jenny who cut off all her hair, along with her Ma and Mr. Mayfield. 

[Blergh]

5 hours ago, CountryGirl said:

It's better than his letter writing skills. 

Or Albert's photographic SPFX ( the girl pen pal couldn't tell every other boy in the shot was about six-years-old and the football itself somehow was gigantic next  to them?!- d'oh).

[jason88cubs]

In the tornado episode where Charles and them were going to head back home and sell their property to that one couple, was that the couple the originally bough it from?

[Mr. Sparkle]

If I'm not mistaken, they bought it from Hanson in "Harvest of Friends." Now that I mention it, I don't think we saw Paddy O'Stereotype again. 

[CheshireCat]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:49 AM, ctlady said:

While watching Laura Ingalls-Wilder Pt1 yesterday.  I just realized a weird inconsistency.  At the end of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not 2 , Percival doesn't want to get married in a church because he's Jewish, yet here - and in a few episodes after that - he's seen attending Sunday mass with Nellie and her family.  If he was staunch about not getting married in church, why would he attend regular mass?

It probably was just a continuity mistake but I can see why he would do one but not the other.

I think getting married is more meaningful as in, he professes his love and commitment to Nellie before God and this would not be a God he believes in. Whereas a regular service is, well, a regular service. He could still observe his own religious rituals (this may be the wrong word but I don't know what else to call it) and attend church with Nellie.

12 hours ago, Superclam said:

If I had the time and interest, I would make a list of "important" characters that were around for 1-2 episodes at the most and then were quietly dropped.

That would be a very long list. Very, very long.

[Snow Apple]

Another one off was Albert's girlfriend who Nancy almost murdered.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Snow Apple

[debraran]

7 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

Another one off was Albert's girlfriend who Nancy almost murdered.

When LHOP really started to "jump the shark".

[Blergh]

Backing back a little bit. .. I wonder what might  have happened with Christy Kennedy (Tracie Savage)  who was first seen standing up to Nellie and whom Mary said 'was going to be her best friend'! I can only recall her having one big episode in which her father sided against Mrs. Oleson providing the church with a bell in 'Voice of Tinker Jones', then evidently she was in roughly ten episodes as background over the first two seasons before she faded away altogether. Significantly, Miss Anderson herself in her autobio said Tracie Savage HAD been her actually best friend on set.

 I wonder if she might have somehow clashed with Miss Gilbert for daring to be civil to Miss Anderson and that might have hastened her end.

[greekmom]

Was re-watching Come Let us Reason Together.  Never understood why Percival changed his name to Percival from Isaac.  Isaac could have just been a first name coupled with the last name Dalton wouldn't have indicated he was Jewish (since he wanted to drum up business). 

I wonder what type of business his parents had since they don't mention particulars except that ("I had a shop like this back in '66").

Also the dad was really stereotyped.

[Egg McMuffin]

I can’t imagine why anyone would change his name to Percival. Or Perciville, as Nellie would say.

[CountryGirl]

So many tertiary characters - so little time. Let’s see how many I can remember off the top of my head.

Dumb Abel McKay 

Henry Henderson - the guy Laura was so ga-ga over, she used Willie to make him jealous and I’m side-eyeing ML for having siblings MG and JG have this storyline, no matter how innocent  

Plague Dad (he was in both plague episodes and lost his wife and son in both, IIRC

Solomon 

Gideon and his wolf-dog

Baby Message in a Bottle (so much for Laura never forgetting her)

Patrick (the hot one, not the Bobby Brady cameo one)

Cass the full of hot air fugly guy whom I’m sure no one was sorry to never see him again

Amy “I Faked My Own Death” Hearn

Fake Reverend Johnny Cash and June Cash

Bobby Ford and the James Brothers

The Widow Thurman

Uncle Chris who Buck-rogered Ma

Spotted Eagle, his mother, grandfather, and Willy Ames’ Seth

My Ellen

Bart who bullied Ms Wilder

Bubba and his brothers, who bullied the whole town, especially Ma, for her farm fresh eggs

Blind Madeline Stowe before Daniel Day-Lewis found her

Blind Jane, who was retconned as Laura’s BFF, and fell in love with Mr. Edwards

Mr. Pike

Buzzby (from My Ellen)

Jonah, Laura’s Fool’s Gold buddy

Dylan, who wanted to see the ocean

Daniel, whom Laura taught sign language

Little Lou, who rescued Nancy from a well…or something, I have blocked most of S9 out of mind

Loudy, who helped rescue Carrie from a well

[Blergh]

On 11/9/2022 at 8:34 PM, Egg McMuffin said:

I can’t imagine why anyone would change his name to Percival. Or Perciville, as Nellie would say.

Well, the Old Testament Isaac got his name because when God told his father Abraham that his wife Sarah would bear a son in her 90's and both his parents laughed at the idea! IOW, Isaac means 'he will laugh' in Hebrew. So I suppose he might have preferred the tougher name of Percival which means 'one who pierces the valley!' in Old French! Names can have some fascinating meanings!

Or, maybe ML thought Percival  sounded funnier (and/or more out of place on the frontier)  than Isaac!

[Zella]

On 11/9/2022 at 7:20 PM, greekmom said:

Isaac could have just been a first name coupled with the last name Dalton wouldn't have indicated he was Jewish (since he wanted to drum up business). 

Agreed. Biblical names were definitely a thing then and didn't automatically indicate someone was Jewish. He could have gone by Ike like another frontier Isaac, Ike Clanton. 😂

[greekmom]

Goodbye Mrs. Wilder was on yesterday. 

I still can't believe that Mrs. Olsen was ok with showing the art to the kids. It's the freaking 1880s with people who we can say are not as cultured as people in the bigger cities like NYC.

The new kid's dad was hilarious as he was looking at the pictures and commenting.

That would have been Mrs. Olsen if it was Laura's idea.

[ctlady]

3 hours ago, greekmom said:

Goodbye Mrs. Wilder was on yesterday. 

I still can't believe that Mrs. Olsen was ok with showing the art to the kids

She's become a lot more open minded since scolding Willie for peeking into Sylvia's window!

[debraran]

6 hours ago, ctlady said:

She's become a lot more open minded since scolding Willie for peeking into Sylvia's window!

She's always thought of herself as more educated and cultured (and Nel's went to Princeton) but although I could see "art" being different than ogling a peer in her home, she picked "The Rape of the Sabine Women" if i remember correctly for one? Mythology? The writers had fun with that one.

[Blergh]

I know Miss MacGregor had her fun butchering French pronunciation that episode! Could any other character besides Mrs. Oleson have gotten away with garbling another language for laughs?

[BigBingerBro]

36 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I know Miss MacGregor had her fun butchering French pronunciation that episode! Could any other character besides Mrs. Oleson have gotten away with garbling another language for laughs?

I'll have to rewatch that one because I could have sworn she did fairly well aside from a bit of exaggeration.  She certainly must have had fun shooting that episode!

[CountryGirl]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

I know Miss MacGregor had her fun butchering French pronunciation that episode! Could any other character besides Mrs. Oleson have gotten away with garbling another language for laughs?

I will always remember "par-lay plooey blue!"

[Mr. Sparkle]

I think I'll re-watch this one over the weekend. It's not one of the ones I know by heart. 

[Egg McMuffin]

I’m watching the episode where Nancy tries to kill Belinda by locking her in the ice house. Nels promises to get the latch on the ice house door modified so that it can be opened from the inside. But Willie talks of a previous incident where he was also locked in the ice house and had to stay in bed for a week. Why didn’t Nels fix the latch then?

And why does everyone in Walnut Grove take Nancy’s attempted murder so lightly? The story she tells to explain her actions has a big enough hole to drive a truck through.

[Egg McMuffin]

Ok - so now Nancy is giving a fake story about her mother abandoned her on a street corner. Which she wouldn’t have gotten away with if Nels and Harriet had actually bothered to ask the orphanage about the reason Nancy was orphaned.

I never realized how many of the Little House plots depended on the adults acting like idiots.

[debraran]

2 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Ok - so now Nancy is giving a fake story about her mother abandoned her on a street corner. Which she wouldn’t have gotten away with if Nels and Harriet had actually bothered to ask the orphanage about the reason Nancy was orphaned.

I never realized how many of the Little House plots depended on the adults acting like idiots.

So true, big holes that got bigger as show went on. Nancy was unwatchable to me even now. Some people make fun of Carrie and "Alyssa" but I find "You hate me" much worse.

Now I'm watching Eliza Jane make a fool of herself with that guy on trip with Laura. And treating Mortimer the funny, short, often fired friend so badly. (even Harv didn't act like this) I hoped she ended up with him though in TV story land. The other guy was so oppressive, I couldn't picture anyone liking him.

I saw this trivia on IMD site. Not sure if it's true. How is it getting back at her, she doesn't like the guy who makes pass at her.

Trivia

By the time this was filmed, Michael Landon had started philandering on his wife with the show's make-up artist and Melissa Gilbert had stopped talking to him. So, he concocted this script to get back at her, where a man indecently propositions her (married) Laura Ingalls character.

Edited November 20, 2022 by debraran

[Zella]

2 minutes ago, debraran said:

Some people make fun of Carrie and "Alyssa" but I find "You hate me" much worse.

I agree. The acting for Carrie was not the greatest and the storylines for her were lame, but I don't find it particularly egregious. I don't usually expect kid actors to be great, and by that point in the show, a lot of the writing was uneven. It just seemed par for the course.

Nancy, meanwhile, is unbearable and unwatchable. Period. 

[Snow Apple]

At least Allysa was a one time thing. "You hate me" seems to be screeched out in every episode Nancy appeared in.

[CountryGirl]

I remember in the Christmas movie aka Rosenapping where Nancy is in charge of securing the Christmas tree and chops a giant one down (nevermind her puny ax wouldn’t have accomplished the job) and it breaks the living room window. 

Queue the waterworks and “you hate me” from Nancy to Nels and he says, “YES!” 🤣

[andidante]

I loved Nels! He was one of my favorite characters. Nancy sucked. 

[debraran]

On 11/20/2022 at 3:15 PM, Snow Apple said:

At least Allysa was a one time thing. "You hate me" seems to be screeched out in every episode Nancy appeared in.

I can't believe the same writers were around from the beginning. It wasn't funny or entertaining.

[jason88cubs]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

[jason88cubs]

Getting to that time of year where I will be having my annual watching of the pilot movie

As much as we make fun of the show, that movie is fantastic

[Zella]

3 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

Getting to that time of year where I will be having my annual watching of the pilot movie

As much as we make fun of the show, that movie is fantastic

It really is. I think the first 3 seasons of the show are also really good. 

[jird]

Yes! I loved the tone of the first movie, and wish they'd kept more of that for the series. 

[Blergh]

On 11/25/2022 at 6:09 AM, debraran said:

I can't believe the same writers were around from the beginning. It wasn't funny or entertaining.

I agree- and yet they expected the viewers to keep thinking the latter seasons were every bit as edifying,funny and entertaining as the beginning had been.

I guess they wound up serving as role models for self-importance and buying one's own hype for  the Boy Meets World ( 1993-2000) writers when they later wrote Girl Meets World (2014-2017) .

[Mr. Sparkle]

I will point out that "The Reincarnation of Nellie: Episode 1 & 2" were both written and directed by:

Michael Landon.

I blame the success, and later demise, of the show entirely on him. 

2 hours ago, Zella said:

I think the first 3 seasons of the show are also really good. 

I will go as far as to say the first 6 seasons were fairly solid. Season 7 started to show some cracks, and Season 8 started the inevitable fall. 

Season 9's worst episode was NOT the one with the orangutan, that's all I'll say. 

[Zella]

46 minutes ago, Superclam said:

I will go as far as to say the first 6 seasons were fairly solid.

I'd agree with that. I did detect a slight decline in quality after season 3, but I still find it a pretty solid and watchable show through season 6. 

[jason88cubs]

I would have liked to see them stay in Winoka some more, would have been a chance for something different

[debraran]

Possibly, that was an original thought, but they can't demonize the city the way they did. Sure they had a saloon, but the craziness they showed in any town other than WG was beyond the pale. Most people didn't live above the saloon and I'm sure there were very nice stores (sans the hat shop) and just "mean" people didn't go to cities to live. If they made it less stereotyped I think it would have worked. It just seemed an avenue to get Albert which just led to more stories of jealousy and maybe losing him and making him a drug addict and then possibly killing him off. Not probably what you meant by "more interesting" stories but they could have been. Actually I read with sheriff's the towns were safer and travel was sketchy. In Walnut Grove you had to rely on Charles to clean up the messes, chastise the racists, get the rapists, beat up the bullies (or try) find the bad meat given to everyone...very tiring and he wasn't paid. lol

Ac

[jason88cubs]

I still laugh at them living across the saloon and Charles going down to ask if they could keep it down so they could sleep

Like what the heck did you expect? Them to say "WOAH WOAH WOAH THE CHARLES INGALLS???@?!??!?!?!. ok sir we will be closed by 9pm every night"

[Snow Apple]

I missed the characters of Mary and then Nellie since they were the only ones around Laura's age to play off each other, but the finial nail was when the Ingalls, except Laura, left. I especially missed Ma.

After Mary left, I don't know why they didn't write more about Laura and Nellie growing closer. They had amazing chemistry and were best friends in real life. Can you imagine Nellie telling Laura all about marriage and child birth, LOL? I imagine Mary was to ladylike to educate Laura.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Snow Apple

[Blergh]

10 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

I missed the characters of Mary and then Nellie since they were the only ones around Laura's age to play off each other, but the finial nail was when the Ingalls, except Laura, left. I especially missed Ma.

After Mary left, I don't know why they didn't write more about Laura and Nellie growing closer. They had amazing chemistry and were best friends in real life. Can you imagine Nellie telling Laura all about marriage and child birth, LOL? I imagine Mary was to ladylike to educate Laura.

Not to mention that if Caroline was somehow supposed to become the semi-confident for Nellie (and, presumably, tattled the bickering between Papa Cohen and Harriet back to Laura), then why not have Laura and Nellie be depicted as having (somewhat) buried the hatchet.

IMO, it would have been more interesting than just seeing Laura treat Almanzo like a flunky once she married him.

[CountryGirl]

On 11/27/2022 at 10:55 AM, Snow Apple said:

I missed the characters of Mary and then Nellie since they were the only ones around Laura's age to play off each other, but the finial nail was when the Ingalls, except Laura, left. I especially missed Ma.

After Mary left, I don't know why they didn't write more about Laura and Nellie growing closer. They had amazing chemistry and were best friends in real life. Can you imagine Nellie telling Laura all about marriage and child birth, LOL? I imagine Mary was to ladylike to educate Laura.

I imagine Laura wouldn't have wanted an education from Mary about child-rearing given Mary leaving her baby in a room when she knew the blind school was on fire.

[jason88cubs]

I think THE AFTERMATH is probably one of my favorite episodes.

[Mr. Sparkle]

I really don't like that one, but we're all free to like what we like! 

[Zella]

I just can't get past how very bad the history is in that episode. Even by 70s TV standards, it's particularly ridiculous. 😂😂😂😂