Little House On The Prairie - General Discussion

[Zella]

I would probably enjoy the LHOTP experience more if I'd seen it in rereuns on TV rather than binging. The first few seasons were enjoyable to binge, but after the show started getting bad, it was a chore to sit through it. I only made it to the end because I wanted to see the infamous orangutan and Schlong of Healing episodes. 

I also hated the way the commercials are added when I watched via Amazon. I guess it's technically on IMDB TV via Amazon? But commercials would literally cut off scenes and then the last 30 seconds of the scene would follow the commercial. It made me angry every time. 

[debraran]

7 hours ago, Zella said:

I would probably enjoy the LHOTP experience more if I'd seen it in rereuns on TV rather than binging. The first few seasons were enjoyable to binge, but after the show started getting bad, it was a chore to sit through it. I only made it to the end because I wanted to see the infamous orangutan and Schlong of Healing episodes. 

I also hated the way the commercials are added when I watched via Amazon. I guess it's technically on IMDB TV via Amazon? But commercials would literally cut off scenes and then the last 30 seconds of the scene would follow the commercial. It made me angry every time. 

You get commercials with Amazon Prime?

[Egg McMuffin]

IMDb TV is Amazon’s ad-supported service. I don’t know how they decide what goes to imdb and what doesn’t. They just made a deal for the Normal Lear library and some shows are ad-supported and some aren’t.

[Zella]

5 hours ago, debraran said:

You get commercials with Amazon Prime?

I'm pretty sure it was because of the IMDB channel it is on via Amazon rather than Amazon Prime itself. I've never before had to deal with commercials on there, let alone badly placed ones. 

[alexa]

10 hours ago, Zella said:

I'm pretty sure it was because of the IMDB channel it is on via Amazon rather than Amazon Prime itself. I've never before had to deal with commercials on there, let alone badly placed ones. 

Yes, I was always confused when I was finding some of the episodes on Amazon that people here were viewing on Amazon, and my only option was IMDB / Amazon so I had to have the commercials.  And now Peacock is required for some of the former IMDB shows--I am watching Parenthood again, and after watching a few episodes on IMDB, I had to download Peacock to watch it.  

And it is annoying as there have been other shows I have started on Amazon, that suddenly require another app, and some of them cost money, so I have to stop watching whatever I started.  

[debraran]

I don't know when that started but I see it now, IMDB. That's annoying. Glad it's just them so far. It was just like owning the dvd's before but I guess nothing lasts forever. : (  Still free if you have amazon prime but commercials are annoying.

[Egg McMuffin]

I went back and watched DOSDOS last night. I’m hard pressed to think of who was the bigger pill in that episode: Laura or Zaldamo or Eliza Jane. I wanted the tornado to suck up the house while all three were in it.

Laura is probably the least guilty of the unbearable trio in that episode. Had I been her, I would have sent EJ packing the minute she started overriding Laura’s wishes when it came to Zaldamo’s care. And as for the big baby himself, he would have been feeding and washing himself while he was in “woe is me” mode.

[Brn2bwild]

48 minutes ago, Kyle said:

I went back and watched DOSDOS last night. I’m hard pressed to think of who was the bigger pill in that episode: Laura or Zaldamo or Eliza Jane. I wanted the tornado to suck up the house while all three were in it.

Laura is probably the least guilty of the unbearable trio in that episode. Had I been her, I would have sent EJ packing the minute she started overriding Laura’s wishes when it came to Zaldamo’s care. And as for the big baby himself, he would have been feeding and washing himself while he was in “woe is me” mode.

I think it really underscores how Laura's youth resulted in a power imbalance. They all thought that they could ignore her and lie to her without repurcussions because she was still a child, and it NEVER gets called out.

[jird]

1 hour ago, Brn2bwild said:

I think it really underscores how Laura's youth resulted in a power imbalance. They all thought that they could ignore her and lie to her without repurcussions because she was still a child, and it NEVER gets called out.

I agree. I can almost understand Almanzo acting that way in general, simply because he was the husband and therefore in charge of making all the decisions in those days (like Pa deciding the family was going to move back to Wisconsin without even asking his wife), but the fact that he wasn't even making the decision, he was just letting his sister tell him what to do and expecting Laura to accept it without question makes me ragey.

[CountryGirl]

Laura, Almanzo, and EJ all come off as insufferable in DOS/DOS. Then there’s the weird laughing from Laura as she’s giving birth. 

But we have the memorable line from Half-Pint about only having “a baby, a cat and a plate. And no home. No home.” And then she breaks the plate. 🙄 

Plus, we have Grace doing a great turn and run away, a LHOTP staple. 

Speaking of the child normally trapped in the high chair, while in RL Grace was the youngest Ingalls child, I thought it was also because of Laura naming the baby she found in the “Be My Friend” episode. 

[Blergh]

11 hours ago, CountryGirl said:

Laura, Almanzo, and EJ all come off as insufferable in DOS/DOS. Then there’s the weird laughing from Laura as she’s giving birth. 

But we have the memorable line from Half-Pint about only having “a baby, a cat and a plate. And no home. No home.” And then she breaks the plate. 🙄 

Plus, we have Grace doing a great turn and run away, a LHOTP staple. 

Speaking of the child normally trapped in the high chair, while in RL Grace was the youngest Ingalls child, I thought it was also because of Laura naming the baby she found in the “Be My Friend” episode. 

Ironically, RL Mrs. Wilder DID lose a home (to fire) and every single possession within BUT a single plate which she would preserve for the rest of her life so I can't imagine she'd have not been furious with how she'd be portrayed destroying the one item that had been spared!

Or course, in no time flat, after this episode, the Wilders were shown living a far more comfortable abode than Casa Ingalls  ever would be ( albeit smaller than their original house) in spite of the fact that it seemed only due to help of the Ingalls parents themselves.  Then, at the series end, they left their newer house (and evidently their farm) to make Grand Hotel on the Prairie before they blew it up to become homeless wanderers just  to keep them railroaders from getting it! 

[Brn2bwild]

3 hours ago, Blergh said:

Ironically, RL Mrs. Wilder DID lose a home (to fire) and every single possession within BUT a single plate which she would preserve for the rest of her life so I can't imagine she'd have not been furious with how she'd be portrayed destroying the one item that had been spared!

Or course, in no time flat, after this episode, the Wilders were shown living a far more comfortable abode than Casa Ingalls  ever would be ( albeit smaller than their original house) in spite of the fact that it seemed only due to help of the Ingalls parents themselves.  Then, at the series end, they left their newer house (and evidently their farm) to make Grand Hotel on the Prairie before they blew it up to become homeless wanderers just  to keep them railroaders from getting it! 

It's ironic that most of the events in those episodes actually did happen in some form (though don't know about the twister), but it was over years, not days.  This could have made a decent season-long story arc, but for some reason Michael Landon decided he'd rather pack in all of the tragedy at once?

[Mr. Sparkle]

Ok people, I'm doing this. All 73 minutes of part 1 and 48 minutes of part 2 of Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow. I may chime in on here if something good comes up, or I need a bathroom break. 

[Zella]

38 minutes ago, Brn2bwild said:

It's ironic that most of the events in those episodes actually did happen in some form (though don't know about the twister), but it was over years, not days.  This could have made a decent season-long story arc, but for some reason Michael Landon decided he'd rather pack in all of the tragedy at once?

And usually I found the episodes based on the real stuff better than the storylines created for the show. I'm not sure why they shit the bed so hard in those episodes. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Well, he had a stroke & lost the crop. That's all, right?? RIGHT???? 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Of course our boy Charlie saving the day. 

This is maudlin. 

[Brn2bwild]

4 minutes ago, Superclam said:

Of course our boy Charlie saving the day. 

This is maudlin. 

Saving the day all the while saying the same things to Almanzo that Laura says.  Why listen to your wife when you can listen to a manly man like St. Charles?

[Mr. Sparkle]

Yeesh. Eliza Jane. 🤢

[Mr. Sparkle]

Well, part 1 done. 48 minutes of part 2 left. I need a break. Very dreary. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Alright, that's over. The sappy ending got me, I must admit. 

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 8/16/2021 at 10:48 AM, jird said:

Laura was awful in the later seasons (and in this one - leaving your BABY alone in a tornado so that you can go get a cat that doesn't even live in the house and is smart enough to take care of itself? You'd think she would have learned something from Mary),

I was about to write "see? Laura takes the baby during a tornado, unlike SOME people we know!" but then of course, Laura had to save a cat she named 35 seconds earlier. 

On 8/16/2021 at 1:12 PM, Kyle said:

And Caroline magically fixes the plate - who knew she was so talented?

Seriously, there's a glass blowing lab underneath that shack? 

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 8/17/2021 at 5:04 PM, bunnyblue said:

You know, I don't remember Charles & Caroline being so upset about Mary leaving the nest and moving far away as they were at the thought of Laura leaving them. I guess I know who their favorite kid was. 

Curious why Mary didn't get the plate when her baby was born. Did Ma just not get there in time?

Ok, that was mean. 

On 8/17/2021 at 10:36 PM, bunnyblue said:

Laura also climbed up a tree to rescue the cat in this episode. I know they wanted to portray Laura retaining her spunky and tomboyish behavior into adulthood, but seeing her climb the tree only served to remind me she was really still just a kid with a grown man for a husband.

Since the episode was such a downer, I was waiting for her to go falling out of the tree and break her ribs. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Apparently this was Eliza Jane's last LH episode. What a crappy way to go out! I liked her in a lot of episodes; she was just as horrid as everyone said in this one. 

What's weird for me is that in all the times I've watched this show in the 80s and again in the past year, I don't recall seeing a single scene from part 1 or 2 before. I've seen all the 90 minute episodes before, but not this one. 

[Egg McMuffin]

Michael Landon learned his dramatic laziness from Bonanza, where they also used to frequently bring in guest characters who the main characters had known for years, even though we’d never heard of them before, and would never hear about them again. Or a single episode would focus on an event that took place over months, yet would never be referred to in subsequent episode.

I remember when there was a “Family Ties” episode where Alex had a nervous breakdown over the death of his “best friend”, whom we had never seen in the previous four seasons of the show. And I was like - yeah, they used to pull this crap on Bonanza and LHOTP.

[Zella]

I love Bonanza, but yes, I agree that Landon repeated some of its worst narrative tendencies in LHOTP. 

[jason88cubs]

My coworker has been watching

She said there's some good stuff and some really bad stuff olol

[Mr. Sparkle]

Guess which one I'm watching now? I'll give you a hint:

SNIPE, SNIPE, LONG-LEGGED SNIPE!!! 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Question: does anyone know when they stopped with Laura doing narration? They had it in Harvest of Friends and Country Girls, but I don't remember it after. 

[jason88cubs]

1 hour ago, Superclam said:

Question: does anyone know when they stopped with Laura doing narration? They had it in Harvest of Friends and Country Girls, but I don't remember it after. 

I think it was only bits and pieces

[Mr. Sparkle]

20 minutes ago, jason88cubs said:

I think it was only bits and pieces

Maybe 2 sentences in Country Girls, nothing in 100 Mile Walk and so far nothing in Mr. Edwards' Homecoming. 

[CountryGirl]

Some other episodes I can think of are Be My Friend (Laura thinking about Baby Grace), Back to School (Laura reflecting on meeting the man she’ll marry), the one with Perley Day and Laura cooks breakfast for her father and Almanzo, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (the “my heart was crying for Almanzo”), the Lost Ones (Laura talks about how close her family and James and Cassandra are getting and, later, about the little house being very full…of love), Nancy’s intro, Albert becoming a doctor but only after he barged up drugs. I’m sure there are more. Albert got a voiceover at the end of The Craftsmen. 

I know way too much about this show. 

[RedbirdNelly]

On 8/27/2021 at 7:12 PM, CountryGirl said:

Some other episodes I can think of are Be My Friend (Laura thinking about Baby Grace), Back to School (Laura reflecting on meeting the man she’ll marry), the one with Perley Day and Laura cooks breakfast for her father and Almanzo, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (the “my heart was crying for Almanzo”), the Lost Ones (Laura talks about how close her family and James and Cassandra are getting and, later, about the little house being very full…of love), Nancy’s intro, Albert becoming a doctor but only after he barged up drugs. I’m sure there are more. Albert got a voiceover at the end of The Craftsmen. 

I know way too much about this show. 

just watched the one where they are back in Walnut Grove and Mr. Hansen (per her narration at the end) dies

[debraran]

I'm watching the episode where Charles is "St Charles" again and goes to get horses and flirt with the drunk guys wife but let her know he is needed in Walnut Grove to keep up saving souls. : ) Later he'll change names and do it on a highway to heaven.  The wife I thought was same woman who played the Native American's wife in the episode where Caroline wasn't afraid of them anymore and was the only nice person who visited Amelia and Joseph (Spotted Eagle) Voices sounded similar. I  liked the first script of this with Hoss on Bonanza. I watched it on you tube last year and he was just so "Hoss" and touching without the saviour complex. This was too saccharin and the child being named after him, a bit over the top at the end. I was thinking Caroline couldn't go to church with Chris but he got picnics. Could you imagine the buzz in Walnut Grove if Caroline dared to have fun with Chris?

Must have been nice for rest of cast to have the week off so to speak and just have the show about Charles.

Any reason why the bad toupee on the dad? Charles Cioffi always seemed to have a head of hair even later.  I always find it distracting. Even if he needed one, they could have done better.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by debraran

[Blergh]

@debraran

 

 I agree with all the above re that episode- but what was perplexing is that at the tail end, Laura did a Rare Late Season Narration and dropped the  baby name bombshell that had happened two years after that two or three day visit to the unhappy couple and offspring. I mean, how much of all this was Charles supposed to have shared with Laura after the fact?

It's hard to imagine any convo like" How was your trip, Pa?"

Charles:"Oh, same old ,same old. The horse seller was a big ole drunk and his wife was itching to leave him but I gave them both big guilt trips (and treated his wife and kids to a picnic) so he's guaranteed to stay off the sauce and avoid' women of relaxed morals' from now on and his wife will eagerly stay with him instead of trying to give herself and their kids a life away from all that. Oh, and I got those horses for a song!"

Laura:"That's  definitely something I'd want to share in any future remembrance book! I sure hope that family stays in touch with you! Can I tell Ma about it?"

[debraran]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

@debraran

 

 I agree with all the above re that episode- but what was perplexing is that at the tail end, Laura did a Rare Late Season Narration and dropped the  baby name bombshell that had happened two years after that two or three day visit to the unhappy couple and offspring. I mean, how much of all this was Charles supposed to have shared with Laura after the fact?

It's hard to imagine any convo like" How was your trip, Pa?"

Charles:"Oh, same old ,same old. The horse seller was a big ole drunk and his wife was itching to leave him but I gave them both big guilt trips (and treated his wife and kids to a picnic) so he's guaranteed to stay off the sauce and avoid' women of relaxed morals' from now on and his wife will eagerly stay with him instead of trying to give herself and their kids a life away from all that. Oh, and I got those horses for a song!"

Laura:"That's  definitely something I'd want to share in any future remembrance book! I sure hope that family stays in touch with you! Can I tell Ma about it?"

Love it, why would they stay in touch 2 long years later, when none of the other "close' neighbors did?. Why would she be writing Charles 2 years later unless she still had a little bit of crush on him. ; ) "Laura, make sure to leave out my compliment about the hands, that got a little misconstrued and  how I cradled her face in my hands at the goodbye. Or that I spent more time with her kids than with Carrie.  The rest is up for grabs."

Edited September 3, 2021 by debraran

[ctlady]

I really liked the episode Annabelle, but I cringed at the scene at the blind school ("You don't believe I'm fat, children? Come up here children and feel me")  

And am I the only one who thought it cruel to bring blind kids to the circus?  Just toss a diabetic in a candy shop, why don't you?  I know these kids can hear the laughter, but a major part of the circus is 'seeing' - the acrobats, high wire act, everything needs to be seen to be enjoyed.  Charles explaining to them what's happening is all well-intentioned, but it's not the same if you can't see it.

And Grace crying throughout the entire circus 🙄  Yeah, I know she's pretty much a baby, but it bugged me. 

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, ctlady said:

I really liked the episode Annabelle, but I cringed at the scene at the blind school ("You don't believe I'm fat, children? Come up here children and feel me")  

And am I the only one who thought it cruel to bring blind kids to the circus?  Just toss a diabetic in a candy shop, why don't you?  I know these kids can hear the laughter, but a major part of the circus is 'seeing' - the acrobats, high wire act, everything needs to be seen to be enjoyed.  Charles explaining to them what's happening is all well-intentioned, but it's not the same if you can't see it.

And Grace crying throughout the entire circus 🙄  Yeah, I know she's pretty much a baby, but it bugged me. 

Although, I understand that for Annabelle to invite the blind children to feel her to give a hint that she was the sideshow's fat lady was supposed to show that she wanted to educate them and help them participate, I had to agree that it seemed a virtual miracle that NONE of them attempted to feel her . .'upper story' but just kept their hands at waist level.

Yes, I know that blind children couldn't have actually seen all the action live and would have had to rely on Charles (and others) to explain the happenings. However, they could still hear the live (albeit invisible to viewers) band, the horses clomping by and the ring master's dialogue and the crowd's reactions. All in all, I think it would have beat just staying inside the schoolroom, eating meals and going to sleep in their bedrooms (with an occasional outdoor run near the school) that they did day after day, week after week, month after month,etc.

And, despite the fact that Charles had persuaded the town of Walnut Grove to 'adopt' the school before he walked them behind the wagon train from Winoka, this would be their ONLY time they would be depicted doing things with other Walnut Grove non-Ingallses residents. I mean, they never were seen in church or at the Mercantile ( surely having them feel bolts of cloth, smell coffee,etc. maybe had a piece of candy would have been entertaining for them).  And they DID shelter (and provide care for)  residents during the Anthrax plague but even that didn't seem to to get anyone not to treat THEM like lepers had been treated.  Hence, when the Blind School burned and they were taken in by non-Ingalls residents, it seems their care and welfare was being entrusted to total strangers that they'd had zero previous interactions with (and there seems to have been no attempt to vet and consider those folks' suitabilities) . These kids were already traumatized via losing their home & school and being scattered to the winds, yet the adults didn't seem to consider that sending them to be boarded with strangers may not have been the  most ideal solution (and would anyone send sighted children to be boarded with total strangers ?). 

[debraran]

6 hours ago, ctlady said:

I really liked the episode Annabelle, but I cringed at the scene at the blind school ("You don't believe I'm fat, children? Come up here children and feel me")  

And am I the only one who thought it cruel to bring blind kids to the circus?  Just toss a diabetic in a candy shop, why don't you?  I know these kids can hear the laughter, but a major part of the circus is 'seeing' - the acrobats, high wire act, everything needs to be seen to be enjoyed.  Charles explaining to them what's happening is all well-intentioned, but it's not the same if you can't see it.

And Grace crying throughout the entire circus 🙄  Yeah, I know she's pretty much a baby, but it bugged me. 

I never got taking the kids either since they couldn't see and so many things might be scary. I feel poor Grace had WAY too many takes and just about had it. I felt sorry for her. That happened again when they came back to Walnut grove and were over Jonathan's. Grace seemed almost "pinched", she started wailing outside and they tried to ignore it.

Edited September 7, 2021 by debraran

[BigBingerBro]

Finally had the chance to read Ketty Lester's book.  A very good read.  I can't help but think her life could have been much different had she had better representation and followed her heart a bit more.  Not a lot re LHOTP, but a good read none the less.

[Zella]

One of the things that really ruins the Annabelle episode for me in retrospect is how hypocritical the show is in its message about obesity. It has a good message about not being cruel to Annabelle because of her appearance, but the show is pretty damn awful in how it depicts Harriet's weight, which isn't even really overweight. Nels is an absolute dick to Harriet about her weight, and I felt like that undermines any revelation he's supposed to have had about his sister. I know I am expecting too much for it to be consistent in its characterization, but as a fat chick, it pisses me off. 

[Blergh]

Just now, Zella said:

One of the things that really ruins the Annabelle episode for me in retrospect is how hypocritical the show is in its message about obesity. It has a good message about not being cruel to Annabelle because of her appearance, but the show is pretty damn awful in how it depicts Harriet's weight, which isn't even really overweight. Nels is an absolute dick to Harriet about her weight, and I felt like that undermines any revelation he's supposed to have had about his sister. I know I am expecting too much for it to be consistent in its characterization, but as a fat chick, it pisses me off. 

And to top the whole thing off, Nels is supposed to be the 'good guy' in that nuclear family while Harriet is supposed to be the' mean and  greedy albeit wacky villain'. 

Oh, and while he's not Medusa's uglier brother, he's no oil painting himself but Harriet doesn't mention that even when he disses her weight.

But cheer up, she somewhat gets her comeuppance when he taunts her for having failed in her diet attempts in 'To See The Light Part Two' (1980) because she doesn't want to have to face her cousin with the 'perfect' figure. Well, Harriet's cousin arrives and winds up being somewhat  . . .jollier than Harriet and Harriet eagerly invites   Cousin Miriam (I think) to partake in the party which has a dearth of fat-free foods  that Caroline's Kitchen is holding to celebrate Adam's law school enrollment (how many restaurants throw parties for employees' son-in-laws' enrollments?). And Nels departs sitting backwards on the stagecoach that brought his own cousin-in-law- wearing a party hat attached by a rubber band [which seems a bit anachronistic for that time].

[ctlady]

13 hours ago, Zella said:

Nels is an absolute dick to Harriet about her weight, and I felt like that undermines any revelation he's supposed to have had about his sister. I know I am expecting too much for it to be consistent in its characterization, but as a fat chick, it pisses me off. 

Granted I have not seen every single episode, so I can't recall Nels' comments about Harriet's weight.  The only one that comes to mind is when Harriet's supposedly svelte cousin was coming to town and she went on a crash diet.  As much as he could, Nels tried to be supportive of her, but it was Harriet who was sabotaging herself with binge eating.

But in all fairness to Nels in the Annabelle episode, he never openly criticized his sister about her weight, but did realize his shame and cruelness towards her when they were kids.  However, it was Harriett and the kids who ridiculed her weight.  Harriet, of all people!  I mean, yeah Annabelle was considered obese, but not My 600 Pound Life obese that would warrant her being a sideshow freak.  And for Harriett herself to have experienced being self conscious about her own weight, I thought she was a total hypocritical dick to make fun of Annabelle - and even encourage her kids to do so

 

[Zella]

4 minutes ago, ctlady said:

Granted I have not seen every single episode, so I can't recall Nels' comments about Harriet's weight.  The only one that comes to mind is when Harriet's supposedly svelte cousin was coming to town and she went on a crash diet.  As much as he could, Nels tried to be supportive of her, but it was Harriet who was sabotaging herself with binge eating.

It's a recurring "gag" in the later seasons for Nels to singlehandedly scold and ridicule Harriet for being fat, and it's always played as him being in the right. The show has a double-standard in which it is apparently okay to be awful to Harriet because she's a bitch, which, in my opinion, really ruins its pretensions at offering moral lessons. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zella

[Egg McMuffin]

Agreed, but even today, it’s acceptable in some circles to ridicule someone’s appearance if we disagree with them politically. But to me, if someone’s views are that awful, then there must be so much more to criticize than just their appearance. Why waste the opportunity to make some constructive, useful criticism?

But making fun of Harriet’s weight was just an easy, cheap shot. I suppose they thought it was funnier having Nels criticize her small mindedness or her hypocrisy or her snobbery.

[Zella]

Nels, weirdly enough, is my least favorite member of the Oleson family. (OK I like him more than Nancy.) But he's always propped up as allegedly the only likable, decent one, but I actually think he actively enables his family's shittiness and then wants to act martyred when it affects him. Then again, I also think the entire town is baffling for continuing to be shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that Harriet continues to be Harriet, and they continue to invite her to things and include her in things and be freshly shocked when she acts the way she has acted for years. Seriously, why does anyone even shop at that store or socialize with them? 

7 minutes ago, Kyle said:

 

But making fun of Harriet’s weight was just an easy, cheap shot. I suppose they thought it was funnier having Nels criticize her small mindedness or her hypocrisy or her snobbery.

Bingo! There are so many more valid things to call her out on. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 8/27/2021 at 8:12 PM, CountryGirl said:

Some other episodes I can think of are Be My Friend (Laura thinking about Baby Grace), Back to School (Laura reflecting on meeting the man she’ll marry), the one with Perley Day and Laura cooks breakfast for her father and Almanzo, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (the “my heart was crying for Almanzo”), the Lost Ones (Laura talks about how close her family and James and Cassandra are getting and, later, about the little house being very full…of love), Nancy’s intro, Albert becoming a doctor but only after he barged up drugs. I’m sure there are more. Albert got a voiceover at the end of The Craftsmen. 

Going back to this one, I watched that awful football dad one today, and Laura does a narration at the end. 

[CountryGirl]

1 minute ago, Superclam said:

Going back to this one, I watched that awful football dad one today, and Laura does a narration at the end. 

There are a lot more that I'm sure Laura narrated - probably more with her narration than not.

[Mr. Sparkle]

32 minutes ago, CountryGirl said:

There are a lot more that I'm sure Laura narrated - probably more with her narration than not.

No narration in the extra-dumb balloon one I just watched. 

"Despite playing a handsome boy in his youth, the Balloonist did NOT age well..." 

[Mr. Sparkle]

On the other hand, Luke Simms eating supper at the Oleson's is a classic. Great moments from Harriet in the whole episode. 

[debraran]

7 hours ago, Zella said:

It's a recurring "gag" in the later seasons for Nels to singlehandedly scold and ridicule Harriet for being fat, and it's always played as him being in the right. The show has a double-standard in which it is apparently okay to be awful to Harriet because she's a bitch, which, in my opinion, really ruins its pretensions at offering moral lessons. 

It does, doing rude things doesn't matter if you like the person that day and Nel's loved Harriet. How would it look if Mr Bevin's wife made fun of him or Elmer's parents or any heavy person they had on. It seemed Michael had a thing with weight and being in shape but it was also an easy way to get a laugh or teach a moral. I wonder at times, since they clashed, if he wrote that stuff in as a "dig" with Katherine.

I liked this scene and glad she had it changed.

By the second season, she felt secure enough to make character suggestions.
“Sometime in the second season, we were on a camping trip with the Ingalls. We were crossing a stream and the script called for the camera on my husband. As I crossed, there was this scream and a splash. I suggested to the director that the scene be shot with the camera on me. I hopped over the stream, landed on both feet, then lost my balance and fell into the water. It was funny, and I got stacks of letters about it. I like to be mean and bigoted and crabby, and I love the instance when the tables are turned on Mrs. Oleson.” [21]

I mean really, they didn't want to show it?? She did have a lot of good suggestions.

Occasionally there were episodes when Harriet seems to break character and the depth of Katherine’s talents are revealed, such as “Mortal Mission,” in which she fears Nels is dying from anthrax.

Katherine breathed life into Harriet Oleson for 148 episodes. Nine years later it was over. “When my agent called me up and said, ‘They’ve canceled the show,’ I felt like a deflated balloon. And when the show was over I didn’t realize how tired I was. And I didn’t really want to work anymore.”

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by debraran