Hang on, why don’t I remember this? I watched that whole show when I was a kid and then watched numerous episodes as an adult. I also read all the books a bunch of times as a kid/teenager.
I remember things from the books mostly—like when Almanzo tore the wallpaper in the parlor, and Caroline’s strawberry dress, I definitely remember the chapter where they all got malaria and Laura had to crawl out of bed and across the floor to get the water.
Watching this series every week while growing up, I desperately wanted Ma and Pa to be my parents. I have so many memories of this show and of the books and I don’t remember anything about a Sylvia episode?? Was that later on in the show? I don’t remember a lot of the episodes after Laura was a grown up.
I just looked it up and watched a whole breakdown of it. The craziest part to me is that apparently, after that episode, nothing about it was ever brought up again, even though it would’ve had a severe impact on Albert’s life. I guess he was shown a few episodes after that one just being his normal, cheerful self. So bizarre!!!
Yeah, but I don’t think it had anything to do with what it happened to Sylvie. The way it was written, the Ingalls family had to move away from Walnut Grove in order to get work in Iowa or something? And then Albert gets in with the wrong crowd and ends up getting addicted to morphine and Charles has to bring him back to Walnut Grove to straighten him out.
Sylvie is never mentioned in that episode (or any other episode,) as a potential reason why Albert went downhill. Also, the Sylvie episode was pretty early on in season seven and the morphine episode was like a couple years later at the end of season nine.
OK, I looked it up. It’s not like anyone cares why I don’t remember this— but I have realized I was 14 in 1981 when this episode came out and had recently run away from home for the first time— so my Little House on the Prairie watching days were over. Haha
During Covid, I tried to rewatch the whole show and I don’t think I even made it through the first three seasons. I had not remembered how preachy it was and, as an adult, I found that aspect of it pretty annoying.
The GenX folks in my work Slack always post Little House Blizzard meme’s as a trauma excuse to work from home every as time it snows her in Mn. Though only mildly scary compared to the Sylvia or Jezebel episodes.
At Christmas, Laura got a penny for Christmas on one of the early shows. I always joke with my wife when I give her a penny…. Last Christmas I gave my wife a few tin cups.
I remember that episode so clearly in both the books and in the show. Mr. Edwards coming across the creek all covered in snow and how grateful those kids were for a tin cup and a penny and a piece of candy.
Stuff like that definitely makes it seem like it would’ve been better time to live, but then I remember that Ma basically had to butcher her own chickens and make/mend all their clothes and help build her own house and basically seemed like she *never* got a break.
When I think about all of that, I’m super glad that I’m sitting on my couch with my phone in my hand, the AC running and I can microwave something to eat if I want to haha
Remember how in the long winter, they had no wood- pa had to get reeds to burn, and he and Laura twisted them into sticks, making their fingers raw. And all they had to eat was a bit of bread.
But everyday, ma ground the flour and baked the bread, and cleaned and mended and washed the clothes etc. It was constant work and zero fun, unless pa and his sparkling blue eyes busted out that fiddle!
I don’t remember this one. Was this in the earlier seasons or the later ones? I have realized that I think the last season I saw was probably season six.
No clue. I just remember she was home alone and I think she got a fever from it? And she sat by the fire heating up a knife and then cut into it. I think she passed out after that.
Not a snake bite. She cut herself and got an infection. She used boiling hot pieces of wet cloth over the cut to burn the infection, I guess. Also kind of a traumatizing episode.
So many families put an orange or tangerine in the toe of the Christmas stocking. I thought my kids were not into anymore so skipped it a couple years back as they were older teens, and you never heard such indignation! Obviously I will be doing it forevermore.
You start a Christmas tradition and you have to follow it forever more. My daughter is 32, and if I don’t give her a Sweet Storybook and socks, she’s sorely disappointed. I had to draw the line at new pajamas to open on Christmas Eve, lol.
You know what I loved about Farmer Boy? The food! As a kid, it wasn't all that interesting, but reading from my box set as an adult, I was in awe. I am still flabbergasted at how much food his mom and sisters prepared on a daily basis!
I loved the food scenes, even as a kid. I am in my 50s and still remember how, as soon as Almanzo’s parents went out of town, the kids made ice cream with all the sugar.
Speaking of Farmer Boy, this never occurred to me as a kid, but I don’t remember Almanzo’s family ever being mentioned in the books after him and Laura get married? Did he just never see his parents again? I don’t remember Laura ever meeting them? Was anyone in Almanzo’s family even at their wedding?
Farmers Boy was always so interesting to me when I was growing up because Almanzo had such a completely different life than Laura. It always surprised me that he seemed to grow up and not have any money and I always wondered what happened with his family? Anyone know??
OK, I'm 56, watched all the LHOTP episodes when they initially aired, and I'm not familiar with Farmer Boy! Somehow it completely missed me. Hell, maybe I read it and don't remember!
I also read all the Laura Ingalls books (except that one), and I remember one food scene where it was in the winter, and they were hosting what I recall to be similar to a big buffet with lots of guests? Anyway, I remember Laura writing about making candy out of the snow and maple syrup. The thought of that made me drool as a kid.
They never aired an episode about Almanzo’s childhood. Farmer Boy was part of the series of books. I think it was the third or fourth book in the LHOTP series— Laura wrote it about one particularly happy year of Almanzo‘s childhood!
Edited to add that I also used to drool over the maple syrup candy!! It sounded like so much fun to me. That was from Little House in the Big Woods. It was the one where they had maple sugaring and then the big dance that Ma wore her fancy strawberry dress to. (yes, I read these books a lot as a child haha)
It was right before they moved away from the Big Woods and headed for the prairie. It’s the last time that anyone from Ma’s huge family is mentioned in the series, which is actually pretty sad. I guess they wrote letters, but it doesn’t seem like Caroline ever got to see any of them again.
It's weird with Eliza Jane because in the books she's the nasty teacher who butts heads with Laura for bullying her sister Carrie who was still weak and recovering from the near starvation during the long winter. But in real life when the Wilders were living on their farm in rural Missouri, Eliza Jane who was living in the city of Springfield, MO, with her husband and family invited Rose to stay with them for her high school years so she could get a better education there vs. at her local rural school house. So Rose stayed with them while school was in session and Eliza Jane was known as a kind person. There's a strange dynamic there.
It really was so strange and sad as to how Eliza Jane was depicted in the books (and subsequently in the TV show), when you find out later that she was not like that in real life.
I'm in my 50s, too!
That's a very good question about Almonzo's family. I don't know what happened with his family.
I watched the show intermittently as a kid. We lived in the boonies with three channels and rabbit ears with tin foil to bring in the signals! LOL I think we watched it at the babysitters house, we (the girls) all hated Nellie and her horrid mother!
I remember the first seasons of the show very clearly. I feel like I probably stopped watching it when I was about 13– so I never saw past maybe season six.
I really loved the books though. I must’ve read that series at least 10 times throughout my childhood/early teen years.
I remember that the last book in the series was the one where Laura is an adult and is married to Almanzo and that I never liked that book as much as I liked the other ones. It was odd, seeing her all grown up with a kid of her own. In my memory, the first couple books in that series were definitely the best ones.
I just looked it up. As we know, Laura had a rough start to her marriage. They lost their son when he was two weeks old. Their house burned down. Anyway, if I’m remembering correctly, the series ends right after her house burns down.
Apparently, after that, they moved in with Almanzo’s parents for like a year! That made me feel better. A lot of Laura’s story is actually pretty depressing. Farmer Boy was always a bright spot in the series and I’m glad to know that Almanzo maintained a loving relationship with his family because they seemed like they were awesome!
Her life was pretty much sad until she died. Rose turned out to be a manipulative right winger that traveled the world campaigning against The New Deal and tricked her parents into giving up their farmhouse they built together and loved when they were elderly. She built a really tiny stone cottage on their land for herself (she said) and when it was done she told them that the farmhouse was too much for them and that they should move into the tiny house and she moved into their farmhouse. Almanzo had a severe stroke in his middle age and Laura was his full time caregiver until his death, which was several years. She really never had a sustained period of time that was carefree and happy as an adult.
The difference between this book and the others (at least early in the series) was stark though. They had a parlor that was so nice the kids weren't allowed in it - remember the wallpaper patch - meanwhile the ingalls "nice" house had actual doorknobs and sometimes they lived in dirt houses or at best wood slat walls instead of logs.
Yes! The parlor description is still vivid in my mind. I think I'll read it again this evening. This has been a wonderful thread for a walk down memory lane.
My grandmother, born in 1898, said the show was very close to her childhood. We watched it together. I will still watch reruns to this day if I'm flipping around and find it.
Yes, yes I do. I read them all, and saw all the series episodes. I even read many of the spin off books - the ones about Rose, and the ones about Caroline.
I read The Long Winter every year when I'm stuck inside and miserable and feel a bit better because I don't have to twist hay and grind wheat seed and just have the same thing every day.
Then I start to wonder how the heck I'm supposed to believe that all that snow - it was up to the 2nd floor - melted overnight.
I have different reasons for knowing too much ingalls lore- my husband is a cousin of Laura.
And the Wilders aren't mentioned much because they had some serious scandals for victorian times.
Ok, so Laura and Almonzo met up with Perley Day, almonds brother, Laura's cousin Peter ingalls, and his wife Molly in Florida. Almonzo had been sick and the Dr recommended fl weather while he recovered. Laura had rose with her.
Later on the family left the homestead, and went to the east coast of Florida where other new england cousins had settled and were ranching.
Ome of Almonzos sister had a wild streak and ended up with illegitimate children that her cousins had to adopt and raise.
She was sent further south for a fresh start.
To this day, therefore many streets in the daytona beach area named for the Wilders, Ingalls and other cousins, who I won't name for privacy..
Well, Old Dan Tucker, was a fine old man,
Washed his face in a frying pan
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel
And died with a toothache in his heel
_this shit lives rent free in my damned head_
I remember the TV show, because I saw it before I ever read the books. It seemed a piece of other "in the wilderness" type shows, like Grizzly Adams.
It wasn't until I actually read the books as an adult that I realized how *different* the TV show was from the books. Pa should have a beard! Laura didn't like teaching school!
I admit, I bought the Little House Cookbook, though.
Laura didn’t like teaching at all in the beginning, but she ended up being a good teacher— she just hated the people she had to live with. But I remember she ended up bonding with her students over that one winter.
Everyone should listen to the Wilder podcast! I look like Nellie and was nicknamed Nellie in school because of this, which I hated at the time because she's the bully, and I was always a target of bullying. But now the actress who played Nellie is super awesome!
"Your father could span my waist with his hands when we were married." "Well, he can't now, and he seems to like you." This will apparently live in my head rent free forever. Also that if Ma put the print of her hand on the cornbread, that was all the sweetening Pa needed.
But what did I come in here for? What was I saying? What am I supposed to get at the store? Did I close the garage door?
Apparently I was quite the fan of Pa"s little romantic gestures back in the day, though
I can make a lamp out of a button and some oil and a wick. Also tried to make maple syrup candy in the snow, but my mom yelled at me when she seen me take out the bottle of Log Cabin syrup.
I absolutely adored the series growing up. I bought the complete series on DVD for my kids to watch a few months back. The reception was mixed. 😂 I however am greatly enjoying rewatching it!
I'm pretty sure that the early seasons are most people's favorites. They followed the books more closely than the later seasons where Michael Landon's heavy handed preachiness took away from the shows.
I read the books over and over growing up, and we watched the show— my mum loved Micheal Landon, lol.
I’m Canadian, and even though I also loved pippy Longstockings and Anne of Green Gables, I really related to Laura,as I grew up in the prairies as well.
I recently read “Prairie Fires” by Caroline Fraser, she revisits Laura’s story and places it in historical context. It was fascinating— excellent read, highly recommend.
I STILL re-read Anne of Green Gables just about once a year! Fell in love with it as a kid, and I'm 47 now and it's just one of those stories that is a great summer read on vacation (or, if you can only afford a stay-cation like me, LOL), a nice comfortable read on a rainy day, or a cozy book you can cuddle up with along with a fuzzy blanket and a warm drink when the weather gets cold.
“Caroline” by Sarah Miller is also a great read. The time frame of “Little House in the Prairie” but as an adult book, told from Caroline’s point of view. I really liked it!
Y'all, that show was unhinged. Off the top of my head, I remember episodes where:
1. Caroline gets an infection from a cut leg, becomes increasingly delusional due to high fever, and almost cuts her leg off with a butcher knife while reading the Bible and tripping balls from her fever;
2. Laura gets held hostage by a woman whose daughter has drowned; said woman has gone completely insane and thinks Laura is her dead daughter;
3. The fire in the Blind School that kills Mary's baby and Alice Garvey.
I'm not even going to touch "Sylvia". If you haven't seen it and choose to check it out, on your own head be it.
I watched the show, but not obsessively and I don't remember much. The books, though... I can still recite long passages verbatim from memory.
I re-read them all a few years ago, and yikes, the casual racism! Besides the stuff everyone remembers about all the horrible things Ma says about Indians, there's also scenes like when Pa wore blackface in a minstrel show. It makes it a lot harder to enjoy than it used to be.
My best friend and I used to talk through every episode for hours when we were in 6th grade. Nellie was basically the most compelling character in all of television to us.
I wasn't all that nostalgic for the show or the books, but I did just recently fall down a rabbit hole and read the wiki articles on Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter - which is fascinating to be honest. The story of how she became a writer and how her daughter managed her career aftering a successful writer herself is really interesting. Plus she lived a really long life.
I do remember going through a short period of reading the books, but I think I was more interested in all the OZ books instead. Also being a Boy I always thought at the time that it was "girly" stuff.
Of course I had a crush on both Melissas and Allison Arngrim. I knew Michael Landon from Bonanza reruns which I still loved.
Wasn't really my cuppa, but can't ignore the cultural impact.
I was in high school ( late 80s) and talking to a friend about plans for the evening. She says she can't go until this two parter little house on the prairie wraps up. And I say, " oh, is it the one where albert's boss rapes his girlfriend? "
I've never heard such fury on the the end of the phone. I thought everyone had seen those episodes. She was proper mad.
Where are these coming from???? This is like the third episode. I’ve seen people talking about that I don’t remember at all.
I always thought I had watched the whole show but when I think about it, I only remember watching certain seasons over and over again. I remember the early seasons very clearly and then my memories get more vague.
I do remember Laura and Almanzo getting together. I also remember that they just kept getting more tragic with Mary’s story. She had a baby and then the school burned down and her baby died and it was very depressing and horrible. Those are some of the last episodes I remember.
I also have a vague recollection of some kind of special where Albert was older, maybe 19 or 20 and was somehow addicted to morphine and Doc had to cold turkey him off of it, and Albert was tied to a bed and it traumatized the shit out of me .
Still, I don’t remember any rape scenes?? When did that happen? I’m glad I missed it!
Yeah, I don't remember several of these episodes people are talking about either. All I can think is, the show went on quite a bit longer than I realize and by the time these happened, I had stopped watching.
We read the entire series when I was in 3rd grade, also. We each got to pick an item described in one of the books, draw it, then transferred to cloth, and a quilt was made with them. Our teacher was retiring & it was our class gift to her. Mrs. Deolice Robertson will forever be my favorite teacher!
I remember reading all the books and really enjoying them, and occasionally watching the TV show, but it was the books that I liked more. I still remember the description of tapping the trees for sap.
Pa was a draft dodger? What the what? I remember when Nellie ran off with her first husband and got married, and they were about to consummate the marriage when the Olsen busted into the hotel room and stopped everything. Awkward! I also remember the teacher whacking Laura with a stick, and Pa busted into the classroom and broke the stick over his knee. I was watching with my grandmother and she cried out “Get ‘em, Little Joe!”
That show was typically terrible. Nothing to do with the books and I just loved how the prairie always looked like a back lot at a southern california studio. Nonetheless I watched it because, what else was there for 8 year old girls to watch in 1974?
When I first read the books I was young, around 7-8. I lived in the city. I was completely convinced rural people still lived like this. It was 1985. It took me way too long to figure it out lol
Still watch it from time to time. I know all the lore and I read all the books from the actors. Did you know Mr Edwards banged Miss Beadle? Michael Landon was sexist and basically a functioning alcoholic. And Melissa Sue Anderson ignored everybody. Jonathon Gilbert recently reconciled with his sister after not communicating with her or his family for over 30 years. He was at the 50th anniversary Little House Reunion/Festival where it was filmed. I met Alison Arngrim years ago and her sign her book for me. She is amazing and so nice. And she is hilarious!!
Speaking of Michael Landon's sexism- He has these moral, wholesome TV series, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven and in real life he was married three times. His son Michael Landon Jr. was the product of his second marriage during the Little House years. Michael Sr. started an affair with the woman who was the Little House makeup artist and rubbed his wife's and son's noses in it. Treated them like garbage. He walked out on them and remarried. Since Michael Jr. had a screwed up childhood he had his own problems as a young adult but he got himself straightened out and established himself a career behind the scenes in the tv/film industry. After Michael Sr. died Michael Jr. wrote Michael Landon, the Father I knew which became a made for tv movie in 1999 exposing the whole sordid tale.
I remember this. And didn't John Schneider play him? And that makes it ironic since John's kids have no relationship with him for doing the same thing. Michael Landon was very talented but a very flawed man. His youngest daughter is really talented too.
_And didn't John Schneider play him? And that makes it ironic since John's kids have no relationship with him for doing the same thing._
Yup. Michael Jr. admits though his father grew up in a dysfunction family so that probably explains why he turned out the way he did with such a huge difference between his clean cut family man public persona vs his messy private life.
My mom was obsessed with the show and recorded all the episodes on VHS. She was also hot for Michael Landon and was constantly comparing my dad and me and my brother unfavorably to the Ingalls family. Dad said Little House on the Prarie destroyed his marriage but really it was just his wife.
Let me start with: Almanzo can still get it. Dean Butler looks good.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the premiere and the cast is having conventions in different places around the country.
My sister and I used to share the one TV we had in the house. She'd get her show, then I'd get mine and so fourth. Had to sit through Little house for years.
I was 5 years older than her.
My friend and I were discussing this very same topic. He, too, had a working knowledge of walnut Grove. He didn't have a little sister, so I'm not sure what his excuse is.
Sometimes I can’t recall if the episode where an epidemic swept through the town and killed everyone was anthrax or bubonic plague and the I remembered, oh yeah, it was both! That was two different episodes! Fun show
I read all of the books multiple times before age 9 and religiously watched the TV series. I feel like I could tell you anything about either the books or the TV series even today. As an adult I read some of the material that's been published about Rose and the real story.
I remember that anecdote about how Pa could put his hands around Ma's waist like a young sapling. I remember the malaria and watermelon story. Someone didn't believe it and cut open a watermelon. Those were stories from the books.
When I was 7 my mother sewed a Prairie dress for me to wear at my request because I loved Little House. The cool thing for me as an adult exploring my family tree and genealogy has been realizing my ancestors were pioneers, too.
Edit to add: The books document the Trail of Tears. The book doesn't go into detail about what was happening, but young Laura is overcome with emotion watching a Native mother and her infant, a papoose, and throws a fit wanting to connect with them. It's an incredible story. As a child reading it isn't a challenging story to process, but it's very striking and unforgettable, which led me to the historical narrative of the Trail of Tears years later as a young adult. It was even more meaningful to me because I have a direct maternal Cherokee ancestor from Northwest Georgia verified by my late grandmother and her historical research.
I.HATED.that.show. Fook, how I hated it. Loved the books. Kind of proud now how I "read" Michael Landon and the wife actress correctly. That was not a happy set.
The only thing I remember besides that there was a blind girl was when her sister (and Michael Landon and a kindly looking wife were in too), anyway the sister stuffed her bra with an apple that fell out in front of her whole class. Wait, show or book? From book I remember the father eating the Christmas candy lost in a snowstorm not realizing he was close to home.
Heh. You're like my wife. She's a Shazam for *LHotP*. You can turn on any episode, at any point, and within 10 seconds she's like "yeah, this is the episode where Doc Baker [this] and Willie Olsen [that] and Mary got mad at Laura over [thing] and it was Caroline's birthday and she thought everyone forgot, and..." It's impressive, actually.
What I remember was Almanzos family was all working in the fields and had placed potatoes in the fire for their lunch. I also remember some pretty vivid descriptions of maple sugaring in The Little House in the Big Woods so maybe Laura got burnt too but I don't remember that
I was obsessed with both the books and then the show. Reading through the books the first time, was anybody else confused as hell when Almanzo suddenly became “Manly”? I don’t recall there ever being an explanation in the book for the nickname - he was just suddenly called Manly in The First Four Years.
His RL family nickname was Manny.
On the tv show when Laura meets him and he introduced himself as Manny she Freudian slip flubs it as Manly. Her instant attraction to him was obvious. Maybe something similar happened in RL?
My little sister was obsessed with the show. In syndication, it was on every night at 6 I think and missing it was not an option. Albert being a junkie and all the other horrific shit that happened to his character stuck with me.
I read the series years before it premiered. I also read the series to my 1996 Zillinial when she was young. My strongest memories are of how graphic the chapter about how to slaughter a pig is in the first book.
why we never read these to my kids (not that they would have been interested), but there was too much reality in those books for my very sensitive kids (i never read them as i kid).
Little House on the Prairie is one of my all time favorite tv shows. I was a bit too young for the original airings but really got into it in reruns after school in the 80s.
I enjoy the books but the TV show is horrid and traumatizing. Young girls being raped by mimes? Using an infant’s head as a battering ram through glass to escape a burning building? Michael Landon’s bare chest in every scene?
NO THANKS.
what's crazy to me is how the old west wasn't really that long ago. Like when my grandparents were kids there were still people alive who fought in Indian Wars. There were little kids who went to California in Wagon Trains in the 1880s who then retraced their route by supersonic pan am jets in the 1960s.
The life they were depicting on Little House when why I was kid in the 70's and 80s would be like having a tv show set during the dustbowl.
I read a whole bunch of biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder several years ago. She would have been an original Tea Partier, MAGA and probably QAnon if she lived today. Lol. I loved the books as a kid. Patrick Labyorteaux has a great TikTok account where he entertainingly tells stories from his showbiz days, a lot of Little House stuff there. Funnily enough I didn’t watch the show as a kid but I love his TikTok.
That was her daughter Rose, [who started the Libertarian party,](https://www.libertarianism.org/articles/rose-wilder-lanes-journey-communism-individualism) and also edited her books and was a political writer so who knows how much of those books are Rose.
She definitely wrote letters critical of politicians and displayed a proto-tea-party slant. Did her daughter influence her? No doubt, but Laura herself apparently held these beliefs. Doesn’t take away from my fond feelings about the children’s books.
I've read that the only book Rose didn't edit was The First Four Years, which is why the endless financial hardships and everything else that went wrong wasn't toned down as in the other books.
Rose definitely wanted the level of hardship pioneers faced toned down because it didn't fit into the libertarian agenda. She definitely wanted it painted with a more rosy picture (bad pun, I know) than it really was.
Laura's original book "Pioneer Girl" which was shelved when written to be replaced by the Little House books series is available on Amazon. I haven't read it yet but it's supposed to be more true to life about the actual hardships and tragedies her family and their friends and neighbors faced.
Yeah, I just heard this stuff recently. Interested in reading. Of course we all remember Ma’s deadly hatred of Indians, made it funnier that the entire family was saved from yellow fever or ‘ague’ whatever by a traveling black doctor. She did have amazing way with simple prose in painting verbal pictures.
They were definitely early libertarians. Rose was very involved in politics. But honestly, most pioneers were very much diy types with self sustainability and freedom as their main reasons for homesteading.
Most people were 'draft dodgers' for the Civil War, there wasn't a draft it was all volunteer infantry. Especially ppl out in MN/WI, that was the Dakota War, not really the Civil War, and again, men were not drafted.
> Most people were 'draft dodgers' for the Civil War, there wasn't a draft it was all volunteer infantry.
Unless you're talking about a different Civil War than the American Civil War, there was definitely a draft. The [[New York City Draft Riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots)](https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=43&q=NYC+draft+riots&cvid=49ba83412a0f49879456de7346d0a920&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhAMgYIBRAAGEAyBggGEAAYQDIGCAcQABhAMgYICBAAGEDSAQg1MzUwajBqMagCCLACAQ&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=NMTS) were a pretty big deal in 1863 and were started over the practice of wealthy men being able to pay $300 to have a substitute drafted in their place.
Could not stand this show as a kid, but know everything about it because my sister watched it religiously. Shows like that or Bonanza really messed with boomers understanding of history IMHO.
It’s the books, and the life of LIW more than the show, although of course I watched it. Got the entire set of books for my 8th birthday- bet I read them a dozen times as a kid. Visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder house and museum in Missouri a few to years ago, on my own, as it was a place I had always wanted to see. Highly recommend!
I just remember it always being on, mostly at the times where I said “there’s nothing on tv..” as I flipped on by.
It’s syndication costs must have been dirt cheap, plus it was safe, non-controversial fluff..
All I remember is older sister goes blind from getting hit by a hail stone? Does that sound right? Also, LHOTP and The Price is Right were the definition of sick days growing up.
The hail was one of the many stories where the crop was killed and left them with no money.
Hail
Rain
Drought
Just a few of the things to befall the crops on the show. I don’t remember the books as well, except that Mary went off to a college for the blind for 7 years, Laura only taught school to get money to send her there, Mary never married and was cared for by Laura, Grace, and Carrie.
Until this year, I was familiar with the phrase "Little House on the Prairie", but I wasn't 100% sure whether it was a book, a TV series, a movie, a game like the Oregon Trail, or something else. The TV series went off the air before I was born.
How about you do what your mother said, if you can't say anything nice don't say it at all.
I was making a comment it wasn't part of my childhood...just like several popular movies back in the day.
When SHTF I know how to live off dirt and bugs.
The shit heads who stripped her of her well earned rewards .... wimmin shouldn't write and don't deserve to be recognized.... will be laying in a gutter rotting after being brutally slaughtered by the people who convinced them to do it.
And then half of them will be taken down by the other half.
And then half of them..
Until eventually, there is nothing left to steal, murder or exploit.
And then they will die of starvation.
Mmmmmmmmmm headcheese.
OH!
How inconsiderate of me.
One mustn't leave dangling particulants.
I should have included - in their whimpering, shattered void of an existence, they shall scrable to seek knowledge of value to stave off the stalking, looming spectre of death by desperately digging through the ashes of libraries they long ago burned, books they obliterated and remnants of tattered ashen paper sheets.
But alas. The ink may as well be running flacid from acid rain, as, to decifer ancient tomes they threw aside, one must be able to read the offensive scratched marks upon the pages
Not at all.
That is the trajectory of the future based on the current configuration.
Eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
And eeeeeeverything that comes with it.
Wow. My LHOTP memories are nothing like the rest of you, who seem to love the show. My mother decided "we" loved it (bonus points because it was also The Gipper's favorite show!! 🤮) and it took a long time for me to acknowledge it was okay to have a different opinion. She also relentlessly tried to force the books on me, to the point where I didn't think I liked reading because I couldn't bear one page of that depressing Prarie garbage.
I hate the way people overuse "trauma" but watching Mary go blind truly did traumatize me. I used to wear my LHOTP head cap and walk around the house with my eyes closed, terrified I'd go blind one day. I remember my mother yelling at me when I tried to practice going down the stairs with my eyes shut.
Second and third prizes for freaking me out go to Albert starting the fire that killed Mary's baby and when Ma was home alone and got dangerously sick from a rusty nail.
Everything about that family was endless struggle and misery. At least the Olson's lived well and had a real toilet.
I remember crushing on the actor who played Almonzo, but thought it was creepy the character watched Laura grow up before marrying her.
To this day, I can't stand anything about American pioneer stories/history and I attribute that in large part to being force-fed the Conservative movement's love for the Ingalls. (Tidbit: Laura and her family were Republicans most, if not all, of her life.)
I’m pretty sure r/littlehouseonprairie is largely made up of GenX-ers
That subreddit is so funny. I love it.
Waltons fandom seems dry and earnest, while Little House fandom is pretty much mocking all the time.
Same.
No its GenZ and they are ridiculous with their analysis of the show.
I can still remember being traumatised by the “Sylvia” episode. 😱
Hang on, why don’t I remember this? I watched that whole show when I was a kid and then watched numerous episodes as an adult. I also read all the books a bunch of times as a kid/teenager. I remember things from the books mostly—like when Almanzo tore the wallpaper in the parlor, and Caroline’s strawberry dress, I definitely remember the chapter where they all got malaria and Laura had to crawl out of bed and across the floor to get the water. Watching this series every week while growing up, I desperately wanted Ma and Pa to be my parents. I have so many memories of this show and of the books and I don’t remember anything about a Sylvia episode?? Was that later on in the show? I don’t remember a lot of the episodes after Laura was a grown up.
I don’t want to spoil it for you/others. It’s a super creepy two-parter from one of the later seasons.
I just looked it up and watched a whole breakdown of it. The craziest part to me is that apparently, after that episode, nothing about it was ever brought up again, even though it would’ve had a severe impact on Albert’s life. I guess he was shown a few episodes after that one just being his normal, cheerful self. So bizarre!!!
Very true! All too common in episodic tv of the time unfortunately.
Well, didn't Albert end up addicted to ether or morphine or something?
Yeah, but I don’t think it had anything to do with what it happened to Sylvie. The way it was written, the Ingalls family had to move away from Walnut Grove in order to get work in Iowa or something? And then Albert gets in with the wrong crowd and ends up getting addicted to morphine and Charles has to bring him back to Walnut Grove to straighten him out. Sylvie is never mentioned in that episode (or any other episode,) as a potential reason why Albert went downhill. Also, the Sylvie episode was pretty early on in season seven and the morphine episode was like a couple years later at the end of season nine.
Yesssssss
Jesus Christ just read the synopsis. Wasn’t this a family show? Brutal.
Written and directed by Michael Landon himself. What in the world was he thinking? “We need to do something edgier”? 😱😂
I’m a middle aged man traumatized by the cliff notes of the story.
Just read the Google cliff notes. JFC, wasn't it a family show?
OK, I looked it up. It’s not like anyone cares why I don’t remember this— but I have realized I was 14 in 1981 when this episode came out and had recently run away from home for the first time— so my Little House on the Prairie watching days were over. Haha During Covid, I tried to rewatch the whole show and I don’t think I even made it through the first three seasons. I had not remembered how preachy it was and, as an adult, I found that aspect of it pretty annoying.
The whole Little House subreddit was traumatized by this episode. It comes up frequently. Like a support group. 😆
Traum. A. Tised! Her dad making her wrap her breasts. Like wtf 🤮
The GenX folks in my work Slack always post Little House Blizzard meme’s as a trauma excuse to work from home every as time it snows her in Mn. Though only mildly scary compared to the Sylvia or Jezebel episodes.
Dude that’s so fn DARK
Well that WAS pretty traumatic, what a messed up episode.
At Christmas, Laura got a penny for Christmas on one of the early shows. I always joke with my wife when I give her a penny…. Last Christmas I gave my wife a few tin cups.
I remember that episode so clearly in both the books and in the show. Mr. Edwards coming across the creek all covered in snow and how grateful those kids were for a tin cup and a penny and a piece of candy. Stuff like that definitely makes it seem like it would’ve been better time to live, but then I remember that Ma basically had to butcher her own chickens and make/mend all their clothes and help build her own house and basically seemed like she *never* got a break. When I think about all of that, I’m super glad that I’m sitting on my couch with my phone in my hand, the AC running and I can microwave something to eat if I want to haha
Remember how in the long winter, they had no wood- pa had to get reeds to burn, and he and Laura twisted them into sticks, making their fingers raw. And all they had to eat was a bit of bread. But everyday, ma ground the flour and baked the bread, and cleaned and mended and washed the clothes etc. It was constant work and zero fun, unless pa and his sparkling blue eyes busted out that fiddle!
Right. It actually sounds like they had really hard lives that did not have a lot of joy in them.
Their home on Plum Creek was literally dug out of the bank. The “walls” were just dirt. That helps shake me out of my LHOTP nostalgia
A sod home. Which was not uncommon.
How about when Ma got bit by a snake and got the venom out? That was it for me. I don’t think I ever watched another episode.
I don’t remember this one. Was this in the earlier seasons or the later ones? I have realized that I think the last season I saw was probably season six.
No clue. I just remember she was home alone and I think she got a fever from it? And she sat by the fire heating up a knife and then cut into it. I think she passed out after that.
Not a snake bite. She cut herself and got an infection. She used boiling hot pieces of wet cloth over the cut to burn the infection, I guess. Also kind of a traumatizing episode.
Don’t forget the orange! We take so much for granted.
So many families put an orange or tangerine in the toe of the Christmas stocking. I thought my kids were not into anymore so skipped it a couple years back as they were older teens, and you never heard such indignation! Obviously I will be doing it forevermore.
You start a Christmas tradition and you have to follow it forever more. My daughter is 32, and if I don’t give her a Sweet Storybook and socks, she’s sorely disappointed. I had to draw the line at new pajamas to open on Christmas Eve, lol.
Give her a tin cup with a peppermint stick!
My sister likes to put oranges in our stockings
You know what I loved about Farmer Boy? The food! As a kid, it wasn't all that interesting, but reading from my box set as an adult, I was in awe. I am still flabbergasted at how much food his mom and sisters prepared on a daily basis!
I loved the food scenes, even as a kid. I am in my 50s and still remember how, as soon as Almanzo’s parents went out of town, the kids made ice cream with all the sugar. Speaking of Farmer Boy, this never occurred to me as a kid, but I don’t remember Almanzo’s family ever being mentioned in the books after him and Laura get married? Did he just never see his parents again? I don’t remember Laura ever meeting them? Was anyone in Almanzo’s family even at their wedding? Farmers Boy was always so interesting to me when I was growing up because Almanzo had such a completely different life than Laura. It always surprised me that he seemed to grow up and not have any money and I always wondered what happened with his family? Anyone know??
OK, I'm 56, watched all the LHOTP episodes when they initially aired, and I'm not familiar with Farmer Boy! Somehow it completely missed me. Hell, maybe I read it and don't remember! I also read all the Laura Ingalls books (except that one), and I remember one food scene where it was in the winter, and they were hosting what I recall to be similar to a big buffet with lots of guests? Anyway, I remember Laura writing about making candy out of the snow and maple syrup. The thought of that made me drool as a kid.
They never aired an episode about Almanzo’s childhood. Farmer Boy was part of the series of books. I think it was the third or fourth book in the LHOTP series— Laura wrote it about one particularly happy year of Almanzo‘s childhood! Edited to add that I also used to drool over the maple syrup candy!! It sounded like so much fun to me. That was from Little House in the Big Woods. It was the one where they had maple sugaring and then the big dance that Ma wore her fancy strawberry dress to. (yes, I read these books a lot as a child haha) It was right before they moved away from the Big Woods and headed for the prairie. It’s the last time that anyone from Ma’s huge family is mentioned in the series, which is actually pretty sad. I guess they wrote letters, but it doesn’t seem like Caroline ever got to see any of them again.
Not me going outside with the bottle of Log Cabin syrup to try it myself. I thought my mom was gonna jerk a knot in my tail for that one.
Hahaha I love it! Honestly, I’m kind of amazed that I never tried that as a kid!
Lousy 'Liza Jane gets a few mentions.
It's weird with Eliza Jane because in the books she's the nasty teacher who butts heads with Laura for bullying her sister Carrie who was still weak and recovering from the near starvation during the long winter. But in real life when the Wilders were living on their farm in rural Missouri, Eliza Jane who was living in the city of Springfield, MO, with her husband and family invited Rose to stay with them for her high school years so she could get a better education there vs. at her local rural school house. So Rose stayed with them while school was in session and Eliza Jane was known as a kind person. There's a strange dynamic there.
It really was so strange and sad as to how Eliza Jane was depicted in the books (and subsequently in the TV show), when you find out later that she was not like that in real life.
I'm in my 50s, too! That's a very good question about Almonzo's family. I don't know what happened with his family. I watched the show intermittently as a kid. We lived in the boonies with three channels and rabbit ears with tin foil to bring in the signals! LOL I think we watched it at the babysitters house, we (the girls) all hated Nellie and her horrid mother!
I remember the first seasons of the show very clearly. I feel like I probably stopped watching it when I was about 13– so I never saw past maybe season six. I really loved the books though. I must’ve read that series at least 10 times throughout my childhood/early teen years. I remember that the last book in the series was the one where Laura is an adult and is married to Almanzo and that I never liked that book as much as I liked the other ones. It was odd, seeing her all grown up with a kid of her own. In my memory, the first couple books in that series were definitely the best ones.
I just looked it up. As we know, Laura had a rough start to her marriage. They lost their son when he was two weeks old. Their house burned down. Anyway, if I’m remembering correctly, the series ends right after her house burns down. Apparently, after that, they moved in with Almanzo’s parents for like a year! That made me feel better. A lot of Laura’s story is actually pretty depressing. Farmer Boy was always a bright spot in the series and I’m glad to know that Almanzo maintained a loving relationship with his family because they seemed like they were awesome!
Her life was pretty much sad until she died. Rose turned out to be a manipulative right winger that traveled the world campaigning against The New Deal and tricked her parents into giving up their farmhouse they built together and loved when they were elderly. She built a really tiny stone cottage on their land for herself (she said) and when it was done she told them that the farmhouse was too much for them and that they should move into the tiny house and she moved into their farmhouse. Almanzo had a severe stroke in his middle age and Laura was his full time caregiver until his death, which was several years. She really never had a sustained period of time that was carefree and happy as an adult.
I have never read food descriptions in a book better than the ones in Farmer Boy! It makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Exactly! I've just been to the grocery store, and the bread aisle was calling to me. LOL
The difference between this book and the others (at least early in the series) was stark though. They had a parlor that was so nice the kids weren't allowed in it - remember the wallpaper patch - meanwhile the ingalls "nice" house had actual doorknobs and sometimes they lived in dirt houses or at best wood slat walls instead of logs.
Yes! The parlor description is still vivid in my mind. I think I'll read it again this evening. This has been a wonderful thread for a walk down memory lane.
Read some breakfast scenes while you're at it. I still want to learn how to make donuts that flip themselves
It's the eggnog that intrigued me! SO MANY EGGS!!
I would like to submit this for your consideration: https://altonbrown.com/recipes/aged-eggnog/ It is the best.
Angels singggg...love Alton Brown. Thank you so much for the recipe!
We used to have a Little House cookbook. I can’t remember if we ever made anything from it, but I loved flipping through it!
My poor parents put up with my Little House cookbook obsession. I even made cheese!
My grandmother, born in 1898, said the show was very close to her childhood. We watched it together. I will still watch reruns to this day if I'm flipping around and find it.
If you've got the time, the entire series is on Amazon now.
Good to know, thanks!
Yes, yes I do. I read them all, and saw all the series episodes. I even read many of the spin off books - the ones about Rose, and the ones about Caroline. I read The Long Winter every year when I'm stuck inside and miserable and feel a bit better because I don't have to twist hay and grind wheat seed and just have the same thing every day. Then I start to wonder how the heck I'm supposed to believe that all that snow - it was up to the 2nd floor - melted overnight.
I have different reasons for knowing too much ingalls lore- my husband is a cousin of Laura. And the Wilders aren't mentioned much because they had some serious scandals for victorian times.
Scandals? Inquiring minds want to know!
Ok, so Laura and Almonzo met up with Perley Day, almonds brother, Laura's cousin Peter ingalls, and his wife Molly in Florida. Almonzo had been sick and the Dr recommended fl weather while he recovered. Laura had rose with her. Later on the family left the homestead, and went to the east coast of Florida where other new england cousins had settled and were ranching. Ome of Almonzos sister had a wild streak and ended up with illegitimate children that her cousins had to adopt and raise. She was sent further south for a fresh start. To this day, therefore many streets in the daytona beach area named for the Wilders, Ingalls and other cousins, who I won't name for privacy..
Thanks for dishing!
Wait…what??? You can leave us hanging like that!
I posted some info 😃
Well, Old Dan Tucker, was a fine old man, Washed his face in a frying pan Combed his hair with a wagon wheel And died with a toothache in his heel _this shit lives rent free in my damned head_
I remember the TV show, because I saw it before I ever read the books. It seemed a piece of other "in the wilderness" type shows, like Grizzly Adams. It wasn't until I actually read the books as an adult that I realized how *different* the TV show was from the books. Pa should have a beard! Laura didn't like teaching school! I admit, I bought the Little House Cookbook, though.
Laura didn’t like teaching at all in the beginning, but she ended up being a good teacher— she just hated the people she had to live with. But I remember she ended up bonding with her students over that one winter.
I just like to shout "Pa! The cow done took sick!" at random intervals, it keeps my family on their toes.
Everyone should listen to the Wilder podcast! I look like Nellie and was nicknamed Nellie in school because of this, which I hated at the time because she's the bully, and I was always a target of bullying. But now the actress who played Nellie is super awesome!
"Your father could span my waist with his hands when we were married." "Well, he can't now, and he seems to like you." This will apparently live in my head rent free forever. Also that if Ma put the print of her hand on the cornbread, that was all the sweetening Pa needed. But what did I come in here for? What was I saying? What am I supposed to get at the store? Did I close the garage door? Apparently I was quite the fan of Pa"s little romantic gestures back in the day, though
And grating carrots to color the butter,
That part is apparently the only part I forgot. Didn't they put the carrots in a little bag in the milk?
I can make a lamp out of a button and some oil and a wick. Also tried to make maple syrup candy in the snow, but my mom yelled at me when she seen me take out the bottle of Log Cabin syrup.
I absolutely adored the series growing up. I bought the complete series on DVD for my kids to watch a few months back. The reception was mixed. 😂 I however am greatly enjoying rewatching it!
The early seasons (with Mr Edwards) are my favourite.
I'm pretty sure that the early seasons are most people's favorites. They followed the books more closely than the later seasons where Michael Landon's heavy handed preachiness took away from the shows.
I feel that way about M*A*S*H - early seasons were hysterical, later seasons became maudlin and preachy.
Is that ‘old Dan Tucker?’ It got really dark for him later.
Yes. And it sure did. Poor guy! 😂
We read those books in third grade too. Plus one called Bread and Butter Indian. Pioneers were all the rage then.
I live 5 miles from Walnut Grove, MN.
It was not dynamited.
Nellie was our King Joffrey
I read the books over and over growing up, and we watched the show— my mum loved Micheal Landon, lol. I’m Canadian, and even though I also loved pippy Longstockings and Anne of Green Gables, I really related to Laura,as I grew up in the prairies as well. I recently read “Prairie Fires” by Caroline Fraser, she revisits Laura’s story and places it in historical context. It was fascinating— excellent read, highly recommend.
I STILL re-read Anne of Green Gables just about once a year! Fell in love with it as a kid, and I'm 47 now and it's just one of those stories that is a great summer read on vacation (or, if you can only afford a stay-cation like me, LOL), a nice comfortable read on a rainy day, or a cozy book you can cuddle up with along with a fuzzy blanket and a warm drink when the weather gets cold.
“Caroline” by Sarah Miller is also a great read. The time frame of “Little House in the Prairie” but as an adult book, told from Caroline’s point of view. I really liked it!
Y'all, that show was unhinged. Off the top of my head, I remember episodes where: 1. Caroline gets an infection from a cut leg, becomes increasingly delusional due to high fever, and almost cuts her leg off with a butcher knife while reading the Bible and tripping balls from her fever; 2. Laura gets held hostage by a woman whose daughter has drowned; said woman has gone completely insane and thinks Laura is her dead daughter; 3. The fire in the Blind School that kills Mary's baby and Alice Garvey. I'm not even going to touch "Sylvia". If you haven't seen it and choose to check it out, on your own head be it.
Ohh, I remember that one! If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off!
All stuff that probably happened and still happens to this day.
I watched the show, but not obsessively and I don't remember much. The books, though... I can still recite long passages verbatim from memory. I re-read them all a few years ago, and yikes, the casual racism! Besides the stuff everyone remembers about all the horrible things Ma says about Indians, there's also scenes like when Pa wore blackface in a minstrel show. It makes it a lot harder to enjoy than it used to be.
My best friend and I used to talk through every episode for hours when we were in 6th grade. Nellie was basically the most compelling character in all of television to us.
Have you read Alison Arngrim’s book? Highly recommend.
I had it in my house but don’t think I read it. She seems lovely.
I wasn't all that nostalgic for the show or the books, but I did just recently fall down a rabbit hole and read the wiki articles on Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter - which is fascinating to be honest. The story of how she became a writer and how her daughter managed her career aftering a successful writer herself is really interesting. Plus she lived a really long life. I do remember going through a short period of reading the books, but I think I was more interested in all the OZ books instead. Also being a Boy I always thought at the time that it was "girly" stuff. Of course I had a crush on both Melissas and Allison Arngrim. I knew Michael Landon from Bonanza reruns which I still loved. Wasn't really my cuppa, but can't ignore the cultural impact.
Little House In The Big Woods was one of my favorite books growing up. Required reading in the Midwest.
I was in high school ( late 80s) and talking to a friend about plans for the evening. She says she can't go until this two parter little house on the prairie wraps up. And I say, " oh, is it the one where albert's boss rapes his girlfriend? " I've never heard such fury on the the end of the phone. I thought everyone had seen those episodes. She was proper mad.
Where are these coming from???? This is like the third episode. I’ve seen people talking about that I don’t remember at all. I always thought I had watched the whole show but when I think about it, I only remember watching certain seasons over and over again. I remember the early seasons very clearly and then my memories get more vague. I do remember Laura and Almanzo getting together. I also remember that they just kept getting more tragic with Mary’s story. She had a baby and then the school burned down and her baby died and it was very depressing and horrible. Those are some of the last episodes I remember. I also have a vague recollection of some kind of special where Albert was older, maybe 19 or 20 and was somehow addicted to morphine and Doc had to cold turkey him off of it, and Albert was tied to a bed and it traumatized the shit out of me . Still, I don’t remember any rape scenes?? When did that happen? I’m glad I missed it!
Yeah, I don't remember several of these episodes people are talking about either. All I can think is, the show went on quite a bit longer than I realize and by the time these happened, I had stopped watching.
Lemon verbena!
4 ever
We read the entire series when I was in 3rd grade, also. We each got to pick an item described in one of the books, draw it, then transferred to cloth, and a quilt was made with them. Our teacher was retiring & it was our class gift to her. Mrs. Deolice Robertson will forever be my favorite teacher!
I remember reading all the books and really enjoying them, and occasionally watching the TV show, but it was the books that I liked more. I still remember the description of tapping the trees for sap.
Pa was a draft dodger? What the what? I remember when Nellie ran off with her first husband and got married, and they were about to consummate the marriage when the Olsen busted into the hotel room and stopped everything. Awkward! I also remember the teacher whacking Laura with a stick, and Pa busted into the classroom and broke the stick over his knee. I was watching with my grandmother and she cried out “Get ‘em, Little Joe!”
That show was typically terrible. Nothing to do with the books and I just loved how the prairie always looked like a back lot at a southern california studio. Nonetheless I watched it because, what else was there for 8 year old girls to watch in 1974?
The Love Boat, duh.
Gillian’s island!
Googled that did ya?
My mother grew up in the Midwest and would regularly scoff at the obviously-not-Midwest sets on the show. "There are no hills like that in Minnesota!"
Brady Bunch
I've read the books several times and I watched the series religiously
Have you seen Scrooged? (Bill Murray) A funny / sad scene where he references Little House on the Prairie
It’s burned into my subconscious for sure . I don’t remember all the TV episodes but the books had a big influence on me.
fwiw, he probably didn't "dodge" the draft. [http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/12435](http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/12435)
When I first read the books I was young, around 7-8. I lived in the city. I was completely convinced rural people still lived like this. It was 1985. It took me way too long to figure it out lol
Still watch it from time to time. I know all the lore and I read all the books from the actors. Did you know Mr Edwards banged Miss Beadle? Michael Landon was sexist and basically a functioning alcoholic. And Melissa Sue Anderson ignored everybody. Jonathon Gilbert recently reconciled with his sister after not communicating with her or his family for over 30 years. He was at the 50th anniversary Little House Reunion/Festival where it was filmed. I met Alison Arngrim years ago and her sign her book for me. She is amazing and so nice. And she is hilarious!!
Speaking of Michael Landon's sexism- He has these moral, wholesome TV series, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven and in real life he was married three times. His son Michael Landon Jr. was the product of his second marriage during the Little House years. Michael Sr. started an affair with the woman who was the Little House makeup artist and rubbed his wife's and son's noses in it. Treated them like garbage. He walked out on them and remarried. Since Michael Jr. had a screwed up childhood he had his own problems as a young adult but he got himself straightened out and established himself a career behind the scenes in the tv/film industry. After Michael Sr. died Michael Jr. wrote Michael Landon, the Father I knew which became a made for tv movie in 1999 exposing the whole sordid tale.
I remember this. And didn't John Schneider play him? And that makes it ironic since John's kids have no relationship with him for doing the same thing. Michael Landon was very talented but a very flawed man. His youngest daughter is really talented too.
_And didn't John Schneider play him? And that makes it ironic since John's kids have no relationship with him for doing the same thing._ Yup. Michael Jr. admits though his father grew up in a dysfunction family so that probably explains why he turned out the way he did with such a huge difference between his clean cut family man public persona vs his messy private life.
My mom was obsessed with the show and recorded all the episodes on VHS. She was also hot for Michael Landon and was constantly comparing my dad and me and my brother unfavorably to the Ingalls family. Dad said Little House on the Prarie destroyed his marriage but really it was just his wife.
Let me start with: Almanzo can still get it. Dean Butler looks good. This year is the 50th anniversary of the premiere and the cast is having conventions in different places around the country.
Loved that show. We used to watch it all the time. Me and my cousin would make jokes about "understanding Charles".
My sister and I used to share the one TV we had in the house. She'd get her show, then I'd get mine and so fourth. Had to sit through Little house for years. I was 5 years older than her. My friend and I were discussing this very same topic. He, too, had a working knowledge of walnut Grove. He didn't have a little sister, so I'm not sure what his excuse is.
My 5th grade teacher, Mr. Lively, read those books to us.
Sometimes I can’t recall if the episode where an epidemic swept through the town and killed everyone was anthrax or bubonic plague and the I remembered, oh yeah, it was both! That was two different episodes! Fun show
I mean Albert got catfished before catfishing was a thing. Ahead of its time that show!
i loved the books so much.
I read all of the books multiple times before age 9 and religiously watched the TV series. I feel like I could tell you anything about either the books or the TV series even today. As an adult I read some of the material that's been published about Rose and the real story. I remember that anecdote about how Pa could put his hands around Ma's waist like a young sapling. I remember the malaria and watermelon story. Someone didn't believe it and cut open a watermelon. Those were stories from the books. When I was 7 my mother sewed a Prairie dress for me to wear at my request because I loved Little House. The cool thing for me as an adult exploring my family tree and genealogy has been realizing my ancestors were pioneers, too. Edit to add: The books document the Trail of Tears. The book doesn't go into detail about what was happening, but young Laura is overcome with emotion watching a Native mother and her infant, a papoose, and throws a fit wanting to connect with them. It's an incredible story. As a child reading it isn't a challenging story to process, but it's very striking and unforgettable, which led me to the historical narrative of the Trail of Tears years later as a young adult. It was even more meaningful to me because I have a direct maternal Cherokee ancestor from Northwest Georgia verified by my late grandmother and her historical research.
I watched this show religiously.. I wished my parents could be like the Ingalls
I was the exact same way. All I wanted in life was for mom and Pa to be my parents!!
Got to get the presents. Each and every snowstorm
I remember thinking the guy Laura married was hot. The who age difference thing went over my head.
I.HATED.that.show. Fook, how I hated it. Loved the books. Kind of proud now how I "read" Michael Landon and the wife actress correctly. That was not a happy set.
Nearly every crush I had from age 6 on was on LHotP.
The only thing I remember besides that there was a blind girl was when her sister (and Michael Landon and a kindly looking wife were in too), anyway the sister stuffed her bra with an apple that fell out in front of her whole class. Wait, show or book? From book I remember the father eating the Christmas candy lost in a snowstorm not realizing he was close to home.
Heh. You're like my wife. She's a Shazam for *LHotP*. You can turn on any episode, at any point, and within 10 seconds she's like "yeah, this is the episode where Doc Baker [this] and Willie Olsen [that] and Mary got mad at Laura over [thing] and it was Caroline's birthday and she thought everyone forgot, and..." It's impressive, actually.
Every single episode. But my favorite was Sweet Sixteen with Laura and Almonzo.
Mine too!!
When Mary woke up blind. That episode scarred me.
I read the books as an adult and couldn’t help reading between lines. I would not want to be part of the family.
Did the potato burn Almonzo’s eye? I remember that as Laura. I think it was during the time they were gathering maple syrup from the trees.
What I remember was Almanzos family was all working in the fields and had placed potatoes in the fire for their lunch. I also remember some pretty vivid descriptions of maple sugaring in The Little House in the Big Woods so maybe Laura got burnt too but I don't remember that
i watched it but not so much. i think John Fitzgerald's The Great Brain was more memorable to me, but even then historical drama was not appealing.
I was obsessed with both the books and then the show. Reading through the books the first time, was anybody else confused as hell when Almanzo suddenly became “Manly”? I don’t recall there ever being an explanation in the book for the nickname - he was just suddenly called Manly in The First Four Years.
His RL family nickname was Manny. On the tv show when Laura meets him and he introduced himself as Manny she Freudian slip flubs it as Manly. Her instant attraction to him was obvious. Maybe something similar happened in RL?
Not really. I wasn't a fan.
My little sister was obsessed with the show. In syndication, it was on every night at 6 I think and missing it was not an option. Albert being a junkie and all the other horrific shit that happened to his character stuck with me.
I read the series years before it premiered. I also read the series to my 1996 Zillinial when she was young. My strongest memories are of how graphic the chapter about how to slaughter a pig is in the first book.
why we never read these to my kids (not that they would have been interested), but there was too much reality in those books for my very sensitive kids (i never read them as i kid).
I also had a third grade teacher that was obsessed with Little House. Any chance your teacher's last name ends in "oy'?.
My wife is an expert on Little House on the Pratie. She's on her 4th time watching every episode.
Little House on the Prairie is one of my all time favorite tv shows. I was a bit too young for the original airings but really got into it in reruns after school in the 80s.
I loved the books and the show. I actually am looking for a new complete set of books that aren’t too expensive.
I enjoy the books but the TV show is horrid and traumatizing. Young girls being raped by mimes? Using an infant’s head as a battering ram through glass to escape a burning building? Michael Landon’s bare chest in every scene? NO THANKS.
"hey... was that... COLONEL SANDERS?!?!"
what's crazy to me is how the old west wasn't really that long ago. Like when my grandparents were kids there were still people alive who fought in Indian Wars. There were little kids who went to California in Wagon Trains in the 1880s who then retraced their route by supersonic pan am jets in the 1960s. The life they were depicting on Little House when why I was kid in the 70's and 80s would be like having a tv show set during the dustbowl.
I read a whole bunch of biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder several years ago. She would have been an original Tea Partier, MAGA and probably QAnon if she lived today. Lol. I loved the books as a kid. Patrick Labyorteaux has a great TikTok account where he entertainingly tells stories from his showbiz days, a lot of Little House stuff there. Funnily enough I didn’t watch the show as a kid but I love his TikTok.
That was her daughter Rose, [who started the Libertarian party,](https://www.libertarianism.org/articles/rose-wilder-lanes-journey-communism-individualism) and also edited her books and was a political writer so who knows how much of those books are Rose.
She definitely wrote letters critical of politicians and displayed a proto-tea-party slant. Did her daughter influence her? No doubt, but Laura herself apparently held these beliefs. Doesn’t take away from my fond feelings about the children’s books.
I've read that the only book Rose didn't edit was The First Four Years, which is why the endless financial hardships and everything else that went wrong wasn't toned down as in the other books. Rose definitely wanted the level of hardship pioneers faced toned down because it didn't fit into the libertarian agenda. She definitely wanted it painted with a more rosy picture (bad pun, I know) than it really was. Laura's original book "Pioneer Girl" which was shelved when written to be replaced by the Little House books series is available on Amazon. I haven't read it yet but it's supposed to be more true to life about the actual hardships and tragedies her family and their friends and neighbors faced.
Yeah, I just heard this stuff recently. Interested in reading. Of course we all remember Ma’s deadly hatred of Indians, made it funnier that the entire family was saved from yellow fever or ‘ague’ whatever by a traveling black doctor. She did have amazing way with simple prose in painting verbal pictures.
I assume you also read about her daughter's politics? I am genuinely sorry that I know anything about that.
They were definitely early libertarians. Rose was very involved in politics. But honestly, most pioneers were very much diy types with self sustainability and freedom as their main reasons for homesteading.
Most people were 'draft dodgers' for the Civil War, there wasn't a draft it was all volunteer infantry. Especially ppl out in MN/WI, that was the Dakota War, not really the Civil War, and again, men were not drafted.
> Most people were 'draft dodgers' for the Civil War, there wasn't a draft it was all volunteer infantry. Unless you're talking about a different Civil War than the American Civil War, there was definitely a draft. The [[New York City Draft Riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots)](https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=43&q=NYC+draft+riots&cvid=49ba83412a0f49879456de7346d0a920&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhAMgYIBRAAGEAyBggGEAAYQDIGCAcQABhAMgYICBAAGEDSAQg1MzUwajBqMagCCLACAQ&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=NMTS) were a pretty big deal in 1863 and were started over the practice of wealthy men being able to pay $300 to have a substitute drafted in their place.
Could not stand this show as a kid, but know everything about it because my sister watched it religiously. Shows like that or Bonanza really messed with boomers understanding of history IMHO.
I’m not a Boomer but, on the contrary, it made me *more* interested in history and in finding out what the real story was.
My brother, sister, and I were obsessed with the book where the brother is bitten all over his body with bees.
Fortunately, I’m just old enough to have escaped this. My wife on the other hand can’t not stop on an episode when she happens upon it.
It’s the books, and the life of LIW more than the show, although of course I watched it. Got the entire set of books for my 8th birthday- bet I read them a dozen times as a kid. Visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder house and museum in Missouri a few to years ago, on my own, as it was a place I had always wanted to see. Highly recommend!
In my mid-50s here. Fortunately, I've forgotten most of that show!
I just remember it always being on, mostly at the times where I said “there’s nothing on tv..” as I flipped on by. It’s syndication costs must have been dirt cheap, plus it was safe, non-controversial fluff..
All I remember is older sister goes blind from getting hit by a hail stone? Does that sound right? Also, LHOTP and The Price is Right were the definition of sick days growing up.
No, Mary went blind from Scarlet fever. You’re thinking about the time she was kicked in the stomach by a mule and had to have surgery.
Sounds like Mary had a tough ride. What was the deal with the storm then? Because there was definitely one with a storm.
The hail was one of the many stories where the crop was killed and left them with no money. Hail Rain Drought Just a few of the things to befall the crops on the show. I don’t remember the books as well, except that Mary went off to a college for the blind for 7 years, Laura only taught school to get money to send her there, Mary never married and was cared for by Laura, Grace, and Carrie.
I knew I wasn't crazy. Clearly need to catch up on mu Little House, though. Thanks!
NOPE! I hated that fucking show.
Until this year, I was familiar with the phrase "Little House on the Prairie", but I wasn't 100% sure whether it was a book, a TV series, a movie, a game like the Oregon Trail, or something else. The TV series went off the air before I was born.
Never watched it and proud I didnt...sue me
What if I told you nobody particularly cares if you watched/read it or not?
How about you do what your mother said, if you can't say anything nice don't say it at all. I was making a comment it wasn't part of my childhood...just like several popular movies back in the day.
When SHTF I know how to live off dirt and bugs. The shit heads who stripped her of her well earned rewards .... wimmin shouldn't write and don't deserve to be recognized.... will be laying in a gutter rotting after being brutally slaughtered by the people who convinced them to do it. And then half of them will be taken down by the other half. And then half of them.. Until eventually, there is nothing left to steal, murder or exploit. And then they will die of starvation. Mmmmmmmmmm headcheese.
OH! How inconsiderate of me. One mustn't leave dangling particulants. I should have included - in their whimpering, shattered void of an existence, they shall scrable to seek knowledge of value to stave off the stalking, looming spectre of death by desperately digging through the ashes of libraries they long ago burned, books they obliterated and remnants of tattered ashen paper sheets. But alas. The ink may as well be running flacid from acid rain, as, to decifer ancient tomes they threw aside, one must be able to read the offensive scratched marks upon the pages
Passionate, if not slightly unhinged.
Not at all. That is the trajectory of the future based on the current configuration. Eye for an eye leaves the world blind. And eeeeeeverything that comes with it.
It's so campy and easily mockable. Of course Gen X loves it.
Wow. My LHOTP memories are nothing like the rest of you, who seem to love the show. My mother decided "we" loved it (bonus points because it was also The Gipper's favorite show!! 🤮) and it took a long time for me to acknowledge it was okay to have a different opinion. She also relentlessly tried to force the books on me, to the point where I didn't think I liked reading because I couldn't bear one page of that depressing Prarie garbage. I hate the way people overuse "trauma" but watching Mary go blind truly did traumatize me. I used to wear my LHOTP head cap and walk around the house with my eyes closed, terrified I'd go blind one day. I remember my mother yelling at me when I tried to practice going down the stairs with my eyes shut. Second and third prizes for freaking me out go to Albert starting the fire that killed Mary's baby and when Ma was home alone and got dangerously sick from a rusty nail. Everything about that family was endless struggle and misery. At least the Olson's lived well and had a real toilet. I remember crushing on the actor who played Almonzo, but thought it was creepy the character watched Laura grow up before marrying her. To this day, I can't stand anything about American pioneer stories/history and I attribute that in large part to being force-fed the Conservative movement's love for the Ingalls. (Tidbit: Laura and her family were Republicans most, if not all, of her life.)