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When the Bonanza left the airwaves after 14 successful years, Michael “Little Joe” Landon went looking for a new project. NBC execs approached him with the idea of producing a made-for-TV film based on the popular Laura Ingalls Wilder book series Little House on the Prairie. The movie had been a huge ratings hit, and since it had a sort-of cliffhanger ending, the network was deluged with viewer inquiries asking “What happened next to the Ingalls family?” Thus a series was born. And while the premise of the show was definitely Waltons-level wholesomeness, our mission this week is to go behind the scenes and dish the less-than-vanilla Prairie dirt.
1. Little Hair on the Prairie
The secrets of hair start with Michael Landon, who had gone prematurely grey when he was 20-something during his Bonanza days. If you’re wondering how he got that wonderful color, look no further than Clairol Medium Ash Brown- the key to his crowning glory. As for the trademark blonde curls that Alison Arngrim sported as mean girl Nellie Oleson, those were actually part of a wig that was fastened to her scalp so tightly that it often caused it to bleed. Melissa Gilbert also had fake hair to deal with, and was forced to wear girlish braids well after adolescence had added its telltale signs to her body. In fact, she was also forced to bind her chest until the plot line allowed her to “grow up” and become Walnut Grove’s premier school teacher.
2. A Very Sick Set
In 1991, Michael Landon was hospitalized for what he thought might be an ulcer. Sadly, medical tests revealed cancerous tumors in both his liver and pancreas. Landon had been a heavy drinker and smoker throughout his life, so although the diagnosis was shocking, it wasn’t totally unexpected. However, several years after Little House had stopped filming, many crew members were also diagnosed with rare forms of cancer. LHoTP had been filmed on the Paramount movie ranch near Chatsworth, California. Recent studies have turned up previously suppressed reports that the entire Simi Valley area was exposed to what has been labeled the “worst environmental release of radioactivity ever in the United States” courtesy of an experimental sodium cooled nuclear reactor operated at the time by the Rocketdyne Corporation. Actor Patrick Swayze, who grew up in the Simi Valley area, currently suffers from pancreatic cancer, and Motley Crue singer Vince Neil, who lived in Chatsworth for many years, lost his four-year-old daughter to a rare form of stomach cancer.
3. The Baby Battering Ram
An iconic episode of LHoTP featured the Blind School being engulfed in flames, and Mary’s infant son Adam, Jr. trapped in the blaze. As she and her husband waited anxiously outside, TV viewers were treated to a scene that unfortunately, due to the camera angle, looked as though Alice Garvey (who had rescued the baby from his crib) used the infant’s head to break the glass. Mrs. Garvey actually had the babe cradled in her arms when she attempted to break the window with her elbow. In any case, let the record show that in real life Mary Ingalls never married and never had children. Actress Hersha Parady, who played Alice Garvey, wanted out of her contract so that she could concentrate on raising her own family. The writers killed her character off in a very dramatic story line that not only “punished” her for leaving (i.e. her character couldn’t suddenly reappear years later), but one that also provided for a ratings bonanza.
4. The Blessings of Nepotism
Anyone paying attention to Little House’s credits certainly noticed the occasional “family affair” when it came to casting. Some of the branches of the family trees can get a bit convoluted, so pay close attention… Melissa Gilbert played Laura Ingalls. Jonathan Gilbert played Willie Oleson. Both Melissa and Jonathan were adopted as infants by Barbara and Paul Gilbert. (By the way, when Barbara remarried, she and her new husband had a daughter named Sara. Six-year-old Sara saw Melissa get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and decided there and then that she wanted to be an actress, and she adopted her half-sister’s last name with hopes of becoming an actress. Sara Gilbert later landed the role of Darlene on Roseanne.)
Interestingly enough, Matthew and Patrick Laborteaux (who played Albert Ingalls and Andrew Garvey) had also been adopted as infants, this time by the Labyorteaux family.
Also, Michael Landon eventually cast one of his daughters, Leslie, in the role of school teacher Etta Plum. Despite having this “foot up” in the acting industry, Leslie chose to instead pursue her education and eventually obtained a PhD in psychology. She currently specializes in grief counseling for children.
5. Kicking Off Those Goody Two-Shoes
Sometimes actors cast in relentlessly wholesome roles feel the need to stretch their acting wings and show the world that they’re not really all that goody-goody. Karen Grassle (“Ma” Ingalls) admitted in some late-1970s interviews that she often grew weary of wrapping her hair into a bun and being subservient to Charles. One of her methods of rebellion was to co-write and star in a made-for-TV movie called Battered. The film garnered critical raves for its gritty and sensitive portrayal of spousal abuse in various settings: a blue-collar couple, an upper-middle class lawyer and his wife, and a sixty-something married pair.
Melissa Sue Anderson also felt restless once her character (Mary Ingalls) had gone blind, and the very few story lines afforded to her afterward required her to be ever-so-saintly and patient and kind. In 1979 she decided to shed her “good girl” image by staring in a made-for-TVer called The Survival of Dana, in which she played Dana, a small-town girl transplanted to a high school in the Big City, where she fell in with the wrong crowd and became a sort-of suburban gang-banger. The film employed every Hollywood stereotype of a rebellious teen and was unintentionally hilarious as a result.
>>Here is an opportunity for all you closet Little House viewers to post your questions/comments/complaints. Like, for example, how did that weird guy who molested Sylvia manage to buy a “party mask” at the Mercantile without questions being asked (“I’d like a bag of chicken feed, a dozen eggs, and one clown mask, please.”)? Why did Charles Ingalls feel obligated to adopt any orphan that showed up in Walnut Grove instead of spending that money on speech therapy for Carrie? Now is the time to vent!
Comments (52)
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Did anybody else think it was weird that there was a Miss Plum teacher in a town that had a Plum Creek? Was this ever addressed? I think I’ve seen almost every episode, and many twice, but I don’t remember hearing about the origins of the proliferation of Plums.
Love that series!
posted by DB on 1-13-2009 at 9:17 am
Some people come by their fear of clowns by IT, some by Bozo, some by Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
When I try to explain that clowns creep me out because of a rapey episode of Little House on the Prairie, NOBODY believes me!! I’ve been accused of dreaming the episode! Thank you, mental_floss, for preserving my sanity.
posted by Christine on 1-13-2009 at 9:28 am
Boomer Linwood played Mary’s blind husband Adam. He is also the creator/writer of Malcom in the Middle.
posted by Aaron on 1-13-2009 at 9:30 am
Wasn’t there an episode where a young female character (I want to call her Olivia) was forced by her father to bind her breasts so as not to tempt men? Kind of strange that the producers made Melissa Gilbert do that – wonder if that contributed to the storyline?
posted by Diana on 1-13-2009 at 9:32 am
Linwood Boomer played Adam, Mary’s blind husband. He is the creator/ writer for Malcom in the Middle.
posted by Aaron on 1-13-2009 at 9:32 am
I want to know if the black granny square blanket that was always in some scene in the Wilder household in the last season is the same one draped across the couch in Roseanne.
posted by Mary on 1-13-2009 at 10:31 am
What about that episode that Ma almost cut off her own leg? She had gangrene or something and read in her Bible that if something ails you cut it off. I was a wee bit traumatized by that.
Also, Doc Baker was into the young gals wasn’t he? Didn’t one episode deal with his relationship with a much younger woman?
posted by Lori on 1-13-2009 at 11:05 am
I want to hear more on the Simi Valley thing!!
posted by Big D on 1-13-2009 at 11:24 am
My mom has every season on dvd. Also the Christmas special. I’m also named after the character Cassandra who was added in the last season when her and her brother were adopted into the family.
Its always sooo fun to explain to people about that.
posted by Cassandra on 1-13-2009 at 12:08 pm
I used to “watch” Little House because my mother watched it and we only had one TV. Man what a dreadful depressing show.
posted by dan1101 on 1-13-2009 at 12:45 pm
I’ve never seen it, but I heard that the final episode was epic. According to my source, a greedy developer (or the Old West equivalent) buys up all of the mineral rights to Walnut Grove, so everyone has to move. Just so he doesn’t get his way, the citizens decide to BLOW UP THE TOWN!!! The way I heard it described, it was as though the director of that episode just stepped out for that bit and – ta-da – in stepped, oh, say, Quentin Tarentino. The sawmill – BLAMMO!!! The mercantile – KA-BOOM!!! The Ingalls’ home – KABLOOEY!!!!
I hated that show, but my older, bigger sister loved it, so I got to watch it, under penalty of a pounding. I think it would be cathartic to watch the final episode…
posted by Anthony on 1-13-2009 at 12:47 pm
I had completely forgotten about the weird guy and the party mask and the molestation. Talk about a flashback!
posted by Alison on 1-13-2009 at 1:20 pm
MAN!! I HATED THE NELLIE OLSON!!
posted by nelli hater on 1-13-2009 at 1:24 pm
Wasn’t there an episode where Pa Ingalls lost his hair and, as a result, lost his stength and then wasn’t able to lift the tractor off of the town minister? Then Satan saw the town without a minister and opened a candy shop that sold drugs concealed in candy and turned the entire town into a coven?
Or was I just wishing?
posted by Jason on 1-13-2009 at 1:26 pm
Why couldn’t they just stick to the books for storylines – that’s my #1 question.
posted by MJ on 1-13-2009 at 1:29 pm
I remember watching the show as a kid. I also seem to remember Half Pint having one leg that was shorter than the other. She was self-conscious about and wouldn’t play with other kids. Her father made her a shoe that let her walk better and she started playing. I’ve mentioned this to people over the years when the show comes up in conversation but everybody thinks I’m nuts. So am I? Was this in the early episodes and then she grew out of it? Or was it maybe in the movie and then scrapped for the series? Anyone know?
posted by crocostimpy on 1-13-2009 at 1:32 pm
It was a friend of Half-Pint’s with the short leg. I think her name was Inga, and I want to say she was played by that actress from “Escape from Witch Mountain”
posted by evilcupcakes on 1-13-2009 at 1:50 pm
Cassandra, I feel your pain. However, it was my sister who adored the show and got the joy of naming me Laura.
It has turned out pretty good though. Much to my sister’s (and mother’s) chagrin, there is nearly *nothing* wholesome about me.
posted by Laura. on 1-13-2009 at 2:14 pm
I’ve never seen the show, but I have always loved the books, and from these stories it doesn’t seem as if there are many similarities between the two. How depressing.
posted by Kelsey on 1-13-2009 at 3:03 pm
This is one of the most morbid shows ever. I would say at least 1/3 of the shows deal with the death of someone. The following is my list of Walnut Grove deaths as I remember. Feel free to add any I forgot.
1) Charles Ingall’s Jr.
2) Patricia Neal – her character’s kids were adopted by Mr. Edwards
3) John Jr. – Mr. Edward’s adopted son
4) Robert Loggia’s wife and daughter – he then kidnapped Laura and held her hostage. He may have been killed in the end. Anyone remember this?
5) Sylvia
6) Sylvia’s rapist
7) Albert – assumed death from leukemia
8) Laura’s horse Bunny
9) Laura’s dog Jack
10) Charles’ father
11) Percival’s father
12) Mrs. Garvey
13) Mary’s Baby
14) Adam’s father
15) James and Cassandra’s parents
16) Jenny’s father
17) Richard Mulligan – his chracter died from a morphine overdose. He came to town and gave music lessons. Was Mrs. Whipple’s son
18) Blizzard victims – Mrs’ Beedle let out school early due to weather. Kids got caught in the storm. At least 3 deaths.
19) Victims of the Anthrax epidemic
20) Old lady faked her death so her kids would come home
21) Plague victims – all bought contaminated grain
22) Charles’ uncle – leaves the Ingalls his estate but then you find out it was Confederate money
23) Mr. Edward’s first wife and daughter.
24) Miner when Charles and family are mining for gold.
25) Little girl drowns and her mother holds Laura hostage
26) Farmer dies under the care of Doc Baker and Doc decides to retire.
27) Prize fighter – traveling fighters – Mr. Garvey talked into fighting.
28) Caroline’s friend – in a mining camp
posted by bzzyb on 1-13-2009 at 3:06 pm
If Laura Ingalls never married in real life, how did she become known as Laura Ingalls-Wilder?
posted by carol on 1-13-2009 at 3:19 pm
It says Mary Ingalls never married in real life. In real life Laura married Almonzo and they had a daughter named Rose Wilder.
posted by Lindsay on 1-13-2009 at 3:59 pm
Yah, croco – it was a friend of Laura’s – her dad had a thick Swedish accent a la Swedish Chef. Laura noticed that whenever they played tag on the 2 X 4s lying around in the yard, Inga had no problems (of course, bitch Nellie always had to move the play space) so Pa figured on making poor ol’ Inga a shoe lift for her short leg. “Ja, you vill make mein daughter a shoew!”
ahh, like it was yesterday… the episode that freaked me out besides the Ma Ingalls goes bonkers one was the plague rats, with the guy cradling the dead blue kid… ewwww.
good times.
posted by Marion on 1-13-2009 at 4:05 pm
Actually it was MARY who never married.
posted by beth on 1-13-2009 at 4:06 pm
The episode that always puzzled me was the one when Laura ran off, ended up in the mountains and was visited by a creepy Ernest Bourgnine who may have been an angel. I’ve spent a lot of summers in southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota(where the novels are set) there are no mountains there. Not even hills that could be mistaken for mountains.
posted by Bill on 1-13-2009 at 4:41 pm
One thing you have to realize about the time they were portraying is that this time period WAS pretty depressing and people died frequently. There were I believe two Ingalls sons, both named Charles, who died. It was pretty common to reuse the name if an infant died. The real Ingalls family lived in the woods, for a while on a farm, then moved into town. They never went mining, lol.
posted by Norkio on 1-13-2009 at 5:45 pm
@Norkio – I agree, people in those times did not live as long as people today, but OMG! Being a guest star on this show was paramount to being Ensign Johnson on Star Trek.
posted by bzzyb on 1-13-2009 at 6:02 pm
my younger sister is named Laura after laura Ingalls because my mom was obsessed with the show while pregnant with her. she thought it would be cool to have a little girl like Laura Ingalls.
posted by kat on 1-13-2009 at 6:49 pm
Inga, the girl with one shorter leg, was played by Kim Richards who was in the “Witch Mountain” movies, “Nanny and the Professor” and seemed to have guest spots on just about ever weekly TV shows.
Richards is also the aunt of Paris Hilton.
posted by lexf on 1-13-2009 at 9:38 pm
Episodes that disturbed me as a child:
-a boy is sick and almost dies and Charles goes out to the wilderness and builds a giant alter that gets struck by lightning? Or something? And then the boy is ok?
-When he’s older, Albert becomes a drug addict. Really? Was that necessary?
-The one about Ma almost cutting off her leg.
-The one where a wagon rolled over and a guy was trapped underneath it. There were vultures. And also a creepy rocking horse.
-Creepy clown rapist man.
-The one where Carrie has some kind of dream like fantasy world sequence thing with an imaginary friend.
-the anthrax one.
-the one where the blind school burns down.
posted by rachel on 1-13-2009 at 9:43 pm
I spent fifteen of the first nineteen years of my life in Simi Valley and I don’t have cancer. Most of that time was spent living about as close as anyone could get to RocketDyne. Trust me; Simi Valley is a safe place to live.
posted by B-Doc on 1-14-2009 at 12:57 am
Pa cried in EVERY SINGLE episode!! Or so it seemed….
posted by Leigh on 1-14-2009 at 8:19 am
it wasn’t filmed on the Paramount Ranch! It was filmed on the Disney Ranch aka the Golden Oak Ranch! (there’s a website but i can’t leave a link) i know cuz i worked on a movie that was filmed there…everytime i see the ranch in a film/t.v. show i’m like ‘i’ve been there!’
the reason why the show ended and they blew up the town was Disney wanted to use the ranch for other filming. they could make more money that way.
you can see the wooden bridge and the main street in tons of t.v. shows and movies. Disney films shot at the Ranch include: Old Yeller, Toby Tyler, The Parent Trap, The Shaggy Dog, Follow Me Boys. other stuff includes: my name is earl, warlock, firefly, NCIS, diagnosis murder, return to two moon junction (the film i worked on), buffy, Lassie, Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed, Red Dragon, Murder She Wrote, Bonanza, Independence Day, and The X-Files….seriously the list goes on and on!
also they didn’t blow up the church or the ingell’s house.
posted by djalicat on 1-14-2009 at 9:28 am
My sister is the LHoTP fan in our house.
I just sent her this post and saved it in case she comes home with any questions. Why didn’t Charles splurge on speech therapy? Why did he insist on adopting all the orphans? And Jason. I think you WERE just wishing. Or dreaming.
posted by Sara on 1-14-2009 at 12:38 pm
less-than-vanilla Prairie dirt. Less-than-vanilla? What does that mean?
posted by Sara on 1-14-2009 at 12:42 pm
According to the California Film Commission, the IMDB, and the Paramount Studio Tours, LHoP was filmed at the Paramount Ranch.
posted by Kara Kovalchik on 1-14-2009 at 12:50 pm
Mary is the one who never married in real life. Laura married, and had a son who died and a daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who grew up to be an author like her mother.
I loved Little House when I was younger, but I can’t watch it anymore. I am looking forward to reading the books with my 2 daughters, though – my oldest is old enough for the newer “young reader” series of short stories taken from the original novels. *squee*
posted by Amy on 1-14-2009 at 1:21 pm
re: short legged girl
Whew! At least I know it happened and I’m not imagining it.
Kim Richards eh? We’re the same age and I always remember her from Meatballs 2. Bad movie but she all that wonderful long blond hair…
posted by crocostimpy on 1-14-2009 at 1:51 pm
kara,
sorry to be nit-picky but according to IMDB little house was filmed at 12 different locations.
just two of them are golden oak ranch and paramount ranch.
so, we’re both right! :-)
you could do a whole list about the disney ranch it’s gotta lot of film and television history connected to it!
(captcha: doubtedly somewhere) ;-)
posted by djalicat on 1-15-2009 at 7:48 pm
regarding the question on the books, and why didn’t they just stick to the books. I remember thinking this as a kid. I had read the books and didn’t understand the “license” they took. Someone explained to me at that time that this was Hollywood and the things they do.
I actually learned later that the books themselves were in fact “historical fiction” as stated by Laura Ingalls-Wilder herself. Some of the names were the same (her family members) but most of the other characters in the books were in fact compilations of several people. Noting that fact, Michael Landon (creator and producer) allowed additional license for the series to remain in one location.
posted by stlthunderbird on 1-19-2009 at 12:16 am
Sorry, Norkio, but Pa did at one point travel away from home to work on a railway line that was being blasted out the hills. It was there that a friend he’d made at the camp died in a dynamite explosion, an Irish fellow, I think. He had a propensity, though, for messing around with the sticks and blasting caps, so it was only a matter of time before he pushed his luck too far!
Anyone remember the episode where Laura and Albert find “fools’ gold” in the creek, spend weeks “mining” it, only to have their dreams of wealth dashed by that nasty banker, who even laughed at them?
Shannen Dougherty also was on the show, and if you watch the credits, you see a lot names that had bit parts who’ve become famous. June & Johnny Cash were even on it!
posted by Beth on 1-19-2009 at 6:02 pm
This has not a thing to do with LHotP, but Patrick Swayze grew up in south Texas, not CA. His ranch is there now…
posted by Wendy on 3-4-2009 at 3:39 pm
It always drove me crazy that at the end of the episode where Albert overcame his heroin addiction, Laura (in voiceover) said, “We were all proud years later when Albert returned to Walnut Grove as Dr. Albert Ingalls,” and THEN, in a different episode, he gets leukemia and we know he dies as a young man and couldn’t have become a doctor!
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.
LOL
posted by southerncharm on 3-5-2009 at 10:00 pm
I never got why the show was always on my television and why it wasn’t like any of the books which I read a 100 times. And Nellie was mean but I liked that because I too was a mean girl.
posted by PoGo on 3-15-2009 at 11:55 am
On the Bonanza show someone, almost always died. If a girl loved little Joe, she was going to be dead by the end of the show. The Cartwrights would usually have to kill someone, in self-defense of course.
posted by davewave on 4-1-2009 at 12:38 am
I’d like to clear up some location information on here that is incorrect.
First, Little House on the Prairie was not filmed at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. It was not the primary exterior location site, nor were any episodes or parts of episodes shot there that I know of. I can speak with authority on this as a longtime Paramount Ranch researcher and historian, who works in cooperation with the National Park Service who owns and operates Paramount Ranch. The information on IMDB and other online sources, unfortunately, is in error. (It has recently been corrected on IMDB.) Little House did use Paramount Studios at one time, I believe. Which probably explains the confusion. But, it did not use Paramount Ranch, which has no connection to the Studios other than the name and a past history from the 1920’s through the 1940’s.
Likewise, Golden Oak Ranch, Disney’s movie ranch was not the primary location site for Little House. They did shoot there from time to time. But, it was not the main location.
The location of the Walnut Grove town set, the Ingall’s farm and miscellaneous other outdoor sets used on the show was the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, California. As has been mentioned, the Walnut Grove set was destroyed in the course of the final Little House episode. Many of the other sets, including the Ingall’s farm, still stood on the property as recently as 2003 when many of them burned in a wildfire. I visited this ranch and saw these sets several years ago when the ranch hosted an open house.
There are many stories as to why Walnut Grove was destroyed. One is that the ranch owners wanted the site restored back to the way it was. Being that all the other sets remained, and the town set for Landon’s Father Murphy series, as well, I don’t buy that one. Another story is that Landon didn’t want other productions, perhaps of lesser integrity, to use the iconic Little House town sets. That makes more sense to me. I also personally feel that Landon wanted to make it harder for the network to come to him and press him to make more Little House follow-ups.
I’ve been around Southern California since the early 1980’s and am familiar with most of the local movie ranches used for Westerns, in addition to my longtime work on Paramount Ranch. I hope that I have satisfactorily clarified where Little House was filmed. If anyone has any questions, I’ll try to answer them.
posted by Don on 6-17-2009 at 12:03 pm
I should add that Paramount Ranch is in Agoura Hills, nowhere near Chatsworth or the old Rocketdyne site and is perfectly safe to visit. It is a National Park, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area and is open daily 8am to dusk, with no admission or parking fee. Paramount Ranch was the home to Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman for it’s entire run, some scenes for HBO’s Carnivale’ and some episodes of History Channel’s Wild West Tech. Several movies for Hallmark Channel, including sequences for some of the Love Comes Softly series of movies. It is featured prominantly in the upcoming straight to DVD release, Shadowheart. It has been used for many other past and present films and tv shows.
posted by Don on 6-17-2009 at 2:01 pm
I love the show!
It is great and absolutely no shows on today’s television that even compare.
It must feel awesome to know you or part of your family has been part of such a quality show which will be on tv for years and years.
Wish we had more Little house on the prairie type shows on today.
That is what we need! Not reality crap all the time!
posted by LHOTP Lover on 6-22-2009 at 9:16 pm
@Don: On page 60 of Melissa Gilbert’s autobiography (”Prairie Girl”) she states: “Exteriors were filmed on a ranch in Simi Valley, about 90 miles north of Paramount.”
posted by Kara Kovalchik on 6-25-2009 at 7:14 pm
I love Little House on the Prairie!!!!!!!! My mom and my sister used to watch it but I made them watch it so many times that they hate it now. So I watch it on my computer in my room now!!! Now I have offically seen every episode:)
posted by Sarah on 6-26-2009 at 6:03 pm
also my mom now calls it Little People on the Prairie because she says I watch it too much. So she teases me.
posted by Sarah on 6-26-2009 at 6:09 pm
Best show on tv if any one is sad about it ending another great family show like it is Five Mile Creek. Little house and Five Mile Creek are the best shows. I was so sad when I watched the last one I wish there were more shows like it.
posted by Makayla on 9-16-2009 at 8:49 pm