Little House on the Prairie

I swear they got high when they cooked up the loony scripts they went to. Smack addiction, rapist clowns.... family hour strikes again.

Read the room, you fool cunt.

The first few seasons they seemed to keep the tone true to the books even if they diverged from Wilder’s actual stories. But maybe to keep ratings up they started doing more and more outrageous episodes to ratchet up the drama. Then to balance the tragedy they added sitcom level comedic moments that were only missing the laugh track. It was high camp and I love to imagine John Waters sitting at home watching and laughing hysterically.

I love the episode where ma performs surgery on herself. Little House is goth af.

I remember that! Ma hot-knifing her shin.

The Halloween episode scared the shit outta me

r4, wasn’t she saying things like “if something offends thee, CUT IT OFF!”?

That child killing rapist clown about scared me to death. Pretty damn dark for a family show.

I just know I swooned over Matthew Labourteaux (sp?).

Remember the episode with HOT handyman Chris? He finished the kitchen add on and had a bone for Ma. Then Mary ran him off. I was glad that cunt went blind and her baby sizzled while being used as a battering ram.

Of all the episodes of Little House, that is still my favourite.

[quote]I cannot believe this show was allowed to air. It is so stupid and sappy.

'70s and '80s family television was sappy and sentimental, populated with naïve children and sermonizing parents ready to dispense life lessons. Around the 1990s is when attitudes became more cynical and it became cool to have wiseacre, know-it-all kids and oblivious, idiot parents.

Is the hot knife episode the one where Ma hurt herself in the barn and couldn’t get anyone’s attention?

If so, that episode absolutely terrified me. I think I was about 7 when I saw it.

I quite like the theme tune.

R12 little shit house was the worst. Even as a child I knew the scripts and acting were bad.

Mary really slut-shamed her ma in that episode, r10. I think it's because her own teen loins were secretly girding for Chris's tool. I agree she deserved everything bad that happened to her.

Mary going blind was soooo poorly acted and the scripts for those episodes were horrendous.

Shitty Michael Landon was overly involved with the direction of the show.

R3 The other historical family drama of the 1970s did that, too. The Waltons basically turned into a soap opera by the end. They even had an impotent soldier return from the dead. And, recast a MAJOR character.

Is that you, Nellie?

I think it was aimed at a juvenile audience. Besides The Waltons there wasn't much g-rated to watch in the 70s.

My parents used the tv as a babysitter, so I watched everything unsupervised. I can't imagine the trouble I'd get into in the computer age.

I’m a Little House 🏡 When I Eat Dairy

No little house was way worse r21. It’s so over the top sappy it’s embarrassing to watch.

My brother used to call this Little House Full Of Fairies. He thought that was the funniest thing anyone ever said.

I like your brother r24

It really jumped the shark when they did that crossover with Flamingo Road.

I think the show jumped the shark when Pa started collecting orphans.

Yes r27 and everyone started becoming married teachers in Walnut Grove

One of the weirdest episodes was when an old 1970s vintage "Colonel Sanders" comes and tries to make Nellie's into a KFC. Little House was set in the 1870s/80s. Sanders wasn't born until 1890.

That Nellie was a snooty ass little bitch.

^^^Half pint

R30 she and her adopted sister Nancy were both ugly.

Sara Gilbert was/is ugly and always had gray teeth.

[quote] One of the weirdest episodes was when an old 1970s vintage "Colonel Sanders" comes and tries to make Nellie's into a KFC.

OMG R29. I thought you were joking about this. WTF? I remember watching the first few seasons of this show when I was really young but even then I was discerning enough to realize it quickly turned to shit and stopped watching.

My favourite episode was when Carrie fell asleep and had a psychedelic dream with a doppelgänger imaginary friend. It looked like they had borrowed the set of HR Pufnstuf.

The first 4 seasons were fairly good and I enjoy watching them, despite a fair amount of anachronistic themes in a lot of episodes. Season 5, or whenever Albert appeared and the family moved away from Walnut Grove for a while is when things started to really go south. In the books the family did move around quite a bit, and the show was never supposed to be strictly tied to the actual Ingalls story (which Laura Ingalls Wilder supposedly embellished quite a bit, anyway), but there were many over-the-top storylines in the later seasons, as well as too many new kids who were adopted into the family to replace the original cast that was starting to age out of their roles. Still enjoyable, but quite silly. All of the boys seemed to have 1970s haircuts, too, which never sat well with me. Michael Landon supposedly would write very dark, "shocker" episodes to raise ratings when the show was getting long in the tooth (this the raping mime episode, etc.).

Honey OP, this show was made for family audiences nearly fifty years ago: it is not meant for you today in 2021. Unclench.

Little House is WAY more watchable than the Waltons now. Little House was way more campy. The Waltons was pure treacle.

I never understood the premise of ‘Prairie’. Mountain life in reality was a lot more boring.

Also, it didn't look like prairie. It looked like the backlot.

They didn't live in the mountains, r39. There are no mountains in Minnesota (despite the episode where Laura's infant brother dies and she feels so much guilt she escapes to the mountaintop where she meets the angel played by Ernest Borgnine). Minnesota was shaved flat by the glaciers during the ice age.

I cannot imagine living in such a desolate area with Harriett and Nelly being the town bitches.

[quote]Around the 1990s is when attitudes became more cynical and it became cool to have wiseacre, know-it-all kids and oblivious, idiot parents.

Actually that started a decade earlier.

I wanted to wrap my legs around Almonzo (Zaldamo) and called the show "Little Fairy on the Prairie".

That’s preposterous r44.

Was Carrie born a little under cooked? She always seemed .... slow. I was always suspicious that Mr. Edwards, Jonathan Garvey and the misc. boy orphans passed her around like a rag doll.

I do think Carrie was supposed to be retarded. Mary was bitchy and blind.

One twin was used when dialog was needed and the other was used basically as a prop in a scene.

What's preposterous, r45?

I read all the "Little House" books and was super disappointed in the show. The acting was *horrible*. Melissa Gilbert's voice ruins it. She sounds like Minnie Mouse. The production was also, somehow, cheap. I could never get into Michael Landon's portrayal. He's like a beautiful woman (who can't stop thinking about how beautiful she is), hamming it up at every opportunity.

Fast forward to "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." That is so much better.

[quote] I could never get into Michael Landon's portrayal. He's like a beautiful woman (who can't stop thinking about how beautiful she is), hamming it up at every opportunity.

Ha! That’s exactly what he was like. Perfect description of Michael Landon.

Don’t watch it. Next.

I loved the episode involving Ma and the traveling handy man. Mary was great when she came in the bedroom and caught her Ma riding the handyman’s cock. ‘“Get off his cock, you worthless prairie whore”. Best episode ever.

R53, nice try. Mary was blind.

Not sure if OP is trolling, but I don't think she show was particularly sappy. No more than other '70s shows really. The first few seasons were well written. And, the some of the actors were great. Harriet Olsen, Nels, the priest. And, for child actors, most of them weren't half bad. Embarrassing to watch? Really, OP? It wasn't at all.

But, as time went on, I think some of Michael Landon's kinks were revealed. He seemed to enjoy portraying unfathomable suffering. Like having Mary's baby burn up in a fire. And, all the young boys on the show had a certain look. Brown floppy hair, pouty- not saying, just saying.

R55 I think you’ve superimposed your sick boy molester fetishes off onto LHOTP.

R54. You’re right, Mary was blind. Her sense of smell was very sharp. She could smell the stench of unwashed pussy and cock. She could also hear Ma yelling it was the best cock she has had since the reverend came around.

Hmmm seems like OP is a weirdo who gets off on describing Little House in scatological terms. Seriously. If you block one post with the word shit in it, half the posts in this thread, including the OP, go away.

What a weird thing to get off on.

R57 do you really find stuff like that funny? I mean at this point? Describing old things in vulgar terms is so hack.

R58 go hide your face in the woods, then.

The actor that portrayed Nellie’s husband was an early AIDS casualty.

If "Little House" were remade today, in the spirit of the '70s-'80s iteration, I can see Mr. Matthew McConaughey in the role of "Pa."

And best friends with Alison Arngrim R61. They became friends on LHOTP and remained friends until the day he died, with Allison at his side.

No one's mentioned how "Pa" (Landon) was so impressed with himself and his physique that he went COMMANDO all the time on the set in costume?

I’ve seen photos of Landon in trunks and like a lot of straight guys, he skipped leg day. Too bad because from the waist up, he was kind of hot.

Recently I watched the Season 3 episode "Fred," where Laura takes in an ill-tempered billy goat who everyone hates except her. The whole episode is basically an excuse to have Fred butt various characters in the rear end -- Pa, Mr. Edwards, Doc Baker, Reverend Alden and (natch) Harriet all get butted in the butt.

But also in this episode Pa has a side gig harvesting reeds in the swamp to be sold off to furniture makers. There's a scene where Pa is up to his neck in the swamp and is clearly meant to be buck naked. Then he comes trudging out of the swamp carrying a bundle of reeds that's strategically held over his bare midsection. But just as he's throwing the reeds in a pile, a buckboard with an old farm couple goes wheeling by. A chagrined Pa gets a hapless look on his face as he glimpses down at his own nudity, and then he quickly dives back into the swamp (and gets covered with swamp weeds, naturally). The whole thing had a sort of "Benny Hill" quality and seemed like yet another scenario contrived largely so Landon could show off his body.

Eugene Orowitz was Landon's original name.

Suspenders, no shirt, as is done on the prairie.

[quote]The whole thing had a sort of "Benny Hill" quality and seemed like yet another scenario contrived largely so Landon could show off his body.

VisionTV here in Canada always edits that part out. I spent years thinking I imagined it in my gayling mind when I originally saw it on TV but it did happen.

When Michael Landon died, Allison Arngrim said to the press, "He was one of the nicest men I've ever met, and he also had tighter jeans than anyone I've ever known."

The Little House in the Prairie, that's a fine, wholesome show. It's about blind children out west, and every week they have a fire, or someone gets an incurable disease. We enjoy it very much!

R63 is gullible and believes everything she reads

[quote] Not sure if OP is trolling, but I don't think she show was particularly sappy.

It sure was! So many of the episodes were designed to make the viewer cry, yes cry. It was promoted as a "heart warming" family show, but it frequently featured horrifying events; blindness, drug addiction and withdrawal, child rape, death by being burned alive. And this was "family entertainment?"

I always thought Melissa Gilbert was one of the unattractive (crossed eyes, crooked teeth), unbearable (that awful voice!) child stars of all time. I hated "Half Pint." I liked Nellie better than her.

Michael Landon probably demanded dramatic stories so that he could showcase his acting abilities.

R74 he wasn’t a good actor. The scripts were mellow dramatic at best. Melissa Gilbert has gray teeth.

Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman? Don’t get me started! My grandma went ape shit over that show. She never missed a Saturday night episode! I hated it also.

Oh, dear! But one of the most delightful, possibly legendary ever. Will mellow dramatic join pron, cak and graxy in the lexicon?

Mellow Dramatic would actually be a good name for a drag performer.

[quote]When Michael Landon died, Allison Arngrim said to the press, "He was one of the nicest men I've ever met, and he also had tighter jeans than anyone I've ever known."

R70, didn't Alison Arngrim write that Michael Landon didn't wear underwear?

[quote]I quite like the theme tune.

R14, once I started seriously watching 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚 episodes on MeTV, I was startled to discover that the theme to 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 began as incidental musical library score on 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚. Take, for instance, the opening scene of Season 10, Episode 5, 'The Passing of a King':

LHOTP had one episode about when the telephone came to Walnut Grove. It started a weirdly specific thing about me, I am a sucker for any thing dramatizing a community getting their first phones. I don't know why, but that is just a topic which completely fascinates me.

I like stories about the first people to get radios, tvs, computers, etc... But, to me, nothing beats one about a community getting their first phones.

They used flashlights on one episode

Did they use them to transport hot dogs and beans, r81?

No to feed Cherokee Louise r82

I love the argument where Nellie Olsen and half pint are fighting over Almonso and Nellie says to Laura “you're just a broke down whore from Walnut Grove”

Can you imagine the Olsens fucking??

What I don’t get is why people who were already starving kept having kids. Ma Ingalls sure wasn’t squeamish about performing surgery on herself I don’t think she would have been adverse to a home abortion.

[quote] Can you imagine the Olsens fucking??

All four of them? That would be pretty disturbing...

Mrs. Oleson was the one of the most perfectly cast characters of all time!!

"Little House" was extremely popular.

As I recall everybody watched it every week without fail. I used to love it!

I used to get Harriet Oleson and Corabeth Godsey confused.

I grew up in a house with no hugging, no talking about feelings and no showing of emotions whatsoever. You bet your ass that show pulled at my heart strings. I cried every week no matter the storyline. If I wasn't crying then I just had a general warm feeling. Now you can give me a Mary!

Nellie would have been a DLer.

I had a crush on Jonathan Gilbert

My dad is an asshole so I always cried seeing how good pa and even mr Olsen was too his children. Of course it turns out the real Pa had more in common with my dad than Michael Landon.

Cuntry girls!

7th Heaven (a show Jessica Bielle would dearly love to disassociate her career from) is hardly any better and that was the 90s.

Best show ever to laugh about. When Albert started foaming at the mouth with his morphine addiction, it aligned so nicely with Nancy Reagan's war on drugs song and dance. We were inundated. Still, I smoked pot the first chance I could get my hands on it and a love affair began.

R8 You are so right. They loved that dark place. Every once in a while The Walton's did the same thing. Like when Elizabeth sleep walks to the carnival in town and gets up in a Ferris Wheel in her granny gown. Spooky.

R98 is that the same episode which is clearly about Elizabeth getting her period but because they don’t want to say period she instead has paranormal things happen to her?

Elizabeth pissed blood? Ewwww

r79, I never watched Bonanza, but supposedly some of the scripts were reworked by Michael Landon into "Little House" episodes as well.

R98 That sounds about right. Elizabeth's sleep walking turmoil and spooky theme was a metaphor for her entering the scary world or womanhood. I remember in one early episode and maybe even in the "Homecoming" where John Boy is milking a cow and a very irritable Mary Ellen is standing around watching. He tells her not to worry, "they'll grow". She was like "what will". And he said her bosoms. That strange little conversation stuck with me all these years. It didn't make it any less strange that he was milking that cow at the same time. Mary Ellen was a bitch in early years.

I always found the Walton's boring and depressing. I wouldn't want to live in Little House days, but I think I'd prefer it to living with the Walton's.

I thought Patricia Neal in The Homecoming was giving off Mrs. Patsy Ramsey, formerly of Boulder, CO. vibes. Miss Michael Learned was much more palatable.

Fun fact: Grandma Walton was, in truth, The Blair Witch.

Whet Grace? She just seemed to disappear at some point. Did she die or get stolen by gypsies?

R106 Gypsies. I feel like questionable people were always roaming in and out of town. Normally Cora Beth kept here eyes peeled. That is when she wasn't listening in on other people's phone calls at the switchboard. Nosy bitch.

R107 Grace was LHOTP so I think you meant Harriet.

Ok fuck all of the Walton’s bullshit. Ignored posters who tried to derail my Little House thread.

There’s a “Little Sore on My Penis“

I fucking hated the Waltons. LHOTP is the only frontier family show I can stand.

Karen Grassle in 1975 at the start of LHOTP

Bizarre clip, r112. It was like watching the kaffeeklatsch scene in the original Stepford Wives

How fucking bizarre they blew up Walnut Grove, Minnesota. I mean, who does that?

Karen Grassle should have played Scully's mother on X Files.

"Of all the episodes of Little House, that is still my favourite.

—Mrs. Patsy Ramsey, formerly of Boulder"

😂😘

Love this episode!

I didn't like the Waltons, but would prefer watching The Waltons to watching LHOTP.

Thanks for sharing that clip, r112. She was so beautiful...I wish we could have seen more of her other than on The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

I had a huge crush on teenage Matthew Labyorteaux when I watched LHOTP but age has not been kind to him

Jonathan Gilbert has aged better

was Michael Landon's hair supposed to be authentic with the time? It looks ridiculous now

Alison has crazy eyes during most of this. Was she ever on drugs?

Wow, that Albert was a real lady killer, wasn't he? He sets the fire that burns alive Alice Garvey. And he leads the clown/rapist right to where his ladylove Sylvia is hiding, resulting in her death. That Albert!

This has always been a favourite LHOTP related clip

[quote] mellow dramatic

Oh, DEER!

I used to watch just for Mr. Garvey. He was a fine figure of a man, and he made me want to wank myself silly.

And he sent flowers.