Laura and Her Family Battle Hardships With a Smile in Little House on the Prairie

With my mom recovering from surgery, we’ve been watching a lot of television this summer. One series that has captured our attention is Little House on the Prairie, a series that has been referenced in formats as disparate as the latest VeggieTales video, which spoofs it, and LOST, in which snarly cynic Sawyer secretly considers it one of his favorite shows. While both of us had seen various episodes before, many of the episodes in the first season, which my friend lent us, were new to us, and the repeats were still entertaining the second or, in a couple of cases, third or fourth time around.

Little House on the Prairie is the long-running television series that is rather loosely based on the beloved autobiographical books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The show, which takes place in the late 1800s in the tiny town of Walnut Grove, centers around the Ingalls family, though individual episodes sometimes focus more on other townspeople. Still, at least one Ingalls is usually integrally involved in the story.

Laura (Melissa Gilbert) serves as narrator in some of the episodes, a device that harkens back to the books. This spunky pig-tailed child has a heart of gold but a knack for getting into trouble; her tomboyish tendencies are part of the reason she shares such a powerful bond with her pa, who calls her Half-Pint. Michael Landon is a bundle of warmth and humor as Charles Ingalls, though he has his stubborn and ornery moments as well. His relationship with the practical but fiery Caroline (Karen Grassle) is the cornerstone of the show, and theirs is a model marriage, albeit infused with a more modern flavor than the Ingallses we see in the books.

Less prominent than Laura but still a major player is her older sister Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson), who is ladylike and studious and often irritated by Laura’s behavior, though never for long. She’s a bit of a goody two-shoes, but there’s nothing mean-spirited in her outlook; she’s just not usually quite as fun as Laura is. Completing the Ingalls family is toddler Carrie, played by twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. Because she is so young, she never has much of a role in anything that is happening throughout the first season, and most of her dialogue consists merely of repeating the words of others.

Beyond that core family, however, are many colorful residents. Chief among these are the Olesons, the owners of the local mercantile who stand as a sort of antithesis to the Ingallses. Richard Bull is wonderful as Nels, a hen-pecked man with a good head for business but also a kind heart and a sense of fair play. He’s a decent fellow who seems to envy Charles his devoted wife and well-mannered children. Poor Nels is stuck with Laura’s nemesis, haughty Nellie (Alison Arngrim), and her destructive little brother Willie (Jonathan Gilbert). Worst of all, though, is his shrewish wife Harriet, the scourge of the town who is played with devilish glee by Scottie MacGregor in the most consistently laugh-aloud funny role in the series.

Other recurring characters include warm-hearted Doc Baker (Kevin Hagen), whose gentle bedside manner and hearty sense of humor give him the perfect disposition for his difficult job; jovial Swede Lars Hanson (Carl Swenson), who owns the lumber mill employing several of the town’s residents; even-tempered Reverend Alden (Dabbs Greer), who ministers eloquently to his yearning congregants; and disheveled Mr. Edwards (Victor French), an earlier acquaintance whose gruff manner Laura adores and who is the only character on the show with his own theme music. While most stories focus on recurring characters, some involve characters who only turn up in that particular episode. In many cases, these are just people passing through. For instance, Red Buttons turns up as a one-man circus peddling peep shows and placebos. This storyline, which primarily involves a phony powder he passes off as a miracle drug, amused me since Buttons went on to play a similar role a couple years later in Pete’s Dragon.

Because of the harsh conditions and plentiful opportunities for injury, many episodes have a grim streak to them, and it’s not uncommon for at least one character to die. In one episode, an elderly widow on the cusp of her 80th birthday concocts a plan to pretend that she has died in order to get her children into town for the funeral. In another, Laura and family dog Jack are feared rabid after both are bitten by her pet raccoon. In the most morbid episode of the season, a typhus outbreak causes life in Walnut Grove to grind to a halt as residents begin dropping off. The sense of peril is acute, and it’s easy to imagine that even the most beloved characters could fall victim to the whims of the harsh landscape.

Nonetheless, levity is hardly hard to come by. The music of Landon’s laugh rumbles through most episodes multiple times, and Laura’s antics often elicit a chuckle, to say nothing of the calamitous occurrences in the Oleson household. It may be a time of simple pleasures, but those pleasures are very visceral. There’s genuine joy in the pick-up baseball games and the picnics that are such a favorite after-church pastime, with homemade goodies spread out over blankets under a sunny sky. The faith of these hard-working and hard-playing residents helps sustain them as they move along toward their next set of challenges.

And of course, there is love. The Ingallses are a model for the whole community in this regard, both in terms of the familial relationship and the strong partnership between Charles and Caroline. The Olesons model a very different sort of marriage, but love is present there as well, as evidenced by the conclusion of the episode in which the two of them have an explosive fight and nearly split up. We see puppy love when Laura falls for an older classmate, who, in a later episode, falls for a burlesque dancer he meets when he decides to run away from home. The romantic storyline that intrigued me most involves Doc Baker and Harriet’s visiting niece forming a swift mutual affection for one another, only to be thwarted by an unfortunate circumstance, though not the one I expected.

The first season includes several iconic episodes, including Harvest of Friends, in which the Ingalls family sets up house at Plum Creek and becomes acquainted with the townspeople, and The Lord Is My Shepherd, the two-parter in which Caroline has a baby who dies and a guilt-stricken Laura, who was bitterly jealous of him, literally heads for the hills in an effort to convince God to swap her life for that of her baby brother. This episode covers a span of at least a year, which throws the timeline off a bit. For instance, in the Christmas episode, Mary mentions that this is the first Christmas at Plum Creek, but it would have to be at least the second. Nonetheless, it’s a powerful episode and one of several in which Christian faith plays a significant role, which is one of the reasons the show is so popular with people like my grandma, who bemoans the lack of traditional values on contemporary television.

Little House on the Prairie is a wholesome show that blends the old-fashioned with more modern sensibilities. Charles and Caroline sometimes seem a little too hip for the 1880s, and some of the topics they broach seem to reflect the 1970s more than that earlier era. It’s definitely a different animal than the books, but if you enjoyed reading about Laura’s pioneer adventures, chances are you will like watching the stories that unfold in a mildly fictionalized version of that world. And if the old-timey setting doesn’t appeal to you, give it a try, and you may just find that the residents of Walnut Grove are not so very different from us.

Grace Overcomes Grief in Prayerful The Lord is My Shepherd

I was saddened to open the paper yesterday and read of the death of Dabbs Greer, an actor whose career spanned more than half a century. He played all sorts of roles over the years but was probably most famous for portraying Rev. Robert Alden on Little House on the Prairie. Among the most memorable episodes in which he appeared was The Lord is My Shepherd, the emotional first-season two-parter in which the Ingallses welcome, all too briefly, a sixth member into their family.

The first half of the episode is a roller coaster of emotions as Caroline (Karen Grassle) informs Charles (Michael Landon) that a baby is on the way. He's ecstatic, not least because of the prospect that after three girls, he may be about to get the son he's always wanted. He's so invested in this possibility that he refers to the baby as "he" throughout the pregnancy, to Caroline's gentle disapproval. When it turns out he's right, though, nothing can stem his exuberance, and he's reluctant to take his eyes off the boy for a moment, so eager is he to revel in this fourth foray into fatherhood.

The town rejoices with Charles and Caroline, but little Laura (Melissa Gilbert) isn't so thrilled to see her father so enamored of this baby when she's always shared an especially close kinship with him. Suddenly she feels cast aside, and as hard as she might try to do everything a boy can do, she'll always be a daughter, never a son. She's so bitter about Charles' lack of attention to her that when Charles, Jr. takes a turn for the worse, she refuses to say a special prayer for him, horrifying Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson). When he fails to recover, Laura blames herself for his death and is utterly miserable until a conversation with Rev. Alden convinces her that she can accomplish a miracle if only she can manage to get close enough to God.

This is a powerful episode, and Landon and Gilbert give especially moving performances as Charles and Laura struggle through the wrenching pangs of jealousy, grief and guilt. It's even more overtly religious than most episodes in the series, with the psalm-inspired title a strong undercurrent throughout as the characters turn to God for help in their darkest hour. (Incidentally, this psalm, generally seen as the most beloved of the 150, also provided the title for a second-season LOST episode rich in religious imagery.) Both Rev. Alden and kindly Dr. Baker (Kevin Hagen) are deeply frustrated by their helplessness in the face of the Ingalls' tragedy, but the way the community rallies around the grieving family is admirable, particularly the very practical help Mr. Edwards (Victor French) provides when Laura goes missing.

The second half of the episode takes considerable creative license, but it's such a compelling emotional and spiritual journey for both Laura and Charles that it's hard to mind. While Charles frantically searches for Laura, riddled with guilt over the fact that he unwittingly neglected her in his excitement over the new baby, she stubbornly scales a nearby mountain in order to be as physically close to God as possible so she can convince Him to swap her life for her brother's.

Once she reaches the top, she falls in with an enigmatic vagabond by the name of Jonathan (Ernest Borgnine). Though Laura is initially reluctant to accept his help, he assures her that he and God are old friends and that whatever answer she's seeking, she may just have to be patient for it, and she might as well have something to eat in the meantime. As he looks after her, he cleverly sets the stage for her father to find her, never letting on to Laura that this is his intention. When the inevitable reunion occurs, Jonathan is nowhere to be found, and we are left to wonder whether this man might just have had a touch of the angelic about him. I find it interesting that his first name is the same as that of the celestial main character in Landon's later series, Highway to Heaven.

Little House on the Prairie was a consistently excellent show, but few episodes packed the emotional whallop of this bittersweet but ultimately comforting two-parter. If you only watch one episode of Little House, it should probably be The Lord is My Shepherd.

Charles Ingalls and Family Find Frustrations and Friendship in Walnut Grove

Lately, I've been enjoying my grandma's collection of Little House on the Prairie episodes, which she purchased in sets of two several years ago. I've enjoyed the show for years, but until now I'd never seen how the series started. There was the movie chronicling the Ingalls family's year roughing it out on the Kansas prairie, and I'd seen bits of pieces of that before watching it again recently, but I wasn't familiar with the first chapter in the family's history in Walnut Grove.

As in the premiere movie, in Harvest of Friends, we hear little Laura (Melissa Gilbert) in a voice-over noting what she would preserve if she had "a book of remembrances". There are many moments to recollect in this crucial beginning for hard-working Charles in a new home, complete with a unique set of comforts and challenges. The house he builds for his family is larger than their last abode, with plenty of open space downstairs and a bedroom in the loft for Laura and Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson). It's a cozy home, but completing its construction is only the beginning of Charles' immediate worries.

He has a field to plow, and in order to have seed for a crop, he needs to earn some money. He's already working for congenial Lars Hanson (Karl Swenson), working off the lumber for his house; in addition, he strikes a bargain with shifty Feed and Seed manager Liam O'Neill (Ramon Bieri), promising to fix the roof on his shed and stack all his grain in the next three weeks. This means six hours at the mill, six hours at the Feed and Seed and several more hours working the farm with his two oxen - which he has reluctantly offered as collateral to O'Neill should he fail to uphold his end of the bargain. The result of this is an extremely overworked Charles who is cranky and rarely home, much to the disappointment of his girls and his wife Caroline (Karen Grassle), whose patience with this arrangement is wearing thin.

This episode showcases Charles' resolve, his willingness to work himself half to death in the hopes of providing a better life for his family. It also shows that Caroline can be stubborn too, chastising Charles for skipping out on church to plow the field - and then refusing to comply when he asks her to stop plowing the field for him when an injury prevents him from working. We also see their lighter side, particularly when Charles has a revelation that his workaholism has taken a great toll on his family and he proposes a day-long picnic. Unfortunately, this joyous outing is cut short by the aforementioned injury, incurred when he falls out of a tree while attempting to retrieve a kite. Not a very smart move, Charles - but then I guess he was trying to prove he could still be fun.

This episode offers the first glimpse of several important townspeople. Not only do we meet Karl, who is an incredibly decent, generous employer and a fine neighbor, we are introduced to Dr. Hiram Baker (Kevin Hagen), the easy-going town doctor; Nels Oleson (Richard Bull), the practical shopkeeper; and Harriet (Katherine MacGregor), his conniving wife. While Nels, Dr. Baker and Karl see that Charles will most likely be a valuable asset to the community and welcome him with various degrees of warmth, Harriet receives him icily and Liam does his best to take advantage of his rather desperate situation. When the broken ribs prevent Charles from finishing on time, Liam comes calling. How will Charles ever manage to keep his oxen - and if he can't, how will his family survive in this new land?

The Ingallses still have some settling in to do after this episode. We've yet to meet Reverend Alden, though Caroline and the girls do attend church and discuss his sermon, and there's been no mention so far of school. Of course, this episode's focus is on Charles, and Laura and Mary don't come into it all that much. There's plenty of time for that later. This first episode is about switching from an isolated, purely pioneering lifestyle to an existence in a town, as a part of a community. The transition isn't easy. But it's well worth the perseverance, for Charles and his family and for viewers, who would have many more years of these new friends to enjoy.