The thing that always bothers me is the open eaves in the Ingalls' little house. Just imagine the wind in the Minnesota winters blowing through that loft! Of course I know it was designed like that by Matt Jefferies to allow exterior light into the loft. Another detail I like is there's a wall where the plaster was never finished. Pa Ingalls added a kitchen and a window but never bought another bag of plaster to finish that wall.
Yet he built a whole new kitchen and he spent a whole episode putting in a larger window. Why couldn't he get a bag of plaster and smear it on the rest of that wall? Surely the harsh Minnesota winters were blowing right through that wall!
I was watching a few episodes on the Peacock streaming service for the first time and the HD remitters of the show seen on there look excellent- very crisp and colorful (compared to old re-runs I've seen on TV in years past which always looked muddy and not as colorful). I'm sure the Blu-Ray releases of the episodes look just as good.
I grew up in mid west Wisconsin and lived just down the road from the Laura Ingalls Wilder historical site homestead. used to watch the shows also. its a pretty neat place and some cool small farm towns in the area if your ever in the middle of nowhere cheese country.
there is a surprising amount of old historical stuff in the area. Its cooler now when I look back on it. No doupt I fished the same fishing holes and drank from the same springs and hiked the same trails.
Typical day for Charles 5:00 wake up, fall out of bed tripping on blanket, break 1 rib 530: milk the cow , get kicked by cow, break a rib 600: eat breakfast tell awful jokes 630: walk to walnut grove to the mill for work, trip on a rock, break a rib 710: show up late, get yelled at by Hansen. Walk away mad punch a board,board falls, hits a rock , which hits him in the head, falls backwards, breaks a rib 830: yells at Edwards to pick up the pace. Edwards trips Chalres, breaks a rib 12:00 lunch. Charles walks to Nels pay off debt, gets in a argument with Harriet, acts like a goody goody, trips walking out of store, breaks a rib 500: quittin time, happy to be heading home. not looking where walking , run into a wagon break a rib 530: solves some major issue on the way home 600: home for supper, sit in chair, it breaks, break a rib 700: go out to finsih chores, kids are throwing a ball, charles goes to catch, misses and breaks rib 900: goes to bed but misses falls out of bed , breaks a rib
Michael Landon had an incredible run on NBC. Bonanza (1959—1973) Little House on the Prairie (1974—1983) Highway to Heaven (1984—1989) While growing up, I couldn't remember a time when Landon wasn't on NBC—or Johnny Carson at the desk on The Tonight Show (1962—1992), for that matter.
I never understood why someone who worked at a mill had such a small house (I think the animals in the barn had more spacious accommodations). Just cut down a few extra trees and build yourself up a proper house (especially back then, when houses were considerably less complicated and required less outside skilled labor to construct). Maybe it was historically accurate, but it always gave me an uncomfortable sense of claustrophobia just from watching it on TV.
The title of the series was Little House on the Prairie. Building something bigger would have dishonored that.
Landon was obsessed with blind people, orphans, and blind orphans. Mary went blind. Mary’s husband was blind. Hester Sue taught the blind. Edwards fell in love with a young painter who was also somehow blind. In order to prevent his biological father from reclaiming him, Albert pretended to be blind. Albert was an orphan. Edwards’ kids were orphans. Jason Bateman played an orphan. The new Nellie was an orphan.
LHOTP was nothing if not repetitious. The following happened multiple times: Hail destroyed the crops. The Ingalls ran out of money. Someone had a fatal illness. Someone adopted an orphan. An epidemic hit Walnut Grove. Doc Baker killed a patient. Charles rehabilitated someone by forcing them to work on his farm. Harriet or Nellie did something awful. Carrie said something nonsensical.
Whatever farmers do. I have always been led to believe it was back breaking work performed from dawn to dusk, especially in the era before mechanized plows and the like. With Charles, it is portrayed as some kind of side hustle. It's not like he even had a couple of strapping boys to help out after school.
