Little House on the Prairie Original Series Rewatch

Clockwise from top left: Melissa Sue Anderson as MARY, Sidney Greenbush as CARRIE, Michael Landon as CHARLES, Karen Grassle as CAROLINE, Melissa Gilbert as LAURA

Please don’t tell Pa, but there’s a new Little House on the Prairie series coming to Netflix in July of 2026. To prepare our hearts and minds for this potential violation of our childhoods, Steve and I decided it was our duty to revisit the original series. Steve’s been begging for this to become a reality, so perhaps it was inevitable.

We talk through our histories with the show, some book research, and why we think the OG Little House has been arguably the GOAT of family shows. In addition to just general conversation, we each picked 3 favorite episodes to discuss. Those are: The Pilot, Ma’s Holiday, The Richest Man in Walnut Grove, The Spring Dance, Bunny, The Music Box, and Harriet’s Happenings.

Sidney Greenbush as CARRIE with Jack in episode Ma's Holiday

  

We will be back closer to the premiere of the new series to talk more about the new cast and what we think the new release might bring. Stay tuned for more Little House content.

Steve Barnes is guitarist for stoner metal band Introvoid, and also plays guitar for the cover band Rebecca Crow. All of Steve's stuff can be found at Sweetchildoftime.com.

Lindsey Dunn is a film critic with membership in both NC Film Critics and Southeastern Film Critics. She loves all things Cobra Kai, Netflix Dark, indie horror, and any stories about complicated relationships. You can find her at 1ofmystories.com and most social channels @1ofmystories.

Melissa Gilbert as LAURA in episode The Music Box

Show transcript:

00:00:01.43

Lindsey

Hello, I'm Lindsey Dunn from 1 of My Stories, a podcast about the story shaping me. Today, we are starting something new. We're going back, back, back into time.




00:00:13.53

Lindsey

Not just a show about the past, but a show from our childhoods. A show we all probably watched, whether we liked it or not, a lot. A show called Little House on the Prairie.




00:00:26.30

Lindsey

And with me today is the man from Walnut Grove himself, Steve Barnes. Ahoy, Steve, or should I say wagons up.




00:00:34.98

Steve Barnes

Hey, yeah. Wagons up, Lindsey. It's me, Steve Barnes from my podcast, Sweet Child of Time. So maybe some people are listening to one of my stories. Maybe they'll listen to the Sweet Child of Time because I am a little Sweet Child of Time here in this time period. We're talking about the 1870s in Walnut Grove. Like you said, this is really exciting to get to go back in this timeframe, Lindsey.




00:00:59.45

Lindsey

Yeah, so we're back. We are back because Steve and I haven't podcasted together since the fall when we did Welcome to Dairy. This is a very different show.




00:01:11.31

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




00:01:11.54

Lindsey

or is it?




00:01:13.41

Steve Barnes

Well, yeah, it couldn't be more different, right? do you i can't even I can't think of many similarities. Can you?




00:01:24.06

Lindsey

Well, it's interesting because I was just, you know, when we think about Little House in the Prairie,




00:01:29.11

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:01:29.53

Lindsey

You think about de very cozy show, a very family-oriented show, but I'm like, dang, there was a lot of trauma happening.




00:01:34.88

Steve Barnes

Yes.




00:01:39.78

Lindsey

There was a lot of tragedy. There was a lot of scary stuff and some unhinged stuff happening. So i had sort of forgotten about that aspect of the show.




00:01:49.97

Lindsey

So I was actually in the Fear of God podcast discord telling them, hey, you could probably do a horror podcast about Little House eventually because of how many how much stuff was in it that was more, in some cases, more risque or traumatic than I really realized.




00:01:59.61

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:02:09.91

Steve Barnes

and You're right. um And I didn't even realize that through like my earlier watches of of Little House on the Prairie, like when I was a kid. And then again, as a young adult,




00:02:18.86

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:02:21.85

Steve Barnes

even like when I read the books this time around, like in 2026, that's when I kind of realized, wow, there is, it it wasn't like a, like a saccharine sweet story of the Ingalls, like, you know, getting along. They went through some really hard times. They made some really strange decisions. Um, not just the Ingalls, but the government at large.




00:02:45.66

Steve Barnes

And it's, It is. it it i wouldn't say it's a welcome to dairy situation where you're like running for your lives like from like scary yeah talisman and like spirits and whatnot. But yeah the whole the cold, hard truth of reality is what's really scary here. And um yeah, these early settler days were not all apple picking and whistling Dixie.




00:03:11.83

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it just goes to show, and I just want to make stay a statement here and then we can we can move forward, but I think it goes to show that there's all these often fears about kids and what they can handle.




00:03:26.48

Lindsey

And i think what happens is that kids just comprehend the parts that they can, and a lot of the other stuff goes over their heads.




00:03:35.67

Steve Barnes

Exactly.




00:03:36.09

Lindsey

and parents don't need to worry as much as they do because you know, for me, this was a safe show. And now as an adult, I watch it, I'm like, ooh, like, you know, they also had to keep those adults entertained that they were watching this.




00:03:48.41

Steve Barnes

h




00:03:49.46

Lindsey

So it just goes to show that like, people don't need to be so concerned about what is on their, you know, their kids are watching. I'm not saying, like, have your kids watch porn or anything.




00:04:02.04

Lindsey

But, you know, we only comprehend what we can at that stage of life.




00:04:06.84

Steve Barnes

I think that's really accurate because what you're saying is reminding me, like I said, I'm reading the the little house books now and I'm reading them from the perspective of a five-year-old girl, especially in the first one.




00:04:18.00

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:04:18.55

Steve Barnes

And she's looking at her family as her world. And we know that there's another world outside there beyond that. But, you know, like you said, she she is recognizing all the things that are happening, happening around her and her family and the hardships that they're going through. But she's seen it through her little kid eyes.




00:04:37.78

Steve Barnes

So she's seeing them through like a different prism than the adults around her are. So she can see. In other words, she can see Pennywise. She can see him just fine and the adults can't.




00:04:49.05

Lindsey

Exactly, exactly. So let's talk about why we are doing this at all, Steve. and So, you know, just, yeah, it kind of is your fault.




00:04:56.88

Steve Barnes

I think it's my fault, isn't it?




00:05:01.94

Lindsey

So talk you know talk to me about what's coming up for one of my stories in Sweet Child Time. What is coming up for us and why we decided to kick off this series?




00:05:15.30

Steve Barnes

Sure. um i was telling you before we got on microphone that that I've always kind of wanted to do some recaps of Little House on the Prairie because it's always been a ah just a wholesome, likable show in my eyes. I'm not a Little House freak or anything like that, but I do, you know, it's a show that I look back on with fondness and I can rewatch it now and kind of still see it through that lens.




00:05:38.78

Lindsey

Dang, I'll have to take back that t-shirt I got you called that said I'm a little house freak.




00:05:44.84

Steve Barnes

I'll take it because I want to be a little house freak. I'm getting more and more into it. so that's kind of what I aspire to be. So I want that shirt, but we found out, um, I guess January of this year that they, that they are doing a little house remake and they want to reboot the series on Netflix.




00:05:53.46

Lindsey

Okay.




00:06:04.56

Steve Barnes

And this spurned my interest for a couple of reasons. First off, because i love the property and I think there is a lot of material there for them to work with.




00:06:14.56

Steve Barnes

They don't really have to, they're there's not a whole lot of stretching they have to do. Everything is right there within the books. um So that's of course interesting, but then I'm also interested in how they're going to do this because I know they can't,




00:06:29.88

Steve Barnes

they can't cookie cut the they can't copy the series because it's gonna be a completely different tone.




00:06:34.30

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:06:36.50

Steve Barnes

We're talking 50 years later. There's no way it's gonna be anything like the TV show. But I'm hoping that it's gonna be, it follows the path of the books that were given to us.




00:06:49.07

Steve Barnes

They were written back in the 1930s. And it'd be great if we could see like a recreation, like a faithful recreation of those books while being honest to like the true history of like manifest destiny because the books really gloss over that a lot and the television show is guilty of it as well and i have a feeling that you know we're in a more modern culture now everybody is you know more trying to be more inclusive and more relevant in what they're saying so i'm really hoping that they're going to portray you know the the early settlers in a more honest light i suppose not gloss over it




00:07:27.80

Steve Barnes

the way it did in some of these episodes we watched recently.




00:07:31.67

Lindsey

there might be So you're saying there might be more than, say, three Black characters in the whole.




00:07:38.05

Steve Barnes

Well, I mean, they...




00:07:39.19

Lindsey

There might be people of different you know cultures coming into intersecting these stories in a different way than they did in the past, where it's, you know, you have a special episode with




00:07:43.93

Steve Barnes

Sure.




00:07:54.73

Lindsey

an indigenous character and then, but most of time you don't see them or you might have, ah you know, yeah, I think I'm picking up what what you're putting down.




00:07:56.25

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:08:04.96

Lindsey

I think we need to like mention some specific details though, that we're going to get into that more in our next episode, which will be coming out about probably a month. But the show, the new series comes out on July 8th on Netflix.




00:08:18.17

Lindsey

And I'm guessing it's going to be dropped the episodes all at once. Like they usually do. cause there's no part one, part two.




00:08:25.75

Steve Barnes

July 9th, actually. I'm going to correct you, if I may, please.




00:08:28.86

Lindsey

so Okay, fine. July 9th, and it's it'll be on Netflix, and we do plan on recapping that series. And um yeah, Steve, so like what's interesting is when we did, we finished Dark, you know, we had both done 1899, we then finished Dark, and then we went on to do some movies and stuff Well, Steve was all the time pitching what we could do next because he loves recapping TV shows.




00:08:56.81

Steve Barnes

I




00:09:01.52

Steve Barnes

i do




00:09:02.07

Lindsey

and And so, yeah, the the thing was Little House kept coming up and I was just like, no way, no way, no way. i'm not going I'm not going to do that. But this kind of, for me, it kind of went a little triggered like an okay because I was like, okay, there's a new series coming out.




00:09:19.54

Lindsey

But in order, if we're going to recap that, then we can like look at the original series. But to be frank with you, Steve, it's been become little bit too much of an obsession for me.




00:09:29.85

Lindsey

And I probably need to calm him down about little house stuff at this point. But um




00:09:32.95

Steve Barnes

What? Really? ah like this. Okay, go on.




00:09:38.20

Lindsey

yeah, just, you know, I i think i you had started watching our episodes a lot sooner than I did. um And because what we, were let me see, I'm getting off topic here.




00:09:51.16

Lindsey

Okay. So we had made this plan that we were going this episode because we were like, okay, we'll do one episode about the original series where we talk about the books, some, and some of the TV show.




00:10:02.74

Lindsey

Then in June on our next episode, which will be in about a month, we are going to talk more about the new series and maybe some of the cast and what we think it's going to be like and sort of preview it.




00:10:15.63

Steve Barnes

Yes.




00:10:17.72

Lindsey

Right? So, You had started, um ah like you usually do, immediately. watching it is As soon as I said, um you know, okay, let's do it.




00:10:23.71

Steve Barnes

Mm hmm.




00:10:28.34

Lindsey

You were like, okay, we have this assignment. Because what we decided to do was each of us was going to pick three episodes, which is hard to pick just three.




00:10:35.66

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:10:37.65

Lindsey

Each of us would pick three. And then we both watch it.




00:10:38.53

Steve Barnes

That's right.




00:10:40.70

Lindsey

And you started immediately. And I was had some other things to do. So I started last week. But the problem was, as I watched the episodes, and a lot of times I would realize, oh, this isn't the episode I was thinking of.




00:10:52.40

Lindsey

It was actually another episode that sounded very similar to this episode.




00:10:52.88

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:10:57.74

Lindsey

And in some cases, I was being led astray by AI to what my episode would be.




00:10:58.11

Steve Barnes

yep




00:11:02.70

Lindsey

We'll get into more into that later. But I just started last week, and I've watched more, way more than then six episodes.




00:11:11.74

Steve Barnes

ah




00:11:13.33

Lindsey

I've watched... I've scanned a lot of episodes where you don't watch the whole thing, but you can kind of watch every 10 seconds, like my fast forwarding.




00:11:22.72

Steve Barnes

Okay, that's a little cheating, but okay, I'll accept it.




00:11:23.19

Lindsey

um




00:11:25.82

Lindsey

But yeah, because I don't know. I've just watched a lot more episodes. And now I almost do feel like I want to go back and watch the whole series, but not necessarily recap it.




00:11:32.54

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:11:35.97

Lindsey

I'd like to go back and watch it all because I'm like, wow, this is a lot better than i remember even. Yeah.




00:11:43.99

Steve Barnes

I totally agree. i watched way more than six episodes too. I think I've probably watched about 30. I think I watched a lot of season one and I found that I'm a, I'm a season one dude.




00:11:56.11

Steve Barnes

i don't like it when they get to like season five and beyond. I'm going to be completely honest about that.




00:12:02.86

Lindsey

Hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




00:12:03.79

Steve Barnes

But um yeah, I watched a lot of episodes too. It's really easy to digest and, I have to watch entire episodes. I thought that I could do what you were saying and kind of scan them because I watched the six episodes that we agreed on.




00:12:20.31

Steve Barnes

I watched them all twice. And what I told myself is like, I'm gonna watch them the first time and just watch them in the second time. You know, i kind of scan through just kind of get some general ideas. I couldn't do that.




00:12:32.15

Steve Barnes

I watched them all start to back and I thought maybe, ah maybe I'll watch them like on, you know, time and a half to like kind of speed them up a little bit. But I found that i like, I really don't like doing that because I like the pacing of this show. i like the vibe.




00:12:47.89

Steve Barnes

i like the choices that the actors make. And I like some of the weird direction that the actors are giving and that that they're forced to do. um i just think it's just delightful. yeah,




00:13:00.29

Steve Barnes

I'm glad to hear that you're liking it too.




00:13:00.34

Lindsey

yeah and some of the music. Some of the music is completely inappropriate. Like it'll be like a really jaunty tune for a really tragic episode.




00:13:04.53

Steve Barnes

right




00:13:11.19

Lindsey

um so yeah, some of the music choices are bizarre.




00:13:11.46

Steve Barnes

i




00:13:14.59

Lindsey

And I think Manifold would have a field day with it. I'm sorry. Manifold is this is a friend from our dark discord group and he often talks about music.




00:13:25.69

Lindsey

So, okay. Let's talk about a little bit of history with like your prior history with the series. So, you know, obviously you mentioned a long time ago how much you like the series.




00:13:38.49

Lindsey

Now, maybe like if somebody saw you like on the street, they wouldn't think, I bet that guy likes Little House on the Prairie because, you know, you guys can't, and maybe nobody's seen, don't know, Steve posts pictures of himself, but he's like, he's a grizz rather grisly looking ah bearded gentleman that wears,




00:13:44.00

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:13:49.06

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:13:59.79

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:14:00.89

Lindsey

mostly the color black all the time he's a doom stoner so maybe you wouldn't automatically think I bet that guy's favorite show is Little House or one of them so Steve tell us a little bit about your history with the series and what makes it so special for you




00:14:16.88

Steve Barnes

I mean, it it has just a lot to do with my age. I was born in 1972, so I'm the perfect age to be watching this show as it's being aired.




00:14:27.53

Steve Barnes

And we've got to remember this is the perfect show to watch with your family. So this was a show that I watched with my grandparents, with my sister, with my cousin. um It was a family show. so It was just in in the zeitgeist when I was a kid.




00:14:44.13

Steve Barnes

There weren't a whole lot of shows. It was just like the three or four networks. So I was a TV watcher. I was always parked in front of the TV. So I pretty much watched every show that came out in the 70s.




00:14:55.80

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:14:56.63

Steve Barnes

So a Little House on the Prairie just happens to be one of them.




00:14:56.66

Lindsey

who




00:14:59.45

Steve Barnes

The thing that really made it stick to me, though, because I love the show, of course, but I was always a big reader as well. When I was in school, my favorite place to be was in the library.




00:15:10.34

Steve Barnes

And when you're like a little kid, you just read whatever's there. And so you also want to read what's familiar to you as well. So Little House on the Prairie, admittedly, if we're going to gender the book, it's a girl's book, right? It's from a girl's point of view, but it doesn't read like a female book. It just reads like ah a kid's book.




00:15:31.84

Steve Barnes

So it it was really, I recognized the series because I knew the show. So that drew me to the book. And of course, the first book that I read was The Little House on the Prairie book, which is book three.




00:15:45.52

Steve Barnes

But just the familiarity with the show led me to the book. The books dive way deeper into Laura. So that gives you more of a connection. So then when you're watching the show or when I was watching the show, I just felt more connected to it.




00:16:00.65

Steve Barnes

Having read about this particular character. Then, of course, I grew up and, you know, shit happens. And then I became an adult somewhere, but somewhere in the ninety s I suppose. I want to say like 1990, 1991 is when Little House on the Prairie started getting rerun a lot.




00:16:21.62

Steve Barnes

And it was rerun along with like the most current episode of Highway to Heaven. It was like a double feature and it came on every day like at five o'clock on USA Network. So me and my buddy Sam would always be watching these two shows because they were comfort shows.




00:16:37.37

Steve Barnes

um they They were nostalgia shows. And of course, now that we're like old kids, young adults, you might call us, you might want to remember what it's like to be a little kid again. So it meant a lot to us at that time.




00:16:50.47

Steve Barnes

And now um I'm on stage four, which is like revisiting all this as a old adult. And it's even better now. Like I'm i'm finding a lot more nuance to it now than I ever did.




00:17:03.89

Steve Barnes

Like, for example, i was I never really looked at it um through like the the lens that we were talking about earlier, how tragic that time period could be. I was noticing that more as an adult um reading it this time through.




00:17:21.40

Steve Barnes

So yeah that's my whole history. It's a pretty succinct story. It has like three parts, a beginning, a middle, and in an end. So how about you, Lindsey? did Were you into this show, and did your family watch this when you were a kid?




00:17:36.27

Lindsey

Well, before we go there, I was going to say, um did you, i might I blipped out for a second, so you might have already said this, but did you watch it with your kids?




00:17:38.10

Steve Barnes

Oh.




00:17:46.65

Lindsey

Did like do you sit down and watch it with your kids when they were growing up?




00:17:48.15

Steve Barnes

Oh.




00:17:49.43

Lindsey

Interesting.




00:17:50.84

Steve Barnes

We tried to. it didn't It didn't catch their interest. I think Charlotte now would appreciate it because Charlotte is very much into Amish culture.




00:17:55.03

Lindsey

Interesting.




00:17:59.48

Steve Barnes

She like loves the Amish, and she's just kind of fascinated like with that whole genre, if you might want to call it, the cottagecore genre. So I think she might be...




00:18:10.87

Steve Barnes

She's walked in the room a few times while I'm watching it, and she knows what Little House on the Prairie is, but she has yet to sit down beside me and watch an episode together, which we're going to make it happen.




00:18:15.29

Lindsey

hu




00:18:21.60

Steve Barnes

she's She's got a newer boyfriend, so we spend a lot of time with him.




00:18:22.18

Lindsey

Wow.




00:18:25.80

Lindsey

Well, that's interesting because I feel like most girls, maybe it is just it was our time in the 70s and 80s, but i'm just I would think most girls would be interested in Little House, when they're not now when she's older, but even when she was little, I would think That she would have been interested that.




00:18:47.38

Lindsey

that




00:18:48.31

Steve Barnes

No, because, you know, she's she was born in 2006. We've got to take that into consideration. And she really like very much gravitated towards like um animation and any show that would involve like singing and dancing, like camp rock or school of rock and stuff like that.




00:19:07.58

Steve Barnes

So at I think from her perspective at that time, she was used to seeing those types of shows and to see such an old looking, slow show and being like four or five years old, it just didn't stick with her. like And I'm not the type of dad that's going to force my kids to sit down and watch shows with me.




00:19:26.10

Steve Barnes

I kind of probably should, but I'm just not that type. I like i like them to i like them to come to me.




00:19:28.97

Lindsey

well you can wheedle a little bit you can like you can wheedle a little bit so as far as as far as my history goes i saw the series also was born in 76 and so and so my family did watch this show when we, we, there were, we didn't always have a TV growing up, to be honest.




00:19:52.79

Steve Barnes

Like the Ingalls.




00:19:54.78

Lindsey

Yeah. mean, I, would when we first got the TV, it was all rabbit ears, but yeah, we would, we would watch it a lot, but I, I think some of these episodes we didn't, you know, maybe I didn't see all of them.




00:20:10.15

Lindsey

And that makes sense because i think, you know, back when it was, you know, first aired, if you didn't watch, catch the episode, you were out of luck until the next time it aired or there was a re a redo, like you said, but um yeah, but I mean, we watched it, the my family.




00:20:22.06

Steve Barnes

That's right.




00:20:27.94

Lindsey

In fact, the other, you know, when I come home, sometimes my parents would turn on an episode here or there and they'd be watching it. And I was totally not interested.




00:20:38.36

Lindsey

I would just be like, all right, I'm going to go do something else in my room. I'm talking about just this past year, not even, you know, because I'd be like, what are you watching?




00:20:45.72

Steve Barnes

Sure.




00:20:47.32

Lindsey

He's like, Little House on Prairie. I was like, okay, I'm going to go read a book in my room. So




00:20:51.38

Steve Barnes

No wonder you hated it when I brought it up then. Okay.




00:20:55.54

Lindsey

was just like, eh, been there, done that, and not that interesting. And now I'm like, why did you did you think that? Because this is this is actually really good. And I was, you know, I entered into the process intrigued about how i' would feel about it.




00:21:08.76

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:21:11.86

Lindsey

but, um but yeah, watched it a lot. i Yeah. Like I said, I remember it being this cozy series, but some of these episodes are in my, are in my, myself subconscious all the time, but I somehow forgot they were little house episodes or, you know, I would, I would i would think about them sometimes.




00:21:31.22

Steve Barnes

Sure.




00:21:33.45

Lindsey

Like there'll be one, there'll be one that I talk about later that I think about all the time, but it, I guess when it came time to pick our episodes, I never thought once about picking that one um because I was just like, it just didn't dawn on me that it was a little house episode.




00:21:50.46

Lindsey

So in my head, it's just like, it's almost like that happened to me when I was growing up or it's just a story that I know about, but I forgot it was a little house episode.




00:21:57.37

Steve Barnes

Sure.




00:21:59.22

Lindsey

But yeah, I just, I just think it's, this was a lot more, it was a lot more, like I said, horrific in some cases. And I remembered or, Some of the stuff that happens, I'm like, oh, this isn't exactly safe television that like I remember it being that. So like some of this stuff is downright scary. Because I was over at my sister's yesterday and I was telling her I was rewatching Little House. And she said, are you feeling wholesome? And I i told her, well, actually, let me just give you a rundown of all the stuff that happened during the show.




00:22:32.92

Steve Barnes

right.




00:22:33.02

Lindsey

Which is interesting because you have to, it has to be entertaining.




00:22:33.26

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:22:36.26

Lindsey

Yeah. and It has to be entertaining. So there has to be some sort of drama. they have You have to keep the drama going. But yeah, I said, you know, as I told her this, she goes, you know, I don't know if Vaughn would be able to handle it especially that episode. And I thought, well, you know, like I said, maybe it would go over his head or, you know, who who knows. But i did I did wave the flag of an idea to her that




00:23:07.03

Lindsey

maybe this would be a ah book series she could read with him or they could, you know, maybe he could start because he's been reading Magic Treehouse. So he likes books about historical fiction.




00:23:18.84

Lindsey

And I thought, and but he's a really good reader and he tends to read those books really quickly. So I thought, well, maybe you could bring him a little house book. And I was thinking, well, I wonder if he would enjoy it because it has, you know, girl leads. And, but yeah, but still like the,




00:23:36.73

Lindsey

The thing is, it's still life on the prairie and it's like, how did people live back then?




00:23:39.42

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:23:41.80

Lindsey

mm-hmm.




00:23:42.23

Steve Barnes

Yeah, it's not a girly book at all by any stretch the imagination, but I would say like, i feel like I have to say this since we're talking on microphone, you're talking about a child reading Little House on the Prairie, which is a children's book, but it's a children's book that doesn't stand the test of time 100%. So it's it's definitely best to like read it with a parent so the parent can provide some context.




00:24:08.22

Steve Barnes

um I think that would be wise, especially um some of the songs that Charles plays in that first book are very, very race coded and probably need some context for some of that stuff.




00:24:18.39

Lindsey

Oh boy. Yeah. Now we're gonna we're actually going to pivot to the books right now. So um that kind of, there's a question I wanted to pose to you about this.




00:24:25.28

Steve Barnes

Okay.




00:24:29.20

Lindsey

and I know you have some stuff you want to talk about, but you mentioned that you are kind of hoping the new series might be a faithful ah adaptation.




00:24:40.34

Steve Barnes

Yes. OK.




00:24:41.05

Lindsey

Well, I wonder, I want to press into that a little bit and see what you mean, because apparently Michael, someone like I was listening, did some research and somebody about people who complain that it's not like the books, you know, like always that, that, that the original little house series is not like the books.




00:24:55.05

Steve Barnes

Of course.




00:24:59.22

Lindsey

And Michael Landon made the, made the comment that, I can't do an episode about all the steps it takes for Carolyn to bake a cake. You know, so there's there's a lot of there's a lot of parts in the books, apparently, where it's just going through an everyday, kind of like a slice of life, what what we're going to do or, like, how we churn the butter or whatever.




00:25:16.72

Steve Barnes

Oh my God, yeah.




00:25:21.23

Lindsey

Like, you can't make a whole episode about that. So that's why he, like, put, you know, inserted some things in there.




00:25:23.74

Steve Barnes

Right.




00:25:27.98

Lindsey

So how faithful of an adaptation do you want? Do you want like a full episode about a cake or what, what's, what are your thoughts there?




00:25:35.58

Steve Barnes

I mean, that's a good point. They do talk about food an awful lot. Like that's the central theme of the book is like, that's, we're going to grow some food. We're going to harvest the food and now we're going to eat the food. And that's, that's your whole story right there. um The hardships that they faced. um I want to see that. I want to see that portrayed.




00:25:57.46

Steve Barnes

ah want to see. I hope they give the guy a beard because like, it's so like integral to Charles Ingalls to have a beard and Michael Landon skimped out on that one.




00:26:08.73

Steve Barnes

They actually did like ah a PSA before the show even began just so people wouldn't be pissed off. I swear this is true. Before they aired the first episode, they said Michael Landon did not grow a beard, even though Charles Ingalls has a beard and here is why. And they had to kind of temper that back.




00:26:25.85

Steve Barnes

So I want to see a beard. Okay. Um, I want to see them and in motion a lot because the Ingalls family moved around a lot and the show little house on the Prairie is based around Walnut Grove almost a hundred percent.




00:26:43.32

Steve Barnes

And, but the fact is, is they, they set up shop in all kinds of different places and their travels were part of that. So I'd like to see some of that. Um, what else would I want to see?




00:26:56.95

Steve Barnes

Um, I'd like to see Ma, Carolyn, portrayed a little more um faithful to the books as well, because in in the show, she's she's wonderful. Wonderful mother, caring, giving, always with a smile, always with a lesson. That's not how the Ma was necessarily in the book. She was like the voice of reason of the household.




00:27:19.48

Steve Barnes

And she was kind of the one who, who would push Charles in the right direction and not always with a smile and a wink. um So I'd kind of like to see her character be a little more true to the the real Carolyn Ingalls.




00:27:32.92

Steve Barnes

And just to show us how hard life is. Cause um Charles had to borrow, him borrow money all the time. And that show didn't, they show that in the show a lot too, how he has to borrow money a lot.




00:27:45.05

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:27:45.75

Steve Barnes

But the fact is that he, he, He needed the help of his community and he needed help of those around him. And I'd like to see that kind of portrayed too.




00:27:59.35

Lindsey

Yeah. What else do you want to tell us about the book, Steve?




00:28:04.41

Steve Barnes

What else? of




00:28:05.37

Lindsey

You said you had some research you wanted to share?




00:28:08.87

Steve Barnes

I mean, ah Lindsey, I did a lot of research, like way more than I should have, but what I'm prepared to talk about ah is, um




00:28:13.15

Lindsey

Well, I mean...




00:28:17.46

Lindsey

Okay.




00:28:21.94

Steve Barnes

you know, the fact of who wrote these books. That's a controversial question. And it didn't raise controversy until like recent years.




00:28:33.43

Steve Barnes

The name Laura Ingalls Wilder is like blazing across the front of the book. So of course, you know, this is her story. But this story took place in the 1870s.




00:28:45.62

Steve Barnes

She did not write this book, any of these books until the nineteen thirty s when she was years old And the only reason she did is because she was getting the encouragement from her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who was also at that. Her daughter, Rose, was raised with education, graduated college, and she was a writer um at a newspaper column, and she was pretty successful.




00:29:13.98

Steve Barnes

But the market crashed and that took all their money and the Ingalls were even poorer than they were before. And Rose Wilder was supporting Laura and her husband Almanzo.




00:29:27.35

Steve Barnes

But when the market crashed, they had nothing. So that was when the idea was born for Laura to start writing her story. And we know from Laura's other writings that she does that she's not great at writing dialogue and she's not great at like putting a a picture, a story together, but she's really good at like recounting her memories and the stories themselves are solid, but it's it's clear she needed help.




00:29:58.23

Steve Barnes

and reading Rose's works that she has written in her name, it looks pretty clear that she had a big hand in editing these books and she is the editor. I mean, no doubt about it. She helped edit these books or she did edit these books.




00:30:13.37

Steve Barnes

But there's a lot of speculation that she was a ghostwriter of these books as well. And i I'm kind of one of those people that feels that way. That Rose, i don't want to say that she embellished any of the stories, but I think that she put her spin on them. And I think that she did a lot of the...




00:30:32.57

Steve Barnes

She presented the book in a way that made it marketable and made it endearing to children, where I think Laura Ingalls by herself might not have been able to do that. But she's the one that had the stories.




00:30:46.04

Steve Barnes

So this is all Laura's story as told by the adult Laura as edited by her daughter Rose.




00:30:55.31

Lindsey

So that's what you want this the books to say from now on? Yeah.




00:31:02.26

Steve Barnes

I mean, we don't know because both of them have passed away at this point and the rights, they never gave the rights to make this show.




00:31:06.46

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:31:09.94

Steve Barnes

They didn't, I don't think they had any inkling for a little house television show. It wasn't until after Rose died and she passed the rights on to her lawyer that her lawyer sold the rights to the show almost immediately.




00:31:23.85

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I didn't do, i knew you were going be talking about this, so I tried to do some just very cursory searching. And the main thing I found immediately was just that people acknowledged that the writing was definitely a collaboration, but Rose didn't get a byline.




00:31:40.09

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




00:31:43.54

Lindsey

And, you know, even though people say at the very least, she was a very good editor, At the worst, she might have, you know, helped to do some of the, did enough of the writing that she should have had a byline.




00:31:50.65

Steve Barnes

yeah




00:31:57.14

Lindsey

So it's not like anybody's saying Laura Ingalls didn't do any writing. um




00:32:02.67

Steve Barnes

Of course not. No, because she was a writer of her own right.




00:32:03.38

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:32:05.53

Steve Barnes

Cause she's, she submitted like farm columns to like farm magazines about, I think about like weather crops and things like that.




00:32:05.92

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:32:13.12

Steve Barnes

So she was a writer. She knew how to do it. But I think for being like, Rose was a writer at a newspaper that was a sensationalist newspaper. So she knew how to get people's attention and she knew how to work language to her advantage.




00:32:28.06

Steve Barnes

So I think that's where she kind of came in as a superior editor.




00:32:32.09

Lindsey

yeah it's just it's really interesting because I think yeah some sometimes the role of the editor is a little you know more unsung than it should be you know I just I did a I did a write-up yesterday or this weekend and three people edited it and I can say like for sure that it's a lot stronger now and they helped like point out some things that




00:32:43.13

Steve Barnes

Sure, sure.




00:32:56.98

Lindsey

I didn't have. And it makes me kind of want to edit her in real life when I do my movie reviews. And I'm like, I wish I had that, but I don't got no budget.




00:33:02.23

Steve Barnes

Sure. ah




00:33:05.34

Lindsey

ah but




00:33:05.91

Steve Barnes

ah




00:33:07.35

Lindsey

But it could, know, with your writing, it could help. It could definitely help you to have an editor, but yeah. How much a role does the editor play? And sometimes, yeah, sometimes they don't get very much credit, but they definitely can contribute to the success of how the book




00:33:24.63

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




00:33:26.62

Lindsey

how the book does.




00:33:27.70

Steve Barnes

They help sell it. Sure. The last thing I wanted to say about the books was, um this is my last note I have about the books, is, um and this ties in like with what I hope to see in the show.




00:33:39.93

Steve Barnes

um So I think the main difference between the Little House on the Prairie books and the Little House on the Prairie show, as we know it from the seventy s is the books are like where you immerse yourself into the world of Laura Ingalls and you are Laura Ingalls and you know, everything around you like pertains to that.




00:34:01.66

Steve Barnes

But in the show, the show is more of a nostalgia view of a time period and a sense of quaintness and community. And it just so happens to include a character named Laura who is part of that community.




00:34:17.68

Steve Barnes

So that's what I wrote as the big difference. And so when we see this new series, that's what I'm hoping to see is like us immersed in the world of Laura and stay there. Yeah.




00:34:33.34

Lindsey

Yeah. And something you kind of hinted about, or at least, you know, addressed some, but I think we should just talk about quickly is the fact, so before with the books, okay, before this series, the main thing, the reason Little House has come up in my purview and people like if you listen to us before you know i'm a librarian so i get bookish news a lot delivered to me but the the little house books today are considered very problematic to the point that o many people think they should be removed from library shelves or not be um or at the or maybe like




00:35:21.34

Lindsey

Hey, we'll give you this one and we're going to give you this other one by an indigenous writer that writes about the frontier experience to kind of give a different perspective.




00:35:26.62

Steve Barnes

sure. sure




00:35:31.24

Lindsey

Because if you read the books and especially like, you know, the pilot episode, you could, you know, it's very, you come across from that thinking that like indigenous people are scary or that they're threatening and there's something to be feared.




00:35:45.30

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




00:35:48.36

Lindsey

And like today, of course, now, Yeah, we'll talk about when we talk about the pilot. But today, of course, it's considered like, okay, let's remember who was on this s land first.




00:35:59.68

Lindsey

And, you know, those those kinds of topics.




00:36:00.02

Steve Barnes

okay




00:36:02.12

Lindsey

So, the yeah, so so there's definitely some on you know some stereotypical writing about people, of indigenous people at the very, but I don't know if there's, are there people of color in the book, Steve?




00:36:16.55

Lindsey

That's something I'm curious about.




00:36:18.74

Steve Barnes

Yeah, the same doctor that's in it's in the show, he's a character in the books too. Like in the first book, it's like a, I'm sorry, I think it's like the third book.




00:36:23.29

Lindsey

Okay.




00:36:26.62

Steve Barnes

They come down with a case of malaria and like the the town doctor, who's ah a black doctor, is the one that basically saves their lives. And um yeah, he's a strong character in the book.




00:36:40.31

Lindsey

So, yeah.




00:36:40.38

Steve Barnes

And let's see, what was I going to say about that? There, um... You're not wrong at all. And I would like to voice that. I don't think that they should be pulled from the shelves for what they contain.




00:36:51.83

Steve Barnes

But I do think I agree with myself with what I said earlier about your sister, that they just need a little bit of context to, you know, just let people know that that that this is what was presented at the time.




00:37:00.38

Lindsey

yeah




00:37:05.54

Steve Barnes

We don't view this as okay now, but this is how it was viewed at this time.




00:37:12.31

Lindsey

yeah and and and thankfully today we're in we're in a time period where we have people are understanding the importance of okay if you're gonna have a character who is indigenous that, you know, tried to get at the very least a sensitivity editor or writer to scan your work and see, did you put in here anything that is kind of not, you know, the character is not portrayed in a way that would be accurate or that's downright offensive.




00:37:44.41

Steve Barnes

Sure, sure. Yeah.




00:37:46.39

Lindsey

So, but like it, you know, it's just interesting that the only time i ever heard about Little House was, tell closer was it was people talking about how you know these books you know are so problematic and so you start it starts which maybe that explains why I was just like I don't need to be watching this problematic show that's so outdated but I feel like in some ways the show itself tried to correct some of that past um we can get into that more like yeah yeah




00:38:03.27

Steve Barnes

yeah




00:38:17.14

Steve Barnes

Ham-handedly, maybe a little bit, but I do think this newer show has a real chance because, i mean, we have to face it, like when this was happening in the 1870s in Wisconsin and like the Midwest, it was a super diverse area.




00:38:32.77

Steve Barnes

And the government was handing out these, you know, these claim jumpers to anybody. So like, you know, black men, white men, and then of course all these different cultures coming together were like, you know, German, Scandinavian, French,




00:38:48.83

Steve Barnes

Mostly white, but nonetheless, these are a ton of different cultures together. And it's noted that's like that's ah one of the most diverse cultures we ever had in the course of our country was like 1870 Wisconsin, which is very weird. But it's also very true because that's where the government was pushing everyone to go and expand.




00:39:10.94

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Well, they were, were they wanting them to expand though, because they wanted to take up the space that, you know, they had put, they had put a claim on this, that the government put a claim on this land that was lived in by other people.




00:39:23.70

Steve Barnes

Yes.




00:39:31.02

Lindsey

So they had to get people to come in and try to overrun those people.




00:39:33.41

Steve Barnes

That's right.




00:39:35.58

Lindsey

So that's,




00:39:36.02

Steve Barnes

Charles Ingalls himself, like, he moved his family into what is considered Indian territory before the government did anything.




00:39:37.43

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:39:42.20

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:39:44.18

Steve Barnes

So he basically went and built his first house on Indian land or Native American land without anyone's permission.




00:39:44.64

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:39:52.87

Steve Barnes

And meanwhile, the Native Americans were starving, so they would come to his house and... take his food, just come in there and take all of his food and leave. And he saw that as a big affront.




00:40:03.61

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:40:03.81

Steve Barnes

But of course they were starving. So it's like, Hey, there was this guy here illegally. He's not supposed to be here. So let's just go take all of this food, which was kind of just because he kind of made that claim two years too early.




00:40:12.57

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:40:19.83

Steve Barnes

um So he's, yeah, he's not without flaw.




00:40:23.10

Lindsey

Yeah. Yeah. Well, anything else you want to say about the book, Steve?




00:40:29.20

Steve Barnes

I don't know. i feel like I went in a weird direction there. I want to get back to the nice and cozies.




00:40:33.53

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:40:33.72

Steve Barnes

I don't have anything else to say at this point.




00:40:35.93

Lindsey

Okay. Okay. um Okay. Well, yeah, when we're talking about the TV show, you know, if you want to mention, and yeah they did it in the books, you can do that.




00:40:46.01

Lindsey

So yeah, we don't have to leave the books permanently behind, but um yeah, I know I didn't revisit any of the books.




00:40:49.27

Steve Barnes

You never will. I'm still reading them. I'm on book five.




00:40:54.97

Lindsey

I just watched TV. So I'm saying that for the listener's benefit, not yours, not yours, Steve, you already know, but Steve is the resident you know resident book person, even though I'm the librarian, i don't know how that works, but, but yeah.




00:41:00.47

Steve Barnes

I already know this. Yeah.




00:41:06.83

Steve Barnes

It doesn't make sense. Yeah. ah




00:41:10.62

Lindsey

Okay, so we are going to talk about, this is our meat and potatoes of our of our episode, or it's supposed to be, where we're going to go over our six episodes plus the pilot, because I feel like it's kind of important to talk about how they set the tone for everything.




00:41:17.72

Steve Barnes

Yep.




00:41:27.51

Lindsey

And so what we're going to do here is we will, whoever suggested that episode will introduce it and kind of say, hey, why did you want to watch this one?




00:41:40.15

Lindsey

What did you remember about it? What's your memories about it? And then what it was like to watch it again. and then the other person will say what they want to say about it and what it was like for them to watch it and if they remember this one, et cetera, et cetera.




00:41:56.34

Lindsey

So starting with episode one, the pilot, this was interesting because it was, ah why i wanted to watch it is because my hope was that they were going to cover the treatment of indigenous people right away. Like I thought in the episode that because I knew it was in the books that they were going and that there was fear that they would be invaded by Indians.




00:42:22.01

Lindsey

I was like, okay, I bet it's going to come up in this episode at least once. And there were characters that came actually multiple times. um But this was an hour and a half.




00:42:35.96

Lindsey

So it was a very long episode. The longest one.




00:42:38.39

Steve Barnes

Yeah, two-parter basically, yeah.




00:42:40.21

Lindsey

Yeah. The longest one of them all. So let's see, what do I want to say about this episode? It was, uh, this, this is, uh, them moving from point A to point B. So they start in, Oh, I might've been, might've had this wrong. They started in Minnesota. Is that correct?




00:43:04.21

Lindsey

At the beginning of this episode, They are in the little, what they call the little house in the big woods. That's what Laura calls it.




00:43:10.39

Steve Barnes

Yes.




00:43:11.84

Lindsey

um And so they, so where is that? Sorry. it




00:43:19.20

Steve Barnes

I'm pretty positive that's Wisconsin.




00:43:21.30

Lindsey

Wisconsin. Okay. And right. Okay. Cause it's Wisconsin to Kansas and then they end up in but Minnesota. All right. So they started out in Wisconsin and I think this might be the only episode that had voiceover, like the majority of the episode, there's a lot of voiceover from, from Laura.




00:43:41.08

Steve Barnes

They did that for like for the first six episodes and then they stopped.




00:43:44.63

Lindsey

Okay. So she's kind of narrating, using the, using, maybe using passages from the books, who knows, or adapting passages from the books.




00:43:52.62

Steve Barnes

She is, yeah, she's reading exactly from the book.




00:43:54.80

Lindsey

And then they kind of show what's going on.




00:43:55.04

Steve Barnes

Yep.




00:43:58.71

Lindsey

This episode had a lot of drama to encourage probably viewership ah right away, because that's how you get your, get your show kicked off is your pilot has to have a lot of engagement for them to see people were tuning in So there was a lot of dangerous stuff happening there.




00:44:17.02

Lindsey

There's the starting off Steve with this, with this poor dog, Jack, who, who gets, um who gets, who's forced to, to run behind the wagon ah the whole, the whole time.




00:44:21.79

Steve Barnes

hu




00:44:32.56

Lindsey

It's like, there's no, Riding in the the bed of the wagon for you, Jack.




00:44:36.77

Steve Barnes

No.




00:44:37.26

Lindsey

You just have to run behind us.




00:44:39.70

Steve Barnes

they said there was In the book, they said there was no room in the wagon for Jack, so Jack ran behind them. But according to the family and Laura, Jack loved doing that.




00:44:50.10

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:44:50.62

Steve Barnes

But also according to Laura and the family, like... Jack is like a tool. He's like a commodity. He's like what they use to keep the wolves away from the livestock.




00:45:01.83

Steve Barnes

He like when the girls go out in the woods to gather berries, Jack goes with them to protect them. So he's like, he's not like a family pet. He's like a thing, like a tool. So I guess Charles is like, we got to work the tool while we're going cross country.




00:45:18.93

Steve Barnes

and Make sure his muscles are in good shape. But yeah, I would definitely have him sitting in Laura's lap. 100%. Mm-hmm.




00:45:25.27

Lindsey

Yeah, like i so as soon as I saw the dog running behind, i was like, that dog is going to get tired. And then they all start, there's a scene where they cross a creek or river or something, and they're in the wagon, and the horses are about to about to drown themselves, and they just left poor Jack on the bank, and he's barking.




00:45:32.39

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:45:45.02

Steve Barnes

This scene, yeah. Mm-hmm.




00:45:48.15

Lindsey

And then Laura's like, hey, we are, you know, Jack isn't going to make it. And Paul's just like, too late. it's too late Too late now.




00:46:00.68

Steve Barnes

We'll get another dog.




00:46:00.89

Lindsey

um




00:46:01.77

Steve Barnes

That's probably what he's thinking.




00:46:01.91

Lindsey

Yeah. Yeah.




00:46:03.81

Steve Barnes

ah




00:46:04.57

Lindsey

um So there that was, that was like upsetting.




00:46:07.12

Steve Barnes

Upsetting.




00:46:08.07

Lindsey

Yes.




00:46:08.31

Steve Barnes

Yes. Yes.




00:46:09.21

Lindsey

And when I watch TV shows, I almost always get upset because of treatment of animals.




00:46:10.08

Steve Barnes

but




00:46:16.09

Lindsey

Like that poor horse in the first episode of Walking Dead.




00:46:16.52

Steve Barnes

Hallelujah.




00:46:19.13

Lindsey

But we won't go there right now. Okay, so this is about them moving to Kansas for their for the home that they kind of set up temporarily.




00:46:31.70

Lindsey

And that what it takes and how they they're first trying to find just a place where they can settle down.




00:46:40.72

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:46:40.79

Lindsey

And Pod chooses this plot of land And they, you know, because they set to work building a house and and Carolyn's like trying to lift planks that that women were, at this time least, not equipped to handle house building and things like that.




00:46:40.89

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




00:47:01.50

Lindsey

But um they had this dirt floor. That was something that was notable. And I did notice that Ma was complaining that she had a dirt floor. But then by the end of the episode, there were there was planks on the ground but nobody had ever talked that we never we never saw that happening um besides yeah yeah yeah but it was but it's noticeable because they brought up that he said we'll get a we'll get a plank floor eventually and then all of a sudden there's just this plank plank floor at the end of the episode it kind of showed up all of a sudden I know they had to choose what to put in it uh the because they want this is the pilot probably and they hadn't They only had hired so many people.




00:47:18.89

Steve Barnes

They can't show everything. They can't show them baking the cake, Lindsey. Yeah.




00:47:44.43

Lindsey

The only other character that's in this episode is Mr. Edwards, which was good to see at least.




00:47:48.52

Steve Barnes

Thank goodness.




00:47:49.51

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:47:49.83

Steve Barnes

Yeah. And this is there.




00:47:51.90

Lindsey

um Go ahead.




00:47:53.06

Steve Barnes

This is all, everything you said is very, very, um, 100% in the books as well. It almost, you can almost read the book and watch the show at the same time with this pilot episode.




00:48:04.79

Steve Barnes

And when they're building the house at this, Carolyn actually did a lot more work than they portrayed in the show. show, they're like, oh, she can't lift a log. Oh, my God. But in the show, she was, I mean, she was doing everything that Charles was doing.




00:48:18.02

Steve Barnes

Not, and I'm sorry, not in the show, in the book. In the book, she was just as rugged as Charles was and would would do just as much stuff.




00:48:25.59

Lindsey

Yeah, i mean, you'd have to be. You'd have to be.




00:48:27.41

Steve Barnes

Yes. Yeah. No choice in the matter. And just like in the show, in the book, he just kind of seemingly chooses a spot at random. Like, okay, here we are now.




00:48:36.47

Lindsey

Yeah. Yeah.




00:48:38.60

Steve Barnes

And everybody's like, okay, okay I guess.




00:48:38.89

Lindsey

yeah




00:48:43.16

Lindsey

And I don't think that was the original plan. They were going to go further, but then Pa just decides, this is it. We found it.




00:48:49.68

Steve Barnes

you




00:48:50.17

Lindsey

Because he found a nice piece of land, so he just decided decided that was his.




00:48:54.79

Steve Barnes

Yep.




00:48:55.54

Lindsey

um Okay, we see maybe what is what is a key component of the show right away, where the parents apologize to the kids.




00:49:10.74

Lindsey

So I thought that was notable, that this is a family, the Ingalls family, and this is throughout the show, that the kids are always having hearts to hearts with their parents.




00:49:20.14

Steve Barnes

here




00:49:20.18

Lindsey

Especially Pa. it does It does happen some with Caroline, but I think in our six episodes I picked, um Caroline or Ma only had one heart-to-heart as opposed to every episode, Michael, Landon, or Pa has a heart-to-heart.




00:49:36.35

Lindsey

But Pa is not above apologizing to his kids when he does something wrong.




00:49:41.88

Steve Barnes

Exactly.




00:49:44.06

Lindsey

And he knows he needs to apologize to Laura for what happened to Jack.




00:49:50.10

Steve Barnes

sure




00:49:50.39

Lindsey

So I thought that was, this could be another big appeal of the show is that it has family like showing care for one another in healthy ways that you might not always see on TV.




00:50:03.16

Steve Barnes

Yeah. I mean, they, these parents listen to their kids. They care about their kids and they want to strengthen their kids. Just like the dog. Like I was saying, the dog has this purpose. Like Charles has these daughters that he's raising they're but he needs to live with them as well. So he knows that, you know, you can't just make a tool do its thing. You have to, what am I trying to say here? He,




00:50:33.62

Steve Barnes

he wants his daughters to be grow up and be, you know, good citizens and be able to do, to do for themselves. But at the same time, he has to live with them until they do. So he wants to make his home environment as loving as possible.




00:50:49.43

Steve Barnes

So to do that, he, makes himself a really empathetic person. And it's that character comes through but both in the real life, Charles Ingalls and the TV, Charles Ingalls as well.




00:51:03.52

Steve Barnes

Like the, he is the guy that like works through the problems with the girls and he is like the sounding board.




00:51:08.11

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




00:51:10.20

Steve Barnes

And um yeah, I remember like, he, he not Charles Ingalls being Michael Landon, Michael Landon and all through my life has been like revered as like the best dad, like the, the, the Uber dad that could ever be that, that is both strong and hardworking and caring and loving and equal parts.




00:51:34.45

Steve Barnes

And, um, and it's a big strength of the show. i mean,




00:51:39.38

Lindsey

Yeah. Yeah.




00:51:40.58

Steve Barnes

the Yeah, the parents the parents being as loving as they are.




00:51:40.81

Lindsey

I mean




00:51:43.68

Steve Barnes

And yeah, you don't see a lot of that in shows where a parent will apologize to their kid for making their kid feel bad. Usually it's like, it'll be more like, let me help you understand why I did that.




00:51:56.32

Lindsey

mean.




00:51:56.89

Steve Barnes

But here, like it's an apology, which which means a lot more.




00:52:01.50

Lindsey

Right. Okay. I just have a couple more notes and then um you can say some things too. But They establish, yeah I know you've been, we i it hasn't been a monologue, but I just mean you'll have time to say anything that I didn't say.




00:52:09.37

Steve Barnes

I already




00:52:17.94

Lindsey

um Laura is established as the center of the show, even though in a way like Michael Landon is, I he's the creator of the show.




00:52:28.40

Lindsey

He gave himself the best, one of the best roles, but of the kids, Laura is established early on as being kind of the most important Mary's the oldest and maybe she's the best or the good one but Laura is the one who draws people like Mr.




00:52:41.33

Steve Barnes

Thank you.




00:52:47.62

Lindsey

Edwards it seems to have a special relationship with Laura and when these indigenous people come to visit it's Laura that the chief um goes to she's almost like what you could call um you know we don't have these terms for for white people but like a magical white girl if something existed such as that.




00:53:10.52

Lindsey

I'll probably get some ugly comments about that one. But like the the chief just seems to want to honor her and he gives her his special bear claw. And just just she doesn't really even do anything.




00:53:22.91

Lindsey

except I guess she makes, she asks him a question. She's brave enough to ask him a question when everybody else is cowering under the table.




00:53:27.87

Steve Barnes

Exactly.




00:53:30.35

Lindsey

So she's shown to be like,




00:53:30.87

Steve Barnes

Yes.




00:53:34.20

Lindsey

a special connection with this Indian chief. So I thought that was very interesting. And the fact that they called out that this tribe was the Osage, which my ears went up because we had the, um the movie that came out, the killers of the flower moon was about the Osage people.




00:53:53.14

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:53:54.22

Lindsey

so I'm like, okay, but probably when I was little, I didn't pay attention at all to like, which tribe this was.




00:53:54.58

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




00:54:01.27

Lindsey

um So I think overall this episode just shows maybe like later on when the, ah when the show started, they, they brought in humor and i mean, the only humor really to be had in this show is kind of Mr. Edwards that who comes in but this, this episode really shows like the realities might be what we you were thinking of with the books, like how hard life was getting established and,




00:54:30.23

Lindsey

like how dangerous it was and so this episode is a lot more serious than maybe the other ones were and later on we had the drama we had the humor and all that but this is kind of a very simplistic just like one family and living together on the prairie and just trying to show how hard it was so yeah




00:54:52.31

Steve Barnes

Yeah, I didn't watch this episode specifically for our podcast here. It wasn't one of our agreed upon, but I've seen the pilot many times. um I think you did a...




00:55:05.85

Steve Barnes

I think we probably should have included it in our watch here. And I'm glad you talked about it now because it it does, you know, show a lot of the similarities to the book and how it followed that.




00:55:16.72

Steve Barnes

um Yeah. I think this, this new series might follow some of these exact same beats because these are the known beats of Laura's life at the very beginning. So i we probably will see a lot of these same things happen again. i kind of hope.




00:55:34.33

Lindsey

okay well let's move on to the next episode which is one of your choices, which was called Ma's Holiday.




00:55:42.16

Steve Barnes

Yeah, I picked this one because of of um ah Victor French, of Mr. Edwards. I got ready to call him Victor victor Edwards, and it's not his name. um I picked this one because of him. I'm a big fan of this guy. he directs some of the episodes later on. Victor French gets behind the camera and directs quite a few of these episodes. But when we when you first agreed to do this, one of the first things that came to my mind was,




00:56:10.70

Steve Barnes

Mr. Edwards letting the dog lick the food off the plate. Mr. Edwards running around with his gun and Mr. Edwards losing baby Carrie. And like, that's, these are the first things that popped into my head. So of course I had to pick this episode, Ma's holiday, because that's where all these things happen. The scene where he like has the dog lick the plate clean is a scene that goes through my mind every single day of my life. Like I think about it all the time. It's just a core memory for me. um This episode is episode eight from season one.




00:56:46.52

Steve Barnes

And basically what happens here is Charles uses a work trip as an excuse to take Carolyn on a second honeymoon and they need a babysitter for the girls while they're gone.




00:56:59.61

Steve Barnes

And the babysitter they decide on gets a sore throat. So they... last minute pick Mr. Edwards just happens to be walking by the house. The girls run up to him and say, Hey, will you babysit us for a week? And he's like, start now. Sure.




00:57:17.11

Steve Barnes

Why not? So he babysits the girls while Carolyn and Charles go on their quote unquote second honeymoon, um, which is a typical second honeymoon. They're not having a great time.




00:57:31.58

Steve Barnes

um




00:57:33.24

Lindsey

Do you want to say why they aren't having a good time, Steve?




00:57:37.88

Steve Barnes

Well, first off, it wasn't even, it wasn't it was a work trip for Charles. This this is so lame. like But anyway, Carolyn misses the girls.




00:57:48.32

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:57:48.62

Steve Barnes

um she Charles takes her to a play that somebody told him was like going to be awesome, like this funny play. But I think they saw the play from last week because tonight is like the premiere of this depressing play about um women missing their daughters or something along those lines.




00:58:09.18

Steve Barnes

Like, I can't remember what it's called, but we had the voice talent of Rocky and Bullwinkle.




00:58:10.46

Lindsey

Yeah.




00:58:14.41

Steve Barnes

Did you recognize that voice in the movie that they were watching, the play?




00:58:18.46

Lindsey

i did I did, didn't strike me that it was Rocky and Bullwinkle, but I was like, oh, that must just be the voice that everybody did back then.




00:58:23.32

Steve Barnes

It was.




00:58:26.45

Steve Barnes

No, that's that that is that person that did the voice for for this episode. um I saw that in the credits, and I was very pleased to see that, the same person that does Rocky the Flying Squirrel.




00:58:31.33

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




00:58:37.11

Steve Barnes

um But yeah, they just, they decided to cut their trip early. And meanwhile, while they're on their vacation, Mr. Edwards does it. I mean, he's, he's has a big heart. Okay. The guy's got a big heart, but he does a lot of stuff wrong. He carries that gun around. He shot a snake.




00:58:53.88

Steve Barnes

He makes the kids eat the snake. The snake tastes terrible. He shoots a hole in the roof at one point with his gun. He's walking around the loaded gun. shoots a hole in the roof. um Well, he lost the baby, so he keeps the baby like either on a leash around the clothes pole or nailed to the roof of the house. so This dude's a class act, but the thing I like most about this episode is when it's all said and done, you know, Charles and Carolyn have a, have a bummer of a trip and Mr. Edwards kind of does a not a great job with the girls, but when they come together at the end and Charles and Mr. Edwards are like, Hey, how was your week? They're both like, it was awesome. Yeah.




00:59:40.60

Steve Barnes

ah Mr. Edwards is like, everything was great here. No problems with the girls. Charles is like, Hey, me and Carolyn had an awesome time. You know what I'm saying? They didn't have an awesome time. They they had a terrible time. Yeah.




00:59:54.17

Lindsey

that's true I noticed that and I feel like there was something in the episode now I can't remember there was something about that that that it was there was something about that tendency of guys to do that and act like everything's okay

Melissa Sue Anderson as MARY, Melissa Gilbert as LAURA in episode PILOT

01:00:09.83

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:00:10.17

Lindsey

um I feel like there was something embedded about that in the episode itself leading up to that point that made that 10 times funnier. But um yeah, this was this is a funny episode, like choosing Mr. Edwards as your babysitter.




01:00:24.68

Lindsey

And then the girls kept saying, well, aren't you going give us a kiss goodnight? And aren't you going to read us the story? Mr. Edwards has no idea you know how to be a dad or how to get kids to bed because it hasn't been




01:00:35.60

Steve Barnes

No.




01:00:37.50

Lindsey

his experience, but yeah I enjoyed the part where he nailed Carrie's dress to the roof. And, but with Charles and Carolyn, the other thing that kind of got to me and made me laugh was that they were going on this second honeymoon.




01:00:55.98

Lindsey

Well, the very first night you see them just sleeping, sleeping outdoors on the ground with a quilt over them by a fire. That's it does.




01:01:05.33

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:01:07.60

Lindsey

There's no tent, no air mattress. I'm like, I wouldn't call this a second money honeymoon. She's lying on the ground probably with bugs crawling all over her. But boy, she looked so pretty in this episode.




01:01:21.60

Lindsey

Her hair is like ah down her shoulders.




01:01:22.00

Steve Barnes

Didn't she? Oh, yeah.




01:01:24.60

Lindsey

And I'm like, wow, they really picked such a good looking woman like to play Carolyn.




01:01:24.91

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:01:29.34

Lindsey

Like she's so pretty.




01:01:30.12

Steve Barnes

Oh my gosh, yes. And like, yeah, this this is the only episode that we actually see her bare shoulders, I believe.




01:01:31.58

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:01:36.14

Steve Barnes

So this is this is a coveted episode right here.




01:01:40.31

Lindsey

Yeah, they're just kind of lying on the ground. And of course, she's already missing the girls, but she's trying to she's trying to play along and be like, oh, yes, I won't. I'm not going to think about the girls at all.




01:01:52.18

Lindsey

If the eggs, the the eggs, something about the eggs, if the eggs go bad, they go bad.




01:01:58.04

Steve Barnes

Exactly. Well, me, they're they're counting every penny, I believe.




01:02:01.02

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:02:01.93

Steve Barnes

I did have something I wanted to say about that. Cause like when they're, they're sleeping outdoors, I'm going to say to their credit, they had to travel a long distance and there's no hotels or nothing like that. So that's a very common thing to sleep on the road on the way.




01:02:11.29

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:02:14.66

Steve Barnes

So they were on their way there, but she wakes up in the middle of the night.




01:02:15.17

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Yeah.




01:02:18.10

Steve Barnes

She's like oh my God, the eggs. Like she has like some dream. And then like the very next night, Laura's in bed and she wakes up and she's like, ah the eggs. So it's like her mother like sent her like this psychic message that like took a little while to get to her, but eventually it made it.




01:02:35.64

Lindsey

Yeah, yes. The girls, I forgot about that. The girls go outside in during a thunderstorm. to collect the eggs, which which is why Mr. Edwards shoots the hole through the roof.




01:02:46.77

Lindsey

And um yeah, that's, mm-hmm.




01:02:47.22

Steve Barnes

Yeah, he thinks they're chicken thieves, of course. And that bond, the last thing i want to say is that bonnet that he promised that she would, he would buy her a bonnet if she didn't miss the girls, which of course doesn't happen, but the bonnet's going to cost $2 and 50 cents.




01:03:03.45

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:03:04.50

Steve Barnes

And i I've learned from watching a bunch of these episodes that you can't really count on their their money and their years of like their succession of things happening being accurate.




01:03:16.91

Steve Barnes

Because like in later episodes, they talk about how Charles makes like a dollar a week at his job. So a bonnet costs $2.50, but a week's worth of work is worth a dollar. So that that math is not mathing, as the kids might say, Lindsey.




01:03:35.51

Lindsey

unless unless that's why you know bonnets were so unaffordable like why she would be so excited about the bonnet I don't know the You know, maybe a bonnet is like a TV.




01:03:50.93

Steve Barnes

It has like antennas inside and she can pick up some signals. i Maybe it's a mark jacob Mark Jacobs bonnet, perhaps.




01:03:57.66

Lindsey

Yeah, or like a fancy purse. Exactly. I don't know. but it just It doesn't seem like it would line up, but I think the it's what I got was the bonnet was like a special treat. You know, Carolyn did not think they could afford this $2 bonnet. So maybe it would cost more than a week's worth.




01:04:14.46

Lindsey

worth of work.




01:04:14.68

Steve Barnes

She could make like five bonnets in an hour. and i know she could.




01:04:19.74

Lindsey

hu Well, I don't know. Anything else you want to say about Ma's holiday?




01:04:25.93

Steve Barnes

I mean, I could say a lot and I'm wondering if maybe we should um maybe just like maybe do one or two more and revisit this, or do you want to burn through all of these?




01:04:34.81

Lindsey

what do you mean one or two more?




01:04:36.77

Steve Barnes

Cause we have like five more episodes to go here.




01:04:40.01

Lindsey

Oh, we need to talk about all of them. So yeah, you can't you won't be able to talk about everything about the episode, Steve.




01:04:45.50

Steve Barnes

Oh no, no. but That's my whole point. I'm saying, i didn't know if you, if you, this is for the editor only now, if if you wanted to cut short and like continue this on another episode,




01:04:53.91

Lindsey

Yeah, I think we should move on i should move we should move to the next episode.




01:04:59.10

Steve Barnes

Okay.




01:05:00.06

Lindsey

Unless you have something you really have to say. Like, get all your stuff in right now.




01:05:05.24

Steve Barnes

yeah I don't think I understand what I'm saying. I'm saying is we're over an hour at this point. I'm saying if we should wrap up and like continue the conversation at a different time, or if you want to just make this a two hour podcast or just keep going.




01:05:12.88

Lindsey

Oh




01:05:18.98

Lindsey

Yeah I think we should we should Keep going and make it you know As long as it needs to be like Cause the next episode we gotta talk about The next show Yeah We gotta talk about the the new show Plus I won't remember all this stuff by then Okay Alright Richest Man in Walnut Grove This is also yours Yep




01:05:24.29

Steve Barnes

Okay. Edit.




01:05:27.18

Steve Barnes

Okay. All right.




01:05:34.97

Steve Barnes

Oh, that's true too. Okay.




01:05:40.22

Steve Barnes

What? Me again? Okay.




01:05:44.12

Steve Barnes

Well, I just picked this one because this episode highlighted, you know, how poor the family could be at times and how just an example of Charles and the family, like working together as a unit.




01:05:57.11

Steve Barnes

And then as a bonus, we get like, a Mrs. Olsen payback where we get to leave her speechless at the end of the episode, which is very nice. So that's the reason I picked this one.




01:06:08.25

Steve Barnes

um The Richest Man in Walnut Grove, this episode is based around Charles had been working hard at the mill to get paid to be able to pay off his loan at the Olsen's Merchantile, but then he's not able to get paid after all because the mill's not getting paid. Therefore, Charles is not getting paid.




01:06:29.56

Steve Barnes

So he needs to come up with a bunch of money fast um because they want to pay off the Olsens and they have the next season to look forward to. They need supplies. They need food.




01:06:41.83

Steve Barnes

So Charles is looking for work. So he has, he I think he inherits about three jobs at this point. He works at the mill still.




01:06:52.91

Steve Barnes

He volunteers to help Mr. Hansen with the horses And then he volunteers to help a neighbor with his irrigation system, provided that he'll pay them.




01:07:04.18

Steve Barnes

He kind of does the the irrigation work pro bono, where he like kind of agrees to do the work. And if he does a good job, he'll get paid. So he's kind of doing this on faith alone, which is, you know, Charles Ingalls has a lot of faith, likes to put his, put his faith in himself sometimes.




01:07:24.02

Steve Barnes

um So the rest of the family chips in as well. They, at Laura's suggestion, they do double crops of potatoes to make extra money doing that. Mary gets a job sewing because a woman that, I can't remember the name that lives in town, but, you know, she her her hands don't work as good as they used to, so she hires Mary. Laura volunteers to do Mary's chores and to do Mary's homework for her to help her out with that.




01:07:53.06

Steve Barnes

Um, and Carolyn's out working on the fields while Charles is working his other jobs. So Carolyn is doing all the household jobs. Um, this works out for the family.




01:08:01.45

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:08:04.74

Steve Barnes

Um, there's really not much to go into here because it all works out in the end. We get a nice satisfying ending when they come up with all the money and they get to pay Ms. Olson and get to see the look on her face and see her eat crow, which we love that.




01:08:21.56

Steve Barnes

Um, Earlier in the episode,




01:08:28.43

Steve Barnes

wait a second. Okay, I think I put my notes in the wrong place. But earlier in the episode, we got to see Mrs. Olsen and Mrs. Ingalls in the store. This is while they were still like owing money. So Mrs. Olsen was kind of on her case.




01:08:44.95

Steve Barnes

And they start shouting Bible verses at each other as insults. So I thought that was very good stuff. Like like who can like out-scripture the other woman to like...




01:08:55.73

Lindsey

well




01:08:57.34

Steve Barnes

you know, get their point across the best. um




01:08:59.73

Lindsey

it's yeah it's actually Charles Miss Olsen's yelling bible verses at Carolyn and Charles and then Charles corrects her because she wants her to she wants her to apologize Carolyn to apologize for something she said when it was her who was being kind of mean and rude




01:09:07.13

Steve Barnes

Okay, there you go.




01:09:17.46

Steve Barnes

That's right, yep. Oh, and I forgot, the whole family working together, right?




01:09:21.83

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:09:22.34

Steve Barnes

Carrie milks the cow, don't forget.




01:09:23.81

Lindsey

He milks the cow. Mm-hmm.




01:09:26.81

Steve Barnes

And I wanted to say, like, every time Carrie is on screen, like, um I love it. Like, I've seen in the fandom, people are not fans of Carrie. And I think she's hilarious. I think her line delivery is really funny for, like, a little kid. And the faces that she makes and her big fake smile, it brings me joy, Lindsey. I'm i'm a big fan of Carrie.




01:09:50.23

Lindsey

Well... I will say i didn't, I forgot to say this the last episode. So since we're talking about Carrie, I'll go ahead and throw in here. i was actually going to make that a, a point about Ma's holiday is that Carrie had, I feel like she may be, I think they're, what they were saying is when it comes to her line reading and the way that she speaks um it's a little unnatural, but when she's younger,




01:09:58.21

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:10:17.51

Steve Barnes

yeah




01:10:19.64

Lindsey

what really impressed me about her is how somehow they got her to just turn on the charm. Anytime the camera's on her, she's doing something silly and making like just vibrating with joy and smiling and laughing.




01:10:32.14

Steve Barnes

h Yeah, there's few.




01:10:33.95

Lindsey

So they somehow, I don't know what I was hoping I could find. That was a genuine question. I was asking the internet. What did, how did they handle Carrie and to, to make that,




01:10:47.06

Lindsey

Actually, there it was two of them, right? So that there's twins.




01:10:49.80

Steve Barnes

There's twins. That's right.




01:10:51.03

Lindsey

So maybe it was whenever one of them was grouchy, they got the other one signed up. but um But yeah, she has a a certain charm to her that's, you know, it's different than then Mary and Laura.




01:11:04.95

Lindsey

But especially when she's younger, they had to have a kid that would just be so cute that that the and that she kind of, she fills that void, I guess, for them.




01:11:17.90

Steve Barnes

I think she's hilarious. I love her i love her line delivery personally.




01:11:19.11

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:11:22.74

Steve Barnes

um I guess my other favorite thing about this episode too is um I didn't realize that I picked an episode that Nellie gets punched in the face and gets a bloody nose from Laura, which is always fun. That's kind of a bonus in this episode. Of course, Nellie's going to be teasing about you know Charles Ingalls being poor, but that really drove Laura to the brink. So I was liking to see that.




01:11:48.73

Lindsey

Yeah, it's interesting how the, I know the Olsens are in the books, but they, you know, you know yeah in a way I kind of feel sorry for Nellie because she always, she's the one that set up, because there has to be drama, she's always the one that is fighting with Laura and just always the antagonist.




01:12:08.22

Steve Barnes

Always.




01:12:10.34

Lindsey

And it's like, no kid is that bad all the time.




01:12:10.88

Steve Barnes

Yep.




01:12:13.78

Lindsey

so And Laura wasn't always a perfect angel either. so um But she she got put in she got put in this um this role of the main antagonist.




01:12:18.81

Steve Barnes

No, she wasn't.




01:12:26.38

Steve Barnes

It's a first impression thing. Like the very first impression that Laura had of Nellie um in in real life and or as she says in the books is Nellie picking on her for being poor and being a country girl and Willie picking on them for the way they look.




01:12:28.13

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:12:42.93

Steve Barnes

So that's like that's their first impression of the Olsens that are the rich family that teases them. So I think that, you know, first impressions are everything, especially for the Olsens.




01:12:50.81

Lindsey

Yeah. um Let's see. Notes I had. there was there's There's an episode. there's a Sorry.




01:13:02.13

Lindsey

There's a reminder that Charles is given to not be too harsh on Mrs. Olsen. That is from the Reverend Alden.




01:13:09.71

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:13:09.82

Lindsey

So that's kind of where Reverend al Alden comes in His role seems to be to remind Charles often not to be too mad at Harriet Olsen.




01:13:09.85

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:13:21.56

Lindsey

So I thought that was that was interesting. Also, the Ingalls, I was asking, I also asked a question of why the Ingalls never have enough money, because that seems to be a recurring theme is how they're always broke.




01:13:37.48

Lindsey

and always needing credit from Olsen's mercantile.




01:13:41.14

Steve Barnes

Right.




01:13:41.72

Lindsey

um But apparently, like, Michael Landon made a decision that the family would never get any better off than they are. He wanted to keep them poor all the time. So is that reflected in the books?




01:13:53.34

Lindsey

that Did they get more successful in the books as things go along?




01:13:57.09

Steve Barnes

No, no. I mean, they were in destitute their entire lives.




01:14:02.29

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:14:02.84

Steve Barnes

So that wasn't Michael hands decision. That was just reality for the Ingalls.




01:14:07.10

Lindsey

and Okay. Okay. Well, even though, you know, later on in the series, you know, Carolyn's working at a restaurant, you know, they're doing other jobs and there's, so it just, so he didn't stick with the books all the time. He did divert, but he followed at least that, that he, that the family would never um be any better off than they are now.




01:14:30.88

Steve Barnes

Well, I should say the show solidly diverted from the books around season five. So a lot of like the later stuff, um you know, it's, it's, it's Hollywood fiction.




01:14:37.15

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:14:44.06

Lindsey

And this is when i became aware, this in the next episode, I think this is when I became aware of this thing that happened that each episode has a twin, almost, that there's similar episodes.




01:14:57.21

Steve Barnes

It seems like it. Yes.




01:14:59.42

Lindsey

Because at some point, you do sort of have to recycle plot lines, because it's hard to come up with an original original idea.




01:14:59.63

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:15:06.94

Lindsey

But the twin for this one would be Harvest of Friends. which is actually the second episode the the where also Pa doesn't have enough money and he's just doing all these crazy jobs and then the girls end up, you know, touting bail, trying to bail, heavy carry heavy things because their Pa's sick.




01:15:11.10

Steve Barnes

Oh, yeah.




01:15:13.80

Steve Barnes

That's a good one, too.




01:15:29.43

Lindsey

He can't do do anything. So that's, it's like, this is a repeat of of something that happened. But yeah, the family pulls together here And I did think there was another ah funny, the other, the funny line in this one for me was, again, with Reverend Alden, that he says that Charles would make a good preacher and he says he wouldn't because he doesn't like tea.




01:15:54.12

Lindsey

Because Reverend Alden kept telling him how much he was drinking tea.




01:15:54.84

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:15:58.17

Steve Barnes

Everybody makes some tea when he comes by and he's like sick of tea by now.




01:16:00.09

Lindsey

yeah




01:16:03.64

Steve Barnes

Reverend Alden rules, by the way, the real life dude. I was just reading about um how he celebrates Christmas and like the poor community here in Walnut Grove um didn't didn't have any money for any Christmas presents. And he was also a pastor at a more well-off church. And so he got all the, his congregation at the well-off church to buy specific items for the other church that needed them more. And that's something that, you know, that he did at as, as a surprise for the citizens of Walnut Grove and they were all psyched about it. So I'm ah um like, currently I'm all on board with Reverend Alden right now. He's my, he's my man.




01:16:44.06

Lindsey

Yeah, he's one of the regular recurring characters along with Doc Baker and Mr.




01:16:48.76

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:16:51.66

Lindsey

Edwards. People that are there a lot.




01:16:54.09

Steve Barnes

Oh, that's right. When I was talking about the black doctor earlier, that's that's Dr. Tan. I forgot that he he is featured in an episode later on, i think season five. But yeah yeah, I forgot.




01:17:03.48

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:17:05.22

Steve Barnes

Doc Baker is like the regular doctor around town. People are probably mad at me for saying differently earlier.




01:17:11.29

Lindsey

Well, that's okay. That's okay. They won't be too mad. Alright, so shall we move forward to the Spring Dance?




01:17:14.46

Steve Barnes

Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely.




01:17:20.22

Lindsey

Okay, the Spring Dance is Season 2, Episode 6, and if you're ever in a situation where our numbers don't line up, just know it's because because of that silly old pilot episode.




01:17:34.15

Lindsey

Sometimes the numbers are off by one, depending on which platform, because




01:17:36.45

Steve Barnes

You're right. That's right.




01:17:39.45

Lindsey

Steve sent me some numbers and he sent me the titles, but then I got confused because I was like, okay, 1.8. and then i put ah And then I put in 1.8 and it wasn't the right episode.




01:17:50.05

Lindsey

So I was, I got super confused and then i realized, oh, it's because of the pilot and which is, which is a common thing that happens is the pilot messed up the number.




01:17:57.90

Steve Barnes

It's Michael Landon's fault. Yes.




01:18:01.30

Lindsey

Okay. So the spring dance is one that I remembered very well, but again, i got it confused with, another ah twin called Dance With Me.




01:18:11.56

Lindsey

But in this, this is it involves one of Laura's, because she does it more than once, Laura's desire to get taken by a certain boy to the spring dance.




01:18:12.26

Steve Barnes

<unk>




01:18:25.14

Steve Barnes

yes




01:18:25.27

Lindsey

And in this case, the boy's name is Henry Henderson. And he's got very extremely blonde hair. And what happens is there's a spring dance coming up And this is a parallel storyline where you have the adults the adults and the kids kind of doing the same thing.




01:18:45.46

Lindsey

So Grace, ah Mr.




01:18:45.85

Steve Barnes

Yep. yep




01:18:48.22

Lindsey

Edwards' girlfriend, Grace, and I can't remember what her original last name was, but Grace is really wanting Mr. Edwards to take her to the spring dance, but she what does it she wants him to ask her.




01:19:01.91

Lindsey

And then Laura wants Henry to take her to the spring dance. Although when when watching this, she said something to the effect of everybody's already going except for him or Willie.




01:19:13.27

Lindsey

So then you think, okay, does she just want to go to the dance? Is it really about Henry Henderson at all for Henry? She's just using him to get to go to the dance?




01:19:21.34

Steve Barnes

Oh, did you see those looks she was giving him at the beginning of the episode? She's in love, dude.




01:19:26.33

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:19:26.59

Steve Barnes

Come on.




01:19:27.93

Lindsey

um But they she they go... but This is actually... a situation where Carolyn or Ma is to blame for all of the shenanigans that happens in this episode, because she tells them this story that all you have to do is make the boy jealous by making cheap sighs at another boy, and then he'll get mad.




01:19:38.86

Steve Barnes

That's right.




01:19:49.82

Lindsey

And he does get mad, but that means he might not speak to you. Not that he will then ask you to the spring dance.




01:19:55.62

Steve Barnes

That's right.




01:19:55.83

Lindsey

um So then these, both Laura and Grace are trying these various things steps to try to get the right response out of the boy and it all backfires and and uh but it ends nicely because ma remembers at the last moment by the by the grace of pa reminding her by the way that oh yes you did make me jealous but i got really mad and then who actually asked who to the dance back then well it was it ended up that it was carolyn had the swallow her pride and ask, ask Pa to the dance.




01:20:03.56

Steve Barnes

Tactics.




01:20:09.43

Steve Barnes

h




01:20:18.55

Steve Barnes

Yeah. ah




01:20:34.02

Lindsey

So then the girls um ask, ah end up, you know, asking their men folk to the dance.




01:20:34.76

Steve Barnes

That's right.




01:20:42.37

Lindsey

And it's very funny and sweet and harmless really. And it's very obvious from the beginning that both of these guys really liked the girl in question, but they, they feel like the girl is acting completely nuts.




01:20:56.95

Lindsey

Like in Mr. Edward's case, he thinks something's going on with her and the town doctor, which,




01:21:04.09

Steve Barnes

It looks like it is It looks like it.




01:21:05.37

Lindsey

yeah, well, she did that on purpose, but it was like, I never realized how how nice and tall Dr.




01:21:06.46

Steve Barnes

It. Yeah.




01:21:12.49

Lindsey

Baker is myself. um But then also the thing with Henry Henderson is that he's really admires Laura's fishing skills so much. So she she should have just leaned in the fishing thing from the beginning.




01:21:29.53

Steve Barnes

Yeah. And that she's not posing either. Like, I think at some point somebody is like, Oh, you're pretending like fishing because of Henry, but she's not like she, she's, she's a regular Fisher woman, I suppose, but she sounds awfully desperate.




01:21:37.85

Lindsey

yeah




01:21:43.78

Steve Barnes

This whole episode, I was like cringing so hard. Oh, you play marble. So good. Henry.




01:21:50.52

Lindsey

yes




01:21:51.10

Steve Barnes

oh Henry. Look at you at that fishing pole. Henry. i mean, it was, it was sickening.




01:21:56.82

Lindsey

yeah she was it was supposed to be oh because Mary told her that she told talk to the boy that she liked about stuff she thought he was good at




01:21:57.18

Steve Barnes

so




01:22:08.28

Lindsey

Because guys like to talk about it.




01:22:08.41

Steve Barnes

yeah




01:22:09.88

Lindsey

But yeah, but yeah they don't want you to just to be like, oh, you are so good at podcasting, Steve. You're so good at wearing black t-shirts, Steve.




01:22:20.00

Lindsey

you know like they It has to be a sincere compliment.




01:22:20.72

Steve Barnes

I love you.




01:22:25.59

Lindsey

um Let's see. The other funny thing. We already kind of talked we talked about offline, Steve, about that the Ingalls were just eating popcorn in bed randomly for no reason. like They're in you know Maybe they brush their teeth. I don't know if people brush their teeth back in, but they're just like, Padma are just sitting in bed, like eating popcorn while they're lying down. and I was just horrified by that. and




01:22:50.97

Steve Barnes

I personally think that they were like hiding it from the kids. I think that they were having like a midnight snack and they were being sneaky and not letting the kids have any. Cause popcorn, like in the book, they talk about popcorn in the books too.




01:23:02.77

Steve Barnes

How it was like this awesome treat that they get to have. So i don't know if maybe they were treating themselves as adults or something or.




01:23:10.01

Lindsey

yeah well i will have to say when you cook make popcorn the whole entire house smells like popcorn they weren't having any secret popcorn meetings




01:23:17.30

Steve Barnes

Yeah. Yeah. You're right about that. You're absolutely, yeah, that house is pretty small. They know everything that's happening under the roof.




01:23:27.36

Lindsey

uh okay the the last thing i wanted to say about this one is that ah thought it there was some really nice script in here because um with fishing, you know, there's ah when Henry Henderson goes to like she and Willie.




01:23:46.69

Lindsey

Oh, she's because she's trying to make him. I didn't say that, but she's trying to make him jealous by coming on to Willie a lot.




01:23:53.56

Steve Barnes

I was going to talk about that, of course.




01:23:53.97

Lindsey

um Okay.




01:23:55.64

Steve Barnes

ah




01:23:55.76

Lindsey

Yeah. I'll let you talk about that. But when they, when they're, um when they're fishing and Henry comes over and she kind of like, Laura has a fish and she pulls it really hard.




01:24:07.16

Lindsey

And he says, if you jerk the pole that way, you'll lose them every time. And I'm like, you're right.




01:24:12.90

Steve Barnes

You caught that too, huh?




01:24:14.64

Lindsey

You're right, Henry Henderson.




01:24:14.97

Steve Barnes

Yep.




01:24:16.48

Lindsey

um So, and then of course ah she tells Doc Baker that the best fish got away when, um when she doesn't end up, you know, there's no impact in what she's done and she's just ready to give up because of that.




01:24:16.47

Steve Barnes

ah




01:24:34.33

Lindsey

ah But I thought that the script was actually really clever, some of the lines it had. So what do you want to say about this one?




01:24:39.55

Steve Barnes

It's, well, was going to say, it seemed like doc kind of picked up what she meant when she said the best fish got away. It seemed like he was on her side. Like, Oh yeah, I know.




01:24:47.91

Lindsey

Hmm.




01:24:47.97

Steve Barnes

It seemed like he, he dug that. But yeah, I love this whole this whole dynamic with Willie in this episode. Because Willie is not always like the bad guy. He's always a naughty boy, but he's not as like hateful and spiteful as Nellie is. he just He's almost there, but not quite. And in this episode, he almost plays...




01:25:11.60

Steve Barnes

a friend role to Laura in a way. Like we know he's doing this favor only for the marbles, but towards the end, he's like really digging their friendship and he wants to keep this whole thing going.




01:25:24.80

Steve Barnes

Like he doesn't want to stop. So like, I think that he's like desperate for friendship and it shows in this episode.




01:25:32.89

Lindsey

yeah well really because he's such a a twit he doesn't really have that many friends the the the person we most see him with is Nellie and of course she's not very nice to him and is very manipulative in her dealings with him um so the ah the twin of this episode is dance with me as I said which was




01:25:40.22

Steve Barnes

no




01:25:43.07

Steve Barnes

Yep.




01:25:54.61

Lindsey

Because there's another episode that is very similar in that Laura wants this certain boy to ask her to the dance and the boy likes her too, but he can't seem to get up the courage. So it's kind of almost a reverse, you know, where she he's trying to get up the courage. And there's also ah the the the local spinster and a guy comes to town who's an older guy they...




01:26:22.65

Lindsey

and they he's kind of court her. The older man is trying to court this lady, but she's having nothing nothing of it. Cause she thinks she's happy hanging out with her cat. And so it's, it kind of ends the same way where these two couples finally get to dance with the person they wanted to. And that's in season five. So i like both of these episodes, but I actually think I like the dance with me episode a little better. um but but yeah, anything else you to say about this episode? It was cute.




01:26:52.76

Steve Barnes

Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, we got a double shot of like Mr. Edwards here. First off, we see him making an apple sandwich. Have you ever made an apple sandwich in your life ever?




01:27:06.01

Lindsey

I didn't see this him making this sandwich.




01:27:08.47

Steve Barnes

He was sitting in front of the mill and having his lunch and like grace is coming up to him and talking to him and he is taking apple slices and putting them between pieces of bread and he's eaten an apple sandwich.




01:27:20.84

Lindsey

Was there any peanut butter on there?




01:27:21.09

Steve Barnes

That was fascinating. What's that now?




01:27:23.29

Lindsey

Was there any peanut butter to go with these apples?




01:27:25.81

Steve Barnes

Didn't look like it, like just pieces of apple and pieces of bread shoving his mouth together, um which fascinated me.




01:27:30.62

Lindsey

but




01:27:33.89

Steve Barnes

And he, any kind of new thing that actually came out in the seventies is pretty amazing. And then the episode ends like his dancing, Mr. Edwards dancing.




01:27:44.38

Steve Barnes

I told you to pay attention to him at the end of the episode. What the hell was he doing?




01:27:47.10

Lindsey

her




01:27:49.30

Steve Barnes

He was like fast boogieing all over the place and then he knocks over somebody and that person like scoots off screen and then you see him like looking over at the person like checking out to make sure they're okay.




01:28:02.89

Steve Barnes

Did you catch all that?




01:28:03.26

Lindsey

yeah yeah well i saw nels steps on harriet's foot and she gets mad and and walks off and nels is like But Mr. Edwards and Grace are having a final time, even though he can't dance for for for anything.




01:28:19.06

Steve Barnes

He's like triple stepping. Like everybody else is like going done the done. He's going to do it. Like, I don't know what song he was listening to, but that was the weirdest dance.




01:28:25.53

Lindsey

hu




01:28:30.14

Lindsey

They were happy.




01:28:31.47

Steve Barnes

They were happy. And Charles is the last thing I want to say. Charles had a few like, They were dad jokes. He was telling Bible dad jokes and the girls were like visibly rolling their eyes and giving him nothing. And so he had to go outside and smoke his pipe by himself.




01:28:54.58

Lindsey

yeah oh yeah and this I didn't say this part the other thing that this is about Pa Laura has a talk with Pa she kind of because he senses something's going on and she because she asked him they have a conversation about Ma making sheep's eyes another boy and he never interrogates into this issue further she kind of he says you know she starts talking about, let's say someone you know does this or that, and likes a boy and doesn't, you know, so then she's telling him this, he's telling him this story and then, but he doesn't press into it and then he figures at the end, oh, you like a boy.




01:29:39.41

Lindsey

That seemed, you know, they had to, they had to not let that work so that could extend the drama, of course, but I thought that was a rare, a rare moment where,




01:29:46.89

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:29:51.44

Lindsey

It's like, okay, you're not going ask her anything further about this boy-girl issue?




01:29:57.93

Steve Barnes

I mean, we need all this time for so we can like look at you know slow motion pull-ups on a tree. we don't We don't have time for questions.




01:30:06.90

Lindsey

Yeah. Okay, the next one is Bunny. And this is Season 3, Episode 2. And this is this is a wild episode. This is one that I don't think about all the time, but I think whenever I saw Little House being talked about um on social media over the last couple of years, it's always this scene.




01:30:32.02

Lindsey

Always this episode is the one that somebody so shows a clip of because it famously ends with Laura pushing Nellie down a hill in a wheelchair to prove that, oh, she's not lame.




01:30:36.28

Steve Barnes

h




01:30:41.34

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:30:43.22

Lindsey

So it's it's a very, yeah.




01:30:45.97

Steve Barnes

That's questionable. Yeah.




01:30:48.28

Lindsey

And it's like, you could really hurt somebody. she could have really hurt her.




01:30:51.70

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:30:52.67

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:30:53.21

Steve Barnes

Oh yeah, this is a wild episode. And it, I think people keep coming back to it because this is one of the best episodes. Like this is my, this might be one of the favorite episodes I've watched over these past couple weeks.




01:31:06.71

Steve Barnes

um This one and the one that follows it, the race, because this is like part one of a two-part episode.




01:31:12.54

Lindsey

yeah which I was not aware of because they didn't, they didn't call it part one point part twos, but it's almost like con continuity wise or narrative wise, they do end up working in succession, including maybe an episode that was further where, which I didn't see were where, where, where in Laura trades bunny for a stove, I guess, to give to her ma.




01:31:38.71

Lindsey

That was,




01:31:38.74

Steve Barnes

Oh, that happened that happened back in season one.




01:31:41.14

Lindsey

Yeah, it's ah it's like it happens somewhere during the show, but in a way it's continuity with that as well.




01:31:44.47

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:31:47.47

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:31:47.90

Lindsey

but So in this episode, Nellie has taken possession of the horse that Laura used to own called Bunny. And um so Nellie is wailing on the horse and mistreating it just to show that she can.




01:32:04.60

Lindsey

And she ends up um spooking Bunny enough so that She runs into a tree and gets knocked out by a branch and falls in the ground. And then she is partially paralyzed for a time.




01:32:22.33

Lindsey

and




01:32:22.32

Steve Barnes

That's why we love this episode. Yes. Mm-hmm.




01:32:27.29

Lindsey

But even though, you know, she should be, and I remember the scene where the doctor is like sticking pins in her toes just to make sure that, okay, can you really not feel anything? This will prove it.




01:32:39.77

Lindsey

And so it's it is real what she goes through, but it's going to be a temporary thing. And Laura feels so bad. i don't know. Part of me was like, okay, did Laura just feel bad or was she more worried that what would happen to Bunny?




01:32:57.30

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:32:57.75

Lindsey

um so that So then she ends up bending over backwards and doing everything she can




01:32:59.18

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:33:04.66

Lindsey

to please Nellie like to make up for what happened to her. And she's doing her homework and not getting to hang out with the new blonde boy.




01:33:18.44

Lindsey

Who's a different blonde boy than the Henry Henderson was this one's named Jason.




01:33:20.18

Steve Barnes

Jason.




01:33:22.72

Lindsey

And I actually thought, I thought maybe Jason was Henry when he got older and I was kind of like, Oh, they've they've kept up with him.




01:33:23.01

Steve Barnes

jason




01:33:29.81

Lindsey

Cause again, they're fishing together and it's very much a, a Tom,




01:33:33.91

Steve Barnes

ah we so We do see Jason again later on too.




01:33:39.26

Steve Barnes

So Jason does come back in another episode is what I'm trying to say.




01:33:42.87

Lindsey

Right, but I mean, it this wasn't, but it wasn't Henry from the dance episode, you know, so another blonde boy, which I guess she has a thing for blondes because, okay.




01:33:45.93

Steve Barnes

No. Another blonde boy.




01:33:53.14

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:33:55.03

Lindsey

But then, um but yeah, and her and Nellie kind of likes Jason too, and so she sort of talks her into not hanging out with Jason anymore, which kind of, I'm like, all right, Jason is nobody to be jealous of because she, he,




01:34:01.74

Steve Barnes

I




01:34:12.98

Lindsey

His acting is terrible. he's Pretty much his whole demeanor is, aw, shucks, Laura. What do you mean we can't go fishing anymore? Like, he's very...




01:34:23.31

Steve Barnes

don't know. I like him better than Henry Hudson, personally.




01:34:27.53

Lindsey

Aw, Henry was cute. I don't know. It's just...




01:34:29.60

Steve Barnes

Jason's cute. Come on.




01:34:32.95

Lindsey

um But yeah, eventually, Laura becomes becomes aware that Nellie has been that nelly has been faking and then she does this whole thing where she takes her out in a wheelchair and pushes her down the creek Nellie stands up everybody knows she's been faking and then Laura and Nell's hug it out at the end which is kind of weird but he says hey you can just keep that horse so she comes to apologize but she apologizes to Nell's and not Nellie for pushing her down because um




01:35:04.92

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:35:11.13

Lindsey

You know, it's kind of considered by everybody that Nellie deserves what she got.




01:35:14.97

Steve Barnes

Yeah, even her dad is like, oh, Nellie really screwed this one up. ah Do you get the, I get the clear sense that Nels hates his wife and his daughter and maybe his son as well.




01:35:32.26

Steve Barnes

He like has such contempt for them and his wife is likewise contemptuous of him too.




01:35:39.64

Lindsey

Yeah, yet he never he ah he like hardly ever um stands up to her. He see seems like he can't do anything about it, which is kind of just




01:35:51.22

Steve Barnes

The vibe is that that she is the the one who holds the money. Like anytime somebody comes in to like talk about credit or paying stuff or buying stuff, it's it's her. And anytime somebody needs help with something, it's him.




01:36:05.39

Steve Barnes

So I think that, you know, she's the money and he's the, you know, proprietor, but she's in charge. And I guess he feels like he, I don't i don't know.




01:36:14.10

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:36:17.06

Steve Barnes

It's clear that he hates her. That's all I want to say.




01:36:20.22

Lindsey

I mean, that's the speculation people have that, oh, well, Harriet must really be the owner of the store. Somehow she holds the purse strings, so Nels can't do anything about it.




01:36:31.93

Lindsey

But I guess in my head canon at this point, I'm like, Nels is almost like an abused husband. Yeah. Like, he seems to be being held hostage almost.




01:36:42.07

Steve Barnes

Sure.




01:36:44.70

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:36:44.82

Lindsey

Like, he can't escape this life, which is bizarre.




01:36:45.76

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:36:48.94

Lindsey

Because some of the things he goes along with, like, there are a few times he does stick his foot down or put his foot down.




01:36:55.32

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:36:56.79

Lindsey

But for dramatic sake, a lot of times he'll be like, he Harriet, you can't do that. It's wrong. And she's like, well, I know, but oh, well, and then it'll be like, oh, I'll just kind of go go along with it.




01:37:09.27

Steve Barnes

Oh, Harriet. Exactly.




01:37:12.50

Lindsey

it's It's wild.




01:37:14.64

Steve Barnes

Psychological torture, I think is what it is.




01:37:19.06

Lindsey

What else do want to say about this episode? I'll let you talk for a minute.




01:37:22.89

Steve Barnes

Oh, thank you. Let's see. um What do I want to go with this? I liked when ah Jason comes up and he's talking to Mr. Ingalls and Mr. Ingalls is like, did you say something to make Laura mad? And he's like, no, sometimes girls just get mad at you anyway.




01:37:43.45

Steve Barnes

And it's like, it could never be anything that I did.




01:37:44.18

Lindsey

Mm.




01:37:46.21

Steve Barnes

It's gotta, it's gotta be all on her. so i thought that was a funny line. Funny enough for me to, ah to write it down anyway. um i'll I really love, this is classic Nelly when,




01:38:01.18

Steve Barnes

she's not quite getting what she wants. She'll go, Oh, I feel dizzy. And then like her mom or Laura or whoever, like, Oh, let's fix you. Let's fix you. So I really liked that. That whole, like playing up her injury is pretty good.




01:38:18.62

Steve Barnes

And the fact that like, they built this town, like this town did not exist. They built this town for this show, including the mill, like including everything. And some shots that you see of this show, sometimes you'll see like somebody on a horse. You're like, that's not Laura. That's somebody else on the horse.




01:38:40.66

Steve Barnes

But there's other scenes that it's clearly Charles and Carolyn get into the carriage with the horse and it's Michael Landon himself that's like navigating the horse, navigating the cart.




01:38:53.38

Steve Barnes

Or it's, you know, Mrs. Olsen herself that is actually atop of the horse. And then when you see it running fast, it's not her. But these actors really are doing these things.




01:39:03.84

Steve Barnes

And this town really was built and they're actually doing all this stuff on set. And that's another thing that I hope that this new show does. No AI for us, no computer graphics, please. i know they're shooting it in Winnipeg, so I have, you know, I know they're shooting it on location, but i really I really enjoyed all the scenery and all the town and all the settings and stuff of this episode and just realizing that they actually built all this for the show.




01:39:34.20

Lindsey

Yeah. And of course we didn't say this show has probably one of the craziest endings of any episode two of the little house series where after Nels has, you know, Laura has apologized and she's not going to be Nellie's servant anymore.




01:39:54.58

Lindsey

Then, and then she sees Jason and Laura going fishing




01:39:54.63

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




01:40:00.60

Lindsey

And Nellie just destroys everything in her room with a doll.




01:40:04.38

Steve Barnes

hu




01:40:06.18

Lindsey

She's just like banging, like destroying every toy that she has. and this dollhouse that was the most expensive the most expensive one that from the catalog or whatever. So it's just it's just crazy. She just ransacks her room in a jealous fit.




01:40:25.93

Steve Barnes

Even Willie is all like, what are you doing? I could i could resell that. He's like thinking ahead, like wanting the money for it. And it's, you know...




01:40:37.46

Steve Barnes

I got to think, you know, if if ah a teenager in their room just completely destroys their room and like throws all their stuff around. mean, usually like there yeah therapy gets involved or you might be a little worried about your kid or.




01:40:52.76

Steve Barnes

No, this is just typical Nelly. This is just what she does. She's evil. ah




01:40:57.34

Lindsey

This is way before therapy, way before any therapy existed, except for like shock therapy or something, you know, that would be the only.




01:40:59.45

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:41:02.26

Steve Barnes

She could have used some empathy. Yeah, I want Nellie to take shock therapy.




01:41:08.32

Lindsey

Mm hmm.




01:41:08.51

Steve Barnes

That'd be a great episode great side episode of Little House. A very special episode.




01:41:15.56

Lindsey

OK, so we're going to move on to the music box.




01:41:19.47

Steve Barnes

ah that was my episode. And I think... I might've did the same thing you did when i'm meant to pick another episode and then I picked this one instead because this one has the mirror episode, which is called the talking machine, which has the exact same plot as this episode, which I picked. It's called the music box. It's from season three, episode 19.




01:41:44.28

Steve Barnes

um I picked this one just because I remember Nellie being especially cruel and teasing a kid, um to the nth degree.




01:41:47.89

Lindsey

Thank you.




01:41:54.68

Steve Barnes

And, um, that's basically what I wanted to see out this episode was, was Nellie being terrible. I wanted to find a ah really good episode of Nellie being really bad. um And this episode won over Heather. This is the first episode of Little House that Heather ever saw was the music box. Because this is the first one that I chose to watch when I started rewatching.




01:42:17.91

Steve Barnes

And she fell in love immediately. So like this episode is a good primer episode, I guess, for anybody wanting to get in the Little House on the Prairie.




01:42:26.70

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:42:26.97

Steve Barnes

um What happens in this episode is Nellie... um makes a little club for herself. She's the rich girl in town. So she makes a club and wants to invite everybody into the club, including Laura. And they're all up in the room and they decide to be mean to Anna, who's ah a good friend of Laura's. And Anna has a stutter, a speech impediment. And so Nellie,




01:42:58.52

Steve Barnes

um doesn't like the fact that Laura is friends with his Anna person, but Nellie, she always wants for whatever reason to be on Laura's good side. I think she just wants to be Laura's friend because she knows other people like Laura.




01:43:11.64

Steve Barnes

And if she's Laura's friend, then people will like her too. I think that's the whole deal. Laura's not having a great time over here with the teasing happening. And she sees an opportunity to steal this music box that Nelly has. And it seems like Nelly doesn't really care about this music box a whole lot.




01:43:29.56

Steve Barnes

So Laura's like, Hey, I'm going to take this thing. It's cool. Nelly doesn't like it. And besides I hate Nelly anyway. Well, Nellie finds out that Laura stole the music box, but instead of wanting the music box back because Nellie doesn't really care about it, she just tells Laura, I'm gonna tell on you. I'm gonna tell everybody you're a thief unless you do what I say for the rest of your life or whatever.




01:43:52.26

Steve Barnes

So that's Nellie's angle. So she wants Laura to not be friends with Anna. And that's basically the whole gist of it is she wants Laura to be mean to Anna.




01:44:05.43

Steve Barnes

This episode has great dream sequences where we see Laura's conscious come into play, where she's struggling with this dilemma that she has. So we get to see a dream sequence featuring Nellie as an executioner and she's hanging Laura and she's sucking on one of her lollipops while she's doing it.




01:44:26.34

Steve Barnes

And then at the end of the episode, we actually see Nellie is going to get whipping for this one because it turns out that everybody finds out what happened. And Nell's is more mad about the fact that Nellie blackmailed Laura than he is about the fact that Laura stole the music box.




01:44:46.22

Steve Barnes

nobody's happy that Laura stole something. Even Laura's not happy about that. But they're more mad about the fact that Nellie took advantage of Laura during that whole situation. And that Nellie was teasing this poor girl, Anna. Like even right in front of her dad, she was like teasing this girl, Anna.




01:45:02.78

Steve Barnes

So that's basically why i wanted to watch this one. I wanted to see Nellie be as bad as possible. And this wasn't the worst Nellie episode, but it was a pretty was a pretty good worst Nellie episode though.




01:45:15.96

Lindsey

think is the worst What do you think is the worst Nellie episode? Because I kind of thought this was when she's the most hateful.




01:45:24.31

Steve Barnes

I mean, yes, I do agree, but the talking machine, she's just as bad in that one too, where she secretly records Laura with like ah ah with a talking with ah with ah a primitive recorder, and then she plays a recording for the whole class and humiliates Laura.




01:45:42.49

Steve Barnes

um And then the bunny episode and the race after it, that's really good, bad Nelly there too. But yeah, I don't know.




01:45:49.53

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:45:50.74

Steve Barnes

i mean...




01:45:54.01

Steve Barnes

Like I said, I'm i'm not a crazy super fan freak like I should be. So like Yeah.




01:45:59.51

Lindsey

It's okay. i just want I just thought, I like i wrote down Nellie's most hated episode, you know, hated episode, question mark, because I thought, you know, she's always a brat.




01:46:09.87

Lindsey

She's always making horrible faces, but the way that she kind of tortures this girl who stutters and is so mean, it just, really makes her look really bad even more so than normal




01:46:11.01

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:46:15.13

Steve Barnes

yes




01:46:24.86

Lindsey

o




01:46:25.09

Steve Barnes

Yeah, I mean, I think this one and the talking machine are two like prime bad Nellie stuff. um And we love to hate Nellie. The actress that plays Nellie is wonderful too.




01:46:35.51

Steve Barnes

She gives interviews constantly and she was rallying herself for the role of Harriet Olsen in the new series.




01:46:45.57

Steve Barnes

She didn't get it, obviously. But she really wanted she really wanted to be involved in it, the actress that plays Nellie, who's a wonderful human. Obviously, she is. But we she just plays this bad girl so good.




01:46:58.12

Lindsey

Yeah. Well, when you you said that this had a dream sequence, I was like, there are three dream sequences in this in this episode. Not just one. it keeps going.




01:47:08.14

Steve Barnes

I counted two. i don't remember three. But yeah, they were.




01:47:10.26

Lindsey

There were three. i just watched I just watched this one yesterday. It's like, there's one where she's on trial




01:47:18.36

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:47:18.71

Lindsey

And then one where she's, um I don't remember, but the third one, they have the hanging, but there's, but there's three of them.




01:47:26.34

Steve Barnes

yeah




01:47:27.66

Lindsey

It just keeps going. So um let's see. My other notes were about the girl, the girl actor who plays the the girl with the stutter. She is, ah i thought her performance was so good because when, during the scene where Nellie's like, you have to read this secret code or whatever.




01:47:40.09

Steve Barnes

yeah




01:47:46.21

Lindsey

And it's, Peter Piper picked a peck of pick of peppers. I can't even do it.




01:47:49.85

Steve Barnes

ah




01:47:50.58

Lindsey

See? and she did And she's just like being so mean.




01:47:51.35

Steve Barnes

You did it, though. That's great.




01:47:55.02

Lindsey

And then the girl at one point, she she's like so upset. She can't even make words. So I just thought her performance was so good.




01:48:03.21

Steve Barnes

I like that too. i i didn't like the forced apologies that, um that Paul made Mary and Laura give to each other when Laura and Mary were mad at each other.




01:48:04.92

Lindsey

And, oh.




01:48:14.34

Lindsey

Hmm. Hmm.




01:48:14.97

Steve Barnes

i've I've never been one for like a forced apology like that. And I think that they, they presented that pretty well because they had to say sorry to each other because Charles was making them but you could kind of tell that that neither one of them meant it.




01:48:30.17

Steve Barnes

And I think that's true in almost every situation where you force someone to apologize.




01:48:35.86

Lindsey

Yeah. Well, it was accurate. so




01:48:39.74

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:48:41.30

Lindsey

um Let's see. laura Laura has a you know ah trope of don't tell Pa, please. Or don't tell my parents, please, because that happened in Bunny, too, and that just seems to be something she does over and over again, is that she's always like, please don't tell.




01:48:53.90

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:48:56.30

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:48:58.57

Lindsey

And then, of course, inevitably, she has to tell. um But this has, I mean, Laura makes some questionable decisions, but this is one where she ah you see her doing something really wrong, like not just stealing the music box, but she kind of acts as a complicit witness to these girls' bullying And I kind of thought it was hilarious how at the end she's like, you all should be ashamed of yourselves.




01:49:18.38

Steve Barnes

Yep.




01:49:24.58

Lindsey

And I'm like, well, who else was in the room? You set yourself up for failure by not being you know brave enough to be honest.




01:49:28.31

Steve Barnes

Exactly.




01:49:33.77

Lindsey

So i i thought that her speech rang a little hollow there.




01:49:39.55

Steve Barnes

i did too.




01:49:40.98

Lindsey

um Yeah, and then there i thought this was i thought this one was kind of weird that actually net usually Nellie is not being nice to Laura. And, you know, of course she's being manipulative to her, but the fact that she starts, this whole starts out because, Oh, I want you to be in my club. And it's like, well, why would you want me to be in your club?




01:50:03.48

Lindsey

She doesn't seem to respect Laura, like her that much, but like you said that, so that, that was a little, you know, that got my attention too. I was just like, Hmm, that is interesting how she seemed to, usually we see her being mean to Laura or,




01:50:18.65

Lindsey

treating her badly and here she's sort of wanting her in her club




01:50:22.91

Steve Barnes

Well, we're in the middle of season three right now.




01:50:23.06

Lindsey

so




01:50:25.76

Steve Barnes

So there have already been like, you know, close to a hundred episodes of like Nellie and Laura dynamics and it changes on a regular basis, but at the same time, it usually stays rooted in the same place, but it always seems to be this theme of like Nellie wants to be friends with Laura, but she doesn't know how to, so she's evil to her instead.




01:50:49.88

Lindsey

Yeah. um And let's not forget that this episode kind of started, or maybe the events got started actually when Pa decides to give Laura a dictionary for her birthday.




01:51:07.51

Steve Barnes

That's right. Wait. Yeah. She didn't dig that too much. Did she?




01:51:12.63

Lindsey

Because she's sitting outside the window staring at, looking at all the beautiful dolls and all the beautiful... kind of fancy toys that are in the window. and she goes home and thinks, oh, you know, this, it'd be not, which one of these am I going to get?




01:51:29.50

Lindsey

And then she gets a dictionary and she, is obviously not that excited about this dictionary, but it's just like the dictionary becomes like this big deal. Like, and are you using that dictionary? Are you using it, Mary?




01:51:44.38

Lindsey

And paul it's like, Paul, why don't you buy yourself the dictionary? um




01:51:49.15

Steve Barnes

Well, this is the same girl that got totally excited about getting a broom. Like um I'm reading the books and like they, she talks for like a couple of chapters about how cool it is to have this store bought broom that like works like magic on the floor.




01:52:04.81

Steve Barnes

So they don't have a whole lot of stuff.




01:52:06.90

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:52:07.01

Steve Barnes

So like just the fact that that they have a book, even if it is a boring dictionary, but a household with a book, well, that's something.




01:52:15.80

Lindsey

Yeah. I mean, they were excited on the pilot about getting a tin cup and an orange. So, I mean, these girls are kind of easy to please, but maybe if it wasn't, maybe if she'd gotten something different for her, for her birthday, that music box wouldn't have been so appealing.




01:52:21.41

Steve Barnes

That's right.




01:52:25.39

Steve Barnes

But hey, look.




01:52:35.35

Steve Barnes

Yeah, that's that's very true. But dictionaries, I got one right here that I keep by my desk. So I think they're wonderful things, personally. Paul asked me, I'd be like, yeah, i looked up five words today and I learned new stuff. It's great.




01:52:49.62

Lindsey

Okay, our last episode is Harriet's Happenings.




01:52:54.61

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




01:52:54.81

Lindsey

And this is season five, episode eight. Now, this is my fault that this episode got picked. because So what the reason I picked this episode is that I love, like the scene I think was one of the funniest of the entire show, in my memory at least, is when nells and Mrs. Olsen are in bed and she's got makeup on her face and curlers in her hair. And she's trying to entice Nels to tell her what he might like her to wear to get things a little spicy.




01:53:33.05

Lindsey

And she says, he says, why don't you wear a paper bag? And she goes, a paper bag? So I silly, silly Lindsey,




01:53:44.73

Lindsey

went um on to what I thought was Google and I put, which episode does Nels tell Harriet to wear a paper bag? And it said Harriet's happenings. And so I just wrote that down without checking it.




01:53:58.74

Lindsey

um




01:54:00.55

Steve Barnes

That's all right.




01:54:00.79

Lindsey

And so then i realize I realized my mistake yesterday.




01:54:01.02

Steve Barnes

i mean, it's an episode of Little House.




01:54:05.11

Lindsey

And this is funny though. I also said, okay, then I looked today to say, okay, what was the real episode? And some people said it was one called meet me at the fair. It also wasn't that one.




01:54:16.89

Lindsey

And then there was one called divorce Walnut Grove style, i think.




01:54:21.81

Steve Barnes

Ooh.




01:54:22.33

Lindsey

And so that is, that has been determined to be the episode. However, for unexplained reasons on most streaming services, that scene is deleted.




01:54:35.35

Lindsey

So if you go to diverse divorce Walnut Grove style on Amazon prime,




01:54:37.46

Steve Barnes

What?




01:54:40.76

Lindsey

And you scan through that episode, you cannot find that scene. They've just removed it.




01:54:45.61

Steve Barnes

We have a controversy on our hands here. What's going on? Why would they remove that scene?




01:54:50.69

Lindsey

I don't know. Somebody said because of just time constraints, but I'm like, the scene is maybe like two minutes. Why would you, it's like the funniest scene. um but like it's on, if you go look on Reddit, people are like, where can I find this episode? And,




01:55:06.46

Lindsey

people are People are like, the only way maybe to see this episode is if you have i copy on VHS still from the olden days.




01:55:06.64

Steve Barnes

Okay. Okay.




01:55:15.99

Steve Barnes

Or if you're Lindsey Dunn and have a great memory, I mean, cause I don't remember, I don't remember that line either.




01:55:19.03

Lindsey

Yeah.




01:55:21.20

Steve Barnes

So hats off to you or bags off to you, Lindsey.




01:55:22.04

Lindsey

um




01:55:24.92

Lindsey

So, but we did watch Here It's Happening, so we will talk about So this episode is about fake news, which is very interesting because I had fake news that this was the episode I i wanted.




01:55:31.30

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




01:55:34.01

Steve Barnes

ah Hey,




01:55:36.28

Lindsey

So at the beginning of this episode, Harriet is opening a new building in town called the Plow and Pen and Plow. pen and plow




01:55:49.51

Steve Barnes

Yes.




01:55:49.56

Lindsey

And it turns out her cousin, maybe once removed, is moving to the area and he's a journalist and he wants to set up a newspaper. And some of the kids, like Laura and Albert, are working at the newspaper helping to type you know, set type.




01:56:08.22

Lindsey

And Harriet gets herself hired as the the lead reporter. Well, Harriet's reporting is really a gossip column where she reports untrue news or things that are based on rumors alone.




01:56:24.86

Lindsey

And ah these rumors have an impact and end up hurting people. and And Harriet is wearing a really funny hat almost the entire episode that says press.




01:56:35.00

Lindsey

in




01:56:35.47

Steve Barnes

press A press hat, of course.




01:56:37.78

Lindsey

But the old, like the funny thing about the press hat is though And I could be wrong But I think the purpose of the press hat Is that it maybe be held note cards or paper So that if you need to write something down You could pick out the paper and jot it down But she's just like wearing it Just to just still like say that she's press Um




01:56:57.30

Steve Barnes

Sure. I think they only did that in the movies, actually, with these press hats that say press on them so you would know that they were like a journalist.




01:57:03.43

Lindsey

Mm-hmm




01:57:05.35

Steve Barnes

So.




01:57:06.25

Lindsey

Yeah, they had access, right? They had access to the behind-the-scenes areas.




01:57:08.14

Steve Barnes

ah




01:57:11.03

Lindsey

um the Now, you said, Steve, you said that this episode sucked, so we'll talk about that in a minute, but I didn't think it, I didn't think, um I don't know if I agreed that it sucked.




01:57:16.89

Steve Barnes

Yeah. Yes, we will.




01:57:22.32

Lindsey

I thought it wasn't as interesting as as what I wanted, but it does have a scene where everybody's at the church at the end, and Paul gets to make a big speech where he tells off Harriet Olsen and, you know, not so much in that many words.




01:57:32.81

Steve Barnes

Right. right




01:57:39.29

Lindsey

he He frames it as a sermon, which is something, a technique people still use today.




01:57:47.06

Steve Barnes

I mean, it is. That's why I thought this episode sucked personally. Cause I'm watching like my guy, Charles Ingalls go up to the pulpit and like use it to humiliate somebody and to embarrass them. And then to like use them as an example, like against their will.




01:58:05.97

Steve Barnes

I was like, I don't like you right now, Charles here. This is not good. This is not what the the pastor left you in charge to do. So, i i mean, I thought Harriet sucked, of course, but I thought that that whole her comeuppance.




01:58:23.51

Steve Barnes

That was the main thing I didn't like about it was was Charles's um sermon, quote unquote, at the end.




01:58:30.68

Lindsey

Well, I think to be honest with you you, know, yes, he wanted to call Harriet out, but he was also calling out the whole town because they were buying the papers.




01:58:42.84

Lindsey

They kept talking about how the papers were getting, were selling, like they were all selling out. So he it wouldn't do just to like tell off Harriet. He needed to get the attention of everybody because they were all, now he could have called a special meeting like after church,




01:58:54.22

Steve Barnes

Exactly.




01:58:58.94

Lindsey

ah We'll serve you all some fried chicken and talk about this whole thing. But maybe, yeah, not taking up the sermon text to do it would be more appropriate. But it was dramatic, Steve. It was for the drama.




01:59:12.09

Steve Barnes

It was for the drama, but yeah, you bringing that up, I'm so glad you said that because... Again, that made me mad. i was like, you don't go to church to like tell everybody to like boycott stuff or to like persuade people to like be on your side.




01:59:29.26

Steve Barnes

It's like, what are you doing? I don't know.




01:59:32.03

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




01:59:32.66

Steve Barnes

I just couldn't get into it.




01:59:34.39

Lindsey

Yeah. Yeah, so that was the main reason that um you thought the episode sucked.




01:59:39.30

Steve Barnes

Well, then... um I was having so much fun in our season one, season two, season three, and then season five.




01:59:47.96

Lindsey

ah




01:59:50.55

Steve Barnes

And here's Albert. I forgot how much I disliked Albert. And I kind of forgot he existed in the little house world. And then when I saw him in this episode, I was like, oh no, i forgot about this whole angle.




02:00:06.22

Steve Barnes

um




02:00:07.74

Lindsey

Poor Albert.




02:00:08.86

Steve Barnes

Poor Albert. I mean, he's a poor kid and Charles is a saint for taking him in, but Yeah, it that was a, remember, first off, um, Harriet was just over the top in this episode. I usually love Harriet and her snide comments and her looks and just, you know, her whole vibe is just so distasteful and so evil. But in this one, that she was just laying on this like fake saccharine charm.




02:00:38.22

Steve Barnes

And it seemed like she wanted to sleep with her cousin or something. It would just give me really weird vibes. And then the presence of Albert, I didn't like that.




02:00:48.92

Steve Barnes

And I know that Laura is always going to get into trouble and so or something like that. But I mean, I think the trouble that she and Albert got into this episode where they went in and they changed the paper around to say mean things about Harriet and to like, you know, fakely say that there was a hundred percent sale of at the store.




02:01:08.31

Steve Barnes

I didn't like their the kid's stunt that they pulled this time around, and I didn't like Charles's wrap up at the end. So like there was four things like all in succession that turned a little Stevie off. So yeah, this was not my favorite episode to watch.




02:01:24.31

Lindsey

yeah i guess one more thing to call out on this episode that has happened all throughout but it's worth mentioning here because there's the garveys which you know came in later in the season the garvey family and part of the part of what happens in this episode is mr garvey




02:01:39.38

Steve Barnes

Yeah.




02:01:44.38

Lindsey

wants to give his wife Alice a gift. And so he's, of course, he can't pay for it quite right now. He wants to put it on credit. And this is this is a constant theme throughout the show that they want to put things on credit.




02:01:59.78

Lindsey

The Olsens don't really give out credit, especially for, well, Mr.




02:02:00.60

Steve Barnes

yeah




02:02:05.78

Lindsey

Garvey is a resident. I mean, there have been non-residents that tried tried to put things on credit before they'd established But in general, they don't really like this. But there seems to be an expectation people have that, yeah, if they just go in and give a sad story to Nels, that he'll he'll, like, kindly let them get away with it.




02:02:24.06

Steve Barnes

He probably will.




02:02:24.95

Lindsey

And usually he does, yes.




02:02:26.59

Steve Barnes

Yeah, he does.




02:02:27.32

Lindsey

um but But it's like, okay, that would not fly today. So that's just something I want to say. But, yes, of course, um part of this is, like, Nels is established as the good, kind, nice but spouse. And Mrs. Olson, you know, she's all about the money and not giving people credit. But it's like, okay, we don't we don't work like that. We have credit cards now. We like, you know, people pay off their credit cards. But that no one's giving out store credit. I mean, i maybe so maybe a seer still do does this, but I don't think that um exists anymore. It's probably a good thing. If you don't have the money, you can't afford to pay for it.




02:03:07.30

Steve Barnes

Yeah, but this settler life though, I mean, they, that's why the Olsons, I guess, were as rich as they were because people were coming into town with nothing and then they were expected to grow crops, but they need seeds and they need tools.




02:03:22.01

Steve Barnes

So they have to go to the store to get credit for these things. So it's like, yeah, it's it a dual sided, no win situation.




02:03:25.43

Lindsey

Yeah.




02:03:30.59

Steve Barnes

And Ms. Olson will take advantage if she has to.




02:03:33.50

Lindsey

Yeah. Okay. So um we're going to move forward because we're over two hours already.




02:03:43.90

Lindsey

Okay. So Steve, um what, as an adult watching this, who do you think is hot?




02:03:46.26

Steve Barnes

Yo, Lindsey.




02:03:55.55

Steve Barnes

Very, very, ah very succinctly put. um I mean, it's undeniable. i mean, i'm I'm not gay and I'm a man who's attracted to women, but I can recognize that.




02:04:07.38

Steve Barnes

that Michael Landon is probably the hottest person on the show. Like he's got that hair, he's got a great body. He likes to show, what he likes to take his shirt off a lot in this show.




02:04:18.36

Steve Barnes

um Not just the episodes that we saw, but throughout the series, his shirt comes off a lot. He's a good looking man. and his wife is equally just as good looking. So I'm thinking like the two stars of the show, Charles and Carolyn are by far the most attractive and have the most sex appeal.




02:04:38.62

Steve Barnes

And then I look at the rest of the cast.




02:04:41.59

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:04:41.88

Steve Barnes

And it seems like they deliberately are like hiring people who are homely or like have like no discernible features or it it seems like they went out on a limb to try to do that with some some exceptions. I mean, I do find Mrs. Olsen attractive, but I don't find her like hot.




02:05:03.48

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:05:04.02

Steve Barnes

at all. Like the sex appeal is zero. i think like in a different get up with a different attitude and a different like RFB, is that what you call that? she because She's definitely an attractive person, but she's not hot whatsoever in this show. So I only have a top two and that's our Ingles.




02:05:22.62

Lindsey

What about Mrs. Beetle?




02:05:25.93

Steve Barnes

Oh, okay. Yeah. Teacher, hot for teacher. um Yeah. I kind of forgot about her because view her as the school teacher and, um, yeah, I don't think she's very pretty, but like, yeah, you said hot.




02:05:39.93

Lindsey

I think she's very pretty. yeah I mean...




02:05:44.68

Steve Barnes

And so like when I think hot, I think, you know, sexual attraction. So I don't have that with Ms. Beetle either. Like I, she's just so nice. And so like




02:05:55.55

Lindsey

Well, Carolyn's nice too.




02:05:59.10

Steve Barnes

Miss Beetle is always with the kids, so I'm associating her with like with children, I guess. I don't know.




02:06:06.81

Lindsey

Yeah.




02:06:06.97

Steve Barnes

ah I think hotness, there's there's more than just looks. And like I said, Miss Olsen, Miss Beetle, definitely good looking.




02:06:13.78

Lindsey

Well, I guess I meant like, yeah, I guess I meant more like, who do you find attractive? So I would i didn't mean like, you know, like




02:06:25.38

Steve Barnes

it's got It's got to be the... And it's Carolyn. I mean, hands down, it's Carolyn. Let me ask you the same question.




02:06:31.51

Lindsey

okay well it's interesting because like you said there aren't that many like traditionally like good-looking guys and i never like i watch it now and i can say okay i can see like




02:06:33.13

Steve Barnes

Lindsey, on this show, who do you find hot?




02:06:43.35

Steve Barnes

No.




02:06:51.10

Lindsey

I think with Michael Landon, a lot of his appeal is like he's strong and also he's gentle and like, you know, has compassion and he's ah always like shown doing the right thing, the thing we want him to do.




02:07:02.42

Lindsey

But I've never been like that. I think he's that hot, which is interesting because I don't know.




02:07:07.38

Steve Barnes

That is interesting.




02:07:08.02

Lindsey

I just have different, you know, and I've always been kind of like growing up, my sister and my older sister and I, we always found like different people attractive. Like she liked Harrison Ford. I liked,




02:07:21.11

Lindsey

um I liked the character who played Luke. can't remember.




02:07:24.97

Steve Barnes

Mark Hamill?




02:07:25.26

Lindsey

Yeah, i thought I thought Luke was cuter because i always like I guess I like the youthful faces, you know, when I was young.




02:07:31.70

Steve Barnes

OK.




02:07:32.57

Lindsey

Or, like, I thought Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off was, like, the guy that I was attracted to, you know, because he was funny.




02:07:39.51

Steve Barnes

Sure.




02:07:40.34

Lindsey

And I like people who are funny. So, um I mean, Mr. Edwards isn't exactly hot, but he's, like, he's really funny and he's somebody I would want to, like, definitely – have a meal with.




02:07:52.38

Lindsey

um But the other person who I thought was attractive, now not necessarily in the face, but I was like, wow, he has a really nice figure actually, is Dr. Baker, which I kind of alluded to before.




02:08:03.50

Lindsey

Because I was like, oh, he's very slim.




02:08:03.59

Steve Barnes

You did allude to that a little bit.




02:08:06.46

Lindsey

Like he's, he has a, like he fits his pants really well. So that was, that was interesting to me by, to be like, oh, Dr. Baker, you know, he's a good looking guy.




02:08:17.77

Lindsey

he's, he's Not traditionally, but yeah. I don't know. Maybe more you know maybe more guys come along later like in the show like to become side characters because like most of our episodes were just right at the first three seasons.




02:08:32.76

Steve Barnes

They do.




02:08:35.46

Lindsey

Those are the ones that really seem to stand out to us. But um




02:08:40.72

Steve Barnes

Well, yeah, like Charles's buddy in Harriet's Happenings, that blonde hairdo with the blonde beard.




02:08:46.10

Lindsey

yeah, that's Mr.




02:08:46.67

Steve Barnes

who's oh miss Okay, Mr.




02:08:46.98

Lindsey

Garvey. That's who I was talking about before.




02:08:48.90

Steve Barnes

Garvey. found him very uninspiring as an actor. Like, he was so flat, in my opinion.




02:09:00.80

Steve Barnes

Like I didn't get anything off of that guy.




02:09:00.86

Lindsey

Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I i had the same experience because I was like, I mean, I remember him like watching the show. I remember his character, but he didn't really exude much charisma.




02:09:15.16

Steve Barnes

None at all.




02:09:15.67

Lindsey

So, yeah, you're like, man, did Michael Landon just like purposely cast a bunch of uncharismatic unattractive men? So he looked really good.




02:09:24.06

Steve Barnes

and Maybe. okay Maybe.




02:09:29.08

Lindsey

okay




02:09:30.13

Steve Barnes

It's interesting though that I find Michael Landon more attractive than you do. So that's very interesting to end on here.




02:09:35.80

Lindsey

Yeah, i mean, I think, like, objectively, he's a nice-looking guy, but maybe, i don't know, it's the clean-cut, you know, he's so, he's almost, like, too good, too perfect, I don't know.




02:09:53.31

Steve Barnes

I think what makes him sexy is that he's always sweaty and he's like, you know,




02:09:58.11

Lindsey

See, I don't like sweaty, I don't like sweaty, don't like that.




02:10:01.09

Steve Barnes

hu




02:10:04.15

Lindsey

Um, there's like all these, see all these, yeah, these ones where he looks like, um, he's all sweaty in the chest, and it reminds me of those, like, buttered rolls you get at a buffet that, like, the way they're all shiny.




02:10:16.97

Steve Barnes

he Exactly. He has that buttered roll chest.




02:10:22.20

Lindsey

Um, did you know he's Jewish?




02:10:26.62

Steve Barnes

No, I didn't know that.




02:10:27.10

Lindsey

By heritage? I was, like, researching him today just to kind of see if I could, um cause i was trying to figure out, I thinking, who did he, and you know, who was he married to? Did he have a spouse and all that?




02:10:39.29

Lindsey

It turns out he's, you know, he's Jewish. So that's at least on one side, you know, he's in fact, but they, they actually say today, like, even if somebody has one Jewish parent and one who's non-Jewish, you still say they're Jewish because they have it in their heritage. So anyway, it's in his heritage and he did bar mitzvah and all that stuff. So,




02:11:01.40

Lindsey

interesting because we think of him as this like Christian dude, you know, in the little house world.




02:11:01.88

Steve Barnes

it's




02:11:05.14

Steve Barnes

right It seemed like in the first book, Little House in the Big Woods, they read as a Jewish family because on Sundays, they they kept the Sabbath like 100% holy. They wouldn't do any work.




02:11:20.51

Steve Barnes

Ma wouldn't cook on Sunday. They had to eat like, you know, just raw vegetables on Sundays. They weren't allowed to play on Sundays. um




02:11:29.98

Lindsey

Well, Sabbath is Saturday for for Jewish family.




02:11:30.22

Steve Barnes

i don't know.




02:11:33.24

Steve Barnes

Oh, well, they kept saying Sabbath or whatever, but.




02:11:33.65

Lindsey

Yeah. It's like sun sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.




02:11:39.10

Steve Barnes

that's That's what they were alluding to in the book is like, during this time, we can't do anything. And it I don't know. I mean, I could be completely wrong. But as I was reading it, I was like, are they Jewish? Maybe they are.




02:11:51.10

Steve Barnes

Could be.




02:11:52.00

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:11:52.63

Steve Barnes

Michael Landon is. Maybe they could be too.




02:11:56.31

Lindsey

Okay. Well, I think we're going to jump forward a little bit to... overall thoughts of watching um we were going to like talk about some other episodes but we're we're getting on pretty long now so for overall thoughts doing this rewatch to prepare you know what was it like for you and what do you think you know was so good about this show why did it last so long and you know why is it still popular today




02:12:28.34

Steve Barnes

Yeah, I wrote down a few thoughts about this. Um, I thought it had a sense of timelessness because it's the show from the seventies and they're portraying life in the 18 seventies.




02:12:37.93

Lindsey

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.




02:12:38.16

Steve Barnes

So it definitely has this sense of like timeliness to it. Um, has a ah true sense of like community. And i think this show was popular and it was so good because, well, I think the show was popular because families could watch it together and any age group and any person could watch it and get something out of it.




02:12:59.26

Steve Barnes

But I think something that made it so good




02:13:07.51

Steve Barnes

I wrote down here, I don't know how I'm to tie this in here, but it's something that i i think stands true about this show. It's something that la the real Laura Ingalls said. is She said that um that somebody was talking about the old days to Laura Ingalls, the real person.




02:13:24.66

Steve Barnes

And she was like, it can never be the old days because now is now. And I don't know, I wrote that down because I thought that was kind of profound. Like we see this as an old show, but at the time that it's happening, it's happening now.




02:13:39.89

Steve Barnes

So it's current to them. Even though it's an old show and we're watching it and it seems old, the things that they're dealing with are very universal. And Michael Landon made a big point to tie current events into the show. Events like women's rights, race, um race,




02:14:02.81

Steve Barnes

situations, the Vietnam War. He would parallel the Vietnam War by having like a Civil War soldier like portray a symptom that a Vietnam soldier might have.




02:14:14.17

Steve Barnes

um So I think these things all tied together are what really makes the show stand out, to me anyway. Yeah. and make it even watchable now. it kind of does stand the test of time. In some areas it does not, in very small areas it does not, but in a huge sense, like these things are universal.




02:14:36.07

Lindsey

Yeah. I mean, I think i thank you pretty much hit the nail on the head there that even though it's set in the past, the the issues that it's dealing with are still timeless and like you mentioned race, there's sexual assault in here.




02:14:55.99

Lindsey

There's money woes.




02:14:56.09

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm. here




02:14:57.19

Lindsey

I mean, people always have money woes, inflation or scarcity of jobs, not knowing how you're going to make it coming together with people like your neighbors.




02:15:08.95

Lindsey

um And yeah, war is in there, women's rights. So, know, I'm kind of repeating what you said, but I think it, it,




02:15:22.65

Lindsey

Like even watching because one of the episodes I did watch was Wisdom of Solomon, which was which has a little boy, a little boy who is, you know, it's after when the slaves is after the Emancipation Proclamation.




02:15:37.02

Lindsey

But yet this little boy realizes, hey, we're not being treated any better, you know, even though we're supposed to be free, but we can't get an education. We can't um we're not allowed to do anything but work.




02:15:48.49

Lindsey

Is that all I'm good for? And somebody was was saying like, probably this episode, an episode like this wouldn't be made today because there are people that don't want to have shows that talk about race in a way that like makes it seem like, hey, it's still an issue today.




02:16:04.92

Lindsey

Even though there's no slavery, there's still there's still this discrepancy in our world about where people think people fit in and what are they good to do?




02:16:05.91

Steve Barnes

Mm-hmm.




02:16:17.77

Lindsey

Like these people... should get an education. Other people like, well, only the special ones get an education or only if you're really smart, do you end up going to college? um So it just struck me that like this show was kind of willing to go places that, that so in a way like TV isn't even willing to be willing to go anymore.




02:16:41.40

Steve Barnes

Sure.




02:16:41.43

Lindsey

um There is there, it is the ability to watch it with family, but, you know, probably in like 10, 20, 50 years, people are still going to be talking about these, these issues, these same issues that, that plague our world and they, they aren't going away. So that's, that's itself. Um, you know, other shows come out today and they might be about a certain case, like a certain try. I watch a lot of true crime, a certain true crime case, you know, that happened in a very specific time and place, but,




02:17:16.70

Lindsey

um maybe that wouldn't feel as relevant later or, you know, watching a reality TV show. Well, like you can't rewatch survivor, you know, like you can, you're not going to rewatch that because we've, we've moved on, you know, from, from this issue.




02:17:28.41

Steve Barnes

Right, right.




02:17:32.26

Lindsey

So I just think um it'll be interesting when making this show, this new series, if they can kind of recapture that quality of a show that is timeless.




02:17:45.98

Lindsey

Yeah.




02:17:46.97

Steve Barnes

Yeah, I hope so. hope it's not just like, you know, Hey, we decided to do a thing here. It is. i mean, I do hope that they, they take this responsibility seriously and try to, you know, tackle some things.




02:17:59.03

Steve Barnes

Michael Landon. I saw like some of the, some actors of the show. Cause I was reading like interviews with the cast members, like as they were filming this show, like people magazine kind of stuff from the eighties.




02:18:09.64

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:18:11.51

Steve Barnes

And they would say things like, um, like They loved doing the show, but they were like, Michael Landon has like this huge vision for the show that it's going to be popular even after he's dead. And after all we're all gone, people are still going to be talking about this show. And that's what Michael Landon's goal was. And he did it. I mean, it's he he that that absolutely came true because 50 years later, we're still talking about it right now.




02:18:41.43

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:18:44.79

Lindsey

So any other thoughts before we bring this to a close?




02:18:51.51

Steve Barnes

Um, yes, but no, i mean, I do, I do have so many more thoughts and I do want to talk more and I want to watch more episodes, but no, I recognize that we've been going over two hours.




02:19:00.95

Lindsey

Yeah.




02:19:03.75

Steve Barnes

So I want to wrap it up by saying that I really enjoyed, um, watching the these episodes.




02:19:03.83

Lindsey

Mm-hmm.




02:19:10.68

Steve Barnes

going to continue watching episodes and I'm thankful, Lindsey, that you agreed to do this with me and that we're talking little house on the prairie. So thank you.




02:19:21.43

Lindsey

Yeah, just a reminder that we're going to be doing a second episode in June that will be more tied in with the new series and kind of a preview coming up. So look for that in both of our feeds.




02:19:32.79

Lindsey

And then the series, the new series will start July 8 on Netflix. Steve, did you have any plugs that you wanted to give?




02:19:42.20

Steve Barnes

July 9th is when the series will begin on Netflix. That's my plug. Watch Little House on the Prairie remake on July 9th on Netflix. um I don't have any plugs. I'll secede my plugs to you, Lindsey. Do you have plugs?




02:19:57.27

Lindsey

Okay, well, I have a couple. i have a I have a plug for Steve who wrote two new songs about Dark that he released on his introvoid Spotify. So check those out.




02:20:07.70

Steve Barnes

I did. Thank you.




02:20:09.11

Lindsey

And I say that because I i'm goingnna want him to keep working on songs because we have a song in the hopper, hopefully.




02:20:18.80

Steve Barnes

That's right.




02:20:19.86

Lindsey

um i went to Chosen Con in February and i am still in the process of releasing those, the coverage that I did, I did a lot of interviews with the cast.




02:20:31.52

Lindsey

They're very short. So if you're interested in those, you can go to my YouTube channel, one of my stories or the, I don't have them on the podcast. that My plan for the podcast is to, once I have all of the interviews come to probably turn them all into one podcast, you listen to them all at the same time, but they're on Instagram on my Instagram channel.




02:20:54.86

Lindsey

One of my stories, or on YouTube or on Facebook, which by Facebook is just Lindsey Dunn. And usually I post things publicly, so you can check them out on those things.




02:21:08.18

Lindsey

Also, the arts and faith community that I'm part part of has is you know set to release their latest top 25 list, which is a top 25 films by women directors.




02:21:22.97

Lindsey

So look for that coming soon.




02:21:23.43

Steve Barnes

Oh,




02:21:26.26

Lindsey

And my last plug is Steve alluded to a cast podcast. I'm listening to a particular one, which is the Little House 50th Anniversary Podcast, which has Nelly and Almanzo in it and another host talking about recapping the old episodes.




02:21:45.20

Lindsey

um So if you that's a really fun one, because Steve, they have an episode about the music box and about Bunny and the race.




02:21:45.38

Steve Barnes

so fun




02:21:52.32

Lindsey

So I think you'll really enjoy it.




02:21:52.32

Steve Barnes

Oh, I will check that out. Okay. All right.




02:21:54.68

Lindsey

Yeah, so if you want to hear some of the cast members talk about their memories of recording on set, I recommend that.




02:22:02.36

Steve Barnes

Cool.




02:22:04.27

Lindsey

Okay.




02:22:05.33

Steve Barnes

I like the plug was just for me.




02:22:07.06

Lindsey

Yeah.




02:22:07.12

Steve Barnes

Like, that's great.




02:22:12.42

Lindsey

Well, so we have reached the end of our podcast. We hope you will tune in for more Little House coverage as we come along. Rumor has it we may even have some interviews. coming out that we'll be releasing in the public soon with some of those cast members in the new series and until then i hope everybody always finds water and shade and shoes bye




02:22:38.17

Steve Barnes

Thank you, Lindsey. Bye.

Melissa Gilbert as LAURA, Katy Kurtzman as ANNA in episode The Music Box