Shark Bytes

Ever notice when Harriet ordered something like a dress or a doll from New York, Chicago, San Francisco even PARIS, it always arrived within 2 days? HAHHAAH even now orders can take 6-8 weeks by airplane. And we are supposed to belive that her items arrived lightning fast by train and covered wagon? I bet things took 6 months to a year to get to their destination. What do you think?

Ok I heard Pa say two words that I don't think were in existence during the pioneer days. I laughed out loud when he said, "We will work our buns off!" LOL BUNS? That wasn't used I don't think until the 1970's. Oh and he also said "Whatchamacallit". Anyone else notice any other faux pas like these? If so, please list them here. Thanks!

I like that 'Sylvia' episode! Even though such a thing never happened in the real Laura Ingalls' world, it could have! Repressed deranged predators have always been around, and so have young boys with good intentions. I could see Albert being drawn to Sylvia; there was something a little wild and precocious about her. And I remember Caroline trying to explain to Albert about how this was a baby conceived in hatred, not love, and how much harder that would make things for Albert and Sylvia if they stayed together. I think Little House was usually pretty balanced in its portrayal of the evil and good in this world. It only jumped when fewer shows featured Laura as a central character.

I was in grade school when the show began, and I missed the first few episodes, but when our school librarian saw how much I loved the books, she suggested the show. My first thought was that the books repeatedly say that Laura Ingalls had blue eyes, like her Pa. Melissa Gilbert, although I grew to like her in the role of Laura, had brown eyes. I always wondered why Michael Landon ignored the eye color when he cast her. I loved the show but was always bothered by the episodes which showed only non-Ingalls characters, usually in some other town, struggling with alcoholism or some plague. I didn't mind when the Ingalls family moved to Winoka and worked at the hotel, but adopting Albert began its downhill slide. In the books, Almanzo was portrayed as much more responsible, not so goofy.

It seems a bit unfair to consider the family moving jumping the shark. In the books the family was always on the move.

Carrie must have been the stupidest child ever on television! Clearly she never grew smarter from day one to the end of the show. My favorite stupid Carrie moment is when she climbs into the basket of a hot air balloon at the fair. With in two seconds she falls asleep. Now when the Balloon takes off is the stupid child afraid? Noooo! She waves at the crowd! There are so many bad Carrie moments, I Love Little house and always will, but in review a lot of the situations are just so outlandish! The episode where the indians come into town comes to mind! Why would an Indian want a white Dr.? Why would Charles put his family in danger by harbering the Indians at his farm? If Charles had raised his gun to the white men of the town over the indians, I think he probably would have been hung for treason! And where on earth do the indians disapear at the end? Are they burning in the T.P? Did they get away? Oh and Nellie marries a pig farmers son.....Right.

I've watched every episode as a child, but now as I watch the show the acting is melodramatic. I think Landon liked it that way. And why was he always crying?

As for jumping the shark, I think it's when they opened Nellie's Restaurant.

Reality check....an old hateful woman like Mrs. Oleson would have probably been murdered back then. Secondly, they had the only store in town, but if she was that spiteful and hateful, do you think the townsfolk would have banded together if someone had opened up some competition, or just sent one or two townsfolk to Sleepy Eye once a week for supplies? In real life, the mercantile would have gone under very quickly. Could you imagine Nells having sex with that cow too? Ugh!

I think the show goofed bigtime by bringing in Albert and by rushing a few too many things, such as Mary instantly turning from a self-pitying helpless blind girl to a living-on-her-own blind teacher, and of course, Laura turning from a 15 year-old who acted like she was in kindergarten to a 16 year-old who talked down to all the adults. But my ultimate shark jump vote goes to that horrific episode, 'Sylvia'. Terrible subject matter, horrendous acting, a raped girl who was supposed to be a 'hottie' even though she looked like a boy with long hair wearing a dress, Albert's nasal whine "I never!!!", learning that the town blacksmith was a sadist and a pedophile, Pa beating the crap out of Sylvia's dad in the mud and then hugging the man like he's in love with him or something... well, need I go on? I never wanted to watch the show again after this horrendous two-part episode.

Lisa, you're right about the girl who drowned int the episode where she, Laura, Mary and Carrie were swimming.

I don't know who played that girl's character.

But, later in season 5, I do recall there being a girl named Amelia.
She was a friend of Laura's.

"Amelia" was played by Julie Anne Haddock...who played "Cindy", on the 1st season of "The Facts of Life"....from '79-'80...(also on NBC).

Anyway, the actress who played the girl that drowned....and the one who played "Amelia" (Haddock) were 2 different actresses.






Thanks...and have a very good day.









tommy

dk:


Thanks for putting the post, concerning the teachers on "LHOTP".

The teacher who you forgot to mention was Etta Plum, played by Leslie Landon, Michael Landon's real-life daughter.

She was on there on the final (9th) season, from '82-'83; in this last season the show was called: "Little House: A New Beginning", if you recall.

She was also on at least 1 or 2 of the made-for-tv movies of "LHOTP"....from '83-'84....also airing on NBC. This was considered, by some people, to be the last "season" of the series (the 10th "season").


So, to reiterate, Etta Plum was the
final teacher on the "LHOTP" series.






Thanks and have a great day.









tommy

Re: Johnny Cash episode

LHOTP was on Wednesday nights for its first 2 seasons. For Season 2 (74-75) it was not among the top 30 shows. In fact, Season 2 was the lowest rated in LHOTP's run.

LHOTP was moved to Monday nights in Season 3. I believe the purpose of the Johnny Cash episodes was to get more viewers to tune in.

I grew up watching this like most people of my generation. Laura became unbearable after she got Almonzo, and wore her hair in a bun. She kept insisting that she was a woman, but she was so childish. Almonzo couldn't even talk to a pretty woman without her freaking out. She even beat up a woman in front of her students, and instead of her mother giving her a good talking to for disgracing herself in public, she blames Almonzo! She didn't even get reprimanded, and you know if that really happened she would have gotten fired. Almonzo was also impossible and acted like he was her father. The way he'd look at Laura with those crazy eyes and happy face smile was downright creepy. I guess Michael Landon thought the marital strife was funny; he was wrong.

The rehabilitated Nellie and Percival were so cute together. I loved how Percival didn't take any crap from her or her wacky mother. The only bad thing was that when Nellie would say, "Yes, my love," she sounded like Martin on the Simpsons when he was holding hands with his robot.

Don't get me wrong...I love Johnny Cash. But why was the 3rd season opener completely about Johnny and June Carter Cash's one-time characters? They played Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss, a con man and his wife, and Johnny Cash tries to cheat the people of Walnut Grove by taking up a "collection" for people whose town has burned down.

That's all well and good, but this episode (which again, was the 3rd season opener!) has only tiny walk-on parts for Pa, Ma, Carrie, and even Laura (!!!!) who we barely see at the very end of the episode and who only has one dubbed-in line ("What's wrong, Mary?"). Mary has a little bigger part than the others as she goes around with Johnny Cash, but any episode where Reverend Alden has more lines than Ma, Pa, and Laura put together is a shark-jumper in my book!

And this was at the beginning of the 3rd season! Did they already run out of ideas for stories about the Ingalls family?

When Edwards came back to Walnut Grove after being "rescued" once again by Pa, and the kids were begging him to stay. How hard is it to say, "please stay!" yet Carrie said it with her mouth full of food with a big goofy corny smile on her face in bad acting just to say two little words. THAT'S how bad an actor the Greenbush twins were.=)