Little House series: book vs reality

[hoipolloi]

Reread The Long Winter this weekend. Ypestis - your points are well taken re Pa & the impromptu meal with the Wilder brothers, but it still really bothers me. I hadn't considered, though, that what we're reading is Almanzo's viewpoint of that event, as told to LIW perhaps decades later.

As for the LHOP TV shows, I never watched them and I can see I was right not to do so - at best they're silly & trite, and at worst they're really dreadful. That Sylvia episode - words fail me.

I'm amazed that LIW's estate allowed Michael Landon to include her name & the words Little House in the credits since it implies that the shows' plots are from LIW's books, rather than products of Michael's fevered imagination.

[VVV]

Reread The Long Winter this weekend. Ypestis - your points are well taken re Pa & the impromptu meal with the Wilder brothers, but it still really bothers me. I hadn't considered, though, that what we're reading is Almanzo's viewpoint of that event, as told to LIW perhaps decades later.

As for the LHOP TV shows, I never watched them and I can see I was right not to do so - at best they're silly & trite, and at worst they're really dreadful. That Sylvia episode - words fail me.

I'm amazed that LIW's estate allowed Michael Landon to include her name & the words Little House in the credits since it implies that the shows' plots are from LIW's books, rather than products of Michael's fevered imagination.

If I recall correctly, Rose Wilder Lane left all the copyrights to Roger MacBride, who created the TV show. I dare say Mr. MacBride made a great deal of money from it. And since it wasn't about his own family, I doubt he had much incentive to pull the plug on anything that was generating so much profit. There was a fight over the rights between his heirs and the LIW library when he died, but his family prevailed.

Count me among those who loved the books, reviled the TV show.

[LucySnowe]

I've been reading this thread all weekend on my smartphone, wishing I could respond!

I don't think anyone's mentioned Rose Wilder Lane's own fiction (apologies if I missed it), but I read a few of her novels and while I can't remember most of the details, I definitely remember thinking 'this is Little House For Grown-Ups'. There may even have been some of the same episodes treated with more realism. These are Free Land and Let the Hurricane Roar (retitled Young Pioneers with, I think, some name changes). If you want more Small Town Life sort of fiction, try Old Home Town. I'm pretty sure all of these have been reprinted, so should be available through public libraries.

As for the LHotP storyline with Albert on drugs - I genuinely believe that this scene (with him spitting up what he'd been taking) scarred me for life with regards to drug-taking. *shudder*

Someone mentioned TV Tropes and the 'new kids when the old ones age out of the series' trope - could anyone point me to it? I did a Google search and checked the entire list of tropes for LHotP but either it wasn't listed there or I can't read properly.

[formergothardite]

I always hated Ma when she made Laura give her doll to that bratty little girl who just threw it in the mud.

[Loveday]

I always hated Ma when she made Laura give her doll to that bratty little girl who just threw it in the mud.

Charlotte! I loved that little rag doll! I felt the same way. How could you, Ma? Laura didn't have much of anything to start with, and to give up the doll you made for her to replace that old corncob doll she played with for so long... inexcusable! :naughty:

[freejoytoo]

Oh yes, I hated Ma for that too! It's your DAUGHTER'S DOLL!

[starfish]

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I was so angry about Ma making her give the beloved Charlotte to that brat!

[AnnaSofia]

I had forgotten about Ma telling the girls to put a bar against the door. It makes me wonder why Laura/Rose would include that in the book when little girls would not pick up on its meaning. Maybe to send the message that, even back then, people had to be wary of strangers?

It's been ages since I read Shores of Silver Lake, maybe someone else will have a better memory of it, but wasn't Pa out of the house part of the time they had the men boarding there? I think he had to go file his own claim, so basically he left his wife and 4 daughters alone in a house literally crammed full of complete strangers.

The potential danger of the situation didn't full occur to me as a kid reading it, but it boggles my mind now.

[Lady_M]

Charlotte! I loved that little rag doll! I felt the same way. How could you, Ma? Laura didn't have much of anything to start with, and to give up the doll you made for her to replace that old corncob doll she played with for so long... inexcusable! :naughty:

Oh, me too! I had a rag doll my mother made for me as a child that I loved and every time I'd read that part I'd get so angry about what happened to Charlotte.

[uncreative]

Add me to the 'loves the books, despises the show' list! The later episodes are absolutely the worst. No, Mary did NOT come back from college and open a school. There was no interracial cooperation. Ma was very open about her dislike of Native Americans. The Ingalls family did not adopt an orphan boy. It was all they could do to keep their own children fed & clothed. I could go on and on, but it sounds like most other people here agree. :)

I've been reading Farmer Boy to my five year-old son (8 year-old daugher usually wanders in to listen, too). He loves the descriptions of the food and hearing about how different farming was back then.

[hoipolloi]

I always hated Ma when she made Laura give her doll to that bratty little girl who just threw it in the mud.

QFT

[formergothardite]

The part with the doll and the part where Pa wouldn't let Jack in the wagon to cross the river and they think he died are the parts of the books that I hate the most. They make me mad. I realize times were different back them, but damn! Put the little dog in the wagon, that weight won't sink it!

[PennySycamore]

Oh, me too! I had a rag doll my mother made for me as a child that I loved and every time I'd read that part I'd get so angry about what happened to Charlotte.

I had completely forgotten about Laura having to give her beloved doll away. That must have been so traumatic for Laura! IIRC, Laura picked Charlotte up out if the mud and cleaned her up, but still....

My grandmother couldn't watch the later episodes of the TV show as it just tended to much to be tragedy of the week and it made her too sad to watch. Speaking of the TV show, one of my girls in particular LOVED to watch the show. She must have been around three and she was still deep in her Electra phase where was in love with her dad. She said she was Mrs Ingalls and she called her dad Charles when he got home from work. I was, unfortunately, Mrs Oleson.

One thing that always bugged me about the TV show was that Jack was no brindle bulldog. That's one thing that the TV-movie got wrong as well. They made Jack into a Australian shepherd. Oh, and Caroline's hair was too messy to be practical.

ETA: Yeah, put your dog in the wagon so he doesn't have to swim across the river. Of course, the real Jack may have been quite a bit bigger than our modern bulldogs more like the size of a pit bull or what is called an American Bulldog. He still would have been small enough that he could have ridden in the wagon.

[StarrieEyedKat]

The part with the doll and the part where Pa wouldn't let Jack in the wagon to cross the river and they think he died are the parts of the books that I hate the most. They make me mad. I realize times were different back them, but damn! Put the little dog in the wagon, that weight won't sink it!

That part with Jack seriously traumatized me as a child. I know he ended up being ok, but that was the part of the whole series that really stuck out to me as a child.

[PennySycamore]

That part with Jack seriously traumatized me as a child. I know he ended up being ok, but that was the part of the whole series that really stuck out to me as a child.

My fourth grade teacher read the books to us in class. I think every kid in the class was relieved when the eyes shining in the dark turned out to belong to Jack.

[missbrooklyn]

Michael Landon literally lifted whole episodes of the show from Bonanza. The episode where Caroline was alone and had the raging infection? Happened to Little Joe. The episode about he was only seven? Yup, stolen right down to the title. So unless the Ingalls family stopped off in Nevada during one of their many trips west, those things never appeared in the books.

[Lady_M]

My fourth grade teacher read the books to us in class. I think every kid in the class was relieved when the eyes shining in the dark turned out to belong to Jack.

I remember that part too. I was so happy when it was Jack - especially because I'd just finished reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" and didn't want Jack to die.

[bellicosebroad]

I have always been a big fan of the Little House books (hated the tv show though) and can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this thread. I've been interested in the "real" stories behind the books, so have found some new information on this thread. Thanks to all the posters here.

I loved the books (still do, despite their shortcomings adults are only too aware of), and loved the TV show until I had the capacity at about 12 to go, "WTF? That (latest shark jump) could never have happened. And what's with this Albert dude, anyway? Didn't he already play Charles Ingalls as a boy? C'mon, think we're stupid?" I quit watching then.

For anyone else who loves 'em some good old Michael Landon "who the fuck do you think you are?" snark re: LHOTP, I stumbled across this site several years ago and still visit when I want a good chuckle. Spot on. :)

http://www.dwanollah.com/blather/030304/

[Pattypoundcake]

Albert both died of a blood disorder and recovered from drug addiction to return to Walnut Grove as DOCTOR Albert Ingalls. It is like they weren't even trying at the end.

And the Almonzo-sick-never anyone for me but you speech in the blind school? Directly lifted from LM Montgomery's Anne of the Island.

[hoipolloi]

Michael Landon literally lifted whole episodes of the show from Bonanza. The episode where Caroline was alone and had the raging infection? Happened to Little Joe. The episode about he was only seven? Yup, stolen right down to the title. So unless the Ingalls family stopped off in Nevada during one of their many trips west, those things never appeared in the books.

Plagiarizing old Bonanza plots? That explains quite a bit.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Albert both died of a blood disorder and recovered from drug addiction to return to Walnut Grove as DOCTOR Albert Ingalls. It is like they weren't even trying at the end.

Yeah, I was about 12 then and I couldn't understand why the writers didn't bother to read last week's scripts. There was also an episode where Almanzo's older brother Royal comes to visit with his dimwitted wife and their two spoiled howler monkey sons. A few months later, Almanzo's brother comes to visit with his ten-year-old daughter Shannen Doherty. No wife, no boys. Royal dies and so Laura and Almanzo adopt the kid.

[WokChop]

It's been ages since I read Shores of Silver Lake, maybe someone else will have a better memory of it, but wasn't Pa out of the house part of the time they had the men boarding there? I think he had to go file his own claim, so basically he left his wife and 4 daughters alone in a house literally crammed full of complete strangers.

The potential danger of the situation didn't full occur to me as a kid reading it, but it boggles my mind now.

Mr. and Mrs. Boast were there.

[latsyrk99]

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet...but Roger MacBride also co-wrote a bunch of books that were of Rose's life growing up on the prairie. I believe they are called "The Rocky Ridge" years? First book starts out with Little House on Rocky Ridge. I know I read these also growing up after the original little house books...and I think there might be 5 or so more in that series? I know I remember crying when I read the forward of one of the books towards the end of that series of Roger MacBride passing away (or maybe it was Rose? It's been a long time) because that would mean there would be no more little house books. I might not have actually read the last 1 or 2 because by the time they came out I was in highschool and outgrew that kind of stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... idge+years

Also another series is "The Caroline" years....which is supposed to be Laura's mother as a little girl....no idea how accurate they are...and from what I remember I never actually finished the first one for some reason it bored me to death even though I plowed though the other ones. Looks like there are a few more now.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... line+years

While I know the original books are probably a library staple...not sure how available the above ones are as far as borrowing from the library.

Edit: Found an accurate list...looks like we all got a lot of reading to do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Li ... ain_Series

[Deleted01]

I started By the Shores of Silver Lake last night. I think it's probably the one book in the series I didn't re-read as much growing up so I thought I'd start with it and see if I like it any better now.

I tried to read Rocky Ridge/Caroline stuff years ago, but just couldn't get into it at the time.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

QFT

If the bratty little girl had admired Ma's china shepherdess would she have given it to her? Seemed to be fine when it was Laura's prized possession. We must not be selfish Ma!