Shark Bytes

Loreli asked: "Oh, and you can include Lou Bates in that too. Wasn't the actor who played him in The Wizard of Oz in the thirties?"

Lou Bates was played by the famous actor Billy Barty, who was NOT in the Wizard of Oz...but he was in almost everything else that has ever been made . He was born in 1924, which would have put him in his mid-fifties when he did the LHOTP eps. Kind of old for the part, I think -- but then, he seemed to have always looked old, even when he was a kid.

Oh, and you can include Lou Bates in that too. Wasn't the actor who played him in The Wizard of Oz in the thirties? And the wife looked old too and they were just having their first baby?

Anybody ever notice that a lot of the parents looked WAY too old to have kids in the grammer school? Like the time Miss Beadle let them go home early because of the snow and Christmas and they got caught in the blizzard. Some of the mothers looked like they were 75 years old, with white hair and they were supposed to have kids ten or twelve years old. And Patricia Neal in the "Remember Me" epidsode being the mother of Alicia who was like eight and P.N. must have been at least sixty five.

Watching Little House was a family Tradition when I was growing up. I was so much in love with the show, I use to imageine that I was a Black Laura and my family were the African American version of the Ingalls!

HOwever, I can can too remember when the show started to go downhill. Here are some of my memoorable episodes...

I guess all those breast bindings with country gauze was not enough to stop a oversexed blacksmith from turning "IT" on Alberts Girl. When her Pa gets enraged and goes to Charles house he busts into the door interrupting the coveted family dinner (always served with milk mind you) which eventually leads to a brawl outside with Charles in the rain. After Charles bashes his face in a few times he holds him close to chest in the rain and says...."Hit up the team son, we'll take him home....." Got to love it....


Then there was Hester Sue. As the only returning character that was a person of color, you would have thought that she could have had a whole spin off show with the challanges she would have faced being the only African American in the 1800's Post Slavery period litttle town of Walnut Grove. Her role was completly useless and served the very meaning of the word "Token". Shhh...the big secret is the only reason why she was able to work at the blind school is because everybody there was blind and didn't know the Truth. The town agreed to it for her own saftey..check out the lost episode entitled..."A Haven for Hester"

Charles Never worked. I dare you to find one episode where you actually see him clearing a field. Sure he was always sweaty and buffed, and always talked about paying off the account at the mercantile with the money fron "next harvest" but that always came from him carving stuff in the barn ( like baby cradles for babies that would die 2 weeks after they were born, and platform shoes for little girls to run and play)...I loved Charles like a secound dad..but man things just don't add up!

Mr. Edwards. He wore that same damn red and black shirt for the ENTIRE length of the show! That was the real reason he tried to kill himself..

Poor Albert! He gets hooked on morphine, spits up white stuff like the exorcists, then his legs get posessed by the spirit of James Brown and start dancing all over the bed by themselves. To top if off he gets cancer just when he overcomes all that and gets admited to medical school. Even Charles could not save him from that one.

But what took the shark cake was when they blew up the whole town in The very last episode. They even brought back Old Rev. Alden who we had not seen in years just so he could blow up the Church! And somehow...just somehow...the Ingalls house was the only one NOT get get detenated! I bet the whole town was pissed with that one after they were all left homeless!

Still I hated seein them go...Love you Always LHOTP!

People scare me. 4 hours of any show per day is just wrong. Please find some kind of alternative -- get your face out of the TV screen and do something. Take a walk. Do some art or handicrafts. Find a support group. Something. Anything. Just stop watching so much television!

The key word here is moderation -- there's nothing wrong with most activities as long as they are done in moderation. But 4 hours per day of a TV show is not moderate. It's not good for you. I really urge you to break the cycle and find some healthy activities to replace your addiction.

Good luck!

Yes, I watch LHOTP 4 times a day...that i when I off work. I only wish I could get paid to watch it 20 hours a week. I finally saw the school burning episode and it was so horribly tragic. How much can they make poor Mary Ingalls Kendall go through? Luckily that is not a true story since I understand Mary never married nor bore any children.

I agree that the twins who played Carrie were the worst child actresses in history. I think they got the LHOP gig because of their connections: their dad Billy Green Bush was a semi-famous actor of the '70s (Five Easy Pieces, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore).

I guess the producers figured the toddlers (they couldn't have been any older than 4 when the show started) would eventually inherit Dad's talent.

Not a chance.

Laura, they are all brothers and sisters, though I think Melissa is only Jonathan and Sara's half-sister.

Do you really watch four hours worth of LHOP per day? That is 20 hours per week...a part-time job.

HI..Does anyone know if Jonathan Gilbert (Willie), Sara Gilbert(of Roseanne), and Melissa Gilbert are related? Any help?

IMO, the show jumped when Laura and Almanzo got married. I think that season where they met and courted was one of the best ever. But it just sort of tanked after that. I think Laura turning into an adult was never played up and it just was never done well. The addition of Nancy and the orphans were just boring and cliched. I just never felt the same excitement after Laura grew up. There are maybe a handful of episodes that I enjoy after that.

Honestly, I don't think this show ever jumped, but "Little house...a new beginning" would at least be an arguable point. The last episode ever was wonderful and I never realized it even existed the way it does!!!! That town is blown up out of this attitude: WE BUILT IT AND YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!!! Those folks showed those men where to go!!!

Leslie Landon was a bit over used as an extra to be believable as Etta Plum. First she was the pregnant woman in the stagecoach that overturned with Mary and Adam; then she was the other dishwasher when Laura went to Arizona for a seminar; then she shows up as Etta Plum. That's three different roles she played, that I can think of.

There was Etta Plum (Leslie Landon), who took over the teaching position when Laura decided to leave. Willie Oleson was so bummed on Laura's last day that he said something like "Miz Wilder? Once more, for old times' sake?" And she knew what he meant and in this affectionate voice she told him to go stand in the corner! Very quirky boy, that Willie.

I don't recall Lou Banks or his fate. I'm sure he died if Michael Landon had anything to do with the script. You will "enjoy" the school fire episode and will be screaming along with the rest of us at the moronic Alice Garvey standing at the second story window of the school screaming and holding the baby while being burned alive. What about jumping you idiot?!?!?

One thing I have always been curious about is the chronology of school teachers at Walnut Grove. The ones I recall in no specific order are: Miss Beadle (who later married), Miss Wilder (Almonzo's sister), Alice Garvey (the stupid one), Laura (of course), Mrs. Olson for a brief time, some hot-tempered guy who abused the students and was subsequently fired, and some other egg head guy, I think. Who am I missing? That school had more turnover than some inner-city ghetto public school.

Thanks for clearing that up about the fate of Wild Boy. It makes sense, too, to write him out of the show. the constant sign language acting may have gotten old. Anyway, since you knew that, what can you tell me about the little person, Lou Bates, who came to Walnut Grove and got a job at the bank. I never saw or heard from him again.
OH! This Monday on Hallmark channel will be the blind school burning down and killing two people episode. I have never seen that one.
p.s. is it just me or is the encrypted word we have to type in very difficult to read??