LITTLE HOUSE YEARS {LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE} (TV)
Summary
A special retrospective of this series about the members of loving family trying to make a life for themselves on the American frontier in the late 1800s. As the program begins, the Ingalls are finishing their Thanksgiving meal in 1882. Laura tells her family about the journal she started when the family first moved to Walnut Grove; a series of flashbacks chronicles events from those early years. In the first flashback, the family is overjoyed with the house that Charles has constructed. Charles plows the land and grows crops of wheat, but a bad lightning storm wipes out the harvest and Pa must leave home to find work. Among the washed-out farmers searching for jobs is Jack Peters, whom Charles befriends. Jack and Charles find employment in a quarry, but Charles is devastated when a tragic mining explosion takes Jack's life. In the next flashback, Laura and her friend Jonah find a blanket of gold dust scattered in a creek bed. She fantasizes about their newfound fortune, but she and Jonah are disappointed when they learn that the gold dust is worthless "fool's gold." In another flashback, the Ingalls family learns that Caroline is pregnant. Charles is eager to raise a son and is thrilled when his wife gives birth to a baby boy. But Laura, who misses her father's attention, grows ferociously jealous of the new child and wishes it were dead. Quite suddenly, the tiny child becomes ill and dies and Laura is mortified, believing that God took her brother away because she wished for it to die.
As a flashback continues, Laura runs away from home after the death of her baby brother. As Charles and Isaiah desperately try to find her, Laura meets a mountain man who helps her come to grips with her guilt. A small miracle helps Charles and Isaiah find young Laura. In another flashback, Laura sells her horse to Nellie Olson, who taunts the animal with a whip. As a result, Nellie is paralyzed, and Laura steals the animal before Mrs. Oleson can kill it. Ultimately, Laura learns that Nellie is faking her illness and then gets revenge.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 18, 1979 Sunday 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:15
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T82:0343
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1979
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Landon … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Kent McCray … Producer
- Winston Miller … Producer
- John Hawkins … Producer, Writer
- Marvin Coil … Associate Producer
- William F. Claxton … Director
- John Hanrahan … Writer
- Ward Hawkins … Writer
- Arthur Heinemann … Writer
- William Putnam … Writer
- David Rose … Music by
- Melissa Gilbert … Cast, Laura Ingalls
- Melissa Sue Anderson … Cast, Mary Ingalls
- Karen Grassle … Cast, Caroline Ingalls
- Michael Landon … Cast, Charles Ingalls
- Lindsay Greenbush … Cast, Carrie Ingalls
- Sidney Greenbush … Cast, Carrie Ingalls
- Matthew Laborteaux … Cast, Albert
- Linwood Boomer … Cast, Adam Kendall
- Kevin Hagen … Cast, Doc Baker
- Shane Sinutko … Cast, Jonah
- Don Knight … Cast, Jack Peters