Long time Little House on the Prairie fan here; I grew up watching this in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then, after a long hiatus, I began watching it again on the COZI TV network (although they only purchased rights to the first seven seasons, and the episodes are cut because of the longer running times of 1970s shows).
I know there is an ongoing debate about which show was better-- LHONP or The Waltons --but for me it has always been Little House.
One thing I noticed on re-watching Little House on the Prairie-- it seems like poor Melissa Gilbert, as Laura Ingalls, cries in just about every episode! That must have been tough on the actress. I'm sure she knew many tricks to make it easier after awhile, but still . . . that's a lot of crying.
On various film boards, people like to criticize the acting abilities of child actors, but, overall, I think most of the child actors on this show-- not just the major characters but many of the minor ones as well --did an excellent job portraying a range of emotions.
Just my opinion.
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Reply by wonder2wonder
on May 8, 2018 at 8:47 AM
I preferred watching this show to "The Waltons".
No doubt, the child actors were wonderful in their roles.
About the crying, here's an excerpt from the article 40 Of The Most Kept Secrets From Little House On The Prairie:
"Baby Stop Crying"
As an actor you have to be really connected with your emotions in order to get yourself to tear or cry for a role you’re playing. As a child it’s a little bit harder to do, and Landon found a really sweet technique to make this work is one of the kids had a scene which involved crying – the actor would turn to them with tears in his own eyes, and used to ask: “Do you know how much I love you”. This question automotacially turned on the tearing fountains.
Today, May 8, is Melissa Gilbert's birthday