In 10 years of filming, the actors of the series The Little House On The Prairie don’t only keep good memories from behind the scenes… We reveal them to you in this special file on the series from the 70s!
Melissa Sue Anderson injured on set
During her visit to the 61st Monte Carlo festival, Melissa Sue Anderson spoke about the day she was injured on the set of the set, speaking to Télé 7 jours. The actress thus gives details on the credits scene: “The flowers you see on screen were fake, planted using iron stems. During the first take, I tripped over one of them and hurt myself. »
Karen Grassle denounces Michael Landon’s behavior
In her autobiography published in 2021, Karen Grassle remembers the filming, not always easy, of The Little House On The Prairie… She refers in particular to the inappropriate and obscene remarks made by Michael Landon about the smell of women’s private parts after sex. Far from the perfect image of Charles Ingalls, it would seem that his interpreter was not always benevolent in these remarks.
The one who plays one of the protagonists of the series writes: “I think those remarks were made to humiliate me, because we were stuck in this tiny room, in this bed with all these men around. We couldn’t escape between takes because the room was full of people. So there I was, in my little nightgown, listening to disgusting jokes. It was horrible, horrible, horrible. “.
Melissa Gilbert and chewing tobacco
As the main character of the series, Melissa Gilbert doesn’t only have good memories of her years filming in the shoes of Laura Ingalls… During an interview given to Chicago Tribuneshe remembers a moment that particularly marked her: “ We were filming in Arizona, at Old Tucson, which is an amusement park. I think I was 14 at the time, and for the kids it was a lot of fun. We took a break and all the kids went to get some root beer floats. PThen we came back to where we were filming, which was in an old bar. » The day started off perfectly for the actress.
The situation quickly turned into a nightmare when she joined the set, she adds: “The other thing you should know is that there were a lot of cowboys on our set, chewing tobacco. And they had to spit their tobacco into red cups… Je sets my root beer floating on a counter next to a bunch of other things and I rehearse my scene. And then I come back and grab my root beer float and take a giant gulp…. It wasn’t a root beer float. It was one of the guy’s spit cups. “. Melissa Gilbert had to overcome this ordeal in bad taste quite quickly because she absolutely had to resume filming the scene.
Alison Arngrim almost lost her hair on the set of The Little House On The Prairie
Nellie Oleson’s perfect blonde curls in The Little House On The Prairie were not done alone… Every morning, the interpreter of the odious character had to spend many hours in the hairdressing room in order to always sport the same cut in the different episodes. But by using a curling iron every day, the actress’s hair was completely damaged and her hair was even starting to fall out… The team therefore made the decision to use a wig for the rest of the filming of the series in order to remedy the problem. More fear than harm for Alision Arngrim, who mostly keeps good memories of the sets of The Little House On The Prairie.
Melissa Sue Anderson lost weight for her role in The Little House On The Prairie
At the age of 12, Melissa Sue Anderson landed the role of her life, that of Mary Ingalls. When the actress learned the good news, she quickly became disillusioned when she learned that the production asked her to lose three kilos for her role… A compromise that the interpreter of the protagonist still accepted, depriving herself of eating sweets for several months.
A difficult kiss scene for Melissa Gilbert
Karen Grassle is not the only one to have recounted her bad memories of filming in an autobiographical book… In 2009, Melissa Gilbert shared in her memoirs her reaction to her first kiss with actor Dean Butler, aged 22 years old at the time, when she was only 15 years old. She writes : “I was hit with a perfect storm of disappointment, fear, anger and nausea…I expected the producers to cast one of my contemporaries, someone close to my age. Instead, they chose a man! I didn’t want to kiss a man. “.
Sean Penn and Alison Arngrim passed out
In case you were wondering, it is indeed Sean Penn, who makes a furtive appearance for the first time on screen, in the episode Tinker Jones’ Bell of The Little House On The Prairie. The star is not likely to forget his first steps in front of the cameras since, that day, he and Alison Arngrim lost consciousness… While a scene took them into a real foundry in which the ambient temperature was 43 degrees, the actors struggled with the oppressive heat and felt unwell.
Melissa Gilbert had to hide her breasts
The child star grew up during the filming of The Little House On The Prairie. While growing, the actress’s body began to change but this transition to puberty was not immediately integrated into the script… Melissa Gilbert therefore wore a corset to flatten her chest, while waiting for her character to reach adolescence .
