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The show's lasting charm lies in the ensemble cast who brought the characters of Walnut Grove to life. From the unwavering wisdom of Michael Landon's Charles “Pa” Ingalls to Melissa Gilbert's endearing portrayal of Laura, each actor contributed to the show’s legacy. In an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, titled "The Co-Producers", Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern attempt to make their own talk show.
James and Cassandra Cooper Ingalls
After Little House ended, Grassle went on to star in productions such as “Harry’s War” and “Wyatt Earp,” and today, she’s still involved with film. Still, her net worth isn’t nearly as much as other Hollywood television stars, coming in at around $500,000. At Almanzo's urging, Laura enters a writing contest and produces a novel about the Ingalls family, which Almanzo and Jenny love.
Victor French as Isaiah Edwards
She is best known for playing Felice, Donna Martin's mother, on Beverly Hills, 90210. Dean Butler portrayed the character Almanzo Wilder, who later married Laura. Almanzo, lovingly called "Manly" by Laura, also attracted the attention of Nellie Oleson and other young ladies in Walnut Grove. After Little House on the Prairie, he appeared on shows like General Hospital and Matlock. Hagen starred in the one-man show, A Playful Dose of Prairie Wisdom, based on Doc Baker. After leading a theater company in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she joined the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky.
See the Cast of 'Little House on the Prairie' Then and Now - Woman's World
See the Cast of 'Little House on the Prairie' Then and Now.
Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Played by: John Hillerman
Seeing her anger, Almanzo is inspired to pitch in and help rebuild the house. They arrive with Hester-Sue and join the family with Laura and Almanzo. Soon after, a fierce blizzard snows them in, and they all have to stay the night. Caroline, Almanzo, Laura and Hester-Sue recall Christmas memories from when they were children. Charles and Albert go on a delivery run for Jonathan Garvey, and they travel with the Cooper family (parents Alvin and Sarah, 11-year-old James and 8-year-old Cassandra) who are on their way to join Alvin's Uncle Jed on a gold claim. Encountering a steep hill, Charles and Albert (with James and Cassandra in the back of their wagon) descend safely, but Alvin loses control of his wagon which overturns, killing him and Sarah instantly.

After Little House on the Prairie, she returned to theater and mentored young actors before retiring in the early 2000s. "When I came on the pilot, he was extremely kind and sensitive and a good director and really gave me a chance to find my legs because [TV] was a new medium for me," she told PEOPLE. In April of 1991, Landon announced that he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Later, she finds out from Doc Baker that she is not expecting but is experiencing an early menopause and cannot have any more children. This devastates Caroline, who has tried to birth a surviving true male heir for Charles and fears she is worthless to him now because this is now impossible. Almanzo's elder brother Royal and his wife Millie visit Walnut Grove, and they leave their two young sons in the care of Almanzo and Laura, while Royal and his wife go away on a vacation. Royal's wife believes a parent should never say 'No' to a child, and their boys' constant mischief tries the patience of Almanzo and Laura, who are determined to adopt a different parenting style with their own children. Caroline hears that her mother and stepfather are coming for a visit, but her mother passes away during the train journey.
Season 3 Episode 18 “The Wisdom of Solomon”
Laura then meets Jonathan, a Heaven-sent stranger who shows Laura how much she does mean to her father. After endless searching, Charles and Mr. Edwards do find Laura and take her home. A few years later, Laura was given a second chance to embrace a new sibling with the coming of Charles and Caroline’s fifth child, a daughter named Grace.
Played by: Charlotte Stewart
Caroline's stepfather, Frederick Holbrook, is inconsolably distraught, until the family—enjoying his tales of when Caroline was young—persuade him to write his autobiography. Meanwhile, Mary is heavily pregnant, and soon gives birth to Charles' and Caroline's first grandson, Adam Charles Holbrook Kendall. He is staying with the Ingalls family, eating them out of house and home, when the spirited spinster Amanda Cooper catches his eye. Toby sets out to win her heart, but she is determined to keep him at arm's length. Meanwhile, Laura has a crush on schoolmate Jason and, with Albert's counsel, tries to get him to notice her. Charles and Jonathan compete against another team to win a freighting contract.
Played by: Linwood Boomer
Mary, who has recently gone blind, is sent to a blind school in Iowa, where she meets Adam Kendall. Mary refuses to accept Adam's help at first, but he eventually helps her learn to deal with her blindness and a relationship blossoms between the two. He is soon leaving this large blind school to accept a better teaching position at a smaller school in Winoka. Meanwhile, in Walnut Grove, due to an escalation of the dispute, the school closes for the summer with no plans to reopen next fall, and the teacher, Mrs. Beadle-Simms, and her husband make the decision to leave Walnut Grove. Charles and Caroline decide to also move to Winoka in order to be near Mary. They vacate their home and farm without even putting it up for sale, since no one would buy it anyway considering the shape Walnut Grove is in.
The show is a full-colour version of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series of Little House books. Also after Rose, Laura gives birth to a baby boy, called Baby Wilder, who dies shortly after birth. Doc Baker saves her life, and Laura realizes her baby’s death was not Doc Baker’s fault at all.
There, Mary meets up with John Jr., who has started a job as a cub reporter for a newspaper. Former lovebirds John and Mary soon find their lives headed in separate directions, especially for John Jr., who has a new girlfriend. Meanwhile Charles has problems with the corruption he witnesses at the Grange meetings. Reverend Alden gets badly hurt while on his way to collect donations for a struggling town in another part of his parish.

Her solo show, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, premiered in New York in 2002 and has toured globally. In 2023, she mounted a new production of the play during the SAG-AFTRA strike. It was also published posthumously, in 1962, and includes commentary by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.
Soon after, Charles and Caroline have a fourth child, a son named Charles Frederick Ingalls, Jr. Laura becomes jealous of young Charles and refuses to pray for her brother’s good health. Such a choice causes Laura great pain shortly after, as Charles Jr. dies of an illness and Laura is crushed by guilt. That Sunday, Reverend Alden has a sermon about miracles, and Laura takes matters into her own hands and decides to run away and pray for a miracle. Laura decides that her late brother meant more to her father than herself, so she pledges herself to God on a mountain, asking to take her brothers' place in Heaven, so that the baby might come back to Earth to be with their father.