“Little House on the Prairie” Cast Says They Felt 'Very Protected' on Set as Child Actors
Stars of the beloved '70s series reunited ahead of the show's 50th anniversary at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco on Saturday, June 15
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From left: Alison Arngrim, Leslie Landon, Karen Grassle, Wendi Lou Lee, Melissa Sue Anderson and Matthew Labyorteaux attend the 'Little House on the Prairie' photocall during the Monte-Carlo Television Festival on June 15, 2024The cast of Little House on the Prairie is looking back on their time together as child actors.
Ahead of the beloved NBC series' milestone 50th anniversary in September, several of the show's stars — including Karen Grassle, Alison Arngrim, Melissa Sue Anderson, Matthew Labyorteaux, Leslie Landon and Wendi Lou Lee — reunited at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco.
During the actors' appearance on Saturday, June 15, at the Little House on the Prairie panel, they took time to reflect on the wild culture that so many TV sets in the 1970s shared — complete with smoking and drinking on set.
Grassle, 82, who played Ingalls matriarch Caroline in the series, revealed that she and the late Michael Landon, who played her character's husband, Charles Ingalls, would often smoke right on the set.
"Michael was smoking. We were smoking around the kids," she revealed.
Related: Michael Landon's Daughter Leslie Reveals What She Misses Most About Her Father: 'His Laugh'
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Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon on the set of 'Little House on the Prairie'"And no one thought that was strange then, at all," chimed in Arngrim, 62, who played the role of Nellie Oleson.
"No, we were putting out our cigarettes in the dirt of the Little House on the Prairie. Can you imagine?" Grassle added. "Sacrilege."
Although Arngrim pointed out that this might seem scandalous in 2024, the culture on a 1970s TV set was much different. It was also common back then for cast and crew to drink behind the scenes — at Christmas parties, wrap parties and after filming was done for the day.
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"It was the 1970s," Arngrim added. "You go to a set now, and the craft services where they have the snacks and the food, there's organic food, there's gluten-free options. We had donuts and coffee, big sugary donuts and lots of strong coffee."
"That's how it was. We had junk food and we had cigarettes and beer. That's just how people lived in the '70s. So it was very normal for us growing up," she continued.
"But now by today's standards, absolutely you'd say, 'What is this, the set of Mad Men? How can this be Little House on the Prairie if they're drinking beer and smoking?' " she added.
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Melissa Gilbert, Michelle Steffin and Dean Butler in 'Little House on the Prairie'Related: Little House on the Prairie Cast: Where Are They Now?
According to Grassle, much of the party-like atmosphere on set carried over from the culture on sets like the cowboy-Western series Bonanza. But at the same time, everyone in the cast and crew was respectful about the fact that there were lots of child actors around.
"I must say that, from my point of view, it was after 4:00 when the kids went home that there was a much looser atmosphere on the set and there was a very respectful, very... it didn't need monitoring," Grassle recalled.
"[It was just] polite, there wasn't cursing. There was a real respect for the fact that we had children all around us. And I was really glad about that," she added.
Arngrim noted that she "always felt very protected" on the set of Little House on the Prairie.
"I always felt our crew was very protective of us children," she said, as Labyorteaux, 57 (who played a young Charles Ingalls), added that he also felt the set treated children much better than some other films or TV shows.
Recalling the work he had done prior to Little House — including John Cassavetes' 1974 movie Woman Under the Influence — he revealed that "Little House was unlike any set I'd ever been on."
"They were protective, they were caring and nurturing, they catered to young actors to give them a safe place to do their best," he said of the set's atmosphere.
"It's like a young athlete, or a young actor, you just can't do it on call every time," he continued. "And they would be quiet and reverent and respectful and help you do your best. And that was incredibly unusual."
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Acknowledging that not all child actors had the positive experiences that the children in the cast of Little House did, Arngrim dryly joked that if someone had done something inappropriate on set, "you wouldn't find the body."
"You've seen so much press now that some of the terrible, terrible things that have gone on on sets," said the former child star, who advocates for an organization called the National Association to Protect Children.
"I always said on Little House, if someone had actually bothered me or the girls and the crew found out, you wouldn't find the body," Arngrim continued. "That was the atmosphere that I was given there, that we were very protected to some degree."
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