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It’s been 50 years since “Nasty Nellie” headed to the prairie.
The surviving cast of “Little House on the Prairie” is celebrating its anniversary at a festival taking place this weekend at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley. California. It’s where the show was filmed during its nine seasons, from 1974 to 1982.
“If you had told us 50 years ago that this show would still be timeless, we would have thought you were crazy.” Alison Arngrimwho played bad girl Nellie Oleson, told Fox News Digital.
“We had no idea this show would still be airing on television 50 years later,” he shared. “We didn’t even know if there would still be television in 50 years! We were surprised that this show became a hit.”
The series directed by Michael Landon chronicles the adventures of the Ingalls family in the 19th century Midwest. Despite her wholesome storytelling, life was different on set, the former child star insisted.
“It was the ’70s,” he chuckled. “People were drinking, people were smoking. (Landon) was doing all this stuff. It was a little strange that you were… on the set and people were standing with cigarettes and glasses of gin. It seemed strange, but that was television in the ’70s. It was like ‘Mad Men’. (Landon) wasn’t a dad. But then, if you think about it, what a brilliant performance. Here was this man who came to work with his shirt unbuttoned, with his gold chains, in his Ferrari with his Marlboros, and then I became Pa Ingalls in a matter of minutes.”
Landon, who played patriarch Charles Ingalls, died at age 54 from pancreatic cancer in 1991. The actress described her late co-star as an outspoken woman who smoked furiously and battled her insecurities when the cameras stopped rolling.
“In many ways, Michael was a Hollywood person,” the 62-year-old explained. “Yes, he owned a Ferrari. He had fast cars. But… the show was therapy for people. And I think it was therapy for Michael in many ways… (What surprised me) was that… .insecurity, because he was so powerful. He was the CEO. He was the producer. He was the writer and the star of the show. He was everything. He was loved by millions, absolutely beautiful, very in charge… He was doing jokes. He had “A wonderfully twisted and twisted sense of humor. He was hilarious.”
“But you could see there were times when he was trying so hard: ‘Will this be good enough?'” Arngrim continued. “I wanted it to be good enough to be perfect. And you could see that there were moments where it seemed like, ‘Oh my God, maybe this is not going to be perfect.’ And I think that was maybe what “It drove him, maybe it scared him. That it wouldn’t be perfect.”
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Decades later, Arngrim still sees the beloved patriarch as “complicated and fascinating.”
“That was the most fun you could have on a set without getting arrested,” he said. “(He was into) jokes, nonsense, he always wanted to make the kids laugh… and then he was very understanding and respectful at the same time. And then he was an absolute task master… all at the same time, all day long… I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone (else) like him.”
According to the star, the pilot episode of “The Little House” It came out in March 1974. It would not be until September of that year that the series had its premiere.
Arngrim said that unlike everyone else on the set, Landon “always knew” that “Little House” would stand the test of time.
“He told (co-star) Melissa Gilbert… ‘Long after we’re gone, you’ll still be watching this,'” he said. “And everyone he told it to shook their heads and smiled and nodded and said, ‘He’s crazy.’ No one believed him. They all said, ‘Oh, isn’t he cute? He clearly lost his mind.’ No one thought this would happen 50 “Years later… We’re flabbergasted. We’re excited. We’re so grateful.”
Landon isn’t the only missing star whose presence will be felt this weekend.
Arngrim was a close friend of Steve Tracy, who played her on-screen husband, Percival Dalton. The actor died in 1986. at 34 years old.
“She was a wonderful person, very funny and incredible,” he shared. “He was older than me and treated me with respect. He didn’t say, ‘This 17-year-old fool.’ He recognized that I had improvisational skills. So we were able to do the comedic things that we did as Nellie and Percival. We had a wonderful relationship and “We became great friends.”
“He was diagnosed with AIDS… there were no medications for this,” he reflects. “There was no cocktail party. They still didn’t know what the hell they were doing. People didn’t live for years with AIDS. Back then, people lived for months. So when he went public in 1986 and told everyone he had AIDS “It was devastating for all of us… Back then, if you lived nine months, it was a miracle.”
According to the actress, Tracy lived a couple of years after her diagnosis. During that time, she underwent grueling experimental treatment. Arngrim thought she would save his life.
“The shooting was very unpleasant,” he said. “It was painful. It was like chemotherapy. It was horrible. I said, ‘Is this painful?’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, is it going to work?’ And he said, “No. It’s too late. It’s too late for me. He’s progressed too much. ‘Did I say what?’ He said, ‘I just hope that if I do this, they can save someone after I’m gone.'”
“That’s the kind of person Steve Tracy was,” Arngrim said, fighting back tears. “He was absolutely my friend. That’s why I started volunteering at the AIDS Project in Los Angeles and worked with multiple AIDS organizations throughout the ’80s and ’90s. I wanted to help people like him.”
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The rest of the cast has maintained a close bond over the years. During the coronavirus pandemic, Arngrim hosted live readings of “The Little House” books for fans.
She’s as busy as ever. The star boasted that she is booked until November this year, when she will reconnect with fans across the country and internationally.
“The ‘Little House’ books came at the height of the Great Depression, and the series came out when we were going through a terrible recession and people couldn’t afford to buy things,” Arngrim said. “And when times got tough in 2020, people turned to ‘Little House’ for comfort. People started making their own bread and suddenly everyone was an Ingalls.”
“There’s a deep connection that people have with the show and it’s really amazing,” he said. “It really has stood the test of time, just as Michael Landon predicted. When times get tough, there’s always ‘Little House on the Prairie.'”
Original article source: ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Child Star Says Set Was Like ‘Mad Men’: ‘Cigarettes and Glasses of Gin’