springdellgirl

Little House on the Prairie From Hell


So wholesome. Such a family show. Not really. Behind the scenes things were quite snarky and not in a good or interesting way. I have kind of lost the joy of what was the "Little House Experience". Let me preface everything by saying that I truly hate celebrity memoirs. Yet like a fool I read them and get sucked in and I always end up hating the celebrity...with only one exception...Julia Child and the book My Life in France. I loved that book and Julia even more.

This particular hellish spiral of celebrity trash all began with the reading of this book:

What a large mistake. I have always been intrigued by the Melissa Gilbert and Rob Lowe pairing. They never seemed like a good match to me. During my teen years I would occasionally read in a gossip magazine about the couple and would think "How in the world did Melissa Gilbert get Rob Lowe?" So as I read the Rob Lowe autobiography for the purpose of behind the scenes information on the filming of movie "The Outsiders"; Melissa Gilbert began to crop up here and there. Never in detail and only occasionally. But I knew that they had dated for several years so I knew there must be more to the story. That was my first mistake. Curiosity. They say it killed the cat. How about several days out of my life and my already too short summer. I soon found out that Melissa had written her own tell-all and it was full of Rob references. So like a sucker I read it...and thus began my downward spiral into Little House on the Prairie Hell.

Are you a fan of the Little House books? Are you a fan of the TV series? If so, and you would like to continue to be one; do not read this book. Laura Ingalls Wilder she is not!! It sort of ruined the series for me...just when my kids had discovered it and were enjoying watching all the old episodes. Shoot.

From Goodreads.com:

"To fans of the hugely successful television series Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert grew up in a fantasy world with a larger-than-life father, friends and family she could count on, and plenty of animals to play with. Children across the country dreamed of the Ingalls’ idyllic life—and so did Melissa...Women everywhere may have idolized her charming life on Little House on the Prairie, but Melissa’s own unexpectedly honest, imperfect, and down-to-earth story is an inspiration."

What I have come away with is that Melissa Gilbert is/was an over-privileged, narcissistic bore. I thought that Melissa would talk about the making of the television series, and give us insights into the people who portrayed its characters, she does, but most of it is her airing her dirty laundry IE (her affairs,marital woes, family issues) and name dropping. It was highly disappointing and unsatisfying. Clearly she and Rob Lowe (the whole point of me reading this book) have MUCH different ideas about their past relationship. Neither one of their perspectives is flattering to either themselves nor to each other. The other issue that kept arising was Melissa Gilbert's dislike of her co-star Melissa Sue Anderson. Apparently they never got along and, according to Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue was a snotty brat. I was surprised to find out that her on-screen nemesis Nelly Oleson (Alison Arngrim) was actually one of her best friends. So what did that lead me to do...read Alison Anrgrim's book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. Oh dear.

My Rating: Annoying, self-absorbed drivel.

This book was a bit more interesting. Alison Arngrim is a much better writer and funny to boot. Her book was full of interesting back stories and tales from the set. I really enjoyed those parts of the book. Her life story however was so dark and sad...and although I feel bad writing this...there are parts of her life that I wish I never knew. I can't look at poor evil Nellie Oleson anymore and feel anything but pity for the poor, abused, little girl portraying her. That said...I found the book to be entertaining and I enjoyed reading it while traveling this summer. She corroborates Melissa Gilbert's claims that she and Melissa were good friends. There are several funny pictures in the book of "Laura and Nellie" having a great time together. She also backs up Melissa Gilbert's assertion that Melissa Sue Anderson was a nightmare. But Alison Arngrim cuts her a little bit more slack than Melissa Gilbert. So, of course, I then had to read Melissa Sue Anderson's book The Way I See It.

My Review: Okay. The best of the bunch.


This may be the worst one of all. It is the most unemotional and cold account of Melissa Sue Anderson's time on Little House On the Prairie. It was so unbelievably dull. At the time I read it my life was extremely stressful and this book certainly didn't tax my brain and it enabled me to fall asleep each night with ease.

I have to wonder what the point of this book was? To relive a cherished time in America's golden age of wholesome TV? Um no. To put to rest the rumors that she was unfriendly and difficult? Or even to tell her side of the story? Um no. This book contains very little depth and the bulk of it consists of Melissa Sue (she doesn't care to be called that BTW) sitting watching the DVDs...hitting pause...writing down the blow-by-blow account of her more memorable episodes with very little commentary. Bizarre. Equally bizarre is when describing something that might actually be interesting she writes it in a screen play format...Lest you try to ferret out any emotion from her whatsoever.

This was such a strange book. Even some of her pictures where copies of newspaper clippings etc. The very few family pictures she included were years old and there were absolutely zero photos of her parents. In fact, there is hardly any biographical information from her life prior to Little House. It is strange to read a "memoir" with such little personal content. There is a bit more at the end of the book about meeting her husband and having her children. But it still lacks any depth and is so detached and bland that who cares by this point anyway.

After reading this book it doesn't appear that she had any friends on the set or that she keeps in touch with anyone. From information gleaned from reading both Melissa Gilbert's book and Alison Arngrim's book she doesn't come to any Little House reunions. Things like this only lend credence to the claims of her former costars about her onset behavior.

There is no reason to read this book. Watch the DVDs and imagine her voice describing everything. "Mary walks in...Adam smiles. Ma says...blah blah blah." That's what this book is...blah, bland, detached and a total bore.

My Review: Boring with a capital B.

Here are my final thoughts after knowing way too much now about Little House on the Prairie. Don't read any of the memoirs. They will ruin the show for you. Watch the wholesome DVDs with the kiddos and enjoy them for what they are.

That said...if Jonathon Gilbert aka Willie (who has apparently disappeared from off the face of the earth and is estranged from his family) or the guy who played Albert (who wasn't mentioned in any of the books...except that his character existed on the show) wrote books I might be inclined to read them. They remain shrouded in mystery. And as you know...I am curious...and like the cat was killed...so was my summer and some brain cells by giving any of these books any thought whatsoever.