Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow Pt. 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're listening right now to the Little House fiftieth
Anniversary Podcast, we know something about you. We know that
you're obsessed with Little House of the Prairie.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
For more than half a century, Little House on the Prairie,
the series, and the books have been bright lights for
people all over the world who seek out goodness, decency,
and human connection.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Here on the Little House fiftieth Anniversary Podcast, we celebrate
everything that made Little House so special.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
The stories, the characters, the actors, and the messages that
have made Little House iconic family television.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
And a perfect counterpoint to a world that feels like
it's going off the rails every day.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Where is Michael Landon when we need him most? I'm
your host, Pamela Bob and I'm your Prairie bitch Alice
at Arngrum, and I'm Dean Butler, our hashtag imaginary boyfriend.
Join us for our loving, quirky, and often irreverent conversations
about the finest family drama in the history of television.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And the imperfect people who made it that way, presented
by our devoted patrons and visit Seami Valley dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Hello, Bonnie Heads, You're back. We appreciate you so much.
How are you. I'm Pamela Bob. I'm your host, creator
of Living on a Prairie and super fan here with
your favorite prairie bitch. That's right, it's Alison Ingram with
a cute haircut. Girl. It looks so good. And with
our hashtag imaginary girls, that's the.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
First thing you see is the cute haircut.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Of course, when a man notices a haircut, that is
a keeper. That is a that is a keeper.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
I always noticed my wife's haircut.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Well, there you go. That necessarily, you know what, that's
the person that counts the most, so I I accept. Ah, well,
that's right. He's our hashtag imaginary boyfriend, Dean Butler, very
attentive to his wife's haircuts. There you go. He's a
good man. Everybody that's a good man.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Got it? You do have to well, And it's it's
sort of talking about haircuts. It's sort of easier to
do that when you know she's going.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
For a haircuts eating.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
And then that's the first thing I can well, and
that's the first thing I talk about when she comes
back in the door, her hair looks beautiful. Is the
if she watches this. I don't know if Captain, if
you're watching this and you know that's what happens.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
You look, you look to see how it's different from
the attention. Even if they like it, they don't sing,
they don't sing, they don't know. I guess it's different.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
No, it matters when it matters when your significant other
notices your haircut, it does matter.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
I know it matters absolutely. So Allison, you are you've
made yet and you've made one of your annual sojourns
to France. What's going on?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Allison's here from.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Megamund I am in Paris and I just s got her. Basically,
I'm going through this is sort of recover from jet
lag phase. Like late Friday and crashed out and then
I walked around Saturday. It was like shop and hanging out,
and then a Sunday went. What was I thinking? It
was totally exhausted, a lot of been a lot of sleeping.

(03:27):
But I'm sort of semi functional today. Hence I was
able to get to the bad parlor yesterday on Saturday
and then nails were today, so I'm sort of functions like,
but after this Selper, I have something to eat and
then put on my pajamas because like I was.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
So cute here. Now, I'm not a nail girl. I've
never been a nail person. DM you get manicure as
ever or pedicure as ever? There's some men who love it.
Do you ever get a manicure pedicure?

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Oh yeah, I have done that. I have done that,
and I think it's very it's actually on on the
pedicures side. I think it's a very healthy thing.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
To it is it's so good, it's it's.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
It's it's good for you to do it, but I
know that there is a certain amount of resistance to
doing it. Why it really feels good and everything sort
of looks better when they're done.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yes, well, he's very well groomed. I've never noticed like
nails are so ragged and dirty. That's not a thing.
Clearly he's had a manicure on team.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's how that's how I could introduce you from now
and he's our hashtag imagine her boyfriend. Very well groomed.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Myself up and rest and then eventually I start the
tour in a few days to do Nellielsen arm flame
les and Nellielson sets fire to the eighties and I'll
be doing it all over France.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Is that the one where you're doing.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Two weeks?

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh, I know, I'm here for like.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
All of month.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
I'm like nine.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, she is a lot at this show. I saw
you do this show, and this show she is literally
doing cardio the entire time. It's like an hour and
a half, burning calories, big time.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Jumping around and the sketches and foolishness, and it's an
active show and you burn off many many guests.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Is there is there any part of this you could
do at our event and see me Valley in December
from probably? I mean I think, you know, for that
Saturday Night I'm switching the subject to be shamelessly promoting
this event, but you know, we have our cast in
coming up. Interesting that you are doing this show. Maybe
there's some piece of it for the Saturday night Little

(05:50):
House Variety show that we're doing, which is a special
added thing.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Some good stories. Because when I was in Fabulous Washson,
Wal I did my regular show in Indiana, but when
I was in Wisconsin visiting Louie's booth place, they had
a thing an evening with Allison and they were like, well, yeah, okay, Indiana.
They were like, yes to the whole show. The R
rated this was They said, yeah, definitely, don't do the
R rating.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
In the evening.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
It's had a church, it's in a church, right in
a church, and they're just looking for some good stories.
I'm like, not a problem. And so yes, told stories
and had a big Q and A and it was
lovely and people had a great time. So I got stories.
I got sure stories.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Stories. Of course you have stories. So I was in
I was in Mansfield at the at the you know,
at the Home of the mother Ship from Laura, at
the at Rocky Ridge Farm with Charlotte Stewart. And when
you leave this last weekend, we had a really we
had a really.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
I thought pictures, you guys look like you're having a
great time.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
We wrote, we wrote in the parade in a carriage
this time pulled by a draft horse.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
But we had a good time. We had a good time.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Good I did.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
It was Wisconsin. We had a little parade. It was
very nice.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yes, they do a parade there too. I think we
need to get into this. Yes, And there's just so
there's just so much swallowing in self pity to be
talked about.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
There's things going on in this episode.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yes, first I'm going.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
To say, oh, we can't, we can't jump into it.
Before we talked about green Room forty two, and I
was just gonna say, my podcast.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
We're doing a live podcast November twenty second. That's a
Sunday one pm at green Room forty two. My god,
I hope tickets are available by the time this drops.
It should be you know, no, you know. The most
frustrating thing was two days ago, they were like, Okay,
it's up, it's live, you're ready, and I was like, great,
and I double checked the page and it was wrong,

(07:55):
like the information on it was wrong. And so I
emailed them back and I was like, I'm sorry, we
need that's corrected. And they responded right away like yes,
of course, and I thought, oh, they're going to do
it right now. And it's been two days.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
They still haven't.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
So hopefully today, hopefully by this time. You guys, I'm sorry,
I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
No, don't worry about it. It'll work. It'll work.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
It'll all work. It's happening.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
People are posting what they are.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
It's going to be so much fun. I am so excited.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
For it.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
But anyway, yes, who knows. By the time this is done,
it might be all announced, and said, I don't know what,
I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Another event that I don't I'm not because I'm in
France is Dallas October fourth, and you Dean and Bonnie.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Dallas at Dallas Expo, right, Bonnie Barland and I will
be there next weekend. So I fly from Stockton back
to Texas where I came out of yesterday from Missouri.
So it's like, this is like this ten day this
ten day sojourn that I'm on, bookended by the Little House.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Oh my god, what do you mean you're that's that's good.
I'm doing back to back. Well, we're kind of doing
it back to back. In November, I go to San
Francisco and it's just like the fourteenth and Middle Ways
is and then I'm flying straight in to Boston and

(09:19):
meeting you because we're going over to what wizard, Rhode Island,
Rhode Island. I've never I've never been to Rhode Island
Chocolate Expo Chocolate.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
What what city is it? What town is it in
Rhode Island, Providence?

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Do we know?

Speaker 1 (09:37):
I think?

Speaker 4 (09:37):
So?

Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm not sure, but it's a whole chocolate expo and
it's November sixteenth and they have all the chocolate and
mean didn't get to do that. And then I'm coming
straight from there to New York.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yes, yes, because there will be lots of prep for
our fabulous ship that we were. What is the link
to the chocolate expo in the Little House on the Prairie.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
We don't have it. We'll get it.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Okay, we're having a chocolate xpo.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
You had chocolate.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
I will not miss a chocolate.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Fantastic. That's like a dream come true, a wonderful Yeah, exactly,
all right, Okay, now we can now we can get
into it. All right, here we go. I'm going to
read deems copy because he prides himself on this and
I will never forego this ever again. Coming up today
an episode about possibility and despair. Yes, but first produced

(10:45):
by Prayer Partners, and you be in go. This is
the Little House fiftieth anniversary podcast, y'all. Wo Okay, Dean Pity.

(11:09):
What are we talking about today?

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Today's season? Yes, Season eight, episode seventeen. And there's a
really they're really good stories behind this episode and why
it was done. Days of Sunshine Days of Shadow. Part
one is a rare ninety minute program. I don't think

(11:35):
that that happened a lot during the life of the series.
And Part two the next week was an hour, So
this was a two and a half hour show. This
was written by so Part one was written by Don Ballock.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, John Bella.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Both parts were directed by Michael Landon. I think it
was I want to say it was February of nineteen
eighty two is when we did this. I usually have
that date.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
We would break in February we worked in channel, we'd
break and it was like last thing we shoot, would be.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
Like yeah right, so yeah, so I think it.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
It looks very full when did this.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
It's it was cold. I mean it was it was
definitely cold. Mean, the fog was rolling in. We had
lots of dialogue to explain that plowing in the field,
which was all done at one time, was a miserable
cold day, and that you cut to back to the
Wilder house. It's beautiful blue sky. I mean, this is
just the reality of shooting episode of television. You just

(12:32):
have to do it.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
You can tell it's winter and see me because the
grass is green, because it actually rains in the winter
in our day, it actually summer. Everything's brown and yellow
because it's dead, because it's non stop eat for four months.
So yeah, yeah, so I went on, it must be winter.
There's actually green things.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
So Allison, what's this episode of about? Very?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
It is complex. I am telling you.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
I gave you two possible descriptions to consider. Two.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I I like them bo one I meanly and and
I would watch it both. Wow, I have I have notes.
I was like, there's there's there's things the matter. The
marriage between Almanza and Laura faces its first stern test
when he falls seriously ill with diphtheria, which is you
don't mess with and later suffers a crippling stroke, and
that this is from real life to this, this is

(13:22):
the one based on real Laura and amounts with Eliza
Jane arrives help care for a brother. It makes matters
worse with our godling. However, you have suggested there could
be an itchy approach Alman's and Manly Wilder dreamed of
conquering the prairie, but after a brush with diphtheria, he
ends up conquer conquering bed rest. Ignoring doctor's orders, he
insists on showing he still madly by trying to say

(13:44):
this wheat crop that it appears that he never planted
and we never saw any week I saw no weed?

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Did you no weed? There's there's some but no weed. Yeah, no,
interesting little problem. Yeah, go ahead, don't.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Oh my god, I never realize that.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
The week there is nothing to plow if you're waiting
for invisible.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Invisible god.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Okay, there's so much going on.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
So he tries to see his weak crab which he
never planted because where was it, only to suffer a
stroke which leaves him half paralyzed and fully cranky. Laura, meanwhile,
goes from storry eyed bride to full time nurse maid
faster than you can say a little half pint. It's
very angry episode. Every's very angry all the time in
this episode, and the title lasts about as long as

(14:30):
the opening title and the shadows that is on for
five and a half.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
For the first five minutes sets us up for disaster.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, everything that happen and they're all angry about it
for an hour and a half. Uh for guy nicknamed
Manly spends most of the episode being anything but sulking
city and perfecting his prairie pouch. He's very unhappy by
the end. He's less the rugged home instead of Laura's
books and Morny or of Walnut.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, he's he's a debbie drowner.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
It's true. It's true. Well, he takes it bad. I
mean he's a young man and a stroke and he
can't move. Yeah, he just loses it. He does not
take it well, he does not yet he's bitter. A
party of one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there was.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
There could have been a more noble way to play
this problem, but it was it was. It was written
the way it was written, and Michael never tweaked, you know,
he never He never turned me in a different direction
because I was just getting what I got from it,

(15:39):
and so that's the way it ended up. If I
watched this yesterday, I was so depressed, thinking, oh my god,
what a what a just this is so not what
I think of when I think of what this character was.
I loved the last, the beginning, and I love the end.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, it's rough. I also want to know, Dean, did
you know this storyline was going to happen or did
you get the script?

Speaker 4 (16:10):
And you were like about a week before we got
the script.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yep, okay, I have so many questions.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
I knew it was I knew it was coming, and
the deal was I mean, this is the sort of
the as we talk about all the things in the episode,
but the underlying, the underlying motivation for the episode was
Michael had made the decision that he was going to

(16:37):
step away at the end of the eight season, and
Kent said, we need to find out if you and
Melissa can carry this.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
So you were going at that point like you were
told that.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah, so We're going to throw every calamity we could
throw at you. And I mean, I have to say,
for as depressing as it was, the numbers were spectacular. Yeah,
on the yes, and they were they were really good.

(17:15):
I think it was number four the first week and
number two the second week for weekly programming. So it
worked really well. But as I watched it over the
I thinking, oh my god, why were people watching this?
This is so not what I think of, you know,
cultivating who this man was. So but that's that's that's
actor narcissism talking. You know, I'm not separating myself from

(17:39):
what we're being asked to do.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
So you were Misserable and Pudy but Laura was also
absolute shrewd central and it's like, oh and then the
lines it was ok, I potty too, if those two
broads have been taken care of me. I mean it
was a train wreck. It was rough. I mean they

(18:02):
did through every bad thing. And the thing is Laura
and o'mon's in real life and this is something because
I'm going if I remember and I looked up, Yeah,
it was actually worse in real life because Laura got
tip theoria too. That was one of the moments when
Doc Baker's going, well, it's diphtheria, as we all stand
around the guy breathing, I have no because it's airborne.

(18:25):
It's insanely contagious.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
And she's pregnant. Yeah, get out.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
In real life she got it too and was death leal,
so she wasn't taking care of her doing any of
this because she was really sick and was just managed
miraculously she got better. He didn't. Basically is what happened
in real life. It sucked, It was awful, was terrible,
so it was even worse in real life. They made
it a little Lene, they cleaned it up for.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
D and Dean. You shouldn't feel like it's a betrayal
of your character. What was so interesting to watch about
these episodes is that it was so against what your
character was that it was a shocking change, as as
it was to Laura, your wife who's trying to navigate

(19:10):
this is it? And so don't think like he was
such a whimpy? Was such an e york? Yeah, that's
the point. That the point was that the thing again?
And how are we?

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, that's what thema was. Yeah, yeah, that's Michael is
It's one thing to see happy, goofy, sweet, tell mom
so and darling, spunky Laura. What if it all goes wrong?
What if all Mom's was depressed and miserable and what
if Laura's just like bitter and screaming at him? Can
that work? Can that happen? So?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Were you guys nervous then of thinking what if we
can't pull this off?

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Like?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
What was the pressure like for you?

Speaker 4 (19:45):
I think we both went into it knowing that this
was very important.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, yay did that Yeah?

Speaker 4 (19:51):
And so so sorry?

Speaker 3 (19:54):
I mean did that help? Did that put like a
fire under your butts or like what? Because sometimes I
don't think I don't think it changed anything.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Is the work is the work had enough. You know,
you're always nervous enough and concerned enough about whatever you're doing.
But there was a lot to do in this and
so it and there was a lot of consequence potentially,
and so we we knew that there was a lot
to it. I think that she and I worked very

(20:25):
well together during this episode because because we both knew
that there was something at stake. Wow.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Wow, because this series would have ended then after at season.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
It could have. It could have, And I think that,
you know, they so I think Michael and Michael used
the success of this episode as the as part of
the argument to say we can go on here, yeah,
and we can spend this now. You know. The reality
was okay, we went on for another year. Our ratings

(20:58):
weren't horrible. I mean, the show gone from a top
ten show to a top fifteen show. It was still
in the top half of the ratings. But I think
NBC was just, you know, was looking to change directions
and yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know, you know,

(21:18):
I was looking through.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
I was looking through. I was scrolling through the episodes
for the final season, for season nine, because everyone sort
of is like, oh, that season wasn't good, but there
are some excellent episodes in that season that was not
a bad season at all. That there was Blanche in
that season, but besides Blanch, the majority of those episodes

(21:42):
were really really good. Still in my opinion, I'm.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Just saying, well, no, and look, but it's really important
is how the audience fell.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, yeah, And I will say the one thing noticeable
in season nine, I guess, is that you could tell
the writers sort of got into a loop, like like
a like a prairie bubble, and that they couldn't sort
of break out of it. And and so in that
sense you could sense maybe like, Okay, things are getting
a little stale, but in terms of story and character

(22:16):
and all that all still remained great.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
My issue with this episode has one. Okay, Michael Landon
was not a farmer in real life, and the people
who decided these scenes with you plowing somebody was there
was no one who had ever been on a farm
or knew what the heck they were doing involved. So
my my father, who was raised in farm, why he
would watch a sugar plan. Oh no, the times did

(22:45):
you basically plow a field. Everyone's more familiar with the
spring for you plow to get the earthway planning. But
you do anything plow in the fall. After after you
have harvested, to hello, turn the earth over to prepare
it for the winter, you plant again. There isn't any
reason prior to harvesting they need to be running around

(23:06):
plowing a bunch of stuff. So he's flowing furiously and
then says, oh, we lost the crop, which we still
haven't seen, and why why were you plowing at all?
And then the other thing. No one heard the phrase
too wet to plow. You don't plow in the in
the pouring rain, in the poor You don't even plow

(23:27):
for several days after it rains because you can't because
it's wet. You don't plow in the freaking rain. Nobody,
And so I was watching that guy. What what what?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
What? What? What? Well?

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Well, no one said he was a successful farmer, right, actually.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
He well he wasn't success. Yeah, he wasn't successful in
dismet or in uh in that part of his life.
He did get successful with Laura in Mansfield, with raising
apples and doing doing.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
That kind of and all to talk about later getting
a job, which he kind of in real life did
wind up doing other jobs. Now this is episode. What
I have problem was is like she had a ferry
bubble in writing. So they decided it's several points that
everything that had ever happened in the last seven years
didn't happen. I know, it just went down some memory

(24:14):
hole because they made represent went what several times? Okay,
I mean, yes, Laura is pregnant. They're worried. Laura has
never been fragile. The woman is absolutely brutal, and it's like, oh, yeah,
she's fine, so okay. At one point she starts talking about, well,
Paul never buys anything on credit cash from the barrel head,
and it's always been that way. And I'm like, since when,

(24:38):
because in real life, as we know, Paul Ingles constantly
did step in credit, which might have broke all the time.
How many episodes are there where he mortgaged something or
bet on the crop and said I'll pay for it
when the crop get I believe that was the and
then had some paper that was due a harvest of
friends one hundred miles. How many freaking episodes do we

(25:01):
have where that is the plot of the episode. And
she said, oh, yes, before I was born, when the
Grasshoppers came. You were there, Yeah, it was an episode.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
We were there.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
I know.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
When she said that, I was like, wait a minute,
I was there when that happened.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
And in the book Plumb Creek it's huge. It's a
major thing. And in case they actually everybody it's why
Walnut Grove was poor and they were getting charity at
the church was a huge deal. Laura wrote about it
was a huge thing. Was an episode of the freaking
show that we all watched. And she goes, yes, when
he lost his farm of the grasshoppers before I was born,
and this happens like eight nine times in the show

(25:43):
where I just go what happened the Yeah, I'm going
Plumb Creek. No, so that I love you.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
I have one that you tracked this kind of thing.
I think this is and then awesome.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
That you do when when things are ben passes, I'm
going to go out and get a job. I'm gonna
go work in that gang. And she's like, I don't know,
and I'm like, so guess it's dangerous. Like the time
he went and left no one. I will let it

(26:16):
go on before I dare to even get into the
whole Mary problem.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Well, That's what I was gonna say. Did they forget
that they already had a grandchild who died tragically in
a fire.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
It's like, you know when, yeah, and when when did
their grandchild say, oh, you'll be a grandfather. He's already
been a grandfather and already did. Maybe you don't try,
but you know how long ago was two years ago?
It was two years ago, very much alive, baby, but

(26:50):
the same thing happened.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Let the facts get in the way of the store.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
There's the same thing that happens. And when Laura and
Almonza with the Sweet sixteen episode and there at the
dance and it sort of ends mom powror dancing and
Mago's grandpa Yeah, and she's I just want to call
you grandpa and they laugh, laugh, laugh, and literally two
episodes before their grandchild died in a fire. Like it
is so crazy.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm a bad person. I when Albert some boys, I
don't think he should be talking about she has another
because he should have.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
The whole premise of another child.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
But no one is scarred. No one on the show
is ever scarred by the trauma that I mean. Listen,
when I think about the Ellen My Ellen episode, where
Laura is kidnapped by a crazy woman and she's fine afterwards,
she's fine, like there's no there's no problem, everyone's fine.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
I think you know you don't make television is not
made that way too. You really pull threads through things. Yes,
the style of television that was made, these were free
standing stories. They had their own reality inside the life
of that story, and everything reracks to zero neutral at
the start of next week unless there's a part two

(28:20):
or it's a big thing like someone gets married.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah, I will say that the big.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Things don't really.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, I will say. The one that sort of makes
me go is the grand baby reference. Whenever they're like,
we're a grand we're grandparents for the first time, it's like, don't.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Because of the real life book show problem of the
universe is colliding, and a lot of people say, that's
kind of why maybe babies died because in real life
Mary Ingles did and I never had children. If you
keep going, what do we do with this freaking kid
to so storyline, these people they have to like go

(28:56):
away somehow, this can't be there and I.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Are so dark.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
The baby's gonna go.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yes, Yes, given to her first born daughter when she
had a child, because that's a newborn when the fire hit.
The baby been around for a while, and you think
that she would have given it. And see, we can't
have that. We can't remember that there was a baby,
because then we'd have to question why the bread plate
hadn't been given to her. And that bread plate, as

(29:27):
you know, as you were trust there, it seemed a
museum in Mansfield because it actually survived the tornado and
the fire and every and I guess Laura didn't break it.
The breadplate still exists, the actual literal breadplate literally exists,
and so she couldn't have given it. She has to
give it to Laura. So we're now in a bind
because she's going on about how giving it to her

(29:47):
daughter who's now having a baby, and that already happened,
but we haven't pretended. The bread plate has to get
to miss.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
Sorry, can't dwell too much over this.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Of course, you just can't travel. They can't go back.
If they go back, don't step in the dinosaur track
and oh I stepped on the butterfly. It's like horrible
time travel where they keep screwing up the timeline. Don't
touch anything or there won't be in a different place
when we go back during the.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Bread plate moment, I literally in my brain when I'm
justifying this by saying she had a different memento that
she gave me that she was putting on gaving Mary.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
But we never saw that. No. Yeah, yeah, let's back
it up. Okay, Now, I think I think given the
time where we are right now, I think we should
take a break, all right, and let's let's let's come
back and talk about Eliza Jane, because Eliza Jane is
the big you know, one of the big flies in
the ointment here that pays off very substantially at the end.

(30:50):
All right, Yeah, we're not going to talk about the
end today, but let's talk about.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Eliza one, just part one, all right, everybody, We're taking
a quick break when we come back Eliza Jane.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
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(31:24):
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visit Seemi Valley dot com for their commitment to presenting

(31:46):
the Little House fiftieth Anniversary podcast.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
I want to know why you were built as a
guest star? Can I ask you that?

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, this is a very common practice. Can't When a
cast member, a regular cast member, had a particularly large
part in an episode, you would get billed as a
guest star. So that was a very common practice in
Michael's world.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Was that was that a pay rate, payscale difference.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Or just they didn't alter any of that?

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, sometimes it was instead of sometimes it was like,
well could I have more money? Nobody will give you
a billion up front. It was, you know, a trade off.
But yeah, that often happened on My name popped up
front a couple of times when that was the thing.
If you had a big episode, they go, we'll give
you a special billing. Okay, you get something.

Speaker 6 (32:42):
Out of it. You know.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
All right, I guess we're back. We started before saying
but we're back, everybody. I just want to asking about
the special.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah, that was that.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Was a very common That was a very common practice
on our program, and I don't know that that was
a common practice elsewhere. I think it was. It was
Kent Michael's way of shining a light on a cast
member who was going to be making a particularly strong
contribution to an episode. H Matthew Laberteau was a guest

(33:15):
star a lot on.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
If you were Super duper featured, it was all about you.
Boom name popped up front.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Okay, so so let's just establish what has already happened
up to the point that Eliza Jane enters. Right, we
first five minutes of the entire of the entire show.
We start with sweeping music, the Almonzo theme, Right, how
does it feel?

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Which? I love that theme?

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Love that theme is so Almonzo. Okay, Almanso. I know,
but we're talking about the show, Amantha, So and everything
is great, everything's going peachy, which is how we know
you're doing.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
We know that it's going to go to hell.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
It's everything it's too good. No, it's pregnant. The wheat field,
the invisible wheat field, is going to bring in everything.
He's going to become a horse. Like everything is happening.
It's all good until it's not. And fast forward to
diphtheria stroke and then does Eliza Jane come after the tornado?

Speaker 4 (34:17):
No, no, she comes, she comes to she shows.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
All right, now again d Baker. Baker's trying, but if
she should there's a mild epidemic going around.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Wait, wait, I have to address one thing. I also
do I have to dress something very important. They're all
in the room with him, They're like, what's happening? He says,
diphtheria highly contagious, and I'm like, get the pregnant wife.
And then eventually he's like you probably shouldn't take care

(34:52):
of him, and she's like, don't worry, I'll be careful.
And I was like, how.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Is airborne an? It's highly contagious. And in real life,
the real Lauren fact did catch tip theory. They both
have dip the they were both in bed. It was
a disaster. So yes, they're all kind of standing around
going when in fact, it was a highly contagious, deadly
disease at the time.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
There you go, it's all right with.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
The arrival of Eliza Jane, and you know, everyone, I
love her and love what she did on the show,
always did when we did. When we did our conversation
with with Lucy, she was very clear she hated, hated
what she was asked to do.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
If listeners don't if if listeners don't know this in
our audience in season one, we uh, Lucy Leaf flipping
came on our show. We talked all about this episode,
so you can go back, you can go back and
re listen to it. Yes, she hated this episode. She
hated what they turned her character into. She totally disagreed
with it. And I see her point. I mean, there

(36:04):
was no development for that character. We when she left
the show, we thought she's finally gonna take the reins
and drive her own life, you know, like she's she's
gonna she's gonna be okay, she's gonna she's gonna live
for herself, she's gonna make it work, she's gonna have
a happy life. And she comes back and it falls

(36:26):
right into the same old tropes and you go, oh,
there was no development whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
For you want to smack her face you want.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
She wanted to, and she wanted to smack herself in
the face.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
She did.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
She hated this, She hated it.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
The episode was true to real life with the history
of when you read the books and when you read
about the real Laura and Rose Jain was a serious
piece of work. In real life, Elizah Jane shed totally
bully and aman Amana with Laura do stuff all the time.
She made the move to flo Eliza Jane awful. She

(37:04):
made the move to Florida. They hated it, they had
to move. It was constantly dry. Remember the whole thing
about why Laura and Almonzo just run off to the
Red and Brown and get married. Andre like, no, no,
that's okay, okay, she talks Jane was going to show
up and be the wedding planner from hell and ruin
it and make them have a big wedding. They didn't
want to. It was Eliza j That's why they snuck

(37:24):
off and had the wind. She absolutely was awful, and
in real life Laura talks about a lot. Rose talks
about it. Rose went and lived with her because I
think they got along. He was the only one who
got along with her. But she was a holy terror
and pushed people around all the time. So this is
actually kind of like, oh, where are we gonna go
to the books? We're gonna go actually turn to life.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
Well, but now to what Eliza Jane did for Almanzo
and Farmer Boy. After he got the blacking on the wall,
he goes and cuts out the bad black the wallpaper
and patches it so her their mother and father never
see it. And there was a great redeeming moment for
Eliza Jane. And I love the way she played the character.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
She's perfect, she's lovely.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
Yeah, I mean, I love what she did, but I
know she just really she did not like being this
coddler manipulator really sort of just sad, sad.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Person who's trying to get some some synergy around her
life to be needed her brother back into it.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
And the way she infantalizes you is so cringe.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
She plays god.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
I literally felt like I needed to shower after I
watched that scene. It was so gross that it was girls.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Want to be want to be real estate agent?

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah, and don't tell them the truth about the property
means you just sell it.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Okay. Eliza comes in, Oh, this is my other beef
with Eliza. She first comes in, She's like, I need
I want to be of help. Tell me how I
will do anything. And Laura's like, great, teach, we need
a teacher at the school. And she's like, no, no,
that's not what I want to do. It reminds me

(39:30):
of Gosh. I have a friend who when she had
she had a baby, and you know, when you first
have a baby, it's it's a really difficult time. And people,
if you're lucky, people come and you know, give you
food that you can put in your freezer so that
you don't have to cook casseroles and lasagnas and river
so you have a storage of food so you don't

(39:51):
have to cook the first at least four to six weeks, right,
that's the toughest time. And my friend had a baby,
and and the father's parents wanted to come and be
a part of it, Like they didn't want to wait.
They wanted to come because they wanted to help. And
they came and they ate all the food and they

(40:12):
didn't All they wanted to do was hold the baby.
Like what could would have helped was walking the dog,
maybe cooking a meal, maybe vacuating the damn cleaning the house,
like they ate all their food and they just wanted
to be there to hold a newborn. Horrible. This is
what that reminded me of.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
That is really calm where they go, don't no, don't come,
don't know less you're going to come and mop my
ketchen or the baby while they take a shower, unless
you're going to do concrete things. Just do not not
even you know.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
That's the kind of so and Laura's I mean, she
legitimately needed a teacher to step in. It was a
legitimate It would have been so very helpful. No, that's
not what I wanted to just that. Jeez, Louise, Okay,
can we sip now?

Speaker 4 (41:10):
So the manipulation be empantilizing as you talk about the
feeding of the food and thinks like, oh my god,
what is happening here? And then and then she starts
planting the seed of Laura Almonzo have to move to
Minneapolis because Almonzo can be at a desk job, and
she's convincing him he's never going to walk again, that
he's never going to get up, that he can't change that.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Hope strings the turn off to me, what is it
that Almonzo knows how to do that.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
He would have.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Alonzo studied or took a course in schools. You have
a desk job, Yes he did when he later had
to go to work and really carpentry sture like fur
he did stuff like that's very good at office an office.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Wait, I need to take it back for a second
to when Laura gives birth to baby Rooms. First of all,
this must have been epic TV because you're seeing little
little girl Laura, now little woman Laura, and now giving
birth Laura. That must have been mind blowing to audiences
who have been following this person since she was eight

(42:26):
years old.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
I love the way the way she played that moment. Yeah,
she did that. I don't want to hear my baby
to hear me yell. I want her to hear me laugh.
And I thought that was a lovely touch in that.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
That's because you're a man. That's because you're a man,
and this scene was could be written by a man.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
I'll want me tell you something about natural Jolbert. I'm
not gonna scream. You know what I thought of Because
there's there's a bunch of like kind of WU culty
people who do silent birth, and it doesn't doesn't know.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
You have listened as as a as a mother who
have had two natural childbirths, one intentional one unintentional. Let
me tell you. Let me tell you something about screaming
during natural birth. It happens whether you like it or not.
You have zero control over whether you scream. It is
a train running through your body, coming from the universe

(43:30):
that is of a power that you have never known
ever and could never fully accurately describe it. So every
time I see and I get it, it served the story.
It's lovely, it's it's lovely. But I was like, ball shit.
I was like, this is some man writing prego scene

(43:53):
going on even And this is a pet peeve of
mine for any TV show or movie when you see
a fully like pregnant woman lying in bed, when you're
that pregnant, you cannot lie on your back because the
pressure is too uncomfortable. You have to be on your
side like because it's you can't stay on your back

(44:13):
like that the pressures. So every time I see a
pregnant woman in a show or a movie and she's
casually lying on her back, having you know, her little
bedtime chat with her love. I'm like, turn on your side.
This is uncomfortable for you. I know it's uncomfortable for you.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
A quick digression. One of my favorite episodes of Friends
is when Rachel gives birth and she's in the delivery
room with Ross and like three different women come through
and they have their babies with ease, and she's just
I don't know why that that sort of typifies TV birthing.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
Yes, yes, that whole that whole thing. So anyway, lovely
sentiment again for a story, it's fantastic. Wants to hear
a baby left and she even does a little laugh,
and that's that's when I threw my shoe at the
television because no, absolutely not. But anyway, lovely moment. Okay,

(45:14):
where are we?

Speaker 4 (45:15):
It's a it's a very nice moment. The moment when
Caroline brings the the baby downstairs and put some puts
her in front of me, and it was a looped
line and I don't know why it was looped, but
what a horrible cold delivery that was about me self

(45:38):
pity wallowing in just like how hostile was that? It's
just like, god like, what was what was I thinking about?
It's even as I re recorded that. I don't know.
I have no idea why it was looped, but it
was looped. Clearly it was looped.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
The things where I foundly believed, like, Okay, in dip theory,
you can have a stroke. Absolutely, Almonzo did have a stroke.
Almonzo was a mess and actually didn't get better like
in the show Who's Cancel like a mess.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
For a while. Yeah, it's he lived for the rest
of his life. Is the reality.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
He had all kinds of problems. He liked me. He
was able to function much much better when they got
to Missouri, to the farm, but he had serious problems
for a really long time. And young men, absolutely, people
when they find out, oh you're gonna be in a
wheelchair or you're going to lose a leg or the other,
you're not happy. No, especially a young man who's been
raised to think he's going to be the hero and
he's going to take care of everybody and then he can't.

(46:38):
Yet they're like twa, yeah, no, there, absolutely they lose it.
I thought, well that this is pretty.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
I bought it too. Did you not buy it Dean
when you saw it? Or just noting how how cold
it was? Because I bought it.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
Oh did you Okay? It just it just struck me,
just the read of it and the difference in the
sound onto the audio really was jarring to me, that one,
that one, and I'd forgotten about that moment. But it's
just a it's just like out of a different recording.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Environment you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
The just sounds so different than the space. There's no
room space in that line that yes, there is room
tone in the mix, but there's no room sound in
the actual recording and of this of the voice, and
today you would do that differently than different. Yeah. Interesting,

(47:35):
I want to talk about something else that's sort of
more more intimate in nature. And I thought, I love
that they that this was written this way. You know,
al Manzo's just disconnected from the world and his wife
comes to him to try and get him back in

(48:00):
the saddle in a sense, you know, to get him,
and he just he just can't do it. But I
love the way the gentleness of that scene. And I
thought she I thought she played it really really well.
And of course the second time she comes, it's like
you're you know, you don't want to lie with the cripple.

(48:20):
It gets it gets the first time he's gently pushing
her away, it becomes the next time it becomes much
more forceful because he just can't deal. But I love him.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
In the wagon where Paul goes, may I ask you
a proton question? That's this episode a lot of like
nineteen eighties mots a question. Oh yes, thank you for
your consent. I'm like, what are these people talk? How
are they all talking like this? But I'm like, wow,
that is weird. And then she's actually talking about well,
you know, he won't kiss me and will this. I'm like,
this does kiss me? Yeah, she's having this conversation with

(48:56):
her Paul.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
I mean, yes, that would be happening. It would be
a concern, but like, would she had that conversation? I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
I thought that too.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
I know, I know, friend.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
I love at the end of that scene that it
buttons with you're never alone.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Half fine, You're never That's what made it work, which
is say, yeah, she was always closer.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
To her paw.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
She was always close to her pass. So maybe that
is so she goes to with that stuff.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Okay, So was Melissa seventeen or eighteen when this was
I think seventeen. That's crazy. That's crazy. She did. She
was she was not the real Melissa Gilbert.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
We talk about the damn cat on the kitchen counter,
look twenty five. We all kiss her cats on the lips.
They're everywhere, my cat.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
I'm terrible.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
My cats are every where. They're in the bed. They're
still not allowed on the damn kitchen counter where the
food is. And I'm the worst. I mean, but I'm like,
no cat on the food counter. And Laura, who never
would have liked such a thing in real life. Nobody
in that airwood because germs. This cat just comes in
from outside. It's filthy, a barn cat, a dirty barn.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Cat, and jumps up on the counter.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
And she doesn't go and get him off because here,
and lets him have some milk and eat on the
counter where she will be preparing food, and later even says,
we should give you a name.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
Eat.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
It's a cat that is straight that she in fact
does not even know, and is letting the filthy thing
walk all over the counters. I was like, what has happened?

Speaker 3 (50:30):
How is that?

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Okay, that wouldn't have happened.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
It was interesting, It's like why, I just that's it's
an interesting point, like why that device? Why what purpose
the cat?

Speaker 3 (50:43):
And the cat has so many Yeah, well, you know
it's interesting.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
We never see something again.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
We never see cat again.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
The cats in the vortex, of course, the cat.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
How old is Grace when she makes her walk home?

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Well we'll get to that in part two.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
Well she runs home, Grace.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
That's part two.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
There's a lot of odd things, filthy barn cuts on counters,
I'm I'm just yeah, people giving birth and not screaming
I I you don't, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
And then the episode O case, I want to just
say the episode ends with Eliza determining that she's going
to be the one to show the farm because she
didn't like the way al Manzo and Laura. And in
a moment and a rare moment in this episode of
unity between Laura and al Manzo where he just says

(51:40):
she's telling the truth, and then he flips on her
right away when Laura, Laura or in Eliza says, I
guess the two I'm beginning to wonder if the two
of you really want to sell this thing, and then
al Manzo caaves and says, well, you're right, and of
course Laura turns, rushes out and praise and the episode, Yeah,

(52:03):
Lord give me strength.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Give me strength for this in law, which I think
many people can relate to with their in laws. Lord
give several.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
I suppose I should have discussed it with you first.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Oh, yes, yes, Minneapolis.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Yes it's actually going Yet maybe I shouldn't be doing
you think, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
I have to say. This is the first time I've
watched this episode. And when she talked about the possibility
of Minnesota, I was like, in Minneapolis. I was like, Oh,
she's right, this is a good deal. Like, like, he
can have a desktop, Lord can go back to college,
they can take baby Rose to the lake, they can Like.
I was like, that's that's a good deal. That's solid.

(52:47):
Y'all should move to Minneapolis.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
The episode, everyone's talking about staying. She wants to stay.
They want to stay in the farm, stay in the land, stay, stay, stay,
no matter what the hell is happen into the house
and pause, going on about saying these people in real
life moved constantly. Every time anything went wrong, they packed up,
they left town. They left town at the drop of
a hat. Nobody stayed anywhere. And in real life or

(53:13):
when I guess we better get out of here they
did move and then they moved back, and then they
moved here. They moved like five times, and they moved
all the time. Another weird thing with the thing of
like continent with the Okay, baby Rose gets born. In
real life, baby Rose was about two when this happened.
He got dip THEORYA mam got dip she got dip

(53:34):
theorya the tavia and she was pregnant short right after
having dip theoria with the little boy who then died
at like two weeks old. Was that connected that she
absolutely would have had dip theory while pregnant because it's like,
okay theory and the baby was born, and yeah, she
had like massive near fatal dip theoria and then had
a baby. Probably contributed to the child's death.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
We just misput we needed another run of diph theory
in the in the in the show, I suppose.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Wait, indeed, we haven't even discussed this. Tell us your
prep for how you did this, Like what did what
research did you do? How did you learn to do
what you had to do? What were the challenges?

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Yeah, so I Kate McCrae, I mean I think, can
I is there someone I can talk to and can't
pushed me to. There's there are several doctors, there are
probably a handful of doctors in Los Angeles who make
themselves available to actors who are going to be playing

(54:38):
certain kinds of things, and they made themselves available for consultations.
And so this was one of those situations. I remember
with this, you know, with the diphtheria, it was the
the throat and the you know, the hard time swallowing,
and that was that symptoms that could be played.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
It would manifest it. You could do that, and people
understand with the stroke obviously the physicality you're paralyzed, you're
not going to move you on.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
But in terms of the speech, because you have to
be able to have the speech, but the speech is inhibited,
the doctor said, just sort of bite down on your
tongue slightly and so your tongue, which your tongue is
everything for our articulation, and you take the articulation away with.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
They just like, so you can't and so you can't
really talk, but your face to sleep.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
So I thought that was sort of that was interesting,
very and as I watched it again, there was I
think was that you know, what was you know did
that work, wasn't okay, I mean, it's certainly, it's certainly
there was the change, no question, there was the change.
You helped me, Ben, help me be you know, Jesus

(56:00):
these But so it was those were the two. Those
were the two major things. And then and then learning
to walk again.

Speaker 6 (56:06):
It's like we talked about the scene where we were
in this in the next part, which we'll talk about,
but you know, the dragging of the feet and all
that as you're now interestingly, as I watched this last time, realizing,
wait a minute, there was nothing wrong with my right leg,
and yet I'm dragging both legs.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
But that's but that's okay, a mistake. The scene worked,
but it's but it wasn't an accurate thing. But okay,
that's it's really the doctors are trying to get you
to think about things that can be physically manifested, that
instantly can communicate because you can't just think about these things.

(56:50):
There has to be some some behavior, some manifestation that
you can play. And so that was those were the
Those were the two major things that were that were done,
and it was very very helpful, and interestingly, it was
sort of a psychosomatic thing. I remember getting sick during

(57:12):
the shooting of the episode, was there was there was
a one at one point a doctor did come to
the set during the thing to like examination and because
I had a fever and all that during those those
that sequence of bedroom scenes which were all shot together.
You know, you did all of that work in one

(57:34):
one run. And I know I remember being quite super sick,
but sick enough that they felt like a doctor. They
had to get a doctor on the set, so that
that sort of helped things too, interestingly, sort of like
you know people always ask was like when you really
packed in ice? Yes, I was really packed in ice,

(57:54):
and that makes those scenes really playable. Yeah, I really
had a fever. That helps those scenes be very playable.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Your very methodis anchors. Is an anchor, like you said,
we're playing a strokes, Like, well, you can't do every
single thing in your body. Okay, now I've had a stroke.
You pick a thing, a thing, the part that doesn't work,
and you do something physim it, and then the rest
of your body goes oh and immediately starts to like
join in and go okay.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Yes, I think that's because your thoughts are Yeah, your
thoughts are things. That's why, that's how we manifest, right.

Speaker 4 (58:29):
It's yes, it becomes, it becomes, it becomes surreal.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Which is the whole point of the the story actually
of this, which is his stinking thinking is he's not
going to recover if he has that negative.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Right, right?

Speaker 4 (58:44):
Really? Yeah? Yeah, And so we leave. We finished this
episode with Laura in the depth of despair at the
breaking point, and with that we will come back and
you know, we'll come back next time and talk about part.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Two because it gets worse before it gets better.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
It does just blew me away when I rewatched this.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
In the words of Mary Engles, how much more can
I have to take? Yeah, it's so much. I know, Allison,
I was thinking too, because you were off the show
at this point. Was was Melissa calling you and being like, girl,
what we had to do on set to day? Were
you like, did you know what was going on?

Speaker 1 (59:34):
I would have loved avoc call during that episode return
of Nelly. I know, everyone's like, thank god you're I know,
Melissa like grabbed me when I came. Just the atmosphere here,
everything's really hard to like things well because I remember
when made things better?

Speaker 4 (59:55):
You did you were you were like.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
This buffer zone and you made this left. So when
everything was like dramatic, Oh my god, Seane's gonna get
he was like, and then else will come in and
you say something funny and then.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Because no, it's gonna she said, And I asked her,
what was the show? What was it like for you
doing the show when after Alison left, and she just
went stupid. It was stupid, sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Dean, go on, no, And I was just gonna say
the other thing. That was a big difference. I mean,
it was a big change. Michael wasn't around as much. Yeah,
you know, so, so that humor, that was a constant
feature that he brought. We were really we were operating
as a completely new thing in there. No one could

(01:00:49):
fill that void because he was sort of always emotionally present,
but but he wasn't physically there. Yeah a lot, And
and that I think was a that made the drama
a little weightier, more dramatic, because he had this way
of making it loose all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
When you were done, he'd make you laugh and you go, yeah, yeah, exactly,
get for the rest of the day after. George and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
The actors on A Handmaid's Tale always because it's so heavy.
I mean, there's not a moment of it not being
heavy on that series. And they all said that as
soon as you know, was cut, they'd all laugh and
tell jokes that you need that, you need that breath, yeah,
to not sink into just a hole of desperation. Yeah,

(01:01:39):
of course.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
Well hang on, everybody, There'll be a little more depression
desperation at the start of part two. But send us off, Pamela.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
What it's easer, come back for more horribleness, you guys.
All right, that's where we're leaving today's episode. We will
have part two coming up next time. Everybody. Join us
on socials, Little House fifty Podcast, our website, Little House
fifty podcast dot com. Join us in New York City
on November twenty second at Green Room forty two, Christmas
time in SeeMe Valley and other events. Everything's going to

(01:02:11):
be in the show notes and I think that's it, right,
that's it. We'll see you next time. Bob get the wig,
let's fly with diphtheria.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Terrifle.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Help me bes

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