"The Voice of Tinker Jones" recap!

Grab your kazoos and join us as we dive into today’s episode, "The Voice of Tinker Jones" (directed by none other than Sean Penn’s father, Leo Penn!).

This Season 1 classic reveals the origins of the infamous bell (is it for Church? Or is it for School?!) that we all know and love. While you might think this is just a "fluffy family-friendly episode," it’s actually a profound parable about children setting a better example than adults and showing empathy and acceptance toward those with disabilities. Sound deep? It is!

We’ll discuss Tinker Jones himself, played by the legendary Chuck McCann, and reflect on another beloved character that we will never see again—something that seems to be a recurring theme on Little House.

Then, see what "Far Out Space Nuts" and "Here’s Boomer" have to do with this episode. Confused yet?

We’ll chat about Sean Penn’s appearance in this episode, with Alison sharing some fantastic stories about him. Plus, we’ll touch on the development of Rev. Alden’s character, Pa’s strange compliance with Mrs. Oleson, Alpha Male dominance ruining tea time, and how the child actors of Little House mirrored the storyline. Pamela also shares her perspective as a kid watching this episode.

Alison continues to kill our dreams by explaining how the bell was "made", and Dean crushes them further by reminding us that the bell wasn’t even real and wouldn’t have been heard all over town. WHY, Dean and Alison, WHY?!

Finally, what in the world is baby Carrie saying?!

Ring the Bells of Heaven, y’all, and enjoy this feel-good episode!

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/little-house-fifty-for-50-podcast--6055242/support.

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 4 (02:32):
Hello, Hello, Hello bonnet heads. How are you guys doing?
Thanks for joining us. This is me, your host, Pamela love.
Oh we have a little kazoo action today.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
I don't ask me why, but I'll take it. You
never know what you're gonna get here on the Little
House Anniversary Podcast, I'm your host. Hi, guys, I'm Pamela Bob.
If you don't know me by now, my god, where
have you been? And I am here? Oh no, we're

(03:07):
getting slap happy today, all right. I am here as
always with our wonderful, beloved, porrescious darling prairie bitch. That's right,
it's Alison Ingram. Hello Alison, and also with our darling
what kazoo playing hashtag imaginary boyfriend.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
That's right, we're here with Dean Butler Hideen.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
Hey are you?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
How's it going?

Speaker 4 (03:31):
What's happening?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Guys?

Speaker 6 (03:32):
I've got I I had.

Speaker 7 (03:34):
I pulled out this vest and I reached I saw
this kazoo.

Speaker 6 (03:38):
Well this is meant to be here today. This is
perfect for an element, not the total thing. But there's
something in this and I'll explain it.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
The real question is where did this kazoo come from?

Speaker 6 (03:51):
I think it was another. It was another.

Speaker 7 (03:53):
It was a little House event somewhere where we had
where we were playing kazoos and yeah, because I only
wear this ves.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
That your travel fest kind of thing. Travel fest.

Speaker 6 (04:06):
Think it's one of those travel house.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Things making you do at these events that you have
a handy. I can't even imagine.

Speaker 6 (04:14):
Yeah, I know, yes, well this this has tons of pockets.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
The question, the real question is well the new events
hopefully happening in twenty twenty five involved kazoos.

Speaker 6 (04:25):
Yes, to make sure there's if it's in my pocket.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think this is I think you can't, but you're
gonna put in my contract. It's a writer. I need
a kazoo thing.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
Gotta have a kazoo.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah, gotta have a.

Speaker 7 (04:42):
Anyway, so we have a we have a fun thing today,
So let's let's do.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Okay, we're gonna get right to it. We have a
really sort of defining season, a defining episode from I'll
say it's season one today. But first, before we get
to it, let me say that from the studios of
their Bank. Nope, studios. Here we go. How I've said
it a million times and today I mess it up.
Here we go from the studios of Burbank, California. What

(05:09):
absolutely you guys? What is wrong with me? The kazoo has.

Speaker 7 (05:13):
Been the first produced in the studios of you B
and Go.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
Right, even though none of us are actually in the studio.
My god, let me get to it already. This is
the Little House fiftieth anniversary podcast. Okay, well it's appropriate.

(05:47):
We're very happy today because we really do. We are
recapping such a sweet I mean, I hate to say it,
but this is the type of episode that the critics
called Little House in the prairious sweet, family friendly show,
because today's episode really is geared, perhaps more towards a
younger audience. I mean as a fan, I know, as

(06:08):
a little girl watching it, this was a top top episode.
So anyway, Dean hit it. What are we what are
we recapping today?

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (06:15):
From season one, episode eleven, The Voice of Tinker Jones. Yeah,
premiered on December fourth, nineteen seventy four. So this was, like,
you know, real early written by Tony Kayden and Michael
russ Now and directed by Leo Penn.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Did they write any other episodes? Sorry, names are not familiar?

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Did they write you know that.

Speaker 7 (06:38):
Those names are not part of the certainly part of
the the time I was involved, I'd never seen those
names interest. I think in the early I think Michael
was trying out a lot of different people early on
in Thist. It came together very quickly. I think we
you know, we've talked about that in the previous episode,

(06:59):
but I think Michael by the time he got it
down the way he wanted it. Michael always worked with
the very small staff. It was not you know, a
staff of dozens or you know, even half a dozen.
There were three or four people on Michael's staff. And
maybe there was a couple of episodes during the year
that would be written by someone outside outside that core,

(07:22):
but it was it got to be a pretty title
lit group.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
In the first year, you noticed there's way more different writers.
Then it became like Dugan and certain people over and
over again, a lot of these different and different directors
knows with Leo pinn I used to notice by later years,
it's Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, William Claxton, William Claxon, Victor French,
Michael Michael, Michael, William clact deklax Victor French. But in
the earlier you're like, oh, who's this guy, and we had.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, Andy Dexter.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
But in the early seasons we brought all kinds of Dexter.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
It was Maury Dexter later.

Speaker 7 (07:55):
Tory Dexter was his first assistant on the show for
a long time, but he had worked in b movies
as a director, and so Michael gave him. I think
he did two or three in season six. I mean,
he became part of the rotation of of directors, uh
later on in the series. And I think, you know,

(08:15):
Maury could shoot the schedule. He absolutely could shoot the schedule.
That was that was a huge part of that. Those
choices was who would shoot the schedule when we had
directors who came in, who would who got a little
clever with the what we're trying to do something special

(08:36):
and they were not shooting the schedule.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Those people didn't come back.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
Ja wow, Okay. And of course.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
Y's what's what.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Tinker May After Reverend Alden's request for a new church
bell starts, the townspeople of Walnut grow feuding over who
will donate the bell and who will take the credit.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Dunt dun dum.

Speaker 7 (09:15):
Yes, you know it's so interesting, Pet, this up pamelized
being you know, really a child more of a children's episode.
I would I guess i'd agree with that.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
To the extent the simplicity of it.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
That is, well, the.

Speaker 7 (09:30):
Simplicity, but the the the adults behave like children too exactly.

Speaker 6 (09:36):
Maybe that's your point. I mean it was.

Speaker 7 (09:39):
This was not the best demonstration of finding common ground
and looking for ways to be graceful with each other.
This was a This was a lot of in your
face stuff and Reverend almost lost a pulpit, and.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
You know, it's it's yeah, this episode's like a parable
or fable about the adults not getting along in the
children setting the better example, which is beautiful, and issues
about disabled people because he's death.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
That's right, And I think that that was my intention
of saying, this is sort of more of a yeah,
I get is exactly that it's it does feel like
a parable, and I think that's very I love Allison
very well.

Speaker 7 (10:23):
And Chuck McCann, who is just who worked. He's one
of those people who probably has more working days than
most people who have ever worked in uh, the entertainment industry.
This guy was from commercials to comedy, to drama to movies.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
To but I mean a lot of television.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Knew Norman macmillan alias Gummy Casper, the Friederal Ghost, et cetera.
Davy and yeah, sweet poly pear bread, so they cross
pass all the times. Oh yeah, Chuck McCann because he
was in a bazillion cartoon so they would cross paths.
But he was in everything. He was in two shows
which I adore. One critically acclaimed, other critically banned. I'm

(11:04):
sorry I watched for out Space Nuts, me and the
other three people on Earth who watch for out Space Nuts.
Just Chuck Daniver as lost astronauts space nuts that they're
completely silly. And then the other end of the spectrum.
It was a show in the nineteen seventies did not

(11:26):
run long enough. I think like one season two All
That Glitters and Chuck McCann actually kind of had a tragic,
kind of serious role in it, and then Lucy Leaf
flippants in it. All the Glitters. If you did not
see it was a brilliant show. It was a again
a parable. It was this show that in the future
where everything is reversed. I remember this is only in

(11:47):
the seventies where not all women could get credit cards.
Yet All That Glitters was a world where all of
the women are completely in power. There are only women
in power as president. The women all have and you
have to check you probably the big executives and all
the men are like stay at home husbands and it's

(12:08):
the Barber movie movie. And I think, Chuck my Way
and it's a dooraphobia and like won't leave the kitchen
and stuff, and it's it's the man are all stay
at home husbands. Wow. And and there's one a woman
executive the whole scene like it was Gary the guy
was on w KP and she like pinches her male
secretaries but at work, and the men are very exploited

(12:29):
and put upon, and the women are all playing golf
and work. In my god, it's hysterical and it's really
really super huge stars, huge stars were in this. It
was freaking' Brolyan and Chuck McCann was in it. And
I remember we never missed that. I got all the globes.
I bought the T shirt. I had the T shirt
from All the Glitters when I was young. I love
that show that much and I like Far Art Space Nuts,
But there you go. That's that's my taste of television.

(12:49):
The two extremes there and Chuck McCann did it all.
He was called goofball in Far Art Space Nuts and
then doing almost like tear your heart out on all
the glitters. Is this guy's like as he to be? Okay? Yeah,
I mean it was.

Speaker 6 (13:04):
I did an episode of a show called Here's Boomer.
Do you remember Here's Boomer with the Dog?

Speaker 4 (13:09):
These titles are killing.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
Me right, so yeah. The executive producer was A c Lyles.

Speaker 7 (13:15):
It was created by Don Ballack, who was one.

Speaker 6 (13:18):
Of our writers.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
So uh.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
And the wonderful dog that was that was Boomer the chef.

Speaker 7 (13:27):
You know, it's just and he tied similar to the
voice of Tinker Jones. H Chuck McCann was a magician
in a park giving a doing a show for children
in a you know, so it was like, you know,
there were fifty you know, fifty six year olds you know,
in the audience with their moms watching Chuck mccannon do

(13:50):
the silly thing and Boomer is like, you know, there
to help pull the rabbit out of the hat or something.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
I mean, it's just like just silly stuff. He was
really wonderful.

Speaker 7 (13:59):
You could just see he just had this ease about
this sort of bigger than life. He's perfectly, seriously sweet,
many loveliest.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
I couldn't get a better Yeah, it's perfect. Perfect again,
Little House was pretty much perfect with their casting.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
Well then, and let's talk about Leo Penn for a Yeah,
Leo Penn, Who I mean? I knew Leo Penn's name
because he directed.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Some of my favures.

Speaker 7 (14:27):
There connections Leo Penn with a journeyman television director. My
wife Catherine just was was exploring directing and Leo invited
her to follow him just to you know, to sort
of audit him for a period of time, to just
watch what he did.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
He was really lovely to work with. He really was.
That's my recollection he did.

Speaker 7 (14:53):
I think he did our episode called the Empire Builders
in season in season nine, that was Leo's show.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
He was there for a long I well, he was
there in the beginning, and then he was not there
for a long.

Speaker 6 (15:07):
Time, and then he came back and.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I didn't realize that.

Speaker 8 (15:11):
Okay, okay, as did as did Leo's wife Eileen Ryan, Yes,
Andy on Beverly Hill Billies, right and and and Pamela
you love this.

Speaker 6 (15:28):
She was in the original Broadway stole.

Speaker 7 (15:32):
Up.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
I know she got standing ovations every single every single performance.
And we also see a little in.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
The Yes, he's like he doesn't speak. He would go
with his just one of his stories told his dad
often would say, okay, learning the biz, come with me,
and he would hang out, or he'd have a small
part or an extra And this was one of his
very first gigs, non speaking parts. But you can't, I said, like, now,
it's like, oh my god, look at the blonde kid

(16:03):
in the hat, the goofy teenage.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
It's freaking so clearly him.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
It's there's no getting around. It's kind of hilarious. And
Jimmy and Nichol and Jimmy McNichol, Christian Nichols's brother, Sean
Penn and Jimmy Nichol saw wood for the fire, saw
in away, the two of them, Yes, jim and Sean
Penn cut fire. And I think Jimmy Nichol had a
line Sean does not.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
Okay, Well, okay, so let's start from the beginning. Tinker,
by the way, he's another beloved.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Character who.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Again, ever there's always the church.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Never yeah, son of a band leader and a veteran
by age eleven, he's a child actor on the radio.
So I think that's maybe one of the reasons his
bone with all the kids he worked with he had
been a child actor. He had worked his tail off

(17:05):
before he was twelve years old, and so he knew.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
So Alison, yes, so please tell us how.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
He treated the kids. Like as you saw, it was
not that different. I mean he could speak occasionally off camera,
but he did have that body. He had been a
child actor from like birth apparently, so he was already
like working like a fiend. But then so he knew
what it was to be in the industry and to
work as a kid. So absolutely there seemed to be
this understanding. So he wasn't separate from us at all.

(17:36):
He was very much with us and relating to us
and just absolutely darling and then his whole thing as
I had been playing a deaf mute character and having
to do everything as a kid. I mean, as I said,
I was twelve, I got I think it's my real hair.
I think it's like still pre wig in this episode
of Snorly, you know what.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
I was noticing that too. It part of it looked
slightly like I was thinking.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
If the bangs were ass and it's all my hair,
my poor splinty little hair that could not keep up
with this schedule. My poor hair couldn't hack it.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, it could not.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I knew as a twelve year old who growing up
and acting, I was witnessing like the brilliance I got
him in. First of all, it's like it's the guy
from the medicine Chest and cartoons. But then my mother said,
oh chuck my cat.

Speaker 8 (18:29):
I know.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
But when he was doing something, I remember even his
kid going oh, this guy is good. Oh, this guy
is good. I mean I could tell. I was not
like oblivious to. I was like, damn, so yeah, I
mean he was good. He's really really good.

Speaker 7 (18:43):
Just his.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
I know, his physicality is so perfect.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Well he is, and he establishes it right up front
with the episode.

Speaker 7 (18:51):
And he's very clear. But we know instantly that he
can't hear. We know obviously the angles endow him with
all of the love ability. You know, everyone's rushing out
of the house to say.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Hi, he's reading lips. They never say, and he reads lips.
He says he does stuff, and they say things, and
he goes closer and they go, oh, I'm sorry, yes,
I like the pot. You go so and everyone goes, oh,
he's reading lips and it's explained it all and you
never hear once. I mean Laura says, I wish he
could talk. You know, it's too bad. You know, he's lonely.

(19:26):
But the parents never say, well he's deaf children, and
blah blah blah blah. We just show you, show you.
We don't explain, We just show you. And then you know,
Laura's like, is he all alone and he can't talk?
And isn't that difficult? And no, no, he has us.
We all love him. He's loved. Everybody loves him. Now,
that's very and then we never say him again.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
And then he follows off a cliff or something.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
At the end of this episode, it was so bloody hot.
I remember the show Good Good. Do you want to
shown pen story?

Speaker 6 (20:00):
I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
I I oh, sean been a lifelong debt of gratitude.
It's like, yes, So they're doing the show and it's
a billion degrees and it's only a couple of weeks
really since we did Country Girls and I passed out,
you know, practically flat on my face, said you did

(20:22):
see me and passed out. So by this time they're
a little concerned because I'm still like going getting woozy
every five minutes. When so it goes over like a
ninety seven. I'm like, and their medic is standing by
every time I stand under the lights. So they're kind
of goes, she's gonna be okay, and I because I'm
just like, oh, it's so hot. So you know how
people are. It's the industry. It's hard and so people

(20:44):
and there's great competition amongst those little girls and their
stage mothers, don't you you know that w e we attacked.
Now kids we banded into but we kids banded together
because we said against stage mothers getting control, we need
to so we be banded together against them. Said we're
not gonna let them play us against each other. So

(21:06):
we were little devils. We knew we're doing so yeah,
Melissa Melissa, she's president of SACK. She was organizing the
child actors at nine, so she did so we're working
at But it was hard. So people were like, well, no,
she's fainted how many times? No, maybe maybe we don't
do we do we fire her?

Speaker 7 (21:23):
You know?

Speaker 1 (21:23):
It's there was suggestions that I might be in some
sort of career peril because of my fainting. That there
was people looking at me funny, so Sean Pan who
is not famous yet. It was just the blonde gangly
boy who is the son of the director, but he's older,
the eighteenage boy. And we're standing there up against that
fence and we're saying, you know, yeah, we're watching and

(21:44):
watching the thing and making the bell and it is
harder for her. It's just And remember, folks, it's film,
not videos. So giant lights, hot hot, flaming lights on us.
Lights hit one hundred degrees sun. That's the lights of
theirs were dying. We're just all going, everyone's amassing. Remember
I'm the only one who's faded so far. And all
of a sudden, Sean Penn just kind of keeps his

(22:05):
look and then his legs they go like spaghetti. His
legs went like he had no legs all of a sudden,
and he just went eugh and out like sack of potatoes.
He just dropped. He just dropped like he wasn't there anymore.
Just boom, Oh, where where do you go? Oh? He's
on the ground. And he was out cold. Now, if
you recall I, when I was out cold, was revived

(22:26):
ammonia capsules and salt tablets and half an hour later
was back on it. He was done for the day.
He went down and it was over. He was taken
away on a stretcher and he did not come bouncing
back thirty minutes later. He was not well. He eventually recovered,
but he was down, and the people who'd been looking
at me. Funny. What happened is kind of percolated through

(22:48):
a thing.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Was Hey, the t.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Older teenage boy, a dude and older and someone we
didn't think of his frail just went down like a
sack of potatoes. And he didn't even wake up after
the half hour like she did. Hey, maybe it's really hot.
Maybe it's not her. And then his dad, Leo, was
not feeling well. He had to take a break and
they had to bring a parasol for his chair because
he almost got sick. So gradually people started dropping like flies, basically,

(23:14):
and they went, it's not her, she's the canary to
call mine. She went first, But it's really that hot
and grown men are falling over it's just hot. Leave
the girl alone. And I was like, Hallaliah, that blonde
kid just saved my bacon. He just saved my reputation
in the industry, which sounds very dramatic. You know how
things were in the seventies by fainting. By fainting, he

(23:34):
proved that I was not making it up and totally safe.
So fast forward to the I'm sorry sexist and the
struggle It's real, so oh the Little Girl Tad. So
fast forward. It's the nineteen eighties. Sean Penn is now
quite famous. It's post like taps, it's right after that

(23:55):
and stuff. Everybody knows who Shampin is so at the time,
my boy friend who shall remain nameless, but he was pretty.
That's my excuse for him. People to go, how did
you live with this guy? He was pretty? He had
taken my car bad idea too. He was working at
a movie theater and she never loved that taking my car.
And he had gone to a party at the movie

(24:16):
theater was a screening of something premiere something with his friend.
Then got his friend was there and had gotten yes
stupid drunk to the point where he couldn't find the car,
which is good because he's way too way to drunk
to be driving.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Lucky.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
His friend was there going let's go for a walk.
Maybe we should go for a walk instead, and his
friends key like probably lied and told him the car
was somewhere else because it was like that bad Oh
by this time only twenty one two or something. So yeah,
And so I'm sitting up going and the boyfriend does
not come home, and there's no cell phone, so I

(24:50):
have like no idea where the hell he is. About
one thirty two am, two am ish one thirty ish
my phone rings and I'm like, I pick it up,
hoping maybe it's the you know, wayward boyfriend. No, it's
when I do not know. I do not And he says, hey,
is this Alison? I go yes. He says, well, where

(25:10):
are you? I said, what do you mean? Where I am?

Speaker 6 (25:12):
I who?

Speaker 1 (25:12):
What are we talking about? Well, your boyfriend, it was
supposed to pick you up and bring you over. I'm
having a huge party at my house the after after
party after the screening, and I told him to go
get you and come here. Now I'm sitting here in
the middle of the night and you guys aren't here.
I said, wait, who is this? He go Sean. I go,
why do you go? Sean Penn? I goes to Sean Penn,
I said these Shawn Penny goes, yeah, yeah, taps. I
go Sean Penn, pen, Hey, how are you? We have

(25:35):
a lovely chat. I said, I don't know where the
stupid boyfriend is because I don't well, your boyfriends an idiot,
because he's supposed to pick you up and bring you
over here. I said, oh well, I don't think that's happening.
We start talking. I go, well, you remember you were
on Little House? Oh god, yeah, do I remember?

Speaker 7 (25:46):
Man?

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Was it hot? And we start talking and I go, yeah,
pasted it. He goes, did I ever, Man? Did I
pass out? It was brutal? And I said, it's the
weirdest thing. I tell him the thing They thought I
was a whoosk because I passed out weirdly when you
asked out, everyone decided that it was actually hot and
it wasn't my fault, so technically I owe you. And
he said you're welcome, and he taught and yes, and

(26:11):
we had a chat and he thought it was hilarious
and said, oh well, glad I could be of help.
That's crazy. And if your idiot boyfriend ever comes home,
you know, just come on down. He's got the address.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
And that was it.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
And then the boyfriend didn't come back till the sun
was up. I didn't go to Sean, but there you go. Indeed,
he fully passing out the shooting of the episode. He
had a lovely time on our set. He did faint
and was thrilled to hear that it had had done good,
that it had been had not been for naught. Wow,

(26:44):
that is my ridiculous, Sean, I never made it. That's
just so weird.

Speaker 6 (26:52):
And here in so in the fact that Leo was directing,
that explains why Sean was there.

Speaker 7 (27:00):
Great, I mean, you know, in yeah, in the industry,
and that's one where the nepotism really worked out nicely well.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Because he's freaking yeah, that's why. Yeah, freaking brilliant. That's
so cool. Alison Roads lead to Little House.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Here.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
Here's a question that I have. So Reverend Alden is
introduced in this episode. I mean he's been in previous episodes,
but he's talking about his monthly visit Walnut Grove and
I was like, what what are we?

Speaker 1 (27:36):
How is this?

Speaker 4 (27:40):
Was he only a monthly pastor and just like a
visiting visiting pastor.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
I think it was a very comp.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Well I'm not sure, but this was the I did
not remember that part at all.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
And this because it's books. In the books, the Reverend
Alden comes once a month in the books, Walnut Grove
is considered got like way out in the boonies. I
mean when they get those as to posted now where
it is, but it was when they had these barrels
of donations. People were taking up donations care packages and

(28:13):
other churches and sending them to Girl was like, uh,
Reverend Alden came once a month that he was did
a circuit. He was a circuit preacher on the and
in the show they went, nobody's going to know what
the hell we're talking about, and besides which he's the preacher,
and so he was there everew months. You wound up
being there every Sunday.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, we love that idea, Okay, because that's the first
and only ever mentioned.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Trying to follow the books crime. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
Well it was season one, y'all. It was season one.

Speaker 7 (28:43):
Yeah, And it's so interesting how these little inconsistencies come up,
and I think, you know, Michael just made the decisions
that we're just going to blow right past. That came
from this episode of tradition with Bonanza, where things, you know,
you have the villain of the week.

Speaker 6 (29:01):
Or the hero. You need to tell stories, so you invent.

Speaker 7 (29:05):
Characters out of thin air and place them beloved in
the community and you've never seen them before and you'll
never see them again. And next week it starts over
that the town is back from a scratch where it
was before, and life goes on. And that's sort of
the nature of the whole episodic formula. Now that's really changed.

Speaker 6 (29:26):
Now you don't see it that way anymore.

Speaker 7 (29:28):
Stories are all continuing, you know, establish characters and they
go through and they have natural arcs that was not
a obviously not a requirement in those days.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
In the books, there's multiple purges in the books. There's
the Reverend Brown. There's a reverend that comes in and
the English don't like him, and then there's enough and
that gets really complicated, and I can hear Michael in
my head going, why why do we have all these
other reverence?

Speaker 8 (29:52):
We like this?

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Wait, they all like him, and in the books they
like him, but they keep talking about how they really
like the Reverend and why can't they have the Reverend?
And do we have to have all of these other
reverences that nobody remembers anyway? Did this keep him well?

Speaker 4 (30:06):
I know because people are, because people are still pissed
off that he didn't marry He was married. That It
was a different, wasn't it a Laura were married on
the series by district the I mean the.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Book again, which is so odd. It is so odd.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
I mean, I guess the Reverend Alden shows up for
Mary's wedding, but Laura isn't married, and.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
That's the books creeping in again because she didn't go
to the regular guy. They took off and went and
saw this other dude sort of, I mean, he wasn't all.

Speaker 7 (30:41):
They went into spat. They were married into spat. They
were married by the by the lord.

Speaker 6 (30:46):
Alone, and he was he was the local. He was
the local.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
He was the thing not married by reverend and and
it was like and it was a thing of like
no Eliza Jane wanted to come in and be Bridezilla
and take the whole thing over, and they were like no, no,
no no. So they did just kind of bolton.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah, all right, so we've established that repell terrible.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Okay. So he so he said, he asked.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
He says to the congregation, I think we need a bell.
They don't have the money to get a bell. And
then of course missus Olsen proposes that not only does
she buy a bell, but she will also have a
plaque herself for having donated that she has a thing
about plaques. Baby, she really does, which obviously splitsuts a

(31:50):
bit of a narcissistic personality just a bit. But here's
the thing that I AM was really sort of like
huh about in this episode is that Paw was not
against this, where later down the line, forget it, he
would have been in an up like, no way would
he have a plaque or anything that there's no way,

(32:11):
And in this episode he's really not bothered the other.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 7 (32:21):
I think this is a case of you know you,
maybe in another time, another situation he might have, but
here was a situation where he had a community and
he needed to create this. He needed to be able
to be a voice of reason.

Speaker 6 (32:37):
You know.

Speaker 7 (32:37):
This is Michaels or Charles's part here was to be
a voice of reason, a mediator. He had the other
characters in town to be the the hardliners no, no, no,
we can't let this happen. And Harriet obviously doing what

(32:57):
she always did demanding or want wanting to have this.
The glory of all this, I think that was, you know,
Michael needed to be Charles needed to be the moderator.
And and so that's the that's the role he chose
to take here, and and he took that the other man,
mister Dorfler, let's just get the bell.

Speaker 6 (33:17):
We need the bell.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
But I think that's also indicative that this is still
early on in the season, because I do think if
this episode had been later on that what he would
have not written that that was a.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Big part of the Kennedy family because Cassie can get
the lovely Tracy Savage door and the hilarious freckle face
mister Robert Hoffman who's just turned into the most marvelous
grown up person. They're like all over this thing, and
it's their parents. The fathers feel mad. And then mau
goes to try to talk with the Kennedy family figure
pretty big in the book, certainly at that time period

(33:49):
in the early part of the books, and and and
as we know in the show, not so much. But
they're like a big deal in this episode. And then
like a few episodes later, they're like, what did happen
to that lovely redheaded family? Where did they all go?
They also fell off a course.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Yeah somewhere, Yeah, I've never seen again. They followed Tinker
Jones out of town. Yeah, it must have been that. Okay,
so now the whole town is in an is split
and divided, as are the children not allowed to play together?
That's very, very sad. Shall we take a break and
come back and discuss more?

Speaker 6 (34:24):
All right, we'll be.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Back right after this.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
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pages of history. Go from the pioneers to the President's
Explore beautiful wildflowers, hike through iconic Hollywood locations, and INJR.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Day, aboard the actual Air Force One at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Throughout the summer, take the
Little House fiftieth Anniversary Tour at Big Sky Movie Ranch
less than fifteen minutes from Los Angeles and thirty minutes
from Universal Studios. See Valley has small town charm, big

(35:01):
time history. Go to visit c Valley dot com for
more information. We are so grateful to visit Seemi Valley
dot com for their commitment to presenting the Little House
fiftieth Anniversary podcast.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
And we're back. We're talking about the voice of Tinker Jones. Okay,
what happens next to you? Guys, we're talking about the
Kennedy family. Carolyn decides that she is going to be
a voice of reason and she's going to go and
speak to them, and she and missus Kennedy have a
very lovely conversation.

Speaker 7 (35:33):
Yes, as the women in town, you know, looking for solutions,
were very sensible.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Yeah, and then what happens The man, the alpha male,
has the coming in everything and.

Speaker 6 (35:45):
Who to say, yeah, to say, the alpha man is
exactly right. My wife does what I tell her to do, and.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Her face when did your husband send you? And then
he literally literally forbids his wife. She cannot speak in
front of him, and you kind of go oh, and
like when she runs out of the room, is like
does he does he hit her? Because this guy is
really he's not very nice. He's bad. He's a bad person.
And writing like what uh, I was like, whoa, well

(36:18):
what I mean?

Speaker 7 (36:18):
What what was he?

Speaker 6 (36:20):
You know?

Speaker 7 (36:20):
Was he a.

Speaker 6 (36:22):
It's easy to say he was a bad person.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Well it was of the time.

Speaker 7 (36:26):
She was like.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Horrendous today, but he was like, yeah, he's not very nice.
In eighteen seventies, did I think he's too hard on
his wife?

Speaker 7 (36:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (36:39):
And again for anyone that says, don't you wish we
still lived in the eighteen hundred?

Speaker 6 (36:43):
Yeah again, this is no yeah, I know exactly. Although
there people would say, yes, that's just this is the
world we this is the world we want. You know,
we saw this with our uh.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
But you.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Speaking your hip, let his wife speak and he did
this and pause going you you right, like he's going, no,
that's no fun.

Speaker 6 (37:09):
Well there they do a little joker. He did a
little joke with her about that about something. It was
very very cute.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
Well she was she was having her little preachy you know,
she she never has those moments.

Speaker 7 (37:22):
And he just ended it with amen, Amen, that's very
There was a very sweet moment and it softened the
moment and there's laughter.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
And you know that you know they're a team that
you know, you always know they are.

Speaker 7 (37:37):
A team, which is lovely and it's very aspirational that way,
and I think boy, a lot of people would hope
that they're really.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
And I think pause attitude towards this guy's was like, well,
why would you want to do that? Like that doesn't
sound like any fun. Really really, this is how you
treat your wife. Okay, buddy, you know it's but at
the time, Yes, there would have been people. He's a
good husband. He provides, and he tells her to never
speak and to be miserable. That's okay, and and back
then they would go it's all right, or oh he
doesn't hit her, he just screams at her all the time.

(38:06):
People absolutely would have said that there's a halfway okay husband.
But Paul would have been like, you guys aren't having
any fun. Why are you her like this?

Speaker 7 (38:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (38:18):
Yeah, it was immediately that scene was seriously intense. It was.

Speaker 7 (38:23):
Rough.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
That was rough.

Speaker 7 (38:25):
This is well and of course this is one of
those I think this also leads into the children seeing
the situation and banning together and making a decision that
we're going to help fix this.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
Well is a bigger people.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
And then that's because of Tinker though, because then the
kids started arguing.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Friend Cassie is like a killer and tinkering he too
little toys fighting and he gets a toy and he's like,
oh no, no, don't heard.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yes yes, And then Melissa Sue Anderson has her very
very after school special moment where she's like, I think
what Tinker is saying is I think what Tinker is
saying is we're acting just like our parents. That's the
That was one line in the whole thing that I
was like, really we wrote it that way, really, you guys.

(39:25):
But let me let me just say something for you guys. Yes,
as a fan and as a little girl watching this episode,
this episode was epic as a kid. As a kid
because the simplicity of it. And again Mary in her
after school special moment, I think what the adults are
saying it kids get it, like they got it and

(39:47):
it you know, some would say like this this is
you know, the adults are acting so silly and it's
just over a bell and this is not really but
for kids, it's a really big deal. And I think
it's funny. Actually we go from like the voice of
Tinka Jones to Sylvia, right, Like it's two very different,

(40:09):
very different episodes, right. I mean, I know they're different seasons,
but I'm talking in terms of themes.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Of tone, and Little House really did hit all of that.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
But it's it's funny to me. I was thinking, what's
the next episode after this, and I think it's like
the plague, you know, it's something horribly serious after this one.
Is it the plague?

Speaker 7 (40:29):
After that?

Speaker 4 (40:29):
It's something like really like wolfed polar opposite of this,
And I'm sure that was intentional on Michael's behalf so
that it didn't it never fell into the trope of oh,
it's just a fluffy, family friendly show. You had to
hit them hard with a Wisdom of Solomon episode or a.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
I'm about people being deaf about people communicating and the
conversations where children want to go, hey, look, the kids
figured out to stop fighting. How can you adults fight
all the time?

Speaker 4 (41:02):
And yeah, right, exactly right, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (41:07):
Well this is sort of the stuff that you would
see on shows like completely different show but Beverly Hills
nine o two and oh, where the kids are smarter
than the grown up parents. You know, it's it's like
the parents, the adults aren't going to solve anything here.
We have to take this into their own hands and
we know what's right, uh to do. But this, but

(41:27):
it was done in a different way.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
It was done.

Speaker 7 (41:29):
It was it was in the interest of collegiality, it
was work. It was doing something together. And Tinker convinced
and that.

Speaker 6 (41:39):
Well something like this could happen. I love it's drawing.
He takes the sheet metal that looks like a piece
of it is a piece.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Of modern beautiful factory somewhere what it is I'm going.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Away on under sound effects, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, just wild, yeah wild, I mean.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
The most perfectly symmetrical bell.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Okay. So sometimes stage mothers, even on our set, would
get a little little territorial, little competitive about their kids
and get into it, and especially early on, especially early
on when they were ten million people vying for stuff.
So there were some stage mothers were a little dute about,
like figuring out who stood where. Melissa Gilbert literally had

(42:28):
a meeting in her dressing room at lunch and all
of us little girls sitting in her dressing room hanging out,
and she goes, okay, now here's what's going on. Excuse me, Okay,
Han's what's going on? Partidvoice. She was like, this big
would and she was like, okay, we know there's this
competition in this stagement. This you know, girl's mother said that,

(42:48):
and this girl's mother said that, and we're all going,
what the And she said, we're not letting them do this.
They would they would have us be jealous of each
other and pity us against each other. We're not doing this.
We're sticking together. And she says, you hear any rumors,
you hear any rumors, you come straight to me, because
we knew any rumors weren't started by the kids, they
were started by adults. Because only the adults are starting

(43:09):
rumors about people. She said, you hear any rumors, we
know it started by the adults, not the kids. You
bring it here to me and we sort this out.
Like I said, ten ten and a half, I don't know.
And she laid down the law and said, we gotta
lay down, Alana. We can't do this. We cannot let
these people ruin our lives and make this about that.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
And we're not doing this, do you know, I mean,
I'm sure you do know how lucky you guys all
were that you had a leader, even though a nine
year old leader, but that you had a leader like that,
because the alternative would have been horrific. It would have
been or if she wanted to had a thing with

(43:52):
pitting herself against other kids, or if she you know
the fact that she was so aware of that and
and did anything she could.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
And then we kids talk, said, the kids hardly talk
to you, because the parents have created and the managers
and the agents have created such a thing that the
children are not able to have their own like you said,
but we were in the schoolroom together and we hung out.
We went from sloopies at seven eleven and so we
created our own little world. Someone said many times ago,

(44:21):
did you feel like they're stealing your childhood? And nice
to say yes, And Melissa Gilbert and I stole it
back every chance we got, and I think there there was.
We were a group of children who pushed back against
what these adults wanted us to do, which is very
very cool. And there you are. It is the plot
of Tinker Jones. The children say, no, we're not doing this.
You're right, we must band together because the adults have

(44:43):
lost their way. They have just lost their way, and
we will find the solution to this madness.

Speaker 7 (44:50):
What do you I'm sorry, I was gonna say, what
do you remember about Allison, because you're the only one
to three of us who was there.

Speaker 6 (44:57):
What do you remember about the making of this bat?

Speaker 4 (45:00):
Okay, this is this is exactly what I wanted to
talk about. Okay, So as a kid watching this episode,
it was awesome, like so awesome, seeing how this bell
is made. It reminds me of it's either mister Rogers
or Sesame Street, and I'm sure gen X people holler

(45:21):
in write in the comments which one it is. Yes,
Oh my god, Yes, And they show how the brands
are made and you see all the wax melted and
then you see how it formed, and that was also
mesmerizing as a kid, and this had the same impact
of that of like you were mesmerized by seeing how

(45:43):
this bell was made, and then they're throwing their toys
in and you see it getting melted down, and then
when the bell finally comes out, it's just so incredible.
And again for a kid, it's just like this epic,
epic moment.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
It's so.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
It's so awesome.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
It's great. You guys had no kind of because on
the one did you I can tell you standing right
there and shed all the stuff and what they were
doing to make it.

Speaker 7 (46:10):
Do it was.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
This is really cool. And then yes, and then knowing
the TV magic of why it was not boiling metal
was even better. We're going, this is great. Love it.
So I'm so many people now know Bell's not rushing
dry gifting ding ding went thub thub thub because it's
it was like kind of it's cyber class like fiber

(46:34):
class is kind of that fiberglass, and they molded it
and so it was just kind of went thug thunk
funk when they pulled. And then David Rose with somewhere
studio ding dong ding, So Bell's don't real and so
of course none of that metal. Now obviously, now you
notice this is something I actually watching it last night.
I went this bothers me. Dinker never puts on gloves.

(46:55):
He's handling, he's he's he's smelting bronze and he is
handling metal implements with no gloves. I'm like, now, you
can't do that. His hands would have burned off, he'd
have had no hands. So I don't know why he
didn't put on gloves in the show that we didn't go.
You know, that's one little thing that the fact that
he has no gloves on tells me maybe it's not hot. Yeah,
so when we're doing this now, first all it is hot,

(47:17):
it's all hell out there, and then there is kind
of TV fire. It's fire, but like the fire in
the fireplace at the ingles, it's a limited little burnie thing.
It's not like not putting out that much heat, and
it's not going anywhere, it's not gonna burn, it's just
kind of sitting there. But it was they've got this

(47:38):
thing that he's melting it in is again killing fiberglass,
paper mache thing that looks like stone or clay or
whatever's supposed to be boiling it in, and it is
liquid plastic. It is this liquid plastic bronze colored combine.
And then they dropped in some silver paint. It's like paint.
It's like thick paint, plasticky substance, and they poured into

(48:01):
silver paints when it sort of looks they're melting the
tin into the and looks, yeah, there's a two going
an it were to an air with an air compressure
going the air. It's boiling.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
But we should give we should give a trigger warning
to the show notes of this to say, like, if
you don't want to know the secrets, so that we're
getting so sad kazoo.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
That's why, because if we were melting solid bronze and
tin and stuff, his hands would have burst into flame
as soon as he touched the stir rod. And all
of us children are standing, We're like, this was like
leaning in if that was molten metal or our faces
would have burn. We would have lost our eyebrows and
laughter there had been burning. And also when you see

(48:49):
you see it spattering, it's spattering up. So we're gonna
get hit with a fleck of melting bronze fleck on
our face, a permanent sc Yes, it's not it's physically impossible.
For obviously they'd have killed this all okay, and see
me Valley the fire has It would be me dangerous.

(49:10):
And how would you keep a pot of boiling metal
going away like all day, all day while you had
to shoot this, you know, it would be absolutely bonkers.
You can't do it. So he's got this big thing
of very thick paint or like a plast liquid plastic
substance going blue, boom boop with a turn on the
and it was like action and they you know, camera
speed arrows, you know, so we're doing that. We're like

(49:33):
and I found that fascinating. I was like, wow, not
only were we doing like melting to a bell, but
this thing is like paint with a tube. But Jeet
I was enthralled.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Well, it's it was funny with rewatching this episode because
because this time I know the bell isn't real, right,
And then I was like, bell's not real? Then that's
probably not real when I saw that. And then even
when they're at the creek outside of their house and
pause at the creek, and I I also.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
So they pour the bell and the little splay loose
and it's it's paint, plastic goop, paint, and it's pouring
down and I remember the times, Wow, that would be
so hot. Right now, we'd like burn our face off
standing here. This is amazing, and I think it's gonna
go in the mold. And then they take the bell
that they've already made, which is kind of made out

(50:20):
of the thing that was around the mold. The bell's
actually made out of like the same stuff as the mold. Basically,
they peel that off and I'm like, last, kind of
the same thing under there, but I'm ready, But they're
spray painting it. So what was that bell that they
would spray painted just like with like metallic paint. And
I remember them going, we need to be shinyer here.
But then I remember they had to spray it was

(50:42):
because you're remember nineteen seventies petivision film. You can't have
something that's actually super reflective or shiny, unless you're doing
a unless you're doing the episode where they find gold.
I do the star Felters, and it's all kinde because
it would be reflective and it would be a mess,
and I can't say it. So they're they're spring down
anything that's too shiny, and it's my god. And so
then we often dub our toys. So we bring our

(51:05):
horses and things, some of which are metal, some of
which are like metal horsey things, and some were plastic
in their middle, and we drop them into which you
wouldn't stand there and go, He're all just stay here,
drop this into boiling bronze and watch it spray up
into my face. Dropping it into the big pile of paint,
and it goes blueloo. And then the quick get cut

(51:25):
away put in some silver paint, so it swirls. It's melting.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
Because it looks melted.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
It's that horse ain't melted. You see the horse go in,
you go, it's gonna melt, and you see bloop and
he's stirring. But then you stir you go, that horse
is completely intact, and he turns it over and then
you see they pour some silver there's they cut away
pour some silver paint in, so you go, oh, the
front of it's melted. You we're seeing the underneath the
silver because they just poured that in there. And then

(51:53):
it goes blueloop and he has to keep pushing it
down because the horse is completely intact, and they dump
a lot of goo on it, so you kind of
for a second thing gets melted. And there were retakes
and they would say cut and they fished the toys
out of the pretend not hot round and rinsed them off,
and we did it again. It was fascinating.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
I mean, you know, pamelet Pamela to your point about
this is this wonderful episode?

Speaker 7 (52:28):
Is you as you watched this happen? I mean, that
is the magic of all this. Yeah, no one understands
what Allison's. No one knows except if you were there
how we work.

Speaker 6 (52:39):
But you watch it, and it's just this wonderful thing.

Speaker 7 (52:43):
And this sweet man picks up this mold and there's
this beautiful bell.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
Problem solved.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
The bell gets high himself. How strong is he? Because
how much would that really weigh? One dude with a rope?
How they get up there in the first place? Where
is his life staying there? It would have been so

(53:11):
pulled that front my schoolhouse like off the males exactly.

Speaker 6 (53:17):
No, now, but here's the here's the thing. Then he
starts ringing the bell and at the.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Fake ring.

Speaker 6 (53:29):
Now it's like there's no way.

Speaker 9 (53:33):
Now it may be in real you know, and maybe
maybe in real life that would have been possible. Maybe
in the real Walnut Grove at the on the banks
of Plumb Creek, you know, you could have been because
it's flaky and you maybe you would have.

Speaker 6 (53:46):
Heard the bell ring in town.

Speaker 9 (53:47):
There is no way they would have heard that bell
in See Valley because we know in the mountains.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
It's true now some bell mountains because of the residents
that sound can't carrie hence why they use them so
they can hurt. And if you're in I've ever been
in a little town or a village where the church
bells go off, you go, wow, that I'm pretty far
from I can hear that, and it's some distance. But no,
we weren't seeing we were like three miles away of
rolling hills. No freaking way they would have heard that.

Speaker 6 (54:17):
It has so the bell is ringing.

Speaker 7 (54:20):
And that people are hearing it and they're being called
to it, and the town is racing into town, and
you see the love pouring over everybody.

Speaker 6 (54:32):
That's my correction.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Yeah, and they all come together.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
Yeah, everyone feels good. And the que that David Rose
wrote for that as the bell is ringing and the
town is right, it was very very touching. This is
the thing that happens again and again and again.

Speaker 7 (54:49):
In this show is that there is an emotional tug
that happens when these resolve moments occur that just it just.

Speaker 6 (55:01):
Grabs you and you know it's.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
It, that's right.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
And yeah, and the interesting thing is we know they're
going to come together, right, like that's the inevitable ending,
and yet it's still just as time they.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Hey, hey, put up, put that up. I didn't pay
for that bell? Did you pay for that? Is it
her bell? Is she gonna put that damn plaque? They
started to start to break out, and then and then
there's there's Tinker going no no, and the kids go no, no, Stinker,
it's Stinker's bell, and the music swells and there's and
then it's never another favorite moment. Yeah, well, of course

(55:43):
I get convinced to help, because at first I'm like,
I'm not going to do this. I'm gonna tell you'll
have no one to be me. Yeah, your characters you'll have,
and you'll have one to and Willie goes, yeah, yeah,
that's right. Yeah for a point, and I just yeah,
you're right.

Speaker 6 (56:04):
Why didn't they.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Do that with the entire time You're in shock And
there's Willy and I and they're going, yes, Nelly and
Willie they helped too. And mister Olson looks absolutely stunned
and he looks down at us and it's just incredible.
It's just this moment because it's rich, are bold, and
he could do anything with that face and make it
up and the look on his face is my my children,

(56:27):
something kind and unselfish.

Speaker 6 (56:30):
Actually, hell, who are you?

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Who are you? Little children? And it's it's beautiful, it's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
A little blackmail will take you far.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
And I stole. I stole my mother didn't say I
got well, I just think all this stuff I got
to steal.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
He got into it at least, and well, it's it's
a lovely episode.

Speaker 7 (56:56):
No, Dean, go on, No, I was just going to say,
you know, you have us these moments.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
Everyone finds the comfort in this. There is good.

Speaker 7 (57:06):
The children have contributed. Tinker has solved this problem, and
the episode picks up with the reverend inviting the town
to or he's he's encouraged to start the service. I
guess it's mister Kennedy, right, who says something about.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Start the service.

Speaker 7 (57:22):
Yeah, and let's let's go in and all is well
and the bell is ringing, and everything's good, and everyone's learned.

Speaker 6 (57:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (57:31):
I don't know if they've learned a lesson, but the
but the tension has been.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Missus also has learned nothing, but but the others have
no And Robin Alden got away and they sing in
the beginning, as I said, we had four hymns, and
this one was always my favorite, Ring the Bells of
Heaven There is Joey today. I love that one.

Speaker 7 (57:57):
And it's that interesting that that would be the hymn
that you choose when you're talking about the church before returning.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
When we used to ring the bell and having a
couple of times, it became very popular.

Speaker 6 (58:08):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
And what's so funny is this bell, which is established
established early in season one, right, the bell really bell.
Through the entire series, that bell is used. Man that
bell is not a Tinker Jones where it appears in
one episode and disappears. It is something it is prevalent
throughout the entire time.

Speaker 6 (58:28):
Well yeah, exactly, how interesting fake yeah. Interestingly that nothing
is resolved, at least on screen, about Missus Olson's objection
to the bell being for church.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
You can't use it for schools?

Speaker 7 (58:44):
What?

Speaker 1 (58:44):
What is wrong?

Speaker 6 (58:48):
So what you're going with you?

Speaker 7 (58:49):
So?

Speaker 4 (58:50):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (58:52):
But that okay, that just all sort of magically works
out and the bell becomes a wonderful fixture.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Well I thought it magically worked out because the kids
had better toys and stuff in it. So for me
that was like the yeah, yes, so you can use
it for school now, right exactly?

Speaker 6 (59:10):
The children paid.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Yes, it's stolen goods and.

Speaker 7 (59:19):
It's a it's a fun it's it's one of those
it's one of those many little house feel really good episodes.

Speaker 6 (59:31):
In the end and when you hear that wonderful fly
you know, fly Laura.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
Fly Yeah or works great?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Yes do do do.

Speaker 6 (59:45):
Don't worry.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
Next next week will be like, you know, someone will
get some disease or you know, some horrible will happen.
The beauty of baby carry Oh, but real quick before
this is a baby carry di affecta episode where the
there are three main baby carry moments in this episode

(01:00:07):
in which no one can understand.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
A week cannot what she says, very agro brilliant. You're
so freaking cute in this to say we make fun
of baby carry. But she's the cutest little thing you
ever did see. She's so adorable and you can understand
what you get your little she took it, but we
do not understand her. But Pa understands everything like she's

(01:00:30):
cousin it. On the Adams family is the carry whisperer.
And it's so sweet because at one point she looks
right at him and clear as day says king here
and and he says, we'll take care of that right away, Carrie,
And I'm like I was watching that going like why laugh?

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
That is so hard, so off the charts of anything.
And and it's true, like only appearing did you understand
their child like when.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Your children were really little, when your children margot a
whole language. I was I was the markin her solid year.

Speaker 4 (01:01:15):
Yeah, but Carrie, this continued for Carrie for a very
very long time. It wasn't just if I was her
entire childhood. Yeah, the mine and the Yeah, she's aggressive
in her audibility as.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I think it's very greatest moments this episode.

Speaker 5 (01:01:33):
I really do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
She's so cute and then she's so cute and then
she opens her mouth and you're like what, yeah, okay,
all right Carrie.

Speaker 7 (01:01:46):
But in sweet moments, I mean she had the sweet
moment with the fish in the beginning with the Tinker
Jones and she gets the fish in mine and yeah,
and then the mine.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Yeah, all that I had a child mine. That's where
she got a toy I would baby.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
I love it. I just it's one of my favorite
Carry episodes. She's so baby Carrie.

Speaker 6 (01:02:09):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
It is quintessential Baby Carrie. All right, folks, we're gonna
wrap this up. Quintessential Baby Sarah Carrie.

Speaker 7 (01:02:16):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
Thank you all for joining us that these recaps are
so much fun. We'll be back next week with a
new recap, and you know, tune in join us on
our socials, little House fifty podcast, our website with Little
House fifty podcast dot com, and oh our patrons. You know,
if you're not a Patreon, you come join us. We
have so much fun and we will see you next

(01:02:38):
time Bob go, get the wig.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Let's fly people.

Speaker 7 (01:02:42):
Baby carry

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
A fake bell