14 Things Only ‘Little House on The Prairie’-Lovers Know

Regardless if you saw Little House during its first run from 1974 to 1983 or watched through reruns, all fans fell in love with Laura Ingalls and the rest of the Ingalls family! I. T turns out that behind the show’s idyllic moments of settlers life in the 1800 s, lots of intriguing things were going on when the cameras stopped rolling.

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Read on to figure what happened to the stars of the show after the Little House came to an end and find out what actually went on behind the scenes.

1. Irritating Melissa

Despite the plot depicted Laura and Nellie to be competitions on the show, the two actresses were quite good buddies off set.

Later on, Nellie married Percival, who had been portrayed by Steve Tracy. In real life, Steve was homosexual, however it did not matter. The 2 actors loved to make out in front of Laura, who is love life wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic with Almanzo, simply to irritate bad Melissa Gilbert.

2. Michael Landon was actually Jewish

Michael Landon might spread the Christian message through his personality on the show, but in real life, he recognized as Jewish.

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His real name is Eugene Maurice Orowitz, which can be pretty telling. Eugene grew up in NY, and his mother, Peggy O’Neill, was a Catholic, his father, Eli Maurice Orowitz was Jew, and culturally, he took after his father.

3. Actual family ties

Remember Willie Oleson?

Well, turns out that Laura’s nemesis small brother, in real life, is the adopted brother of the actress who played Laura, Jonathan

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4. The cancer curse

To everybody’s misfortune, many cast members got cancer, and a few eventually passed off from the disease.

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Michael Landon got pancreatic cancer, among other cast members like Victor French and Kevin Hagen.

The only one who got cancer, but was able to live would be Charlotte Stewart, who played Miss Beadle. As soon as it’s only a theory, many believe that so many members of the cast got cancer, due to the radioactively contaminated materials which were far too close to the set.

5. Michael Landon was the set’s clown

Michael Landon liked to keep things intriguing on place, by continuously playing pranks on his co celebrities and team.

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This guy was very fond of messing with everybody, and never left the set without either pulling a joke or making fun of someone. One prime example of his antics on place is pursuing Laura Ingalls after the camera has been turned off if she’d been running in the first place.

6. Melissa had issues with Michael

Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert were fairly close on the show. Melissa’s father passed away when she was only 11, so she maintained that Michael acted like a father’s figure she lost far too early. Well, as the show progressed, so did their emotions for each other.

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Michael, however, left his wife for Cindy Clerico, who had been the make-up artist on the group. She was 20 years younger than him! Following the incident, Melissa was mad at Michael she distanced himself along with his family, ultimately, dropping all forms of contact.

7. Michael Landon liked to show off his physique

Michael Landon had quite a figure and boy, did he enjoy showing it off (especially on camera)! He did the same on Bonanza, but on LHOTP, every time his character had some sort of injury, like a broken rib or an arm, it automatically meant that he must take his shirt off to provide the full cinematic effect.

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There were even rumors floating around that he actually went commando, as well. Wonder if those rumors had any truth to them…

8. Melissa Gilbert was a bit of a groupie

Melissa Gilbert was the typical “wild child”, despite what her character on the show was like, which was the complete opposite of who she was in real life. She had a thing for bad boys, and not just any bad boys, but Hollywood bad boys. Her dating repertoire consists of going out with Scott Baio, Tom Cruise, and Michael Landon Jr.

She also was engaged to Rob Lowe, but it didn’t last for very long. Following the engagement, she was married three times: to Bruce Boxleitner, Bo Brinkman, and she is currently married to Timothy Busfield. Way to go, girl.

9. Carrie went up the hill and…fell?

Two people actually played the character of Carrie. The twin child actresses were Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. The only reason there were two girls playing one character, was all a matter of the law. So, the director needed two girls in order not to violate any child labor laws.

When shooting the famous scene that was later used for the opening credits, one of the girls tumbled downhill accidentally. The director liked the shot, decided to used it, and the rest is history.

10. Michael Landon after Little House

Landon is one of those stars who will forever be remembered for his larger than life career and personality.

When Little House on the Prairie came full circle in 1982, he went on and teamed up with his co-star Victor French (Isaiah Edwards) to star in Highway to Heaven as an angel returned to Earth where he pairs up with a human partner. Landon also starred in the 1991 show Us which tracks the life of a man freed from prison after he was wrongly convicted.

In 1991, Landon was voted one of TV Guide’s 50 Sexiest Stars of All Time, so the fact that he married three times and had eight children doesn’t come at much of a surprise. Sadly, that same year he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. He passed away within a few months of his diagnosis, but he left behind a legacy of writing, directing, producing, and acting.

He also made the cover of Life Magazine in which he spoke about his life, career, and his battle with cancer.

11. Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls

Now for the star of the show who enraptured the hearts of one and all: Melissa Gilbert. Gilbert’s skill and penchant for acting never failed with age, and she went on to star in The Diary of Anne Frank and Heart of the Storm. She also landed roles in the TV shows 7th Heaven, Nip/Tuck, Batman: The Animated Series, and Babylon 5.

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The actress even appeared on season 14 of Dancing with the Stars with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and got eliminated during the eighth week; on her birthday of all days.

Gilbert’s first love is still acting, but she turned her attention to politics when she ran as the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s eighth congressional district in 2016. She won her primary, but was forced to drop out because of health issues. Since LHOTP, Gilbert’s love life was somewhat tumultuous. She had an on-and-off relationship with actor Rob Lowe and then married three times: first to the actor Bo Brinkman, then to the actor Bruce Boxleitner, and in 2013 to another actor, Timothy Busfield from thirtysomething. She also has two children from both of her first marriages

12. Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson

Alison Arngrim, renowned for being the golden-locked town bully and frenemy of Laura Ingalls, continued to act in many theater, TV, and film projects throughout her life, for which she won several awards.

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Despite playing enemies on screen, Melissa Gilbert and Arngrim were close friends, and the two talk regularly today.

Arngrim also embarked on a career as a standup comedian and humorously recalled how playing Nellie on Little House on the Prairie was “like having PMS for seven years.”

Arngrim composed an album Heeere’s Amy and wrote her own comic memoir in 2010 called Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated about her time as child star. She used the book to publicly name her childhood abuser, but what critics loved the most about the text was the subtle combination of a tragic and light-hearted tone.

13. Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary Ingalls

Hot on the heels of Little House on the Prairie’s, Melissa Anderson became a prime TV starlet and took the Emmy for the Best Leading Actress in a Drama Series in 1980 for her role in the ABC Afterschool Special Which Mother is Mine? She also starred in Murder, She Wrote, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Equalizer.

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Anderson landed her first movie role in Happy Birthday to Me and since then boasts over 57 acting credits, with her latest appearance in The Brits Are Coming.

Like a lot of the other LHOTP stars, Anderson penned her own autobiography in 2010 called The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House about her time on the show and how the role affected her personal role. Today, she lives in Canada with her screenwriter and television producer husband Michael Sloan and their two children. Like Karen Grassle, Anderson was also inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

14. Dean Butler as Almanzo Wilder

Known as Laura Ingalls’s husband on Little House on the Prairie, Butler would go on to become a well-known and successful actor playing parts in West Side Story, Into the Woods, and Hank Summers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By the age of 61, the actor has a lot more to show on his acting career accolades.