Wilder - A Little House 50th Anniversary Special!

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

We’re back for a very special episode! It’s been a year since you last heard from us and so much happened. Thousands of people have listened to the show and continue to keep the dialogue about Laura’s life and legacy alive. Glynnis and Jo published books. But perhaps most importantly, the Little House on the Prairie TV show turned 50! To prepare for this momentous anniversary in early September (and Glynnis’ 50th birthday), Glynnis and our producer Emily got together to share memories from the road and reflect on the lessons we learned from making this show that we still think about every day. Plus, they share never before heard clips from the road trip that started it all and from interviews with some of the most beloved Little House actors who still play a huge role in keeping Laura’s legacy alive.  Buy Glynnis' book, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, and Jo's book, The Sicilian Inheritance!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune into the podcast, I Choose Me with Jenny Garth, as the Beverly Hills 90210 alum explores the transformative power of those three words. Discover how you too can choose health, healing, and happiness, and be the star of your own life. I'm Jenny Garth, and I have a brand new podcast called I Choose Me. Join me each week as I continue my quest for contentment and gratitude. Listen to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We think of Franklin as the dodging dude

flying a kite in the rain. Benjamin Franklin is our subject for a new season with Walter Isaacson. He's the most successful, self-made business person in America. A printer, a scientist, founding father, but maybe not the guy we think we know. Franklin casts his lot on the side of revolution and it's another thing that splits the family apart. Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. But the murder of Carmichael Lonti marked the beginning of the end. It sent the message that we can prosecute these people. Listen to Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. If you love comedy movies and Hollywood satire, you're gonna wanna listen to a brand new podcast called Get It to Dutch. In Get It to Dutch, we play three aspiring screenwriters on a quest to get a script to big time Hollywood producer, Dutch Huxley. Each week on the podcast, we perform a movie script

right before your ears. It's like going to a movie with your eyes closed. And we have amazing guest stars, including Tim Robinson, Rob Hubel, Lily Sullivan, Jamie Moyer, and Weird Al Yankovic. Listen to Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce. And I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed Get your podcasts. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. And I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with author of The Sicilian Inheritance, Joe Piazza. My husband thought I was joking when I was like, we should go to Sicily this summer and solve this murder.

And all of a sudden I bought plane tickets and he's like, I really just thought you had had two tequilas and we're kidding about solving a murder. And I'm like, oh no, we're going with all three of our children under the age of seven. Listen to the bright side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The 50th anniversary is coming. That's going gonna be chaos. Hi, Glenis. We are back after a year of Wilder finishing releasing all of its episodes.

Emily, we're back. It's been a year since Wilder was released into the wild, and it's been two years since we were on the road. And three weeks from now is the 50th anniversary of the television show premiering on NBC. So we thought it would be a really fun time to reconnect and sort of look back on our whole podcast making experience and reflect on it, and also give you guys some of the outtakes

that didn't make it in to the final podcast. Okay, so Emily. Hi. Hi. This year, because the original premiere of Little House came out in March, as you heard Alison say at the top of the show. They're having cast reunions, you know, at all the different locations of the houses.

We felt left out. We wanted to have our own little reunion and we're missing our fearless executive producer, Jo Piazza, because she is off on her own other adventure or road trip or something, who knows what, somewhere. But she does have a little message for you. So we just wanted to play that. Hey, all. I miss you. I miss being on the road with you. I actually can't believe that it's been a year since we made this podcast. And it's funny because

I've been on the road again, traveling on book tour for the Sicilian inheritance and every single place that I go all over the country people ask me about the Wilder podcast and people have their own stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder and how much she touched them and how much she inspired them. It just reminds me how big Laura looms in our collective American imaginations and our mythologies. She's a force. Look, no one has forgotten Laura, but I do feel that we got to kind of bring her back into the zeitgeist and get people talking about her about the good, the bad, the ugly, the inspirational in a way that I really think she would have appreciated. I miss it.

I miss you guys. I'm going to go watch some Michael Landon taking off his shirt and crying now. It's funny, on my phone in the last few weeks comes up the photo memories and can you believe it was more than two years ago we were on the road for this podcast. It keeps sending me photos of us and just met South Dakota with you, like with the mics and us standing in front of the cottonwood trees and at the pageant. And I'm like, wow, it's already been a year. And then I realized, no, it's already been two years. And then realizing like the podcast has been out for over a year, which is amazing because

it feels like another lifetime that it came out. I don't know if that's just the new cycle we've been living in America this year, but it feels like wildly distant, and it was, even though it was such a huge undertaking and such like a joyful undertaking. I don't know, does it feel like that to you? Yeah, it feels like there's two separate timelines and there was the making of the podcast

and then the releasing the podcast. Everything we talked about has been so relevant in the past and then the releasing the podcast. Everything we talked about has been so relevant in the past year with the crazy news cycle. It's like there's not really a day that goes by that I don't think about all of the things that we saw and discussed in the entire show. I feel like the more distance we get from this podcast, the prouder I am of it. It's such a monumental undertaking and how fortunate we were to drive around the country

and be in all those different places. So anyways, this is basically, we're doing a 50th anniversary Little House in the Prairie TV show special episode and also just congratulating ourselves on a podcast that we're really proud of. And on that note, just speaking of the road and speaking of everything that initially surprised us,

as you can imagine listeners, there is so, so many more hours of tape than what you actually heard go into the show. And I think it's like, it's one of the sad parts when you're making this at some of your favorite characters and your favorite places we went to or things that we learned just couldn't make it into the show.

I was always the one being like, can we slide this in? Can we slide that in? And you're like, this is one episode. It cannot be four hours long. Because A, you recorded everything on the road. Like it's not an easy thing to always have everything mic'd for hours every day, but like we got so much good stuff.

But yeah, I think first up, I really wanted to do justice to all of the people in the towns who are benefiting off of Lora tourism, whether that's being dedicated to managing the houses or running the pageants or even just like the people who run the restaurants and the cafes in this town that, yeah, they owe a lot of the most of their revenue in the summer probably to lorotourism and talking to them, it always kind of astounded me that they weren't sick of it

and they weren't that, you know, you saw like these usually generations of like, mothers and children and, and you know family businesses of people that were just really dedicated to the cause. I think there was one good example of that in Pepin, Lake Pepin in Wisconsin, the town, which was a cute little vacation town. Pepin was the first place where we really began to understand that people who lived in these places but weren't necessarily working directly with the houses. All had positive feelings about Little House and Laura and what her legacy had brought to the town, which I thought was interesting, because I could see the possibility of,

or the potential to be sort of resentful or tired of her. And meanwhile, I think everybody loved it. Our very first stop was this amazing cafe. And that was where we learned to just start asking everyone what they thought of Laura. This was one of our initial conversations with people to just get a sense of how the books and living in a place that where Laura lived has impacted their lives and their business. And the name of this cafe is the Homemade Cafe just to give them a shout out if you are ever in Brooklyn.

They are the best. They had great pie, amazing pie. Oh they had the best. They had great pie, amazing pie. Oh, they had the best pie. This is the best patty melt I've ever had. Well, good. Michelle's an awesome chef. She's an awesome chef. I'm just curious, how many people come through here for the house? Do you get it a lot?

How do you even estimate that? It's a lot. It's a lot. They always have a sticker on, a green sticker that says I was at Laura's house or something like that. And then they got that museum down here. So I said, you know, usually they'll go one or the other and then... Have you been at the museum? We're headed there. We came here first. That's awesome. And I told them to go down by the lake. Yeah, it's beautiful here. So did you grow up like surrounded by Laura? Like you were aware of her for ever forever. I read those books

I read all my books. Yeah, and I read them when I was young. Yeah. Yeah. Did you ever read them? No, Kayden. Kayden's got to get going on that. You've ever read those books? And did you watch the TV show? Oh, yes Oh, I've never missed it. Yeah, you too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, my mom always watched it And my granddaughter it's all about Morgan's Wilder. And the people you get here, is it sort of an international crowd? Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. All over. I said a lot of them, you know, we have the wedding venues here too. We have two big wedding venues. So I said we get from all over.

Really? Oh, yeah. Is this like a vacation? It's more, like a sort of... It's more of a tourist kind of place. It kind of shuts down in the winter. Yeah. Now it's a tourist destination. It never used to be. Right. Peppin? Yeah. Peppin never used to be. It is now. We have a tourism board. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Is that because of Laura or? Partly, I'm sure, in the wedding venues. Yeah. Did you guys like, what did you love about Laura? Would you ever feel like suffocated by her or it's just sort of a real no no I loved it All of it. I love the books Well, I just like the whole thing how they made it through all those tough times and you know, and they were very close family

Yeah, you know, that's hard anymore. You don't have that a lot anymore close family. Yeah, you know that's hard anymore. You don't have that a lot anymore. Does the Mississippi freeze? Does Lake Pepin freeze? Yeah, it does because that's the end of the or the opening of the House of the Prairie is they're going across the frozen water and it cracks. Yeah, and when we were driving down, we were all remarking on how much bigger Mississippi appears when you're driving beside it than maybe... It's huge. Yeah, and pretty fast flowing I think, right I did you should drive across there with yeah I just petrified petrified you used to drive across it sure yeah across like here to Lake City thank you so much for speaking with us I have a terrible voice Not when it's recorded. That's what I think and I've made a career of making podcasts.

Please stay silent. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Yes, yes, yes. You know, going to these pageants, we talked about them putting on these big shows and like the kids from the town playing out scenes from the book and sometimes a mix between the book and the TV show. But there was also like fun little communities that we encountered. Like, I mean, we are just coming out of the Olympics. And my favorite thing in the world is like the more niche sports like archery, artistic swimming, these things. I would say like the Mansfield Fiddloff was my delightful little like niche performance competition of the road trip. Good morning to y'all and welcome out to the Fiddle Off contest here.

We're gonna be here almost today. Remember in the fiddle competition there was like the there was the tiny category and then like the junior category and then the adults and I just remember it must have been like a eight or nine year old girl going up there and just slaying just killing it. Oh just owned the whole competition and also people had driven I mean Mansfield's not that close to anything except Springfield but like people had driven distances to come there and compete these people were serious about their fiddle talents which they should be they were incredible Mansfield was delightful when I chased that guy across the back to

across the field who was carrying paws fiddle I was like oh my god what is it like to hold paws fiddle you're just wandering around with like the most valuable in a lot of pressure you think it's worth? Emotionally? Priceless. I don't think you could put a price on Pops middle. But I bet you could sell it. That's a terrible concept. I can't even grasp. Thank you for speaking.

I was also thinking of, remember when we were in Burr Oak and they had the competition of the Allora and Almanzo competition, costume competition, but that people who won, it was almost like a Miss America set up, like people who won had responsibilities of visiting schools. And Burr Oak is so tiny, it's not even incorporated. It's literally like a postage stamp of a handful of buildings. And they held this competition and it had really serious responsibilities to it.

And I was just like, yeah, that should be in the Olympics. Maybe we should like, if they're gonna put breakdance in the Olympics, we should just petition the Olympics to consider a little house contest. Yeah, yeah. The other thing that I still can't get over about the road trip is we covered so much ground just going from

Wisconsin to Minnesota to South Dakota and then we ended up going over to Wyoming just to take in that stretch of the Americana of it all and that was the first time I had seen that part of the country and Besides just being wowed by the badlands, like I think I just said, wow, the entire time we were driving through it. Yeah. Wow.

It was the first time that it really hit me that I had only seen mythology of America. Mm-hmm. Like almost have only seen like the bastardization of it in old Westerns and all of that. And I had never seen the actual thing. And you realize why, oh yeah, that is so amazing. I get why rich, greedy white men just like wanted

to destroy this place and make money off of it. But it is, and which is tragic because it is some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. America's incredible. And I mean, again, going back to driving across it, I think we, so many Americans and so many people around the world are sort of fed the postcard version of it that becomes so familiar and two-dimensional and sometimes a caricature that when you actually go there to any of these places, it is gobsmackingly

beautiful and powerful. And you're like, oh, it is an incredible country and it is gobsmacking and breathtaking. And seeing it firsthand feels so necessary to me actually. And smack dab in the middle of that, after you get out of the badlands, you get like a little bit cartoonish Disneyland Old West location. Do you want to tell everyone about Wall Drug, which is maybe my, the thing that I'm most disappointed couldn't make it into the show because there wasn't really a place for it? Oh, that's right. I forget that Wall Drug didn't make it in. So the first time I went

to Wall Drug was, the first time I went to Wall Drug was in 2002 before the internet. And the way I came to it wasug was in 2002 before the internet. The way I came to it was west to east. For Waldrug, there's all these hand-painted billboards for miles and miles and miles saying, like, come to Waldrug, five cent coffee, come to Waldrug, all these things. The buildup is so extraordinary. You pull in and it's just this wild caricature of a wild west town with all these buildings and kitschy stuff and that crazy dining room. It's sort of the entryway to Rapid City, which has a bit of that same

vibe to it. That very Mount Rushmore kitschiness that is very, very, very American and also in all, it's the Las Vegas of, you know, the Wild West and with all the problems that come with that. You're right. I mean, you go from wall drug, which it does feel like the Disneyland of rest stops. Like it literally has animatronics in if you go into the gift shop, there's a glass wall and behind it is animatronics of just old like Western men just like playing banjo

and singing a song. When I say it's so American, it's like, it's both what we talk about, like the extreme breathtaking beauty and openness and possibility and history and also the worst of America in terms of the extermination, the attempted extermination of Native Americans, of the Buffalo, of the natural wonders and also the overlayer of, you know, that kitch, that sort of Las Vegas but the West kitch. And so it holds both of these things, which are both or all of these things, which are also American in the same place. And I think that is the real

intensity and magic of it. And I don't mean magic in sort of like a frivolous way I mean like deep magic of being out there and it to some extent you know I think speaks to the enduring appeal of little house because she's holding all of those things in the book at the same time, too." It began as a three-word line spoken by Kelly Taylor, Jenny Garth's character on Beverly Hills 90210, but it became her own formula for personal fulfillment and the rallying cry of an entire movement. The phrase, I choose me, has come to mean so much to so many. It embodies self-care and self-love.

I'm Jenny Garth, and I have a brand new podcast called I Choose Me. What started as a line in a script has become a guiding force for me. I've learned that loving yourself is not selfish. Tune into the podcast, I Choose Me with Jenny Garth, as she continues her quest for contentment and gratitude and leads you on an exploration of the transformative power of those three words. You'll learn how you too can choose health,

healing and happiness to be the star of your own life and watch everything around you improve. Join me each week as I continue my quest for contentment and gratitude. Come along and live by the words, I choose me. Listen to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We think of Franklin as the doddering dude flying a kite in the rain, but those experiments are the most important scientific discoveries of the time. I'm Evan Ratliff. Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk with biographer Walter Isaacson. This time, we're diving into the story

of Benjamin Franklin, another genius who's desperate to be dusted off from history. His media empire makes him the most successful self-made business person in America. I mean, he was never early to bed and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women start wearing their hair in what was called the coiffure a la Franklin. And who's more relevant now than ever.

The only other person who could have possibly been the first president would have been Benjamin Franklin. But he's too old and wants Washington to do it. Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people.

But the murder of Carmichael Lonti marked the beginning of the end, sparking a chain of events that would ultimately dismantle the most powerful crime organization in American history. It sent the message to them that we can prosecute these people. Discover how a group of young prosecutors took on the mafia, and with the help of law enforcement, brought down its most powerful figures. These bosses on the commission had no idea what was coming their way from the federal government. From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts,

this is Law and Order Criminal Justice System. This is Law and Order Criminal Justice System. Listen to Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, I'm Mark. I'm Greg. I'm Brendan. And this is a trailer for a new podcast

called Get It to Dutch, A Screenwriter's Journey. It's about screenwriting. And a journey. The three of us play aspiring screenwriters on a quest to get a hit Hollywood script to famous producer Dutch Huxley. Well I would say one of us is aspiring and the other two are sort of struggling. Which one of us is aspiring? Well they're gonna have to listen to the podcast. Hmm but I don't know and I made the podcast Well, I made the podcast and I think you guys were along for the ride. Each week we bring in a script, we read it, and then we give each other notes. And you'll also hear about our adventures navigating the Hollywood system. The show features amazing guests like Tim Robinson, Lily Sullivan, Weird Al Yankovic, and Rob Hubel.

And like any great blockbuster, it's filled with heartbreak, adventure, suspense, and just a little tasteful nudity. And some distasteful nudity. Oh yeah, sorry about that guys. Listen to Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay.

And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with author, journalist, and podcast host, Joe Piazza. At one point during the podcast, I actually interview a medium, Mary Ann DiMarco.

She's a Sicilian American who lives on Long Island, because apparently all mediums live on Long Island. She said something, and I'm not a woo-woo person, but she was like, I can feel all of these Sicilian women, not just your ancestors, but these women whose stories haven't been told, and they've just been nudging you along as you've been working on this book. And the same with the podcast.

And I still get chills when I'm thinking about it now, because I do think that those women wanted their stories told. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What are your feelings coming up on the 50th anniversary and your 50th birthday? I feel great about turning 50. And there's something very charming for me in having the 50th anniversary. The show premiered one week after I was born and so there's something delightful to me about having it. It's always existed but like it's always been around and I just think oh it's uh it's both a short period of time

and such a long period of time. I just had this memory of remember when we got to Dismet and we were in the B&B and I hadn't watched the show, like we've been so heavy in prep that I hadn't seen the show in a while. Remember when we turned it on the TV when we were in the B&B and like we're immediately engaged with it, like immediately our heads whipped around and we were pulled in and it's just a reminder like it was such a good show. We talked about all the problems with it, the problems with everything, but man, the music, paw. One of the surprise takeaways for us anyway, when we started doing our interviews for this podcast, which we did so many interviews before we went out on the road, was how many of the

people who loved the book so much and had written about the book and were scholars of the book disliked the TV show and primarily disliked Michael Landon, which I thought was fascinating because obviously we talked about this, I loved both, but Michael Landon in particular seemed to be his version of Paul Ingalls seemed to be a flashpoint for a number of people. I never liked the series ever because it didn't look right. You know, Michael Landon obviously looks nothing like Pa. It was so clearly a ego project for him that I just never liked it.

I actually didn't like it because it was so different Pa in particular. I was like, who is this clean shaven? I just found Michael Landon. I just could not relate to him. Plus, they never moved out of Walnut Grove. They completely eliminated South Dakota. He's such a preening presence in a way that I think would have been horrifying to Laura Ingalls Wilde. I think she would have been dumbstruck at that portrayal of her beloved father. Love or hate what Landon did with Charles Ingalls. Like Michael Landon is is one of the main reasons that everything still persists.

Oh, for sure. The TV show gave the books a whole new life and continues to do so because it's on TV all the fricking time. And to my delight. Yeah, yeah. Why it's been on my mind is Tim Walsh, the VP candidate with Kamala, he's not from Mankato, but he's from Nebraska, but he spent most of his adult life in Mankato before becoming governor, which as people who listen to the podcast know, there's

an entire episode where we're primarily in Mankato. And people who watch the television show know that they're always going to Mankato to buy something or sell something or whatever. And then the wagon falls off the side of the road and someone almost dies and like Mary's glasses set the whole place on fire. Like Mankato figures into this as a destination. But as I was thinking about, you know, Rebecca Tracer, who was on the podcast, wrote a piece for New York Magazine recently about the different versions of masculinity the Republicans are providing and the Democrats are providing and talking about sort of the

Tim Walz masculinity and in some ways it really reminded me of the Michael Landon version of masculinity not that Tim Walz is taking off his shirt and like glossing up his pecs or whatever but like the masculinity, the ability to provide an idea of masculinity that also allows for emotion and sensitivity. And Michael Landon's Pa Ingalls was, as we know and have discussed, was crying in nearly every episode as a show of strength. And it's interesting because the show itself, I think, appealed in its day to conservative groups. And we know Ronald Reagan, it was his favorite show,

but we're obviously in a much different time of who and what gets defined as conservative. And I was just like, there's something a little Tim Weltsy about Michael Landon's Pa Ingalls and maybe vice versa. And it seems like it just struck me as so interesting, especially with the like Mankato connection. Someone should write that, the Mankato connection of Charles of Pa, of Michael Landon's Charles Ingalls and, and Governor Tim Walz running for VP. I think we've got our finger on the pulse with this one. And I think with the anniversary of the TV show and Tim Walz, maybe there's,

maybe there's a whole other season here. Six degrees of separation, just Mankato edition. Well, in honor of the 50th anniversary, we did just want to bring you some more snippets of conversations we had with the cast that all of them were completely amazing, with the cast that all of them were completely amazing, like exceeded all expectations. Also will shout out all of their books. If you have, if you're a fan of the TV show even a little bit, I recommend especially Alison Arngrim's book and um, but with Alison Arngrim, I mean we talked to her for well over an hour and if you're thinking of iconic Nellie Olsen episodes, a big fan favorite that we didn't really talk at all about

in our TV episode is Bunny. Oh, that I love that episode. Oh, Bunny. We did talk to Melissa and Allison about the making of that episode and people's reactions to it. And we're gonna play some of those clips side by side. And I love hearing them talking about it

because that's where you can also hear just their deep friendship come through. Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngren, despite being very believable, enemies on screen are the best of friends. And it delights me every time they talk about it. What episode do you hear about the most? And what was your favorite episode of the show? Bunny, where I go down the hill in the wheelchair.

I hear about Bunny in the race. People really dig the wheelchair, push down the hill. That's the only time my mother walked into the family room and said, Laura seems mean. And I was like, Laura's amazing. And my mother said, I don't think that was a nice thing to do, and then exited the room. Well, Laura was pushed to the brink. But I did pretend to be paralyzed and ruin everyone's life. In most episodes, Nellie does things to ruin Laura's life and make her miserable.

But in Bunnies, the only episode, Nellie's insane behavior actually impacts everyone. So yeah, she has it coming. She has it coming. And I'll tell you, Allison got her revenge. Many years ago, I had to go in for a colonoscopy and she took me. And when it was over, they wouldn't let me walk out of the surgery center. I had

to go out in a wheelchair and she pushed it. And she kept threatening to shove me down a number of different hills that day. Even though I didn't, I said, I, you know, something I fall in, write it, tell them to let me do that. The other thing I hear about a lot too is the mud fight. People like a lot when Alison and I got physical. We hear that from a lot of fans and I think it was having girls express sort of like complicated emotions to each other and that jealousy and competition which felt very recognizable at that age. I think the other thing that informed those performances and maybe the audience was getting it subliminally was

that we really loved each other dearly. And I've always said, you know, you don't really have to necessarily get along all that well with someone you're doing a love scene with, but boy, you have to love and trust the person you're doing a fight scene with. We thought it was so funny because we could bonded right away and then the idea that regularly every few episodes we'd hit each other in the face was like awesome. I was like oh we got a fight scene coming up and it was funny because like the very first fight scene they were very careful and there was a stunt girl to do one of the falls so I wouldn't hit my head and then but like after that they went and we pretty much were choreographing our own fights.

And they just didn't need stunts for that. The mud fights all us, they're just stuck at that. The famous mud fight, they're like, yeah, you guys got this, whatever. And they're just like, do, do whatever the hell you want to do. And we did. And we had so much fun. And we thought it was so funny to play these mortal enemies and do all this terrible stuff. But it was weird because these scenes where I'd be saying things and she's crying. And we're going out for slurpees later. ["Sweet Home Alone"]

My other favorite actor to just learn more about her story was Karen Grassley and how her she as a person was so polar opposite of Caroline Ingalls and she was part of the free sex movement. She was in Berkeley. She was an actor. She was like doing all these things. And also I think if you read her book book, which I highly recommend, she talks about her entire life. And if you have any interest in, you know, 60s arts and counterculture, definitely read it.

Yeah, it was not progressive where Caroline Ingalls was. And I think it's interesting, though, because I don't know. I mean, she played the character that was written for her on a show that was huge. But you know, the Waltons were on at the same time, and the mother in the Waltons, that character was much more feminist, you know. And so that is one of the major issues with Michael Landon was he was open-minded in so many ways, but not about grown women. It's just worth pointing that out because I think she was in a tough position of making those decisions. As a working actor to get that show, that sets because I think she was in a tough position of making those decisions. Like as a working actor to get that show, that sets you up for life and allows a lot of choices.

The little woman had never been my goal. And so there were times when the choices offered to Carolyn in the script rankled. Let me give you an example. And this is not at all a criticism. This is just an example of how Michael knew his vision and he knew what he wanted. And in fact was well connected to his audience. Early on this is, Carolyn has the scene in the morning

of finishing those braids and getting those scrambled eggs on and packing those lunches and rescuing the three year old who's climbing up the stairs and keeping her from putting her hands by the fire. And finally the girls have their coats on and their little lunches and they're going out the door. And my reaction was, oh, thank goodness. We did it.

And Michael said, no, you look out the door, you watch them going, and you smile because they're so lovely. And that's what we did. So there were times when I couldn't influence what I believed about the hard work that a mother does, that a woman cooking on a fire does. But as much as I could, I tried to influence the way the writers would see her. And I was happy that in the end, many of them got it. They got it.

What are your favorite episodes with respect to them getting it? Well, Olsen versus Olsen, where the women all go on strike. That was our idea, a friend of mine and I, and she consequently became a staff writer on Little House. Yeah, I was very proud that Chris Abbott came on. And then I think it was our very close to our final show, if not our final show, where Laura and I have a nice scene where we acknowledge our contribution

and she says something like, they couldn't have done it without us. But you know, I respect also this traditional role that women have played. And I mean, for God's sake, these women who helped settle the country, they were so strong. When I read this book called Pioneer Women, it said that if a woman at that time lost her husband, she just went on. But if a man lost his wife, he wrote immediately for a male or a bride because he simply could not handle it alone. for a mail-order bride, because he simply could not handle it alone. [♪ music playing, video game sounds playing over video game audio system. Someone that you might not expect was as badass in her day as she was,

because she's so perfect and loving and warm on the show, is Charlotte Stewart, who was Miss Beetle. And we got to meet her in Mansfield, pretty much by accident. We were in Mansfield during Wilder Days. She was kind of the big guest that they had, and she was there to do signings and everything. And we got invited to a little reception where we got to sit down and speak to her. So we're going to, that is why this tape might be a little noisy, the tape that we're about to play you.

She was delightful. Alison Arngrim, you know, she is at all of the conventions and everything. And when she first described to us people's reaction to Charlotte, she said, it's in line, it's men in Eraserhead t-shirts crying to her and telling them how much they loved her as this beetle while they're in their full like David Lynch getup

because she worked with David Lynch. She was a favorite of David Lynch. Yeah. Was it strange in the 70s to be cast as a very traditional female role? Meanwhile, I was smoking dope at home. Yes. In Eraser, the movie, am I right about that? Eraser head. Yeah, well I was doing it the same time as I did the episode of the Waltons because David Lynch as a student filmmaker had no bounds on how late you worked. You know, we used to shoot all night long. That's when he preferred to shoot.

We'd show up at 11 o'clock at night and shoot all night. So I would finish at six in the morning, and if I had a job, I would have to run home or change or something and get to the studio. So it happened to be I was doing the Waltons at the time. So I came staggering into Warner Brothers where they were shooting and I watched it the other night. It was on and I watched it and I thought oh no

that scene is coming on because I could not remember my lines. I was so tired. And like playing what you were saying like playing like a traditional Miss Beedle is fairly traditional and then you were like a traditional, Miss Beetle is fairly traditional. And then you were like a grown up woman in the 70s, an actress in Hollywood. That just feels like a sort of night and day. I'll tell you, I was more connected with rock and roll than I was Hollywood.

I was never very popular in Hollywood. At the time that I got the part, I had a clothing store called the Liquid Butterfly. It was on Santa Monica Boulevard, and it was rock and roll. Across the hall, I was in a building on La Cienga called the Pure Thoughts building.

And it was the office of Elliot Roberts, who managed Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Jackson Brown. So I was in the middle of rock and roll for a lot of that time, because I was dating the agent that managed them all. So I was backstage at rock and roll more than I was in Hollywood. I never got invited to any Hollywood parties, you know? And then when I got Little House on the Prairie, it was like people in Hollywood went,

what, Little House on the what? Oh, how boring. Well guess what, we're still on the air. Yeah. Mm-hmm. How fun. Yeah, we got put down a lot. Really? Oh yeah, we got put down a lot. Really?

Oh yeah. We got put down a lot. That's wonderful. Because I mean people still today are like, oh that was so wholesome and a little too mushy, but like it tackled some big issues. And I meet people all the time who I remind them of when they used to watch the show with their grandparents, you know, and they get very emotional. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

We drive to Memphis tomorrow evening, and then we're going to Graceland Sunday. It's a four hour drive, but we fly, it's hard, getting flights back and forth to New York, to this area is. You know, I worked with, I was. No. I did. What was that?

I did a movie called Speedway, and I have been a guest at Graceland. It's pretty amazing. It was in the 60s. I was expecting something totally different. I thought he was going to be this, you know, look me up and down and and be with his guys. You know, it's entourage.

Nobody was there. He was by himself. Curran Parker wasn't even there. So it was the director and me and a girl that was playing his girlfriend in the scene. They were in a convertible, they come to a drive-in and I wait, I'm a waitress and I wait on them at the drive-in and he's ordering all this special stuff

and I burst into tears and I tell my boyfriend, you know, my boyfriend, he can't afford anything. Anyway, he ends up paying for my wedding and gives me a big wedding and all of that stuff. So it was fun. I always worked with him for two days. And what he did was when we broke from shooting the drive-in, he went over and sat down. And I don't know what happened to the girl. She took off somewhere. And he asked the assistant director to bring over another

chair, and he sat it down beside him. And he said, come here. And I sat down, and he took my hand, and he started telling me about his mother. Whoa. And I'm sitting there. I'm 25 years old. I'm, you know, young enough to remember him is a big, big, big deal. And he's telling me about Gladys and when he went in the army

and they wouldn't let him come home to see her when she was sick. And I was like, holy shit, Elvis is holding my hand. Yeah, I was thinking of someone to, Elvis is holding my hand. Yeah, I was thinking of someone to talk to in that moment. Honestly, that was it. And you were there. I was there. Wow.

It was funny that we found out we had absolutely no clue she had ever worked with Elvis and we were actually going to be on our way to Graceland like in the next day or so. What do you think was your favorite part of doing this whole podcast? That's a big question because this is a... Yeah. I mean the road trip, my favorite part was going to a random place, even the places that were a little more out of the way, like past South Dakota or going from Missouri over to Tennessee, when we would just start having conversations with someone, we make sure in

every conversation to bring up Laura Ingalls Wilder. And usually someone did have a connection with her. It was the serendipitous thing of, yeah, she is everywhere. Yeah. I'm trying to think what my favorite part was. I think my favorite part was, I think Pepin surprised me the most. And then our drive from Huron to Buffalo, Wyoming, because it's the emptiest part of the country. And Ranger Tanya actually was one of my most favorite parts of our road trip, because I think she was such a surprise and such a delight and so that's the word I'm looking for reaffirming. Where I'd like to begin where I'd love to begin is in 1492 Columbus Sails the Ocean blew a 400 year resistance up until... This is like a

bravery to the way she was you know talking about the history at the Battle of Little Bighorn site. And she's just, she was so delightful when she got on the podcast with us. So she was one of my favorite parts. And then I think in the recording, when we moved to CDM Studios, in terms of like actual work experience and having such a high end facility and working with such kind people, like I think it comes through on the podcast that we actually, in the recording of it, were having a lot of fun too,

and working with so many people who took such great care to make sure that the product was high quality. Yeah, I do wanna give a big shout out to all of our amazing producers and editors and mixers that worked on this because, I'll say it a million times, podcasts are not easy to make, especially this kind of podcast.

And it takes, it really does take a village. And yeah, coming into CDM and immediately getting more ears on things and more opinions is always a good thing. It shows you where you're coming through, not coming through, gives you validation that like, yeah, this isn't interesting. It was such a team effort and everyone on the team took such great care with the whole podcast. There's so much depth to all of the intelligence and attention to detail and determination to make this really good.

That came through in the final product that I just want to make sure that people are aware. Like this was a huge undertaking and everybody involved in it was willing to go the distance with it, which is amazing because as Joe and I talked about endlessly, that degree of support, you know, is rare, not just in podcast world, but in like media, creative or otherwise in general. And so we were so fortunate to be able to have that backing for this project, which needed it. Yeah, yeah, I'm so grateful that we got to make this and then it gives us a chance to sit here and chat. So thank you for chatting, Glenis. This is delightful. And thank you to everyone

who listened to this podcast and provided feedback, positive or otherwise. It's so gratifying to have something you worked this hard on be engaged with. And we're so thankful that people have taken the time to listen to it. This is not, this podcast is an undertaking as a listener too. So thank you, everyone. We wanted to come back and follow up basically to say that. Here's extra stuff. And also, we're so grateful that it resonated. Thanks, everyone, for listening. This episode was hosted by Glenis McNichol and me, Emily Marinoff. It was produced by me, mixing and mastering Dun by Mahid Frazier. Now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

It's just two years ago. Tune into the podcast, I Choose Me with Jenn Garth, as the Beverly Hills 90210 alum explores the transformative power of those three words. Discover how you too can choose health, healing, and happiness and be the star of your own life. I'm Jenny Garth and I have a brand new podcast called I Choose Me. Join me each week as I continue my quest for contentment and gratitude.

Listen to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We think of Franklin as the dodging dude flying a kite in the rain. Benjamin Franklin is our subject for a new season with Walter Isaacson. He's the most successful, self-made business person

in America. A printer, a scientist, a founding father, but maybe not the guy we think we know. Franklin casts his lot on the side of revolution and it's another thing that splits the family apart. Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold,

with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. But the murder of Carmichael Lonti marked the beginning of the end. It sent the message that we can prosecute these people. Listen to Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you love comedy movies and Hollywood satire, you're gonna wanna listen to a brand new podcast called Get It to Dutch. In Get It to Dutch, we play three aspiring screenwriters on a quest to get a script to big time Hollywood producer, Dutch Huxley. Each week on the podcast, we perform a movie script right before your ears. It's like going to a movie with your eyes closed.

And we have amazing guest stars, including Tim Robinson, Rob Hubel, Lily Sullivan, Jamie Moyer and Weird Al Yankovic. Listen to Get It to Dutch, a screenwriter's journey on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey fam, I'm Simone Boyce. And I'm Danielle Robay. A screenwriter's journey on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce. And I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day.

Check out our recent episode with author of The Sicilian Inheritance, Joe Piazza. My husband thought I was joking when I was like, we should go to Sicily this summer and solve this murder. And all of a sudden I bought plane tickets and he's like, I really just thought you had had two tequilas and we're kidding about solving a murder. And I'm like, oh no, we're going with all three of our children under the age of seven. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.