The Small house in the meadow

the Small house in the meadow ( Little House one the meadow then Little House: In New Beginning ) American Televised series in 187 episodes is a , created by Michael Landon according to the autobiographical novel of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House , and diffused between the March 30th 1974 and the March 21st 1983 on the network NBC. In France, the series was diffused starting from the December 18th 1976 on TF1 then on M6 and during a few weeks on Téva, running 2007 like on RTL Television in the Années 1980.

Synopsis

This series tells the history of a family of pioneers, at the 19th century, arrival to settle in Plum Creek beside a village named Walnut Grove. It recalls the life of Laura Ingalls, heroin, since its arrival with Walnut Grove until its life of mother and teacher of the village.

Distribution

  • Melissa Gilbert (VF: Beatrice Bruno) : Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Michael Landon (VF: Michel Gatineau) : Charles Ingalls (1974-1982)
  • Karen Grassle (VF: Claude Chantal) : Caroline Quiner Ingalls (1974-1982)
  • Melissa Sweats Anderson (VF: Celine Monsarrat) : Mary Ingalls Kendall (1974-1981)
  • Sidney Greenbush and Lindsay Greenbush: Caroline “Carrie” Ingalls (1974-1982)
  • Wendi Turnbaugh and Brenda Turnbaugh: Grace Ingalls (1978-1982)
  • Matthew Laborteaux (VF: Maryse Méryl) : Albert Quinn Ingalls (1978-1982)
  • Richard Bull (VF: Rene Renot) : Nelson “Nels” Oleson
  • Katherine MacGregor (VF: Lily Baron) : Harriet Oleson
  • Alison Arngrim (VF: Jane Valley) : Nellie Oleson Dalton (1974-1981)
  • Jonathan Gilbert (VF: Francette Vernillat) : Willie Oleson
  • Victor French (VF: Jacques Dynam) : Isaiah Edwards
  • Dean Butler : Almanzo Wilder (1979-1983)
  • Linwood Boomer: Adam Kendall (1978-1981)
  • Kevin Hagen: Dr. Hiram Baker
  • Dabbs Greer: Rev. Robert Alden
  • Merlin Olsen (VF: Raoul Delfosse) : Jonathan Garvey (1977-1981)
  • Hersha Parady: Alice Garvey (1977-1980)
  • Patrick Labyorteaux: Andy Garvey
  • Charlotte Stewart (VF: Evelyne Séléna then Monique Thierry) : Eva Beadle Simms (1974-1978)
  • Ted Gehring: Ebenezer Sprague (1975-1976)
  • Karl Swenson: Lars Henson (1974-1978)
  • Shannen Doherty: Jenny Wilder
  • Leslie Landon: Etta Plum (1982-1983)

NB: As their names indicate it, the actors Melissa Gilbert (Laura) and Jonathan Gilbert (Willie Oleson) are actually brother and sister, in the same way for Matthew Laborteaux (Albert) and Patrick Labyorteaux (Andy Garvey) which are brothers (although the C-W communication of their name differs from a letter).

Rewards

  • Emmy Award 1978 : Better cinematographic direction for the episode The Fighter
  • Emmy Award 1979: Better cinematographic direction for the episode The Crafstman
  • Emmy Award 1979: Better music for the episode The Crafstman
  • Emmy Award 1982: Better music for the episode He Was Only Twelve

Characters

Ingalls

  • Charles Ingalls is the father, married to Caroline, he has during the series 4 biological girls, a boy whom he will lose a few months after his birth, and 3 adopted children (respectively Albert, James and Cassandra Cooper who will only appear relatively late in the series, season 7). Charles arrives at Walnut Grove, small village of Minnesota in company of his small family, in order to begin a new life. Very quickly, it is essential within the community, being made notice and appreciate by the old ones, thanks to its work well done, with its tact, its generosity, its perseverance and its good mood. Charles is very sociable, hard-working and concerned good being of his entourage. He does not hesitate either to imply himself in the conflicts, to which there cannot remain indifferent, bringing remedies and sometimes miraculous solutions. Its faith is as very present in the modest farmer as it is.

  • Caroline is the wife of Charles. They know each other since their childhood. The father of Charles, Lansford Ingalls was close to the parents to Caroline (cf episode 84, Souvenirs), and it is as that which they met. Caroline is a very courageous and very bold woman, it is moreover an excellent cooker as well as a formidable mother, devoted body and heart. She shows also an exemplary bravery, facing the most perilous conflicts of face.

  • Mary is the elder one of Ingalls. She works perfectly at the school, brings back very school good performances, is interested enormously in the reading and the studies. With the image of his/her mother, the beauty, the devotion, kindness, the intelligence seem its principal qualities. Despite everything, the destiny will be baited on it, since Marie gradually will lose the sight! It is in a specialized school, that it will become acquainted with Adam Kendall, his professor, and engaged couple. This last will enable him to live in spite of its blindness. This meeting will hustle the usual course of its life, and Marie will decide to teach for the small blind men. She was mother of a little boy who will perish accidentally in a fire.

  • Laura is the junior by Ingalls, and the narrator. Central figure and genuine heroin, the series describes passages of its existence, telling its youth until its marriage with Almonzo Wilder. Very characterial, it acts with much energy, stubbornness sometimes; one can rightly reproach him his pride. Jealous by moment of his/her older sister because of her success as well school as sentimental, it will less become it by learning her handicap. Laura is a little with its airs of real tomboy “the son” that Charles always wished to have. The proof in is, that it very often accompanies it with fishing. Laura is opposed from a character point of view to its larger rival, Nellie Oleson which it does not cease blaming and to annoy. The great defect of Laura it is its inflexible and ineffaceable obstinacy which places it contrary to his/her older sister! The series will be centered more on its life in the last seasons, it will marry Almonzo Wilder of which it will have a child. She in addition had two dogs (Jack and Gangster) as well as a horse (Bunny).

  • Carrie is the third girl of Charles and Caroline. Even secondary recurring character and especially more erased, one knows finally only very few things about it. Let us specify however that its role was interpreted by two binoculars!

  • Grace is the last and fourth biological girl of Ingalls. Caroline hoped to charm Charles by putting at the world finally a boy, but it was far from being the case, since it was a little girl to whom it gave birth. Grace only is too seldom evoked in the series, as well as Carrie, it occupies only one secondary place in the series. Its role was also interpreted by two binoculars!

  • Albert was a young orphan, shoe-maker at his lost hours, it made the sleeve and flew to be nourished until Charles does his knowledge and proposes to him to come to live at his place in Walnut Grove. It is in Winoka that Ingalls will meet it for the first time. Young person débrouillard, Albert was abandoned very young by his biological father, and forced to be lived in the noisy and dangerous streets of Winoka. It is Charles who gradually will integrate it into his family then with his friends in order to leave it his vexations. Charles will replace his natural father gradually, and thus Albert will call it “dad”! His/her biological father will try to take it again to make it work for him, but it will escape from it while being made pass for blind man. The father, who was interested by him only as workman, even slave, will decide to give up his right to take again his son and will definitively give it to Ingalls. It represents a little the son that Charles forever who been able to have. Laura and have a deep friendship to him, the bonds which link them are almost fraternal. Later, it will leave Walnut Grove to study medicine downtown, but while growing, it will undergo against blows and the nuisances of the city, to arrive from there until taking drugs. Reached of a terminal illness which devours it, one does not know or not if Albert will succumb of the continuations of his disease…

  • the children Cooper (James and Cassandra) will be adopted by Ingalls after accidental death their parents. Raised as well as the biological children of Charles, they will avoid the orphanage thus. Their uncle Jed, initially decided to recover them, will prefer finally to leave them with the good hands of Charles.

Friends and neighbors

  • Mr. Edwards is the large friend of Charles. Edwards lost his first wife and her daughter, both dead of the continuations of an epidemic of variola. Its life is only disappointment because broken by the devastations of alcohol. Mr. Edwards, of his true name Isaiah, appears at the commencement of the series, then returns towards the end. Incroyant, it is married initially in Grace Jones, of one second wedding, it will adopt in its company three orphan children, who saw their parents dying in an accident. But its too large dependence with alcohol will make burst its life of couple and separate it from his wife. Magnet food only sometimes like a hermit, this last will be prisoner long and untiring loneliness, before giving again confidence and taking again taste with the life thanks to the assistance of Laura. Isaiah counted always much in the heart of Laura, it made the clown and a whole heap learned to him from things like spitting for example. Domiciled in the large residence of Laura, it returns in the last seasons of the series.

  • Jonathan Garvey : After the premature departure of Isaiah, Jonathan and its family settle in Walnut Grove, and very quickly, bind friendship with Charles. Charles and Jonathan are both employees by Lars Hanson and form the perfect binomial, always working equips some, tightening the concerned elbows because good being of their close relations. Jonathan is a strapping fellow, who should not too much be annoyed. He lives with his Alice wife, who will become the teacher of the village after the departure of Mrs Sims (Miss Beadle) of to the crisis. Their single son, Andy, are the playmate of Laura and Albert. The family will be broken up after the accidental death of Alice, victim of a terrible fire, which will devastate the school for blind men by killing it as well as the child of Mary (incidental caused by the silly thing of Albert). Garvey will not badly live this disappearance, they will leave definitively Walnut Grove for the city, not to appear any more but on rare occasions. It is in the warehouse of Jonathan, that Adam will recover the sight. In an episode, one also learns that Alice was married, in the past, with an alcoholic, whose it hid the existence with Jonathan, for fear this last does not leave it.

  • Doctor Baker is the doctor of the village, it is a man devoted body and heart with its patients, generous, understanding and very interdependent with respect to its patients. At several times, it has to call itself into question and does not fail to give its resignation but its preciosity for Walnut Grove and its extreme kindness then recall it to the order. He is appreciated of all and its absence would appear terrible for the community. Its seniority gets to him a great recognition on behalf of the inhabitants of the village. There refused to marry the niece of Mrs Oleson, because being considered to be too old for her, and preferred to remain alone. It decided another time all to plate for a life of farmer, but that was a very bad experiment which it did not renew thereafter! The untimely death of the second child of Laura also failed to sign the end of its career.

  • the reverend Alden is one of the principal supporting characters, one will retain of him his sincere and generous kindness, very near and very implied in the problems of the farmers of the area. But paradoxically, one can reproach him his neutrality and his lack of implication in certain businesses such as the Larabé lawsuit. However, he even says it, it is not to him the place of a man of the church. He is married.

  • Lars Hanson is the founder of Walnut Grove, he is also the owner of Charles and Jonathan, and directs a small-scale farming in the sale of wood. All its existence, it dedicated it to Walnut Grove, working during all these years so that its village survives and prosperous. After the crisis which will touch all the farmers, Walnut Grove will be deserted and Lars will be one of the only inhabitants to remain there. The return of Winoka and the rebirth of Walnut Grove will give again hope to him, but he will die 6 months later. A sign at the entry of the city reminds its existence because it was one of the pillars of Walnut Grove, if not its founding father. It maintained with Doctor Baker a deep friendly relation, the two friends forsook their concerns of the daily newspaper indeed, drowning their loneliness in parts of poker!

Oleson

  • Nels Oleson is the owner of the store “mercantile Oleson” (it holds the big business of the city), and without question, the richest man of Walnut Grove. It is very generous because contrary to his wife Harriet, it often grants appropriations to the farmers in the need, like the most stripped with. It is very understanding and has always the last witty remark to say. He loves his wife enormously even if this one too often breaks the feet to him. One will reproach him much in the series his lack of “virility” and especially the fact that it is more or less submitted to his dear wife. He prefers, from his humble and discrete temperament, to be erased, leaving voluntarily with his wife a greater room for maneuver in their couple.

  • Harriet Oleson (devil of Walnut Grove?) is one of the principal supporting characters of the history. It and her Nellie daughter gathers all the unimaginable defects, but one realizes little by little while following the court of the series, that Harriet is in fact full with kindness and generosity. It is very amusing and some of its appearances do not fail to make us much laugh. Hostile with the xenophobe and coloured persons especially on the edges, Harriet will change opinion into meeting Joe Kagan and Hester Sue, the episode “the voyage” marks a decisive turn in its life. Harriet is in fact by nature very materialist, she likes to show what she has with the others, and does not fail to praise itself some.

  • Nelly Oleson is the oldest daughter of the Oleson family. Cherished by her mother who gets all to him that she wants, she is pretentious, lying, cheater, crafty one and petty, and does not miss an occasion to make wrong to Laura. Nellie is a little the plague of the series, that which nobody likes, however it of it is conscious and that grains it internally. It can nevertheless be made appreciate boys in their proposer a whole heap of sugar refineries. Nelly will radically change behavior into meeting Percival Dalton, the New-Yorkais coach that his/her mother engages to learn how to him to manage the restaurant which was offered to him. This one will become her husband and it will have two twins of them. Harriet will apprehend this marriage because Percival is Jewish but finally it will end up tolerating it and to accept it. To note that Nelly had fallen insane in love with Luke Sims, the beautiful son of Mrs Beadle and that they had failed to marry.

  • Willy Oleson is the junior by the Oleson family and the last biological child of Oleson. It is very lazy, with the image of his father according to Harriet. He and his/her Nellie sister is often confronted with Ingalls. Willy has only one concern: food. He hardly worries about the problems and family quarrels to which there remains completely indifferent. In the last episodes, it will mature largely. Taking in heart its responsabilities, he will in addition refuse to continue his studies to marry Rachel Brown (causing the disappointment and the lightnings of Harriet, which saw in him a brilliance wonder!), the woman whom he loves. He will leave his family home to come to move in the large residence of Laura.

  • Nancy Oleson is the small last of Oleson, it appears only tardily in the series. Adopted by Harriet (because the latter had been terribly grained by the unforeseen departure of Nelly for New York), it resembles like two water drops Nelly child. Malicious and computer, it makes very to appease its desires, it will fall in love with Albert but that will not lead to nothing.

Others

  • Kezia is an old lady which only lives in the neighborhoods of Walnut Grove. It chose to live like a vagrant and therefore certain glances of the community pushed it by its difference in lifestyle to be marginalized. Jonathan and the children of Walnut Grove will decide to push wisest of the village to in due form integrate it. It will in addition make become aware with Laura of the love which Bandit testifies to him, its dog. It appears in the first episode of the fourth season and in some others which follow. In an episode, one learns that Mrs Oleson repurchased her property at the edge of a lake, Albert and Laura will help it to make flee Oleson by spreading a history of monster residing at the bottom of this lake.

  • Mr. Larabé is one of the strong men of the village, little appreciated because of its foul temper and its bad temperament. It is also one of the richest men of the village with Oleson. A rather large quantity of the grounds of Walnut Grove belong to him. Jonathan and had some contentions to him in the past, which explains why they really do not like. Hateful, Larabé is corroded by hatred. Petty and racist in the heart, it dedicates a disproportionate hatred with the coloured persons and more particularly in Joe Kagan. Not supporting that a black can release profits as many as him, in its exploitation, it took as a traitor his own community while selling with highest offerer, whereas it had called his on his fellow-citizens. This incident had dramatic consequences, since it was translated into lawsuit to have struck Andy Garvey. He will be recognized guilty but finally discharged for lack of evidence concerning the fire of the barn of Garvey. This mishap will in the future more or less draw aside it from the community.

  • Joe Kagan is only the black farmer of Walnut Grove, which attracted to him at the beginnings the lightnings of some of its fellow-citizens who refused his integration in the community (in particular Larabé and Harriet), but thanks to the assistance of Charles and Jonathan, it could take part in the offices and be made accept like a full member. Before becoming farmer, Joe was professional boxer. At the time of an organized match with Walnut Grove, it fought against Charles and fell to ground, probably because of the tiredness and a lack of unquestionable rest. Its convalescence was long and it took the initiative to withdraw world of boxing in order to be established in the area as farmer. It in addition prevented its young person wire from falling into his own trap by separating it from its manager not very scrupulous and interested by the lure of gain. Then Joe bound friendship with Ingalls, it fell in love with Hester Sue, the schoolmistress for blind men for finally marrying it. To note that it is him which against any waiting voted not culprit at the time of the lawsuit of Larabé which had however sworn its death.

  • Hester Sue was the director of one of the two institutes for blind men of Winoka, it was driven out just like Adam and Ingalls proposed to him to come to settle with Walnut Grove in company of Adam, Mary and their pupils. After the departure of Mary and Adam for New York, she will work with Caroline at the restaurant of Oleson.

  • Adam Kendall is the husband of Mary, he taught the Braille to him and managed to leave it his handicap which she refused to accept. Teaching in a school for blind men, it makes the meeting of Mary, fall in love with her and proposes to him to follow it in Winoka. Ingalls hard touched by the crisis and the bankruptcy of their exploitation follow them. Driven out of Winoka and not having more place or outward journey, the inhabitants of Walnut Grove propose on their premises to install them in a large residence bequeathed to the reverend by Lars Hanson of alive sound. The dramatic fire of the institute obliges them to return downtown (Sleepy High) and they is low there which Adam will recover the sight after a beneficial accident nevertheless. After studies of right, he will become lawyer. Being established in Walnut Grove, it will well rather early carry out the lack of customers; understanding that its business would not go, it will definitively leave Walnut Grove in company of Mary, Percival and Nelly to come to be established in New York. Mary and he will have only one child, this last will perish accidentally in the fire of the institute for blind men also involving the disappearance of Alice Garvey.

  • Almonzo Wilder is the husband of Laura, little brother of Elisa Jane, the teacher who will replace Alice; It comes to settle in Walnut Grove and will work for Charles. Laura fall instantaneously in love with him and all will imagine and implement to allure it. Laura and Almonzo will marry and have a girl, Rose.

  • the Casing are the family which succeeds Ingalls in the small house in the meadow, they appear in the last episodes.

Episodes

See also: List of the episodes of the Small house in the meadow

Comments

In France, the series beat all the records of diffusion since 1976. Several actors even were invited in French emissions since 2000, in particular Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson).

See too

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