@northcoast said:

Long time Little House on the Prairie fan here; I grew up watching this in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then, after a long hiatus, I began watching it again on the COZI TV network (although they only purchased rights to the first seven seasons, and the episodes are cut because of the longer running times of 1970s shows).

I know there is an ongoing debate about which show was better-- LHONP or The Waltons --but for me it has always been Little House.

I preferred watching this show to "The Waltons".

On various film boards, people like to criticize the acting abilities of child actors, but, overall, I think most of the child actors on this show-- not just the major characters but many of the minor ones as well --did an excellent job portraying a range of emotions.

No doubt, the child actors were wonderful in their roles.

One thing I noticed on re-watching Little House on the Prairie-- it seems like poor Melissa Gilbert, as Laura Ingalls, cries in just about every episode! That must have been tough on the actress. I'm sure she knew many tricks to make it easier after awhile, but still . . . that's a lot of crying.

About the crying, here's an excerpt from the article 40 Of The Most Kept Secrets From Little House On The Prairie:

"Baby Stop Crying"

As an actor you have to be really connected with your emotions in order to get yourself to tear or cry for a role you’re playing. As a child it’s a little bit harder to do, and Landon found a really sweet technique to make this work is one of the kids had a scene which involved crying – the actor would turn to them with tears in his own eyes, and used to ask: “Do you know how much I love you”. This question automotacially turned on the tearing fountains.

Today, May 8, is Melissa Gilbert's birthday

I find the Waltons to be one of the most unrealistic portrayals ever on TV. I don't quite understand the accolades it gets. For instance, The Waltons are supposedly a poor family living in the mountains of Virginia during the depression. Yet their house has electricity, running water and plumbing. That in itself was extremely unlikely for the time period. But I digress.

I love Little House. I do think the original set of kids were great actors. My observation of Melissa Gilbert's acting though is that it seemed to get worse as she aged. I don't know if she was simply over the part, but I don't feel her acting improved as she got older.

@NorthernLad said:

I find the Waltons to be one of the most unrealistic portrayals ever on TV. I don't quite understand the accolades it gets. For instance, The Waltons are supposedly a poor family living in the mountains of Virginia during the depression. Yet their house has electricity, running water and plumbing. That in itself was extremely unlikely for the time period. But I digress.

I love Little House. I do think the original set of kids were great actors. My observation of Melissa Gilbert's acting though is that it seemed to get worse as she aged. I don't know if she was simply over the part, but I don't feel her acting improved as she got older.

I liked Melissa as half-pint Laura. Later, as an adult, Melissa still seemed to be a half-pint acting as a grown-up.

I watched both series back during the years of their original runs, enjoyed both, but absolutely was more of a fan of, and far more enjoyed, LHotP than The Waltons.

I always thought the former's child actors did either a good or excellent job (depended on the kid), but thought the Nasty Nellie character and her depicter (Alison Arngrim) was way too OTT, stereotypical, and not believable.

PS: I had a longterm crush on beautiful Melissa Sue Anderson, and was a fan of her Mary. Meanwhile, Melissa Gilbert, as 'Half Pint', was thoroughly adorable and endearing, always doing a terrific job.

@NorthernLad, hello, and nice to see you again!

@wonder2wonder said:

I liked Melissa as half-pint Laura. Later, as an adult, Melissa still seemed to be a half-pint acting as a grown-up.

She sure did star in no end of made-for-tv movies back in the day, for quite a few years after LHotP ended. I was a fan of MG, so watched either most or all of those movies (yet no longer am today able to recall a single one of them).