Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Very Different Little House on the Prairie Blog



I've tossed around discussing this topic for at least a month because I wasn't sure of the reaction I would get, but there are moments when I find myself reading this blog that keeps popping up in my Google Alerts.

In January, Mike McComb started a blog titled WTF Little House on the Prairie?--which not surprisingly takes a very critical, mostly humorous, and sometimes vulgar look at Little House episodes.

As a writer I firmly believe in freedom of speech, though there are many things out there that I believe are better not said; but what I find interesting about McComb is that he is waiting to start his Masters Program in Television, Radio and Film at Syracuse University. So, McComb has an interest in this media, which makes me curious over how he views things--even if I don't agree with him.

Here is one of McComb's milder comments about the episode Goodbye, Mrs. Wilder. This is the first morning after the new dress code has been installed by Mrs. Oleson, who is now the teacher:

"The next day at school all the kids are in uniforms: the boys looking like bored waiters at the Olive Garden and the girls ready to audition for Pirates of Penzance."

Now, I have to admit, that makes me chuckle.

There are other not so nice comments--which I will spare you from--but McComb obviously has some knowledge of Little House in order to write such detailed impressions of these episodes. And, at least in my mind, we are talking television, not real life. As most Little House fans are aware, there has been an ongoing controversy over how much Michael Landon and his staff departed from the content of the books, and if anything, McComb is poking fun at the television creation, not Laura's legacy.

Feel free to throw virtual tomatoes my way for drawing attention to McComb's blog. I can't help but browse through it every once in a while to read his critique of my all-time favorite show.

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