I've been watching/listening to the Little House on the Prairie 50 Podcast--which seems to be on hiatus as cast appearances have ramped up--and a GenX podcast that is now defunct. Both podcasts discussed character matches where there were age differences between the actors and how that wouldn't happen today.
Let's take a peek at a few of these matches.
Dean Butler and Melissa Gilbert
Dean Butler and Melissa Gilbert have spoken about the challenges of working alongside each other on Little House on the Prairie in their memoirs. Gilbert expected they would cast one of her contemporaries. Butler's Almanzo was romancing a character several years his junior, played by an actor who was eight years younger than him and hadn't started dating yet. While everyone has stated they felt safe on the Little House set, not sure how eager casting directors would be these days to have a minor and an adult courting.
Alison Arngrim and Bob Marsic
Alison Argrim, who played the girl we all loved to hate, Nellie Oleson, had an episode where she was also paired with an adult actor who played her romantic lead. Bob Marsic portrayed Luke Simms in the episode, "Here Come the Brides." Luke and his father are pig farmers who have moved to Walnut Grove. Luke starts school, and Nellie is instantly taken with him. Despite Harriet's objections, a budding romance ensues, ending in Luke and Nellie running off to get married. Luckily, Harriet and Nels find them and make the justice of the peace void their marriage. Marsic was 22 in this episode. Arngrim talks about how she was 15 at the time, and Nellie was supposed to be 13. I always liked how they handled this episode because it is the first time Nellie falls in love. You can read an article where the actors talk about this episode here.
Mitch Vogel portrayed Johnny Johnson in two Season 1 episodes: "The Love of Johnny Johnson" and "To See the World." Johnny is a historical figure who knew the real Ingalls family and helped them on the farm. In Little House on the Prairie, he is a new boy at the Walnut Grove school. In "The Love of Johnny Johnson," Laura develops a crush on him, but Johnny only has eyes for Mary. Vogel was 18 at the time. Gilbert was 10, and Anderson was 12. This storyline and the actor/character ages seemed totally plausible to me, and since it was a schoolgirl crush, there really wasn't a romantic element to it. The episode focused more on how it divided the two oldest Ingalls sisters. Side note: Michael Landon and Vogel worked on Bonanza together.
Linwood Boomer and Melissa Sue Anderson
Linwood Boomer was 23 years old when he portrayed Adam Kendall, the teacher Mary Ingalls meets while she is studying at school for the blind in Season 4. Mary was almost 16 at the time. She would celebrate her sixteenth birthday in Winoka, where she and Adam had gone to open a new blind school. Anderson was 16 in the first episode where Adam appears, "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away." Anderson has spoken fondly of acting alongside Boomer in interviews.
As a Gen Xer, I honestly thought nothing of the ages of the characters and actors when I watched the original run of Little House on the Prairie. How the stories tugged at the heartstrings was what I focused on. Having loved the show all these years, I can't imagine other actors in these roles. Did you pick up on that during the show's original run, or did it come to mind later in reruns? As the actors have stated, they all felt safe on the set. They speak about how there were tons of kids on set, so the adults really looked after them.
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