# Disasters on TVs Little House on the Prairie cursed by Satan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753 "2009-12-10T19:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/21 "2009-12-11T16:13:28Z")
I recall an ep. in which Almanzo was telling a story about how his dad taught his snotty brother a lesson by making sure Santa didn’t bring him anything for Christmas. I thought this ep. was incredibly mean-spirited. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/22 "2009-12-11T16:29:16Z")
Only son dies in infancy - true. This is not mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, but happened in the gap between _On the Banks of Plum Creek_ and _On the Shores of Silver Lake_. The books are semi-autobiographical historical fiction - they by and large tell the story of Laura’s childhood and adolescence, but many details are changed. Apparently the two years or so “missing” from the story between those two books were so dark for the family that Laura chose not to write about them. Eldest child goes blind - true. Mary lost her sight following a severe childhood illness. This also occured during those “missing” years, but unlike the death of Laura’s only brother, it is described at the beginning of _Silver Lake_ and becomes an important part of the story. Wheat crop destroyed by storm - The Ingalls family lost a wheat crop to locusts in the years described in _Plum Creek_, at a particularly bad time for the family. I believe Laura and Almanzo lost a crop to a storm in the unfinished manuscript of _The First Four Years_. Both locusts and severe storms were common problems on the prairies at the time, and farmers lost crops to one or the other with depressing frequency. School childern released into a blizzard - true. In _The Long Winter,_ the children are in the school building when a blizzard strikes unexpectedly. The school was not well-built and stood on its own, without the protection of other buildings around it, so the teacher decides to take the risk of getting the kids to safety rather than face the certainty of everyone freezing to death in the school. Incidentally, less than a decade after this event, [the so-called Schoolhouse Blizzard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard) trapped children in a similar situation in towns all over the northern plains states. The other things you mentioned are inventions of the TV writers. Though the Ingallses lost their only son, they never adopted a boy, formally or informally. Mary did go to a school for the blind, but it was in another state (Iowa) and did not have to be moved to the Ingallses’ home town following, erm, whatever disaster the TV writers created to cause the blind school to move to the Ingallses’ home town. (By that time they were living in De Smet, not Walnut Grove.) And as was the usual thing for blind girls, when she returned from school, she lived with her parents and later her sisters, never marrying or having children. In spite of her childhood dreams, she never got to be a teacher, either. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/23 "2009-12-11T16:40:01Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Jessie James invades the blind school That was the one with Sandra Bullock, right? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/24 "2009-12-11T16:48:16Z")
So where in the books was somebody raped by a clown? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/25 "2009-12-11T17:57:18Z")
You can say what you want about Walnut Grove, but at least the Angel of Death doesn’t follow the people around like it does Jessica Fletcher. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/26 "2009-12-11T18:14:21Z")
Or Adrian Monk, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/27 "2009-12-11T18:16:36Z")
I can’t believe no one mentioned the one that scared me, and eventually made me stop watching. 'Til this, I thought I was watching a historical drama, and was actually learning US history. Hey, I was 10, alright. The girls go swimming with their friends. The boys go to spy on them. Carrie catches them, and alerts the girls. They dive underwater to hide. And one girl doesn’t come up. Now so far, that’s par for the course for LHotP. Something horrible happens, when you least expect it, from the most innocent of circumstances, and everyone is saddened. Also, no penalty for the boys, just like the other one Albert burning up the blind school and killing Mary’s baby. No, the twisted part is the mother of the dead girl, after going through at least some facsimile of typical morning, totally cracks, kidnaps Laura, imprisons her in her house, and makes believe Laura is her daughter, to the point of buying an expensive china doll for her daughter. When everyone in Olsen’s store knows she no longer has one. It took me a while, but it eventually sunk in – wait a minute, this isn’t historical fiction, this is just a typical afternoon soap opera plot, shown one night a week, in period dress. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/28 "2009-12-11T18:24:36Z")
I recall reading an interview with a person involved with a show that was on opposite LHOTP, and he joked that every time his show started to win in the ratings, LHOTP would blind another child. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/29 "2009-12-11T18:41:00Z")
I remember an episode when Laura is grown and married to Almanzo and they have a little daughter - Rose, I guess? She was being terrorized by some crazy guy who thought that Laura was his no good whorish daughter and kept threatening to shoot her and take her daughter. At the end, just when Laura gets through to him and he comes to his senses he gets blown away by the Sheriff. I doubt this was true in real life, but it was a hell of an episode. OK, maybe Arkcon thinks it’s the Mom, but it’s the Dad? I’m sure it was the Dad. The last episode after they blew up the town - :eek: Best ever series finale. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/30 "2009-12-11T19:42:22Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I recall reading an interview with a person involved with a show that was on opposite LHOTP, and he joked that every time his show started to win in the ratings, LHOTP would blind another child. Yeah, that was Hugh Wilson of WKRP. They took a dig at LH on an episode, too. Herb’s wife says her family never misses an episode of LHOTP: “Every week they have a fire! Or someone gets an incurable disease!” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/31 "2009-12-11T19:49:27Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > No, the twisted part is the mother of the dead girl, after going through at least some facsimile of typical morning, totally cracks, kidnaps Laura, imprisons her in her house, and makes believe Laura is her daughter, to the point of buying an expensive china doll for her daughter. When everyone in Olsen’s store knows she no longer has one. There was a similar episode of the Waltons that scared the crap out of me as a kid. Mary Ellen was pregnant (this was after her husband got drafted or volunteered for the war or something) and near her due date. So was one of their neighbors on the mountain. But the neighbor miscarried or the baby was stillborn or something. After Mary Ellen had the baby, this neighbor woman started obsessing over it and eventually kidnapped it…the episode was REALLY dark and my 8 or 9 year-old self couldn’t let it go. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/32 "2009-12-11T20:29:41Z")
Didn’t she mutter some phrase, “Look upon the face of death, never feel your baby’s breath?” She said she saw a dead bird and after that miscarried her baby. God, the stuff we remember from childhood. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/33 "2009-12-11T20:44:10Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Didn’t she mutter some phrase, “Look upon the face of death, never feel your baby’s breath?” She said she saw a dead bird and after that miscarried her baby. > > God, the stuff we remember from childhood. Oh, geez…I do kind of remember a dead bird somewhere in the ep. I didn’t until you posted that, of course, but I do now. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/34 "2009-12-11T20:55:54Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > So where in the books was somebody raped by a clown? 🙂 You know, I had a vague recollection of this, and thought about posting about it, but I wasn’t sure if I was remembering correctly. That episode was just plain scary. I was barely old enough to understand what had happened. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/35 "2009-12-12T04:05:42Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, god, I remember this one! Pa and the girls are in Sleepy Eye or something and Ma’s leg was infected and purple and swelled up, and she’s sitting in the house with the Bible, a bottle of booze and a HUGE KNIFE, reading the “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. If your leg offend thee, cut it off” verses…scaaaary for a kid. I remember this one! I had an absolute terror of amputation when I was a kid (still do, to a certain extent), and this episode freaked me out completely. In fact, I don’t remember watching beyond this scene–the episode or the series. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/36 "2009-12-12T04:54:48Z")
> [@moonstarssun](#): > > I remember this one! I had an absolute terror of amputation when I was a kid Christ, I’m glad a watched _Star Trek_ reruns instead…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pigs\_in\_Space](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@Pigs\_in\_Space](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pigs_in_Space)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/37 "2009-12-12T06:21:18Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > You can say what you want about Walnut Grove, but at least the Angel of Death doesn’t follow the people around like it does Jessica Fletcher. Don’t you know, Jessica Fletcher is a serial killer who goes around blaming others for her crimes. She’s so good, sometimes they even start to believe themselves. Brings a whole new spin to the series. Also, I remember being freaked out by the infected leg episode, too. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753/38 "2009-12-12T21:30:51Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Actually, passing kids around was far from uncommon, there was no welfare system. Adults were free to starve themselves but children were frequently taken away and passed out to other parts of their family or to families that had the space. My family includes a subfamily that isn’t actually related to us, my great great grandfather [mothers side] got one of a set of kids taken away from a local townie that was pretty inept. Couldn’t keep a job because of drinking, and he finally drove the wife away by abusing her. No other of their kin in the area, so they parcelled out the kids and told him to be out of town by dark. All informal, no paperwork or anything, but not uncommon. [1892, for what it is worth] > > Kids would be taken away and put into orphanages in cities and towns that were large enough to have them. I think ggUncle Raymond had it a heck of a lot better than many, there were 7 other kids to play and share chores with. And he got to finish 10 years of schooling, and get sent to college for accounting. I know passing around kids in those ways were normal, but I’m talking about a situation like the Boasts/Wilders or the Starrs/Ingalls. A normal family who has a child or several children gives one to a childless family so they can have a child. It’s kinda like modern-day surrogacy! On a different note, did you know that in real life Willie Oleson (actually Willie Owens) went blind after an explosion from playing with firecrackers? There is a tragedy they never used on the show! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-on-tvs-little-house-on-the-prairie-cursed-by-satan/520753.md?page=1)