Little House on the Prairie

Subject: Six Degrees of LHotP Wed May 07, 2008 7:03 pm

Coach Jon's reference to the TV show Growing Pains in the Season 8 Showdown thread reminded me of something that has occurred to me on occasion. You may have heard of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" -- the idea that any actor can be connected to Kevin Bacon in six or fewer steps. In the same spirit, I have an unproven "six degrees of LHotP" theory, i.e. any TV show can be connected to LHotP in six or fewer steps. Let's try it with Growing Pains. Kirk Cameron starred in Growing Pains. He's the sister of Candice Cameron, who starred in Full House, as did the Olsen twins, who guest starred in one episode of 7th Heaven, as did Melissa Gilbert (although a different episode). So there you have it -- only three degrees of separation between Growing Pains and LHotP, with Full House and 7th Heaven in between.
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Subject: Re: Six Degrees of LHotP Thu May 08, 2008 3:43 am

Cool idea.

I'll do an easy one for now.

"All in the Family" --- guest starred James Cromwell on occasion as Stretch, who also guest starred as Harve Miller on Little House on the Prairie. Cool

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"Only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."

Subject: Re: Six Degrees of LHotP Fri May 09, 2008 6:44 pm

Wow, it's amazing that I never realized that Stretch Cunningham and Harve Miller were played by the same actor. I just looked up James Cromwell's entry on IMDB, and I see that he has guest starred in lots of TV shows I've watched at one time or another, including Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise, Night Court, Magnum P.I., Hunter, ER, Maude, M*A*S*H, Diff'rent Strokes, and Home Improvement.

There have been at least two other instances of LHotP stars or guest stars that I didn't recognize from other roles until I read about them later -- Bonnie Bartlett, who played Dr. Craig's wife on St. Elsewhere (she also guest starred on Home Improvement, ER, L.A. Law, Golden Girls, and many other shows), and Peter Billingsley (Gideon from "No Beast So Fierce"), best known as Ralphie from A Christmas Story.
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