Inconsistencies

Season 5, episode 23: Doctor Baker says anthrax isn't contagious in the same way as smallpox so people can help their sick relatives. Then he tells Charles and Jonathan not to touch the sick sheep barehanded because they could pick it up that way. Why could people get anthrax by touching the sick sheep barehanded and not by touching the sick people barehanded?

Season 6, episode 1: Laura calls Albert "Little Lord Fauntleroy." Little Lord Fauntleroy was not published until 1886. They can't be up to 1886 here unless they have done another three-year forward skip.

Season 6, episode 2: Charles claims he was out of school at age 12 working to support his family as "man of the family." This makes no sense as he has a father and older brother still living when he is an adult. There could be an explanation but it is not given.

Season 6, episode 4: Caroline stops the wagon, puts on the brake, picks up a letter, and then starts the wagon with the brake still on.

Season 6, episode 7: in the chase scene where Albert has fainted while holding the reins, the fake reins he is holding can be seen along with a second set of reins which is actually controlling the horses.

Season 6, episode 8: the type of box springs on Mr. Edwards's bed wouldn't have been available on the frontier in the 1880s. The electric chair was conceived of in 1881 but not used until 1889.

Season 6, episode 10: Doc Baker is uncertain of an appendicitis diagnosis and insists a young boy seek help from a surgeon, while in Season 1 he made a definite diagnosis on Mrs. Oleson and performed the operation himself. It's possible every case is different. This has happened to me and my sister. We both went to the ER different times presenting some, but not all, symptoms of appendicitis. After being there half the night, I was told to get out or be charged with trespassing. My clothes had already been removed before being put into the ambulance and it was very uncomfortable. I was 30 miles from home, with no car and wearing only a hospital gown in the early hours of the morning. My sister was also turned away. It turned out she really did have appendicitis, which I also may have had but had to recover on my own, so the appendix doesn't burst in every case. Or in this case it could have been Mrs. Oleson so who cares?

Season 6, episode 15: In Season 6, episode 2, Charles claims he was out of school at age 12 to support his family as "man of the family." He must not have been out long, because in Season 6, episode 15 he attends a reunion for the Class of 1856 in which he seems to have graduated. Since this is a 25-year reunion, the year here is identified as 1881.

Season 6, episode 22:  The Ingalls seem to have forgotten the death of their first and only grandchild just a few episodes earlier.  In fact, they seem to have forgotten his very existence.  When Laura tells Ma that the teacher she is subbing for smokes a pipe, Ma laughs.  One would think a pipe would be a sore subject as one caused the death of little Adam Jr. but maybe not as Pa still smokes a pipe (he is seen picking up tobacco in the previous episode).  More troubling is that in discussing Laura and Almanzo potentially getting together they laugh about possibly becoming grandparents--apparently heartlessly forgetting that they were in fact grandparents until a tragedy took little Adam.

Previously Pa allowed Mary to get engaged at 13 with a promise of marrying at 15. Now he is just allowing Laura to date at 16 and saying she can't marry until 18.

Season 6, episode 24: Is Nellie's and Percival's marriage legal? Marriages can be performed by ordained clergy, a justice of the peace, or the captain of a ship, but is a doctor qualified if he is not also one of these other things?

Season 7, episodes 1 and 2:  flat disc-shaped records were not invented until 1890.  Previously recordings were on cylinders.  The term Victrola was first marketed in 1906.  As for when it would have been socially acceptable for Nellie to discuss her pregnancy symptoms in mixed company (to a man and his unmarried date) and for the young couple to be kissing on the stagecoach, who knows, but certainly not in the early 1880s even with the laxer rules on the frontier.

Since Laura gets married in the second of these episodes, they must now be up to 1885.

Season 7, episode 6: This is the first episode which didn't just have a few inaccuracies but was so unbelievable it was painful to watch in places. The idea that a person who went almost totally blind at a very young age could paint such realistic landscapes beggars belief. All of the actors did the best possible job they could with this material (written by Michael Landon himself).

Although not mentioned by name, Vincent Van Gogh cutting off his ear is referenced. How many other artists cut off their ears? That didn't happen until December 23, 1888. Since Laura was married on August 25, 1885 and this is only a couple of episodes later it should still be 1885.

Season 7, episode 7: the picture window Charles was putting in was broken and he closed the shutters until he could replace it, yet an outside shot shows the shutters open and the old window in place.

Season 7, episode 8: Albert's pen pal claims she was the captain of the basketball team. Basketball was invented in 1891 and girls' teams doubtless came later. It should still be around the fall of 1885 here. She also claims to have danced in "Swan Lake." Although "Swan Lake" was first performed in Russia in 1877, it was not performed in America until 1940.