Season 9 rewrite (updated 7/22/08)

Hey gang,

A while back one of our members--I think maybe Vanesa or Savannah--mentioned she had some ideas to rewrite Season 9. I've lost track of that thread and wondered if there was any interest to take on a project of this magnitude.

Please vote and let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

Cheryl

Thank you for posting this, Bethandmanly. Yes. I have some ideas to re-write this season. My trouble is that my English wouldn't5 be good enough for this task. But if you likes the general ideas I have, I could post them here, anyway...

Vanesa.

Your English will not be a problem, Vanesa. I have friends in Canada who I worked with on a DQ fan fic. Yes, it required some editing, but other than that, it worked out perfectly. Feel free to list your ideas.

What I think I'll do is wait for others to respond and then we can decide if we'll keep any of the episodes from the show (majority rules). And we will decide before any writing is to be done, which characters will be part of WG and which won't. And finally, we'll decide how Season 9 should be written--will each of the writers contribute to each storyline, or will each writer be responsible for a separate story.

Cheryl

Hmm I seem to be one of the very few ones who enjoyed the last season... Sure I didn´t like to see the Little House being taken over by someone else but if it had to be that way I accept it and just enjoy the show for what it can be, if that makes sense

Yes, I think season 9 could stand for a rewrite, but I'd probably only be a reader. I do hope the rewriters will keep Blanche. Just kidding!

ChristinaAL wrote:

I'd love to take part in this project, I think it would be fun. There are lots of changes I'd like to see, and I'm sure everyone else has more great ideas as well. Keep us posted, I'm definitely interested in contributing to the writing if I may :)

I would love to have you on board with this. I'll leave this thread up for a week to see who else wants to participate and then we can go from there.

Cheryl

GrandDuchessOlga wrote:

Hmm I seem to be one of the very few ones who enjoyed the last season... Sure I didn´t like to see the Little House being taken over by someone else but if it had to be that way I accept it and just enjoy the show for what it can be, if that makes sense

It does make sense. A lot of people like Season 9, I just think it stank from a writing perspective. There were a handful of good epsiodes hidden among a majority of silly, lazy storylines that didn't even stay consistent with past events.

And Jes, don't even get me started on that whole Blanche thing. LOL!

Cheryl

Maybe we can rewrite it , but not totally. I mean, we can leave some good episodes and rewrite the rest. I agree that there is some good episodes in Season 9. So; we could keep these few ones and rewrite the others.

One of the good things that LHOTP has is that there is made of unitary episodes, and you may add some more or cut off the stuff you don't like without seeing the whole season ruined...

Vanesa.

How does this work exactly?

I would be willing to give some ideas and write parts of the episodes...

Vanesa wrote:

Maybe we can rewrite it , but not totally. I mean, we can leave some good episodes and rewrite the rest. I agree that there is some good episodes in Season 9. So; we could keep these few ones and rewrite the others.

One of the good things that LHOTP has is that there is made of unitary episodes, and you may add some more or cut off the stuff you don't like without seeing the whole season ruined...

Vanesa.

I agree Vanesa. That’s why I think it’s a good idea for us to figure out which episodes we’ll keep and if there are any we will just pretend didn’t happen. And like you said, we can cut out the parts of episodes we don’t care for or alter the storylines in some way.

Now, that’s not to take away from the wonderfulness of the show. I don’t want anyone getting the impression we think we can do it better than professional TV writers. This project is more about saying “what if” this happened or “what if” this didn’t happen to see where the ideas flow. It’s no different than any other fan fic story from that perspective.

Carol wrote:

How does this work exactly?

I would be willing to give some ideas and write parts of the episodes...

I’ve never done this before, so I’m winging it to see how it turns out. This is how I think things will go.

I will leave this poll up for the next week to see how many people want to participate in some way. Then I will make polls for all the Season 9 episodes to see which ones we will use, not use, or use part of.

This would be my list:

Times Are Changing - keep, but change
Welcome to Olesonville - keep
Rage - keep
Little Lou - toss
The Wild Boy - toss
The Return of Nellie - keep
The Empire Builders - ?
Love - keep
Alden's Dilemma - toss
Marvin's Garden - toss
Sins of the Fathers - toss
The Older Brothers - toss so far it falls off the edge of the earth
Once Upon a Time - keep, but change
Home Again - keep
A Child with No Name - keep
The Last Summer - toss
For the Love of Blanche - toss farther than The Older Brothers
May I Have This Dance? - keep
Hello and Goodbye - toss

This would all be done by majority rules. So, even if I really like an episode, if the majority of people don't want it included, then it's gone.

Then, we would have to decide which characters were part of this version of Walnut Grove. This depends on the epsidodes we've decided to keep. If Times Are Changing is voted out, then do we ever need to introduce Jenny or Royal Wilder? And is it the Carters who move into the little house on Plum Creek, or is it some other family. Keep in mind, this will affect other episodes down the line, so if the Carters are tossed out in the first episode then how will they be part of later episodes like Rage--where John helps Almanzo and the others search for Tom Stark-- or Once Upon a Time--where Jenny travels with her aunt to accept her award.

New characters--which were not part of the show in Season 9 or past residents of WG--can be introduced at any time, but it is up to us to remember they are part of WG and include them in the storylines after they are introduced.

Then we start talking about ideas to use in this new Season 9 and once again the majority will decide.

The last thing we need to decide--I think--is how we will go about writing it. Will multiple writers work on the same episode or will each writer handle one episode each? My suggestion is the latter, as this will be easier overall. The only thing we need to keep in mind is, if we decide that Christina is writing the first episode of Season 9, then the person who is writing episode 2 will need to wait until she has posted her story to make sure they have included all the characters. I don't think all the episodes have be linked, with long story arcs that continue for multiple episodes, but I do think we need to always keep in mind who the residents are and if they will play into the storyline we are writing.

Confused yet? Yes, this is a long process, but I think it is the best way to approach it to keep everything consistent. I am not, however, opposed to any suggestions. This is after all a multi-writer project and I sure don't know everything there is to know about that.

Cheryl

Thinking....thinking.... :think:

This is a very interesting idea, Cheryl. I really enjoyed the Pass along Fanfic, while I had time to participate. The idea of writing a whole episode kind of scares me, but I'm thinking about it!

bethandmanly wrote:

The Older Brothers - toss so far it falls off the edge of the earth

For the Love of Blanche - toss farther than The Older Brothers

:yeahthat:

Sounds interesting Cheryl.....
We'll see how many more people respond....

Yes, but I would only be a reader. I wish I had some writing talent.:unsure: This sounds like alot of fun....:idance:

I agree that we will need to decide what will change about the episodes we keep. Or at least give the author some suggestions about what she "could" change in the episode. I think deciding which characters will be part of Season 9 and which won't will be a big help.

Just as an example, the first epsiode, "Times Are Changing", you'll notice I said, "keep, but change". That's because I hated the fact that Royal came back just to die and had a young daughter instead of his two boys in tow.

What we might discuss is does Royal come back to Walnut Grove and if yes, does he have Millie, Myron, and Rupert with him? Is he the person who buys the little house on Plum Creek instead of the Carters? Do we ignore the character of Jenny Wilder or do we make her the adopted daughter of Royal and Millie? Lots of stuff to start off the beginning of the season. But once we discuss the first episode to death, then the rest of the episodes should be easier to write because we can introduce new characters or bring back past residents of Walnut Grove if we want.

Cheryl

bethandmanly wrote:

What we might discuss is does Royal come back to Walnut Grove and if yes, does he have Millie, Myron, and Rupert with him? Is he the person who buys the little house on Plum Creek instead of the Carters? Do we ignore the character of Jenny Wilder? Cheryl

Yes. Yes. And YES!!!

Ooooh, how I would have liked to have seen your version, Cheryl!

Do I sense a bit of dislike for Jenny? LOL!

Hmm, what was your first clue? :haha:

I don't know, that bolded should we just ignore her comment? LOL!

If we throw Jenny out, that means the episode where she tries to drown herself will be out and that's one of the hightlights of season 9, that you get to see her trying to kill herself. I'm kidding! lol

It's okay if we take her out... I have a neutral feeling about her...

Carol wrote:

If we throw Jenny out, that means the episode where she tries to drown herself will be out and that's one of the hightlights of season 9, that you get to see her trying to kill herself. I'm kidding! lol

We have a bunch of writers who don't like Jenny. This does not bode well for her future.

On the list Cheryl posted, there are a lot of episodes that would be tossed out...
How about doing episodes of the Ingalls and THEIR lives to the new place they went to.... I would have liked to see more of Carrie & Grace and also have them not be so absent from Walnut Grove...

Maybe some of the episodes can mention Albert's involvement w/ bad association that would lead him to take drugs...