"GOLD COUNTRY"

[Note from Carol regarding Editing]
Since I do the Episode Reviews, I have been given acces in the Episode Reviews forum to edit, move posts so that all posts regarding an episode stay together. If I post an episode review that has some post already started.... instead of me using the quotes feature... I will just edit the first post of whoever started the thread about that episode to include the pictures of the episodes at the top of the thread. That way, all comments and posts remain in their original form. [End of Carol's Note]


A heavy rain has been falling in Walnut Grove for two months, and it shows no signs of stopping. Farmers like Charles fear that their families will go hungry, and after reading an article in the newspaper, they take a 400-mile journey with their wives and children for a temporary new life in Gold Country. Things start out pretty well when Charles and Isaiah dig up some gold, but Laura and Carl get a completely different perspective from a new friend that they meet near their camp site. Meanwhile, Caroline opens and teaches a school in a tent, right in the middle of town, but it proves to be a less-than-ideal learning environment for everyone.


Not a favorite episode but it is interesting. It was sad to see how greed can affect people. I got really homesick fro Walnut Grove and was so happy towards the end when they are heading home! lol



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(whitelighter491 said....)

Interestingly, this is the first episode in which they start showing Mr. Edwards' drinking as a problem (and ironically, the last we see of the Edwardses for a while). Up until that point, they had been treating his drinking as though it were cute, but it's clear in this episode Grace is getting tired of it and it isn't so cute anymore. It's eerie how this episode foreshadows events to come.

It sort of foreshadows the move to Winoka also. The town in Gold Country kind of reminds me of Winoka, although it's smaller and rowdier. Gold Country also reminds me of a previous episode -- Haunted House, with Laura befriending an old man living alone. I like Gold Country, but it always bugs me how the Edwards family disappears with no explanation and the Garveys mysteriously appear to replace them. I know what happened in real life. Victor French moved on to star in Carter Country, and Merlin Olsen was brought in to fill a similar role. I thought they could have written something into one of the early season 4 scripts to explain what happened to the Edwards family, however.

A couple more things I wonder about with this episode -- 1) Did Charles and Mr. Edwards sell their claims? 2) Did Charles ever come clean with Half-Pint about what really happened to Zachariah?

I think they didn't sell their farm at all. They just closed it until they saw "Gold country" wasn't for them, and returned to Plum Creek.

And we must suppose that when she grew older, Pa told Laura what vreally happened to Zacchariah, since what the show airs ,are supposed to be Laura's childhood an early youth memories, so she must have knew all that is showed in it.

Just my opinion.

Vanesa.

It shows how crazy people are for money.& what they will do.

Some Trivia from this episode:

Steve Shaw (Sam, the boy whose father died) makes his second appearance in season 5, titled The Odyssey. He plays a boy dying of leukemia and his only dream is to see the Pacific Ocean so Laura and Albert help him to get there.

Also, not sure how many noticed, but I read this about the episode and it is true. I thought it was strange how young Laura looked when they were eating lol. Read below.

Major Goof:

As the Ingalls are heading to Gold Country in their covered wagon, we get a brief scene of them eating in the wagon at night, while the rain beats down. Well, guess what? This little scene is taken directly from the pilot movie, which was filmed four years ago! To make it even more obvious, the camera zooms in on the characters, and you can clearly see a very young Mary and Laura, as well as a younger Caroline and Charles, who are wearing clothes that they haven't worn since those very early Little House days (Charles has that infamous cinnamon red shirt that he wore in the pilot, and Caroline has a red shawl that she doesn't have in the rest of this episode). If they were going to recycle this scene, you'd think they would at least know better than to zoom in like that and let the audience notice it!

Not my favorite episode. The funny scene was: Caroline & the girls met the new pastor, in Gold Country town. While Caroline & Pastor is talking. the men in the background starts a riot. Starting fighting with each other. Pastor tells them go inside the church tent. Laura is so thrill to see the fight. It was like Laura wanted to stayed out, see the fight. Like she was telling them, Oh, you guys can go in. I'm going to stayed out her & see the fight.

Must be hard to teach kids school, in town like that. All the shooting & other things going on. I was glad, they left that town.

Carol wrote:

Major Goof:

As the Ingalls are heading to Gold Country in their covered wagon, we get a brief scene of them eating in the wagon at night, while the rain beats down. Well, guess what? This little scene is taken directly from the pilot movie, which was filmed four years ago! To make it even more obvious, the camera zooms in on the characters, and you can clearly see a very young Mary and Laura, as well as a younger Caroline and Charles, who are wearing clothes that they haven't worn since those very early Little House days (Charles has that infamous cinnamon red shirt that he wore in the pilot, and Caroline has a red shawl that she doesn't have in the rest of this episode). If they were going to recycle this scene, you'd think they would at least know better than to zoom in like that and let the audience notice it!

I noticed it! Odd as. Come on Mike you could've done better than that.

I found the Italian guy pretty funny. Pity he got shot. I liked him.

I noticed that as soon as I saw this episode!!!!!!!

They used a lot of the scenes from the Pilot in this one...

Great episode anyway...

I never noticed that.

I've noticed that and found it funny. They also uses tooks of sunrises that are all alike in all nine seasons...

Vanesa.

Carol wrote:

Also, not sure how many noticed, but I read this about the episode and it is true. I thought it was strange how young Laura looked when they were eating lol. Read below.

Major Goof:

As the Ingalls are heading to Gold Country in their covered wagon, we get a brief scene of them eating in the wagon at night, while the rain beats down. Well, guess what? This little scene is taken directly from the pilot movie, which was filmed four years ago! To make it even more obvious, the camera zooms in on the characters, and you can clearly see a very young Mary and Laura, as well as a younger Caroline and Charles, who are wearing clothes that they haven't worn since those very early Little House days (Charles has that infamous cinnamon red shirt that he wore in the pilot, and Caroline has a red shawl that she doesn't have in the rest of this episode). If they were going to recycle this scene, you'd think they would at least know better than to zoom in like that and let the audience notice it!

I've noticed that too.

Carol wrote:

Also, not sure how many noticed, but I read this about the episode and it is true. I thought it was strange how young Laura looked when they were eating lol. Read below.

Major Goof:

As the Ingalls are heading to Gold Country in their covered wagon, we get a brief scene of them eating in the wagon at night, while the rain beats down. Well, guess what? This little scene is taken directly from the pilot movie, which was filmed four years ago! To make it even more obvious, the camera zooms in on the characters, and you can clearly see a very young Mary and Laura, as well as a younger Caroline and Charles, who are wearing clothes that they haven't worn since those very early Little House days (Charles has that infamous cinnamon red shirt that he wore in the pilot, and Caroline has a red shawl that she doesn't have in the rest of this episode). If they were going to recycle this scene, you'd think they would at least know better than to zoom in like that and let the audience notice it!

Did you know they also reuse the same scenes on the Episode where the whole town moves to Winoka in season 5?

The same town you mean?

No, the same travelling scenes in the wagon.

ahhh.They sure re-used a lot of places

I never noticed about the recycled scenes

I have noticed that scene. I don't care much for "Gold Country".

Was it that hard to film the wagon scene now? I know it saves money to recycle, but that seems a bit silly. I suppose though with children, the less shown the better.

That was nothing compared to the stock train scenes.

Some interesting production shots from Gold Country

I never noticed the recycle scences.