annabelle

I love this one as well! It's always good to get the backround on the Characters.

Harrietfan wrote:

I love this one as well! It's always good to get the backround on the Characters.

Yes,sure is

I just saw this.....it was sad.

I'm watching it now...Harriet could be so rude. What I don't understand, and again, this might be because it's a show and not real life, how did they not know much about each other? Wouldn't Harriet know her husband had a sister? But then again, without photos, etc. maybe not. Just seemed so" not like Nels"..I didn't think he was so ashamed of her weight but that she was in the circus. I think for some, that makes it a side-show and more embarassing. I liked the ending though.

They addressed weight a few times on the show, with Annabelle, the father in Winoka (The Man Inside) episode, the one where Harriet was trying to lose weight and then her relative was heavier than she was when she arrived There was also the "Elmer" episode with Nancy being awful.

Did Laura deliberatly not sew Amonzo's date Christy's dress well? It seemed she just basted it. That was not nice since she was going to take money for it if she hadn't told her she was only going to give her half. After the chicken episode it seemed to make her seem more like a child in her thoughts.

littlehouselover wrote:

I'm watching it now...Harriet could be so rude. What I don't understand, and again, this might be because it's a show and not real life, how did they not know much about each other? Wouldn't Harriet know her husband had a sister? But then again, without photos, etc. maybe not. Just seemed so" not like Nels"..I didn't think he was so ashamed of her weight but that she was in the circus. I think for some, that makes it a side-show and more embarassing. I liked the ending though.

I think it was much easier to hide back then. If Nels didn’t talk about her at all, the only way Harriet would have known is if his mother told her—which is possible, but since in Season 9 we find out that Nels's mother was opposed to the marriage, she might not have spoken much to Harriet. The way this episode seemed to me was that Nels was always ashamed of her weight. I think Annabelle says something to Nels about how he would get up early just so he wouldn’t have to walk to school with her.

littlehouselover wrote:

Did Laura deliberatly not sew Amonzo's date Christy's dress well? It seemed she just basted it. That was not nice since she was going to take money for it if she hadn't told her she was only going to give her half. After the chicken episode it seemed to make her seem more like a child in her thoughts.

Yep, she didn’t sew it. That naughty, feisty girl. I thought that was so immature of her, but Christie had it coming. She was almost worse than Nellie in the way she treated Laura.

I agree, hated those types, still do, although they never seem very happy (hard being mean all the time) : )
But when you say you will do a job for someone and for pay, you should do it well either way. She was jealous Almonzo asked her but this was the same as the chicken incident. She says she's sorry all the time but repeats the same behavior. She was going to take the money until mean Christy said only half because she was 5 minutes late. I can't see her mother condoning that behavior. (even if it was funny)
Nellie did get her back with the teachers exam although the writers gave Laura a bit of a mental block in trusting her over the teacher..but not totally unbelievable. I didn't think Nellie was right but after what Laura did (and Almonzo never would have dated Nellie) it was tit for tat, something Nellie would do. For someone that kept saying she was a grown woman, they didn't give her many mature moments, she kept the jealousy even after marriage.
I remember they showed Caroline looking at her sewing when she went to apologize to Albert, but I don't know if that was for a reason, she didn't say anything.
You're correct about Annabelle, I remember that now, he was ashamed and I felt you could read his emotions so well..I liked this show, circus parts weren't edited well, but it was different and fun.

This episode was really sad ... poor Annabelle. But an happy ending! :D

In an interview Richard Bull (Nell's) said although the fans loved this episode, he also thought it wasn't like Nels, just didn't seem to be his personality, but at the end, he is redeemed.

I agree with that. Nels was always so compassionate. But we sometimes treat our siblings differently than we do everyone else.

That is true, many wives and husbands also hear how "wonderful" their spouses are and they aren't always as nice as home.

I just discovered that Christie (Almonzo's date) was played by Wendy Schaal - voice of Francine Smith in American Dad.

I love from epi to epi how the value of money changes. A few epis before this one, Laura and Albert make $50+ selling honey/hive to Mrs. Oleson. In this epi they make a nickel and a ticket to the circus for working as slave labor for two or three days.

Another episode where Laura is mean and vindictive. Totally unlikeable.

The latex party balloons at the circus where a little out of place. While balloons of some sort were available around this time, this type probably was not. I only bring it up since I believe there was a reference in one of the books to playing with an inflated animal bladder. If you could get balloons why play with an inflated animal bladder?

I may go to my butcher and ask for a pig's bladder. They sound like they're great fun to play with!

Can you imagine a kid in today's world playing with pig parts instead of store-bought toys?

There still is a love of "old fashioned" toys, although they charge a lot now for them. I think if kids played with yo-yos, lincoln logs, lots of hands-on toys we played with and LESS computer games, they would fare better. Using your hands to make things, works more than your thumbs. ; )

I also think that Laura should not have done what she did to Christy. Throwing water on her was bad enough, but I think it would have been extremely embarrassing and even worse in that time period for her to then have her dress fall apart and appear in her "bloomers" like that. Yeah, Christy was a hoity-toity character, but you could already tell Almanzo was having a blast at the circus and didn't even really care anything about Christy. This whole thing Laura did could have completely backfired on Laura. What if Almanzo then went after Christy to comfort her or something? And also I think Christy would have figured out that Laura did a poor job on the dress, and Almanzo knew Laura was making a dress for Christy so if he believed she purposely did give Christy a damaged dress after he already knew Laura purposely put the pepper on the chicken, I think this would give him a very bad impression of Laura. She seems so vindictive this season. I guess that is what jealousy does to a person. But I would prefer that she just keep her jealousy to herself and set about trying to prove she is really a woman by acting more mature.

I do love the parts with Nels and Annabelle, though. I think it was neat that even Nellie and Willie were clapping at the end when Nels announced that Annabelle is his sister. I hope that they had a brief chance to get to know her a bit before the circus had to leave town. I also thought it was nice of Annabelle to go over to the blind school and talk with the kids there.

The relationship and romance of Almanzo and Laura were total "Hollywood" in Michael Landon's LHOTP, and he did seem to go overboard with it at times. Girls....women knew their place in society during that era and chasing after a man was not part of it. ML seemed to make it more like a soap opera when it could've been a wonderful story had they followed the real story of Almanzo and Laura...Laura was interested in Cap Garland; a character that was never introduced into the TV series, and Almanzo being 10 years older than her, made her pretty much keep away from him. He was interested in her and was the one to pursue her, not anything like the TV series did. Almanzo and his brother, Royal lived together in a small cabin on land they were trying to claim, not Almanzo and sister, Liza Jane in a nice house on the outskirts of town. It was Royal and Almanzo that went to find food and much-needed supplies for the people who were snowbound and had many hardships because of the long winter. I think I would've been much more interested in those stories than the ones we got through the eyes of Hollywood...Don't get me wrong, I love ALL the Little House on the Prairie shows, movies, books, etc...I just really liked the first few in season one of ML's LH since those were close to Laura's life and books...

Yes, I love the romance of Almanzo and Laura in the Little House books! They could have adapted things to the setting of Walnut Grove if they wanted to keep things happening in the same location throughout most of the series. They could have been snowed in and had a "Long Winter" in Walnut Grove and Almanzo and Royal could have saved the day. And introducing the character of Cap could have been a good device as well. Also in the books Eliza Jane was mean especially to Carrie. I've always wondered about how Almanzo's family in real life may have felt having one of their family members portrayed in the book like that and wonder how true-to-life that was.

amyk wrote:

Also in the books Eliza Jane was mean especially to Carrie. I've always wondered about how Almanzo's family in real life may have felt having one of their family members portrayed in the book like that and wonder how true-to-life that was.

It amazes me how cruel Eliza Jane was to Carrie, and yet, Laura allowed Rose to live with her Aunt for quite a while. I would be worried every day at how Rose would be treated since she saw firsthand how Carrie was treated. There really could've been some entertaining stories had ML followed more from the books...