Michael's Double

Wow. He almost look like Michael Landon.

They did, but I have to say in the Pilot, you can tell it isn't Michael diving into the water.

bethandmanly wrote:

They did, but I have to say in the Pilot, you can tell it isn't Michael diving into the water.

Sure you can, along with many other faraway shots, but 99% of the people that watched never knew the difference.........

He also played an
Indian brave and a soldier in the pilot besides doubling for Mike..........

Judo Gene LeBell, who was a professional wrestler in the 50's and 60's was also a stuntman on Little House...........

I heard he gave some nice Xmas gifts. I think they got the hair right!
I never understood how Cindy Clerico stood in for Mary...she was blonde like Mary's, but not her size, maybe she didn't need to do it often or it was for far away scenes.

There are times I can tell when Michael isn't driving the wagon because of the rim of the hat was folded up.

I wander who Melissa Gilbert's stunt double was in The Hunters.

This article from a Bonanza forum talks of how Michael was then with food and money and how he started writing:

http://ponderosascenery.homestead.com/files/library/tvarticle15.html

I enjoyed this bio also, his personal life was bit much, especially early on, but his work I'll always love.

http://ponderosascenery.homestead.com/files/castbios/joe.html

Thanks for those links, Prairie Girl. I really appreciated to knew more about Michael Landon's early career.

As for the "double" thing, I never could tell when he was doing this or that inestead of Michael...But maybe because I never paid REALLY close attention to the fact that Landon MUST have a double for dangerous takes. When I was younger, I supposed that Michael played ALL Pa parts...

Vanesa.

They had a pretty extensive bio, I liked reading about how he started to write, how he went from quick scenes, acting with few words to more and more dialogue and time on screen.
I also saw they mentioned how he wrote, "To Dream a Dream" which he repeated in part on LHOP. I don't remember seeing it but "The Hunter" on Bonanza sounded very dark that he wrote about a deranged man hunting people for prey...they had a Criminal Minds almost identical to that! (scary) I'm glad THAT wasn't brought over to LHOP.

I also found the thoughts that Mr. Garvey might have been like "Hoss" on Bonanza , someone familiar to Michael, I know he missed him a lot. He was big and simple but Hoss was bright in many ways. I don't think Mr. Garvey had the same appeal.
It said while he had a falling-out with Victor French for 2 years, he filled the void and then in 5 minutes they made up and Mr. Edwards returned and Mr. Garvey left. Money seemed to be an issue with a few cast members but their friendship was stronger than their argument.

I haven't watched Bonanza much over the years but I will check out certain episodes that were similar to LHOP especially "To Dream a Dream."

wow