Alison Arngrim portrayed the evil Nellie Oleson for 7 seasons (1974-82) on NBC's beloved family drama LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Nellie became the prototype for nasty, bratty children on television shows throughout the years. Nellie was truly a character that you loved to hate!
Not a bad looking man.
I'm rewatching the show for the first time since my childhood and I'm on Season 5 now. I totally get why they wrote Albert in as a permanent character. His actor is really good and convincing (his line delivery is just spot on lol) he has an adorable face and I think Albert adds a fresh angle, he grew up differently than the other kids, has different morals (being okay with cheating Pa and Jonathan, lying about being an orphan to get a dinner and warm bed with Andy), and learns a lot through the others while also teaching them a thing or two (telling Andy he won't fight him because they're friends and writing bad grades on purpose to make Andy feel better! so cute)
I know there's people who don't like him/him being added, but the show is already very far removed from the real life of the Ingalls family that it's a change I don't mind. It's also obvious even through their on screen interactions that Michael Landon really must've liked Albert's actor, it makes for a good father-son chemistry in the show.
(Of course it's also obvious that it serves Michael Landon's Christian interest of having Pa teach a poor orphaned boy about God and lead him to live a honest faithful life... but that kinda comes with the show lol.)
David Rose is one of my favorite TV composers. He scored Little House but the popular western, Bonanza before it. He took a composed cue from a 1971 episode, "Top Hand", slightly reharmonized and gave it a steady uplifting beat to introduce Little House on the Prairie. Here it is in its original form on Bonanza:
https://youtu.be/TfblInpD18E?si=hr5O1CfTP79F72kN
When people say Star Wars wouldn't be Star Wars without John Williams, David Rose gives Little House the same orchestral identity. Rose is Little House. The brass fanfare makes heroes out of those pioneers, the strings pull at our emotions like a Romantic symphony, the woodwinds add various emotions from humor to sorrow, and the percussion adds small accents of action to all of this orchestrated music.
It's incredible how much music he could write at such a fast pace. This style of writing might now been seen as antiquated in favor of a rhythmic percussive track, augmented by mostly computer generated orchestral sounds.
There are so many reasons to like Little House. Another shout out for composers, live musicians, and David Rose, who got his inspiration from his own writing from Bonanza.
