Posted 2 hours agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret Down"Little House On The Prairie" Star, Karen Grassle, Reflects On Bringing Television's Most Iconic Mother To LifeFifty years later, Karen Grassle looks back on the magic of Walnut Grove, her incredible co-stars, and the lessons she carries from "Ma."by Andrew FirrioloBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink In 1974, Karen Grassle introduced the world to one of television's most beloved moms, Caroline Ingalls. NBC / NBCUniversal / Via Getty Images Little House captured hearts worldwide with stories of strength, faith, and hope. At the center of it all was Caroline, the strong, steady "Ma," who guided her family through the hardships of the prairie.
Ahead of the cast reunion in Simi Valley, December 12-14, I sat down with Karen to reflect on more than 50 years of Little House, iconic episodes, and how she brought Caroline Ingalls to life.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Filming the pilot episode was a learning experience for Karen. NBC / NBCUniversal / Via Getty Images Karen: I had a lot to learn. I had done some television in New York, but I had not done film, like shooting a movie. I had everything to learn about the technical side of it.
There we were in the boonies outside of Stockton, California. I was very happy because after a few days, Mike [Landon] came to me. He said he'd seen the dailies [raw footage] and that I was doing well - that was like, "Phew, okay!"[Hair stylist] Larry would set my hair and put me under the dryer around 5:30 a.m. Then we would go into the car with Whitey Snyder, the makeup man, and they'd drive us to the location. The crew would set up around 7:30, and we would begin. I was not a morning person, so that was a challenge.
With the pilot, it was just a small cast. We were isolated as a group, and I think that contributed to the "family" feeling of being dependent on each other. I think Mike cast the show so brilliantly. I love the pilot, and I think it portrays the spirit of the Little House on the Prairie books so well. Karen got to watch the Little House kids grow up on set. NBC / NBCUniversal / Via Getty Images Karen: The atmosphere on the set was quite wholesome, in general, whenever the children were present. After we started airing episodes, people would come to pick up their children, and they'd say, "You're such a wonderful mother!" (Laughs) I would say to them, "Yes, but you're taking them home!"I felt that Melissa Gilbert, as Laura Ingalls, was a natural. She had a real feel for the character. She only got better as time went on, which to me showed a real intelligence.
They were so talented. Sometimes kids on TV start to watch their performances, and then they think, "Oh, that was cute," or "That was funny," and try to repeat that. That is not what our kids did. Karen had a fondness for the set and loved filming with the Olesons in the mercantile. NBC / NBCUniversal via Getty Images Karen: I got very at home with the set, because we spent so much time there. We all spent more time there than we did in any other situation, certainly more than at home. I had a fondness for it. I remember there was a huge old oak tree that we would put our chairs under, and catch a little shade. It was our place. In the town, I had many scenes in the mercantile with Scottie MacGregor [Katherine MacGregor, who played Harriet Oleson] and Richard Bull [Nels Oleson], and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. I think the writers had a lot of fun with those "egg" scenes where Mrs. Oleson was trying to get another penny out of me. Karen and Katherine MacGregor connected immediately. NBC / NBCUniversal / Via Getty Images Karen: Scottie [Katherine's stage name] and I hit it off right from the get-go, because she was from the theater too. I was fresh out of New York, and she had not been in Hollywood much more than a year, I think. We both wanted to rehearse - we loved to rehearse. We would run those scenes over and over again so that we would be solid. This way we could trust whatever happened in the moment, without losing our place in the script. That meant so much to me. In television there's not a lot of rehearsal, and they really expected you to come in knowing your stuff and shoot it as fast as possible. Time is money, and it took seven full working days to shoot one episode. That first season, we were already behind because we had difficulty establishing where our location would be built. One place had been chosen, but then there was a lawsuit to keep us out of there.
Finally we did get our location, but we were already under the gun. Post-production takes a long time and, every single week that we shot one episode, we moved closer to our air date. Everybody was under a lot of pressure and worked very, very hard, and I think that also helped us to bond with each other. NBC / NBCUniversal / Via Getty Images Karen: Katherine was just brilliant in the role of Harriet. Her performance was so strong with all those