Little House on the Prairie is an absolute classic and is still one of the most popular series ever. Stars included Michael Landon as "Charles Ingalls" and Melissa Gilbert as his daughter "Laura."
Gilbert began on the series at age 9, so she has tons of memories from the show. One surprising story is that Landon once brought her to tears on set — albeit unintentionally. But it left a lasting impression on Gilbert.
Little House: Why Michael Landon made Melissa Gilbert cry
The Little House actress revealed on her podcast Gilbert and Busfield—which she shares with husband Timothy Busfield—that she had an important experience with Landon. She recalled a day when she couldn't remember her lines.
"I got in so much trouble for not knowing my lines once," she said, per Cheatsheet. "We were doing the episode where we were trying to sell the medicines to buy a bible for Rev. Alden.
"I was going to do a scene with Melissa Sue or with Mike, but I didn't know my dialogue. (...) I just was playing and doing stuff and didn't get around to it," she explained.
Even with her youthful charm, Melissa didn't get away with it — especially not with her fellow actor Michael Landon: "I showed up and Michael rehearsed. I sort of fumferred through. He sort of looked at me funny and he said, 'Let's do it again.'"
Landon immediately noticed that the "Laura" actress didn't know her lines, as she revealed on the podcast: "I kind of fumferred through and he stopped everyone and said, 'Do you not know your lines?' And I burst [into tears]."
She continued: "He said, 'Okay, everybody go away.' So he sent the whole crew and the cast away. He had the script supervisor come back with the script and he sat down and ran lines with me."
Together with Landon, Melissa Gilbert then started learning her part: "First he got me to stop crying. He said, 'It's going to be okay. We're going to do this and we'll get through this.' We ran lines until I learned them and I said, 'Thank you so much.'
"He was walking away and he stopped. (...) He turned around, he bent down and he put his hands on either side of my shoulders and he looked me in the eye and he said, 'That is never happening again, is it?' And I said, 'No.'"
The experience had a great impact on a young Melissa Gilbert. As she herself said on the podcast, she never again overlooked memorizing her lines. Landon's professionalism and compassion appear to have inspired his Little House co-star.
Do you agree?
He's not going away...
No longer in the spotlight...
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