Little House: The Last Farewell

"Little House On The Prairie" was one of those rare shows that actually had a final episode for it's original run. Perhaps Michael Landon's long relationship with NBC had something to do with that. The plot is simple. A evil miner takes advantage of the law and buys Walnut Grove forcing the people of the town to take action. James Karen plays the bad guy "Nathan Lassiter" to perfection. At the time Karen did a lot of commercials on television, and after playing "Lassiter" sponsors were afraid to use him as their spokesman. Luckily for us he would go on to find more work in film and television. Michael Landon's writing and direction on this final show was wonderful. He was always able to get a lot out of his actors. Dabbs Greer, who plays "Rev. Alden" should have won the Emmy. His performance is both moving and touching. No doubt Michael Landon had something to do with that. How sad shows like this aren't made anymore.

The main problem with this TV-movie finale of the "Little House on the Prairie" series is that it features the cast of the show's final season, by which time many of the better characters had been replaced by blander carbon-copies. So, you get the Carters instead of the Ingalls (with a few exceptions), Nancy Oleson instead of Nellie, Miss Plum instead of Miss Beadle, etc. The return of original series stars Michael Landon and Karen Grassle helps, but where's Mary, Adam, Albert, and Carrie? And, worst of all, Katherine MacGregor, who played town villianness Harriet Oleson, is nowhere to been seen. The Oleson family was the saving grace of "Little House", helping to cut through all the treacle, and the two most important Olesons, Harriet and Nellie, aren't in this movie. The story doesn't help, either. Couldn't they come up with a more uplifting plot than the destruction of the entire town?

Unless you're a die-hard fan, skip this one (as well as the other two sequel TV movies), and seek out the original pilot movie instead.

The reason that Michael Landon blew up Walnut Grove was that he was ordered to destroy the sets when the final movie was filmed. He brilliantly incorporated it to be in a movie. Only two buildings was sparred. One was the church cause it would upset the Christian community and would be in extreme poor taste. Second was the Ingalls house cause it was iconic.

If your a little house fan , then this the final episode is a must . Even for those who are not fans , this one was a real tear jerker . As most little house episodes where . Still glad to see those reruns . A reunion would be wonderful , even though , it would never be the same without Pa . They could do it up like the Andy Griffith reunion without Aunt Bee . Wasn't the same without her , but they never forgot her . Just hope that we get to see Albert in it as well , because they've never really shown us whether or not he kicked the blood disease, to live his life out as Dr. Albert Ingels . And it would just be awesome to see Melissa Gilbert as our Laura Ingels once again . I highly recommend this final series of little house .

This episode happens to be my favorite one. The reason why Mrs. Oleson is not in it is because (if you have ever seen it) she is in the hospital in Minneapolis. She has been in there for 6 months. But Katherine McGregor (the person who plays her) was on a pilgrimage for India. I would recommend watching it, especially if you have seen the rest of the series, because I feel that I the best of them all.