Little House on the Prairie Forums

Melissa Gilbert was a great child actress and I really felt that Alison Arngrim and Jonathan Gilbert were good, too. Jonathan had years to perfect a relatively small role and he was hilarious when he got older.

Patrick Laborateaux was a pretty good actor, too.

I think Melissa Gilbert was the best child actor ever (under 13), Melissa Sue is great too, but they each have their own strengths. MSA is the best at doing all the tough emotional stuff, no one can cry, scream or get angry like she can. MG had more natural acting talent, she excelled at the comedy, transgressing tender poignant affection to the viewer, and facial expression-reactions, she's great at working the camera, she owns that aspect. MG also had a precocious ability at reading lines, yet never coming off as anything more then the young child that she was.

MSA's work was stellar, Mary was written well (for the most part), MSA almost didn't have to act, she really was Mary, and she was given so many showcase opportunities to shine, MSA benefited from more concise material, overall I think her character as a whole was better written the Laura's.

MG was born to play Laura, but I often wonder who else could have done as well in the role? I think maybe Kristy McNichol would have made an excellent Laura, I wonder if she read for the part, it seems likely since Jimmy was on the show first season, but I think she was a couple years too old for the part, and being the same age as MSA. I don't think she could have been as sweet and tender as MG, but would have pulled off the spitfire attitude as well - if not better. She's one of my favorite child actors.

I don't think Matt L was really that good, the way he scrunches up his face when he tries to say a line irritates me, he also looks like he sucks lemons, he looks sour. He wasn't too bad though. Patrick L, often it seemed like his tongue got in the way, he was just so-so.

As for child guest stars on the show, I like Katy Kurtzman the best, she nailed the spirit of Young Caroline, but her stuttering wasn't as convincing as Peter Billingsley or Shannen Doherty's, I think Peter did the best job of the three. LHOTP had the best actors in the business.

I may be the only one with this point of view: I think Melissa Gilbert was a fantastic child actor, but her acting took a turn for the worse once the Almonzo years began. I don't mean the storylines got worse; I mean her acting seemed less natural, even forced at times. Perhaps what came naturally to her during her childhood years was "lost" somewhat as she matured. For further proof, watch some of her made-for-TV movies; her performance in many of them is genuinely terrible. I think her worst performance as far as LHOTP goes may be in "The Last Farewell" movie, when she's smashing the windows and plates, and telling the town to "get angry". This should have been a genuinely emotional moment for Gilbert, yet she comes of as very rigid and not really that ticked off. Just my two cents. Anything from the firstthree or four seasons of LH is pure gold where Gilbert is concerned, however. I would also give two thumbs up to Jason Bateman who did a helluva job as James. He was a bright light in a series that had already started its downward descent before he joined the cast.

As far as the worst child actors (besides the Greenbush sisters--'nuff said there): I love Jonathan Gilbert as Willie, but it took him a couple of seasons to come into character. Granted, he was really, really little when the show started. I thought the kids who played the Kennedy children were lousy actors, and I can't believe she was ever considered for the Laura Ingalls role. As far as the worst child actor, though, I would have to bestow that honor on Ramades Pera as John Jr. He never seemed comfortable in front of the camera. I never noticed this as a child because I was too wrapped up in how good looking he was, but when I see reruns now, Pera looks like he'd rather be anywhere but on set in about 75% of his scenes. It's interesting to note that he fell off the acting radar after this show went off the air. Maybe it wasn't by choice.

By far the best child actor ever to appear as a guest star on this series: Todd Bridges in "The Wisdom Of Solomon". I'm still awed by his performance whenever this episode runs.

I agree about Melissa later in the show, it seemed to me she became bored with Laura, from what I've read she hadn't, but I think she may have found it difficult later in the series to get in touch with the adult Laura aspect of her character, she didn't have the personal experiences inside her at that time to work off of, so she wasn't quite as convincing. I'm not sure she knew how to bridge the young feisty Laura personality with the married-mother-wife identity and maintain the caliber performance that she knew she was capable of. She just wasn't ready maturity wise to step up at that time, so she clung more to the young feisty aspect because she was still more in touch with that side. Sure, some of it was the writing, it wasn't being tailored in the correct time frame transition for her to metamorphosize.

I agree when she was young, she was dynamite, kids can be natural actors, they're use to slipping into fantasy when they play, like slipping into character.

I hadn't considered, but you guys are right on the mark when you mention Melissa's diminished performances later on.

I think Michael Landon brought out the best in Melissa and his stepping back in the later seasons really affected the quality of the show.

And Todd Bridgesdid do an excellent job. What other child guest-stars did extraordinarily well?

Speaking of cast, you guys might enjoy this Susan McCray YouTube video on LH casting, it's in three parts.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0TkEG118NvI

i liked Kyle Richards who played alicia i was smitten with her right from the start

http://www.geocities.com/kylerichardsonline/

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I'm in agreement about Kyle Richards. Watching her recently in Remember Me I thought she had tremendous ability to convey so much with her facial expressions alone.

I also agree (with some!) about Melissa Gilbert. Truth be told, watching LHOP as an adult now I have discovered she really was a poor actress - very artificial and always prattled her lines off glibly, especially in the role of grown-up Laura.

I know a lot of people disliked Season 9, but I think they brought in some really good new child actors in that season. I absolutely loved David Friedman as Jason Carter; he was so sweet and brought a lot of comic relief in some darker episodes from that year.He was the kind of kid who could make you smile every time he came onscreen. Remember when he got those big huge glasses and started raising his eyebrows at the new little girl who came to school??? So adorable. He also had a large role in "The Last Summer," and he managed to make that one of the strongest episodes of Season 9.

Shannen Doherty, too, was surprisingly effervescent and did a great job as Jenny. She had a great personality in the role, and was a great choice for the new season. I didn't consider her to be a poor replacement for young Laura, which is what some audiences believed.

Too true, she wanted so badly to be seen as an adult during season 6 yet continued to do childish things (the Circus, the kids' costume party on Halloween, etc).