Little House on the Prairie

It seems the producers wanted to give most of the characters a week off and it was nice to see Caroline given a more prominent role. She hated the never ending "Do you want some coffee" episodes where she didn't really get to act at all. They all had coffee back then, morning, noon and night. : )
Annie wasn't blind her whole life, "almost blind: by 5, so it's understandable she can remember some things to paint. The fact that her mother was also going blind and thought she couldn't care for her wasn't that crazy, especially with the time period. It seemed that she was also alone then.. To be dumped as a child and to live with no one that was your real family is hard and although this had the typical tear-jerker scenes Mr. Landon likes, it was a bit much since that all it was. I found that as the years went on, the writers seemed to default on old stories or situations and it got darker.
This show wasn't that awful, but it wasn't that great either. It seemed like a vacation for the regulars and gave some new actors a chance to have more air time.

I don't care for this episode. It's not that it's without merit on some levels; the acting is OK, and the story itself, taken out of the LH context is interesting. But as a LH episode, it exists in a vaccuum. A 16 year old blind girl that paints beautifully lives in Walnut Grove? Why have we never heard of her? (and we never hear of her again, but this is common in 'guest star stories')

Why is Caroline so involved? Would a perfectly capable man agree to let a woman drive him to Sleepy Eye, even if she is the one loaning the wagon? And why doesn't he have a wagon? Has Annie always possessed such hatred for her Mother, or is this the first time it manifests itself? So many things don't make sense. It seems unlikely that she would so quickly change her intense feelings just because she has learned her mother is also blind. It seems to me that she would need some time to come to terms with this new reality. Everything is too pat and perfect and set up to manipulate the viewer emotionally, which I don't enjoy.

I wonder how Mrs. Crane feels about all this? It would seem she's fine with it, as she and Caroline scheme to get Annie and Marge together, but in the final scene when Marge is standing with Annie at the Blind School, I have to wonder if Mrs. Crane isn't regretting her decision.

I appreciate stories that revolve around other characters, especially if they are regular 'town folk', but this is not one of them. It feels forced and out of place.

Annie, a young painter, faces her past just as her future looks brightest.



I'm still somwhat puzzled by this episode - one that touches on some of Landon's favorite themes (children's lives apart from their biological parents and the exploration of many aspects of blindness), but it almost stands alone in the series in many ways.



Annie is a blind young girl who paints very realistic landscapes. Just as her talent is recognized, her true mother wants to be a part of her life again and tell Annie why she gave her up for adoption. Regular "Little House" characters are largely absent, Caroline is most prominant as someone who enjoys Annie's paintings and helps her deal with her feelings. Nevertheless, this episode seems like a script for an entirely different (or generic) television show that's "molded" into a story for "Little House on the Prairie" (and not that successfully). First of all, its very difficult to understand how a blind girl could paint in such representative detail. Michael Landon seems very interested in aspects of blindness, almost playing with the idea of seeing and not seeing as he also restores Adam's sight in "To See the Light" and has Jane see again after an operation in season 9's "Love." Secondly, as mentioned, though this story has some value as one of a young woman coming to terms with her past, it seems incongruously set in a tiny farming town on the American frontier with very little involvement of any of the major characters in the series.

I gave this episode a 7.5 because while totally absurd in numerous ways, it still managed to touch me, while also maintain my interest. Still, I have a burning question: I still didn't grasp why her mother gave her up. I won't give away the 'reason' given, but it just didn't make much sense to me. The title of the episode was so cutesy wutsey that it didn't surprise me that Michael Landon was the author of this one. No offense to him whatsoever, but he DID have a penchant for putting the audience through the emotional wringer. All in all, I'd say this seriously flirted with shark jumping, but it still managed to do its thing...