Don't get me wrong. I love this show. I love it way down to the bottom of my heart. It's one of my all-time favorites. It has a colorful cast, a variety of episodes (comedy, tragedy, character study, adventure, etc.) and does a great job weaving the reoccuring theme that faith and family can get you through almost anything. It would be heartless to ignore all the fine points this show has going for it.
However, there are a few things I wish were different about the later seasons and feel free to discuss them with me if you like.

1. A better way to tie up the Edwards family.

Personally, I would have preferred the show had John Jr. marry Mary, then learn to be strong for her and give her hope when she loses her vision because that would have been a more powerful and compelling way to write "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away." Whenever there's a crisis, Mary and Laura always have the all-noble St. Pa and St. Ma to fall back on. But having Mary go blind within a year of her marriage to John would strengthen their relationship. John struggles with guilt and low self-esteem and worries he is not tough enough (His Father's Son) like all the other men in Walnut Grove, so this would cause him to discover he had a lot more strength and resiliance than he thought.
But even if the Edwards family had to leave because of cast and management conflicts (Pera vs. Anderson and French vs. Landon) I can't believe they couldn't have found a better way to tie them up than the way they did. (Times of Change)
John Jr. is one of the most sympathetic and likeable characters in Seasons 2 and 3, yet Michael Landon apparently believed the way to tie him up was to suddenly make the audience hate his guts. He showed the willingness to sacrifice something very important to him so he could marry Mary right away (I'll Ride the Wind) and was building a house and plowing a field to prove his worthiness to her yet we're supposed to believe he would get over her so quickly for a snobby city girl? Would he really burn his bridges with the Edwards and Ingalls--the people who loved him best and helped him and his siblings find the right home--by being untrustworthy with his engagement?
Also, the Edwards suddenly aren't there anymore and it's only briefly mentioned that they moved to California. The family is best friends with the Ingalls and the Ingalls never talk about them again?
I think a better way to tie them up would be to have John die of an illness in Chicago and have Mary visit him in the hospital, where they swear undying love and then have him call a priest to marry them so he could call her "my wife" before he dies. Or maybe even have him discover a heroic side he didn't know he had, and give his life for Mary somehow, the way Alice died a hero in "May We Make Them Proud." Then there could be an episode devoted to the Edwards family leaving for California and the Ingalls bidding them a tearful farewell--or maybe they could be one of the families who left when the town started falling apart in "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away."

2. Whoever Mary married in the show should have been a sighted man.

How are two blind people going to catch a toddler that wanders off? How are they going to discipline and make sure he's doing his chores and school when he gets older? Did Landon not think this through? At some point he had to ask himself how he would write an episode on how blind Mary and Adam would get through the obstacles of taking care of seeing Adam Jr. and said "Nah, I'm too lazy to do that. I'll just kill him off to spare myself the trouble." If he had simply written Adam as a sighted person, he could have saved himself a headache.

3. More of Carrie

I think I would have picked a more capable child actress to play Carrie starting at Season 4 to give Carrie a voice so that she's no longer the fifth wheel on the van. Maybe when Mary moves away, Carrie could sleep with Laura and have sister-sister conversations the way Mary did and Albert could sleep downstairs.
I'm not saying Carrie will ever be as compelling a character as Mary and Laura, but they still could have given her something interesting to do once in a while so that her prescence in the show is justified. Maybe an episode where she rescues Laura from an accident or learns to stand up to the bully in the playground.

4. Who owns the mill after Lars Hanson dies?

Why do we never see a replacement for the manager of the mill? Did Hanson leave it to Charles? If he had named Charles his heir, that would mean the Ingalls would be more affluent like the Olesons and therefore, they wouldn't have to talk about making a dollar bill stretch in every other episode anymore.

5. More development for Nellie and Percival

Nellie and Percival should have had four or five episodes to develop their relationship before they married so it wouldn't feel rushed. Also, Nellie should have shown a trace of humanity every now and then--random acts of kindness and compassion in Seasons 4, 5 and 6 to illustrate how she is slowly growing out of her "mean girl" phase. In "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" one moment she's the "super bitch" and then suddenly she's the "reformed bitch." It feels like a light switch turned on and off.

6. A coherent way to tie it all up.

I haven't seen Seasons 8 or 9 but I've read through the plot summaries and it seems like they just wanted to keep the car running until it ran out of gas instead of finding a well-written way to tie it all up.
I would have waited until the ending of Season 7 to have Almanzo and Laura marry. Then I would have Almanzo announce plans to move to another state where the soil is more fertile and the cost of land is cheaper. This would serve to develop Charles because one of Charles' greatest fears is to see his daughters leave Walnut Grove. Caroline would help Charles make peace with the fact that they are destined to "cleave unto their husbands and leave their families" as the Bible verse says, because this is simply the natural order of the world.
Having Almanzo and Laura get in a covered wagon and bid the Ingalls farewell would have been the perfect note to end the show on because it would imply, they will embark on their own adventure just as Charles and Caroline did in the very beginning when they left their little house in the big woods in Winsconsin.

Make no mistake. I still love this show and if I didn't love it I wouldn't take the time to analyze it! Despite my reservations, it is still, a classic with class.

Lukaskm11,

You have made several excellent suggestions on how the show could have been improved.

I wish the Ingalls had left the insufferable Albert in Winoka and that Charles Ingalls had finally gotten a decent hair cut, when he became a Gray-haired grandfather.

PS The gruff, but very likable Mr. Edwards had a particularly rough and,ultimately, very sad life.

Thanks. Oh my gosh! I forgot about that. Landon finally mends his fences with French and brings him back on the show and how does he do it--by making him an emotional punching bag!

1. Ditched by Grace--we're supposed to believe she would divorce him and leave for another man instead of helping him through his issues when they had such a great relationship in earlier seasons? (A Promise to Keep)

2. Loses adoptive son in a corporate elite operation. (Chicago)

3. Runs Albert over and suffers guilt and alcoholism over it. (A Promise to Keep)

4. Gets into another romantic relationship that blows up on him. (The Wild Boy)


Everyone talks about Mary being the emotional punching bag for one disaster after the next but what about Mr. Edwards? When I see those earlier episodes of him getting married, dancing, singing "Old Dan Tucker" and playing with the Ingalls and Sanderson children I think "Geez, he's really in for the worst luck in the world, isn't he?"

I feel sorry for TV Carrie's fate at the end. Stuck in godforsaken Iowa and no doubt she's forced to all but be the mom for Cassandra and Grace in Iowa while Caroline is back in Walnut Grove for the telemovies - given what travel times were like in the 1880s!