Inconsistencies

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Things which don't make sense in Little House: Bless All the Dear Children:

In the opening narration, Pa Ingalls states that these events took place over the winter of '96. That is not only plain wrong, it is absolutely insane. In Little House on the Prairie, Season 9, episode 20, the house fire took place in 1889, around September, at which time Baby Rose appeared to be about a year old. (She should in fact have been nearly three, but that's another matter.) In Bless All the Dear Children, Rose appears about two years old. No one else has aged more than a year either. If Rose was, say, a year old in 1889, she should have been eight years old in 1896! Everyone else should have been correspondingly older as well. This is almost criminally WRONG! This movie should have been set around Christmas 1890!

It is almost Christmas in Minnesota, yet there is no snow, everyone is wearing light summer clothing, and no one even puts on a coat except in the night scenes. The night scenes have loud noises made by crickets or similar insects which would not be active in winter.

Laura's recitation from the book of Luke is nice, but Linus did it better in A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are probably other things but there are some major points. Sorry I can't say better about this movie.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Thoughts on Little House: The Last Farewell:

No date is given, but according to the age of Baby Rose and the other kids, it should be Easter of 1891. The date of Christmas 1896 in the previous movie was a horrendous error.

Albert wasn't mentioned, dead or alive. There was no, "Albert loved Walnut Grove, thank God he didn't live to see this." He could be dead, he could be alive and in medical school. I maintain the second.

The tears at the end were doubtless quite genuine. The final scene, with the ruined town, undefeated townsfolk, and the singing of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is so reminiscent of the last scene of Mrs. Miniver (1942) it is almost a copy, of course minus the airplanes flying over. Doubtless they'd have had them too if they'd been invented yet. It was just as well Harriet Oleson was in the hospital, as all this would have undoubtedly sent her there anyway.

Of course with the question of Albert lies the ultimate Little House contradiction. The closing narration of "Home Again" in Season 9 states that twenty years later Albert returned to Walnut Grove as "Dr. Albert Ingalls." In Little House: The Last Farewell Walnut Grove is destroyed. Of course there is the possibility that at some point Walnut Grove was resurrected from literally smithereens. Something needs to account for the existence of the real world Walnut Grove (which was actually founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1879, not founded in 1840 by Lars Hanson). Even discounting this, the implied death of Albert in Little House: Look Back to Yesterday has created a troubling paradox in which there is both an existing Walnut Grove in which Albert Ingalls was once a doctor, and no Walnut Grove and an Albert Ingalls who died without entering medical school. This can only be reconciled through the Parallel Universe Theory.

[paul.austin]

Backstories and such change in all old shows for the sake of a joke or the plot and Anna from The Music Box wasn't Young Caroline so close when first run -- bingeing episodes distort those kind of things.

[paul.austin]

While the ending of Last Farewell makes for good drama -- how will they sustain themseves until they can set themselves up in a new place?

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Originally Posted by paul.austin

While the ending of Last Farewell makes for good drama -- how will they sustain themseves until they can set themselves up in a new place?

That worried me, too.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

And now a word on THE HIGHLY FLEXIBLE TIMELINE OF LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE:

It would have been simple if they had just decided to stick to the episodes taking place 100 years before the airdate, but no. (The Waltons also screwed this up. They started out with 1972 is 1932 but celebrated 1940 twice, and in the reunion movies committed much worse outrages.)

On Little House, for one thing, "Show Laura" (actress born 1964) will always be "older" than "Book Laura" (born 1867). There will always be a three-year age difference, so some things had to be changed. For instance, in "The Lord Is My Shepherd" when baby brother died. Air date was December 18, 1974. Death of baby brother was August 27, 1876. By 1976 Laura would have been too old to behave as she did in "The Lord Is My Shepherd," so baby brother had to die earlier (the use of his actual death date messed up the timeline later).

Here are the years given or implied in the "three steps forward and two steps back" Little House timeline, with air dates:

Season 1, episode 22: 1878 (16 years after 1862). Air date February 26, 1975.
Season 2, episode 13: 1878 (a year after Edison invented the talking machine in 1877). Air date January 14, 1976.
Season 2, episode 20: Unquestionably on and around July 4, 1876. (Move back two years.) Air date March 17, 1976.
Season 2, episode 21: 1874 (12 years after the Battle of Shiloh). (Move back another two years.) Air date March 24, 1976.
Season 4, episode 8: Still 1876. (Stay put in 1876 a long time.) Air date November 7, 1977.
Season 4, episode 10: 1879 (14 years after 1865). (Skip forward three years.) Air date November 21, 1977.
Season 4, episode 14: 1878 or later. An 1878 wine is served. Air date January 9, 1978.
Season 4, episode 20: 1880. (Move forward one year.) Charles Frederick Ingalls's real 1876 death date is given as having been four years earlier. Air date February 27, 1978.
Season 5, episode 3: November 29, 1880. Air date September 25, 1978.
Season 6, episode 15: 1881 (25 years after 1856.) Air date January 14, 1980.
Season 7, episode 2: At least 1881 but before 1885. "Show Laura" marries earlier than "Book Laura." Air date September 29, 1980.
Season 8, episode 14: 1885. (Move forward about four years.) Air date January 25, 1982.
Season 9, episode 1: 1887. (Move forward two years.) Air date September 27, 1982.
Season 9, episode 18: 1889. While "Show Laura" is about three years older than "Book Laura," "Show Rose" is about two years younger than "Book Rose." (Move forward two years.) Air date February 14, 1983.
Despite the numerous forward skips, the show has only got about six years ahead of itself by this time if you accept the 1876/1976 dates as absolute.
Then comes Little House: Bless All the Dear Children, aired December 17, 1984, so less than two years later, yet it makes the outlandish and outrageous claim of being set in 1896! If Rose was about a year old in 1889, she should be eight by Christmas of 1896 even if her birthday is in December (which "Book Rose's" birthday was) and well beyond the shenanigans in this movie! This date should be thrown right out the window! Discounting this, though, The Waltons are worse offenders in the reunion movies, and Daniel Boone takes the prize for skipping like a yo-yo over a 32-year time span in six seasons and not even keeping in sequence! In an earlier episode, the American Revolution is "long over" while in a later one it is still going on. Strange Universe.

[paul.austin]

Originally Posted by Cori aka ChrisSCrush

And now a word on THE HIGHLY FLEXIBLE TIMELINE OF LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE:

It would have been simple if they had just decided to stick to the episodes taking place 100 years before the airdate, but no. (The Waltons also screwed this up. They started out with 1972 is 1932 but celebrated 1940 twice, and in the reunion movies committed much worse outrages.)

On Little House, for one thing, "Show Laura" (actress born 1964) will always be "older" than "Book Laura" (born 1867). There will always be a three-year age difference, so some things had to be changed. For instance, in "The Lord Is My Shepherd" when baby brother died. Air date was December 18, 1974. Death of baby brother was August 27, 1876. By 1976 Laura would have been too old to behave as she did in "The Lord Is My Shepherd," so baby brother had to die earlier (the use of his actual death date messed up the timeline later).

Here are the years given or implied in the "three steps forward and two steps back" Little House timeline, with air dates:

Season 1, episode 22: 1878 (16 years after 1862). Air date February 26, 1975.
Season 2, episode 13: 1878 (a year after Edison invented the talking machine in 1877). Air date January 14, 1976.
Season 2, episode 20: Unquestionably on and around July 4, 1876. (Move back two years.) Air date March 17, 1976.
Season 2, episode 21: 1874 (12 years after the Battle of Shiloh). (Move back another two years.) Air date March 24, 1976.
Season 4, episode 8: Still 1876. (Stay put in 1876 a long time.) Air date November 7, 1977.
Season 4, episode 10: 1879 (14 years after 1865). (Skip forward three years.) Air date November 21, 1977.
Season 4, episode 14: 1878 or later. An 1878 wine is served. Air date January 9, 1978.
Season 4, episode 20: 1880. (Move forward one year.) Charles Frederick Ingalls's real 1876 death date is given as having been four years earlier. Air date February 27, 1978.
Season 5, episode 3: November 29, 1880. Air date September 25, 1978.
Season 6, episode 15: 1881 (25 years after 1856.) Air date January 14, 1980.
Season 7, episode 2: At least 1881 but before 1885. "Show Laura" marries earlier than "Book Laura." Air date September 29, 1980.
Season 8, episode 14: 1885. (Move forward about four years.) Air date January 25, 1982.
Season 9, episode 1: 1887. (Move forward two years.) Air date September 27, 1982.
Season 9, episode 18: 1889. While "Show Laura" is about three years older than "Book Laura," "Show Rose" is about two years younger than "Book Rose." (Move forward two years.) Air date February 14, 1983.
Despite the numerous forward skips, the show has only got about six years ahead of itself by this time if you accept the 1876/1976 dates as absolute.
Then comes Little House: Bless All the Dear Children, aired December 17, 1984, so less than two years later, yet it makes the outlandish and outrageous claim of being set in 1896! If Rose was about a year old in 1889, she should be eight by Christmas of 1896 even if her birthday is in December (which "Book Rose's" birthday was) and well beyond the shenanigans in this movie! This date should be thrown right out the window! Discounting this, though, The Waltons are worse offenders in the reunion movies, and Daniel Boone takes the prize for skipping like a yo-yo over a 32-year time span in six seasons and not even keeping in sequence! In an earlier episode, the American Revolution is "long over" while in a later one it is still going on. Strange Universe.

It's hard to explain to the "kids" why it is devasting Gloria and Meathead moving away is to Archie and Edith Bumker -- now that is nearly 50 years later and instant communications.

As we are both worried -- destroying WG in Last Farewell -- well, on another show, Mary Richards/Ted Baxter//Murray Slaughter/Lou Grant will certainly in 1977 have non-compete clauses which means they will have to leave the Twin Cities for a year or 6 months -- and which never get mentioned in their fun of singing that silly song and Mary being all sentimental in the last shot.

[Coffeecup]

I happened to see the episode with Burl Ives. I tuned in tad late but story was Pa and laura out ? going fishing hunting? and Pa is shot. Laura said his gun went off and he was injured in the chest. I tuned in when Pa is seen wounded on the ground. Pa says get help so Laura runs to Burl Ives place. Burl is blind and Laura begs Burl to get Pa to Burl's House. I can under stand Robert Reed of the Brady Bunch saying try to make scenes make sense. . You see Burl and Laura walking through the woods to get a doctor. I just find the episode so unbelievable. Burl would be falling and tripping and the 2 would be so lost.