‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Karen Grassle Struggled On Set Amid Tension with Michael Landon
Find out what Grassle experienced on the set of ‘Little House’ and how it made her feel
On-screen, it seemed like Caroline “Ma” Ingalls and Charles “Pa” Ingalls had this picture-perfect relationship, with their incredible portrayal of a couple in love on Little House on the Prairie. But the actors who played them, Karen Grassle and Michael Landon, didn’t have that same sweet connection when cameras weren’t rolling. Grassle has opened up about her experience filming the show, explaining the difficulties she faced by co-starring with Landon and how it affected her.
“I ran myself into the ground with resentment and anger and hurt feelings and just pure exhaustion,” Grassle recalled in her 2021 memoir Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss and Love from Little House’s Ma. “
“My first impression of him was, ‘Wow, he’s really handsome.’ He was also tremendously charismatic with great energy. And he was very sensitive in the audition reading we did together.”
But things weren’t always rosy for the Little House alum. Grassle admitted feeling undervalued and broken down by on-set behavior, much of which came from Landon himself.
“He was a very, very hard worker, but he could be quite moody,” Grassle shared. “There was a lot of pressure on him”
Grassle recalls crude set behavior
In the 1970s, when the show was airing on television, on-set protocol was much different than it is today and Grassle remembers having a hard time dealing with it. She shared that Landon was the ringleader for a lot of uncomfortable jokes made in her presence and that speaking up wasn’t exactly an option for her.
“It’s difficult when you’re feeling so uncomfortable and you can’t defend yourself because if you do, you know there will be more humiliation,” she shared. “He started this campaign on the set, to try to sort of break me down and diminish my value to the show.”
While speaking up for yourself is more common today, Grassle didn’t feel that was possible, especially because of how she and other young women were raised.
“We had been trained, as girls, to rise above all the bad-boy behavior and be quiet and get on with it,” she said. “And that was what I did.”
Grassle was denied a raise
Spending eight seasons on an extremely successful TV series, you would expect that a pay increase would be given at some point. Grassle opened up about how she had asked for a raise during the second season because of the show’s massive popularity. But with the power he had as a producer, Landon was able to block the request, explaining that her character wasn’t popular enough and that she should be paid the same as the younger actors.
After hearing that her character didn’t resonate with folks, Grassle more or less avoided them.
“I had limited my interactions with fans very much,” she said. “I really didn’t go to many events. I didn’t hang out with everybody. I separated myself.” But decades later—particularly over the past few years—Grassle has slowly begun making more appearances and chatting with fans more frequently, and what she discovered was a surprise.
“I had no idea the depth of affection that people had for this character. It just filled my heart because I worked so hard to make something special out of [her], and there were many days that I did not look forward to going to work.”
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