“The Little House On The Prairie” launched in 1974 has undoubtedly left its mark on the small screen. If the fiction had the merit of making viewers dream internationally, behind the scenes of the show was nothing idyllic… Quite the contrary. Michael Landon, star actor of the saga would have made the entire cast live through hell. Being the executive producer, the latter could be ruthless and very demanding with the rest of the team. Big or small, it made no difference…
“We were expected to show up on time, know our lines, give our best performance and call our seniors ‘sir’ and ‘madam’,” wrote Alison Arngrim aka Nellie Oleson in her book Confessions of a Prairie B*tch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated as the media states ‘TheThings”.
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“I knew his wife…”
Our colleagues also noted that the artist confided in the affair of Michael Landon with a young woman who has just reached the age of majority. In the eyes of those around him, the screenwriter was a fine “manipulator”. Karen Grassle who lent her features to Caroline Ingalls also assured that he liked to talk “openly about his libido” during filming. According to his words, Michael Landon would even have boasted of having found his own “thanks to a natural product”.
One thing leading to another, the other members of the cast ended up discovering his romance with Cindy Clerico, appointed to replace Melissa Francis (Cassandra Cooper editor’s note). At the time, the main interested party had just blown out her 18th candle. Deceived by her husband, Lynn Noé would then have tumbled onto the film set to confront the two lovers. “I knew his wife. I was often at their house. She had been nice to me. And I thought of his children. There were three of them still at home and younger than Cindy”, said Karen Grassle. After the end of the series in the early 80s, Michael Landon will marry against the winds and marry the young actress 20 years his junior. She will also be his last (and third) wife….
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