What started off as a typical day quickly turned into a duel between Laura and Willie, pretending to be Robin Hood. This draws a crowd, including Miss Beadle and Harriet. They break up the fighters, and the only casualty was Willie's hat, or rather one he stole from his mother. When that madness subsided, Miss Beadle sent the fighters to the corner, this being Laura's first time, and warned her students to not let their imaginations get them into trouble and then she had an idea, or rather it was Mary's idea, but Miss Beadle took the credit, about getting into groups and acting out plays. Nobody wanted to be in Willie's play, nor he in their's, and who could blame any of them? Mary, Laura and Ginny, the new girl, decided on doing an adaptation of Little Women, which sounded ideal until Nellie got involved. She claimed it was her favorite book and enticed them to come to her house. Never having seen it before, Ginny begs the other girls to agree. You'd think they would have learned not to trust Nellie by now, but they agree. After that, Laura lamented they weren't doing Hanzel and Gretel, so she'd have an excuse to throw Nelle in a burning oven. After school, Ginny went home where a nice young man named Mayfield was trying endlessly to put the moves on Della, Ginny's mom, but failed. See, Della is a cold, standoffish bitch, which must makes life difficult for the altruistic Ginny. So while Harriet takes charge of rewriting Little Women for the play, Willie has decided to adapt Mark Twain's latest novel, Tom Sawyer, but nobody wanted to do that either.
Harriet Oleson's production of Little Women had now been cast. In the part of Maimy the Ma: Mary, Laura is Beth, Ginny is Jo, and Nellie gets to play Meg, which was naturally the biggest part. So while the other girls try to learn their limited lines, Mayfield was over at the Clark farm and, after taking advice from Mr. Edwards, tried once again to tell Widow Clark how he felt and she rudely blew him off. Elsewhere, Mr. Samuel Mason the wig maker brought by a fine brunette hair piece for Nellie, but she wanted it with curls, which would cost extra. Meanwhile, Carrie was very unhappy about being left out of the play, and it's not because of her age, it's because she can't act. Laura erects a poorman's wig out of Caroline's mop, but took it off because it made her look like an idiot. Then she pouts about Nellie getting all the good stuff out of this play... I told you not to trust her, Half-Wit. Ginny bought her Ma a dress to wear to the play, but she assumed it was from Mayfield and chastised her daughter for it. I'm starting to think maybe her late husband killed himself. Mayfield heard this from a tearful Ginny, so he finally manned up and confronted that awful woman. Oh, and remember Nellie's wig? She insisted on curls, and now it looks like hell. What goes around, comes around. Anyway, onto the play! First up, Willie Oleson as White-Washed Tom Sawyer. Next, Harriet Oleson's Little Women on the Prairie. Nellie hammed it up, of course, until it came time for Ginny's line, and she ended up revealing that she really did cut her hair. That's how she was able to buy that dress. That gestured melted Della's icy heart as she embraced her daughter, so everything was alright from here on out and the girls all decided that play acting was for the birds.
I think Little House should have had more 'play' episodes, but have them take up more than ten minutes. I would have liked to see the characters act out Shakespeare or something, but oh well. Rachel Longaker was really good as Ginny, who of course we'll never see again, and Kay Peters was excellent as her shrew of a mother. Honestly, why is it that the news kids on this show always seem to have at least one parent who is a horrible person? It became a cliché very quick. Sure they reform by the end, but just having to endure that awful person for the majority of the show is often a bitter pill to swallow. Also, where was Grace during the play? Her two children were there, so it doesn't make sense that Edwards was there and not her too. Also, did they only have 2 plays that night? It seems Miss Beadle calls it off after Little Women. How about the other kids? Oh well. Character actor Roger Bowen has a nice cameo as Mason, B.W. Sandefur and Dale Eunson did a decent job on the script and Bill Claxton's directing was alright. This episode was alright, it was wonderfully acted, but it gets pretty irritating towards the mid-point. Having to endure Nellie and Della, and Mayfield constantly trying to win that woman over was just agonizing. Take it for what it's worth, it's not one of the best episodes, but it's pretty good for what it is.
Harriet Oleson's production of Little Women had now been cast. In the part of Maimy the Ma: Mary, Laura is Beth, Ginny is Jo, and Nellie gets to play Meg, which was naturally the biggest part. So while the other girls try to learn their limited lines, Mayfield was over at the Clark farm and, after taking advice from Mr. Edwards, tried once again to tell Widow Clark how he felt and she rudely blew him off. Elsewhere, Mr. Samuel Mason the wig maker brought by a fine brunette hair piece for Nellie, but she wanted it with curls, which would cost extra. Meanwhile, Carrie was very unhappy about being left out of the play, and it's not because of her age, it's because she can't act. Laura erects a poorman's wig out of Caroline's mop, but took it off because it made her look like an idiot. Then she pouts about Nellie getting all the good stuff out of this play... I told you not to trust her, Half-Wit. Ginny bought her Ma a dress to wear to the play, but she assumed it was from Mayfield and chastised her daughter for it. I'm starting to think maybe her late husband killed himself. Mayfield heard this from a tearful Ginny, so he finally manned up and confronted that awful woman. Oh, and remember Nellie's wig? She insisted on curls, and now it looks like hell. What goes around, comes around. Anyway, onto the play! First up, Willie Oleson as White-Washed Tom Sawyer. Next, Harriet Oleson's Little Women on the Prairie. Nellie hammed it up, of course, until it came time for Ginny's line, and she ended up revealing that she really did cut her hair. That's how she was able to buy that dress. That gestured melted Della's icy heart as she embraced her daughter, so everything was alright from here on out and the girls all decided that play acting was for the birds.
I think Little House should have had more 'play' episodes, but have them take up more than ten minutes. I would have liked to see the characters act out Shakespeare or something, but oh well. Rachel Longaker was really good as Ginny, who of course we'll never see again, and Kay Peters was excellent as her shrew of a mother. Honestly, why is it that the news kids on this show always seem to have at least one parent who is a horrible person? It became a cliché very quick. Sure they reform by the end, but just having to endure that awful person for the majority of the show is often a bitter pill to swallow. Also, where was Grace during the play? Her two children were there, so it doesn't make sense that Edwards was there and not her too. Also, did they only have 2 plays that night? It seems Miss Beadle calls it off after Little Women. How about the other kids? Oh well. Character actor Roger Bowen has a nice cameo as Mason, B.W. Sandefur and Dale Eunson did a decent job on the script and Bill Claxton's directing was alright. This episode was alright, it was wonderfully acted, but it gets pretty irritating towards the mid-point. Having to endure Nellie and Della, and Mayfield constantly trying to win that woman over was just agonizing. Take it for what it's worth, it's not one of the best episodes, but it's pretty good for what it is.
