This is the very first episode, and already we've me so many wonderful people!
Nels and Harriet Olsen are the store owners. Harriet is the mean, selfish one who tends to boss her husband around. Nels is a sweet but quite weak man in character at times and he allows his wife to push him around. They own the store and right off, Harried makes sure Charles understands her. He does.
Then we meet Dr. Baker and Mr. Hansen. You can't help but to not love them. Of course, along with Michael Landon, these two men played in various western television shows in the fifties and sixties. I think we've seen them on almost every show. Oh, and we cannot forget the good ol' reverend, another great character actor from the old west! I think I remember him best on Gunsmoke.
Honestly though, I watched Little House on the Prairie long before I even know westerns existed, so for me the blessing is in seeing them younger...
In this episode, Charles builds his house. But in order to complete the task, he must ask for a few supplies from the Olsens. Needless to say, he learned his lesson right off about who Harriet Olsen is. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we don't meet the two Olsen children. That was reserved for the next episode!!!
Of course, even if I'd never seen this episode before, one knows that when the two men shook hands, it was a dead deal for them. Something's going to happen!
In truth, the writers and producers did an excellent job in setting us up to what we'll see in the next nine years is up to the same standards.