Little House on the Prairie : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

. In the "The Last Farewell", they really did blow up the town. Producer/star Michael Landon didn't want the bulldozers to crush the buildings. So he wrote a story which gave the inhabitants the chance to destroy their town themselves. They did not however destroy the home that the Ingalls had lived in. That was destroyed by the fires in California in late 2003.

. Out of the many young girls who auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls, Michael Landon was convinced immediately that Melissa Gilbert was the perfect candidate. In fact, he was so certain that Gilbert's was the only screen test that he sent to the producers at NBC

. Alison Arngrim originally auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls, but was not successful. She then tried out for the role of Laura's sister Mary, to the same avail. However, when auditioning for the role of "Nasty" Nellie Oleson, she was hired on the spot for playing mean so convincingly.

. In the episode "Here Come the Brides", Scottie MacGregor was actually injured in the scene where Mrs Oleson falls off the horse. Because MacGregor was unable to do the next sequence, 'Ruth Foster' (who plays Mrs. Foster in the show) dressed in Mrs. Oleson's costume and filmed the scene for her instead

. The character 'Charles Ingalls' was ranked #4 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (20 June 2004 issue).

. The character 'Nellie Olson' was ranked #3 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" (27 March 2005 issue).

. 'Dean Butler' remarked that the first kiss between him and Melissa Gilbert (Laura) was so nerve racking for everyone, that there were chaperones on the set, to make sure nothing unseemly was going on. From the sidelines, Melissa's mother Barbara was wailing "My baby", so much so that she had to be consoled.