Little House On The Prairie's Michael Landon Was Reportedly A Terror Off-Camera

Michael Landon's "Little House on the Prairie" character Charles Ingalls will go down in history as one of TV's favorite fathers and many of his co-stars look back on working with him fondly. However, not everyone has been quite so gushy. In fact, one co-star claimed working with the star was incredibly difficult. 

While the actors playing Landon's kids on "Little House" have long shared that they loved working with him — Melissa Gilbert even had a close bond with him off-set — the same can't be said of his onscreen wife, Karen Grassle. On the contrary, Grassle painted a fairly damning picture of their working relationship. In her memoir "Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma," she wrote they'd clashed when she'd asked for a raise, and Landon (who was as involved behind the scenes as he was onscreen as a producer, director, and writer) denied it. Despite how beloved the show was, she wrote he claimed people didn't like Caroline Ingalls as much as the rest of the "Little House on the Prairie" cast. A brutal comment for any actor to hear, it's not surprising Grassle subsequently pulled away from the show's viewers. In her 2025 interview with People, Grassle recounted of that time, "I had limited my interactions with fans very much. I really didn't go to many events. I didn't hang out with everybody. I separated myself." 

It was only once she started promoting her book that it dawned on her that people actually had loved Ma Ingalls. It's unfortunate that it took so long, but we're glad she had an opportunity to connect with her fans eventually.

Unfortunately, unfair pay wasn't the only thing Karen Grassle dealt with while working with Michael Landon. Far from it, in an interview with Fox 5 New York, she shared that there was one scene in particular where she became incredibly uncomfortable with the jokes he was cracking. They were filming a scene in Ma and Pa Ingall's bedroom, which she explained meant they were effectively trapped in the bed because of how small it was. "The crew was all around us, almost all men, one woman besides me, only light on us. And Mike started telling these filthy jokes about the female anatomy, that I cannot remember and would not repeat anyway," she recounted. Grassle added, "I just sat there frozen. Just frozen... that was the worst of it for me." Other than the creepy jokes on set, Grassle also said Landon made fun of her while they were shooting.

While many of Landon's other co-stars have been more complimentary of him, Pamela Roylance, who played Sarah Carter, corroborated that he was partial to a sexual joke. As she recalled during a group interview on "The Patrick LabyorSheaux," he'd returned from a trip to Thailand and shared a story about a not-so-family-friendly show he'd attended with a group on the set. He hadn't realized Roylance and the friends she'd brought to set had heard him. "He comes right up to us and tells us the entire thing again, the whole story. And all I could think of — I was hugely embarrassed — but all I could think of was, 'What a nice man to make sure we were all included,'" she joked. 

Roylance might not have been quite as mortified as Grassle was but it's safe to say neither case would be acceptable today.