Michael Landon Was Firm About Following One Rule On The 1970's Little House Set

Many former child stars have acknowledged the pressures of having a demanding career before adulthood, but according to those who worked with Michael Landon on "Little House on the Prairie," he kept things as child-friendly as possible. In particular, he was dead against long (and unethical) hours.

Landon was more than just Pa Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie"; he was also the show's director and producer, and had a ton of control over how the production was run. In an appearance on "The Joe Vulpis Podcast," Linwood Boomer (he played teacher Adam Kendall, who married Landon's onscreen daughter Mary Ingalls) shared that Landon had been uncompromising on timekeeping. That, he explained, was because Landon was adamant that there would be no wiggle room whatsoever on working hours. As a brief overview, in California there were laws surrounding how long kids could work. However, Boomer hinted at some productions finding ways around them when pushed for time, like pressuring teachers to lie about how many hours of school young actors got (and as an aside, many former child stars have also said they were pressured into getting emancipated from their parents to increase their own working hours). Landon, by contrast, refused to flout the rules. Boomer recalled of his approach, "It was sort of like ... we have to get this organized in a way to make sure we get our stuff on time, and we're not ... even tempted to ask the kids or their parents to bend the rules a little bit."

Many years after his time on "Little House on the Prairie," Boomer created and produced "Malcolm in the Middle" based on his own childhood. That show also had a number of child actors in starring roles, and Boomer told Vulpis he'd tried to emulate Landon's stance. Not a half-bad legacy.

It's worth noting that Michael Landon's approach to keeping the set of "Little House on the Prairie" child-friendly went beyond time-keeping, and the former child actors who worked with him at the time noticed. For one, his on-screen daughter Melissa Gilbert (who played Laura Ingalls) was super close with him. In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she recalled the "big trick" they had, which involved her catching frogs. Then, she said, "Mike would put them in his mouth and walk over to people, and they'd jump out." To each their own, we guess! Another of his screen daughters, Lindsay Greenbush (Carrie Ingalls), also spoke to Entertainment Weekly, and recalled of Landon, "He was like Superman to us kids." 

As for Matthew Labyorteaux (Albert Ingalls), he remembered getting on great with Landon as a young actor, too. "As long as you showed up on time, knew your lines, worked hard, and, you know, gave a s***, you were aces in his book. He'd treat you like another actor, not talk down to you," he said. Granted, Labyorteaux didn't shy away from addressing the fact that some of the adults saw Landon as a terror off-camera. "He treated kids differently. ... As an adult, now I can look back and have sympathy for anyone trying to go up against a force of nature like Michael Landon," Labyorteaux mused. Likewise, Alison Arngrim, who played mean girl Nellie Oleson, recalled, "He did love children ... I didn't have issues with him, but some of the grown-ups did."

It wasn't all bad, though: One adult co-star, Charlotte Stewart (teacher Eva Beadle), told Entertainment Weekly, "He made sure we all got home for dinner, unlike so many other shows." Well, Boomer did say Landon was firm on timekeeping.