Review
The ninth and final season of Little House on the Prairie began airing on 27 September 1982 to 21 March 1983 and consisted of 21 episodes. Subtitled A New Beginning, the series saw some major changes with the departure of the Ingalls family who leave for Burr Oak, Iowa, and the focus moves to Laura and Almanzo who remain in Walnut Grove with their infant daughter, Rose. They are soon joined by Almanzo’s niece, Jenny Wilder, who lives with them after the death of her father, Royal. The continuity book is thrown out of the window during this season because we’ve met Royal before and he had two sons at that time.
In the two-part opener, Times Are Changing, John and Sarah Carter move into the Ingalls place with their sons, Jeb and Jason, but it just never seems right seeing them there. John is a blacksmith as well as a farmer, while Sarah intends to start a newspaper in town. Things get emotional as the townspeople throw Charles a farewell party and give him a new suit as he will be working as a men’s outfitter which is an odd choice of a job for Charles. As Laura says her farewells to her father, she and Almanzo get a surprise visit from Royal Wilder and his daughter, Jenny, and it soon becomes clear that Royal is gravely ill. When Royal dies, Jenny is devastated and tries to drown herself so she can be with him but she is rescued by Jeb Carter. A remorseful Jenny vows to make her parents proud of her and she accepts her new life in Walnut Grove with Almanzo and Laura.
Victor French returns to the cast full-time and is soon in the process of adopting a mute boy who has been cruelly mistreated in The Wild Boy. Dr. Joshua McQueen (Anthony Zerbe) arrives in Walnut Grove to promote his new elixir and sideshow attraction, but Matthew, the mute boy, managed to escape and Laura teaches him to use sign language when he takes refuge with Edwards. When McQueen tracks the boy down, he calls in the circuit judge when Edwards refuses to return the boy. It takes an impassioned speech from Edwards to save the day and McQueen leaves empty handed. Matthew is finally reunited with his biological father in the last episode, Hello and Goodbye.
It’s a welcome return to Walnut Grove for Nellie Oleson Dalton who is celebrating her birthday with her parents in The Return of Nellie and it makes you realise just how much she is missed from the show. However, not everyone is happy she is back as Nancy is jealous of all the attention being focused on Nellie and she runs away. Nellie has to convince her that people do really love her but Nancy is never going to change. Fortunately for Nels, he finally has two children to make him proud when Willie finally stands up to his mother when he marries his sweetheart, Rachel Brown (Sherri Stoner). in May I Have This Dance? There are some lovely scenes between Willie and Nels, but it would have been nice if Rachel had been introduced earlier in the series so we could have gotten to know her but she seems like a nice girl.
In The Empire Builders, the townspeople are excited when Spencer Hollingsworth (Stephen Elliott), president of the Minneapolis & Western Railway, wants to make Walnut Grove a key junction for a new project that will extend the railway towards the Pacific. Then the railroad determines the best place for the railway line is to run straight through many of the town’s homesteads, including the Wilder and Carter properties, and they are ordered to vacate. Walnut Grove has been in jeopardy from tycoons before and will be again in the final movie where the residents are on the losing side. However, on this occasion the town manages to stand together to defeat the railroad but all the guns being waved about does not suit the philosophy behind this show.
Laura is delighted when her father and Albert return to Walnut Grove for a visit in the extended episode Home Again but can’t believe it when she learns Albert has been stealing in the city. Hoping a stay in Walnut Grove will prove to beneficial for his son, Charles is shocked when Doc Baker tells him that Albert is addicted to morphine and that is why his moods keep changing. Determined to get his son clean, Charles takes Albert to Edwards’ old cabin and tells everyone else to stay away. The withdrawal scenes in the second part are harrowing and it is to Michael Landon’s credit that he chose to go there on a family show. Matthew Labyorteaux gives an excellent performance as the addicted Albert and he must have been exhausted after filming all those scenes. As they leave town, Laura says Albert returned to Walnut Grove many years later and they were proud to have Dr. Albert Ingalls home again.
On the personal front, Laura is ecstatic when she gives birth to a son in A Child With No Name, but she blames Doc Baker when the boy dies a few days later. When Little Rose becomes gravely ill with smallpox, Almanzo ignores Laura wishes not to involve Doc Baker and he ends up saving the baby’s life. The death of a baby never makes for pleasant viewing and we have witnessed it several times on the show already, however this episode deals with the loss of Laura and Almanzo’s baby son who was actually born in Dakota. As much as we can sympathise with Laura’s grief, she is really cruel to Doc Baker and it is hard to believe that the whole town would turn on him the way they did.
When Laura expresses some dissatisfaction with her life, Almanzo persuades her to enter a writing competition in Once Upon A Time. Laura writes a novel about her childhood which wins the competition and she is invited to Minneapolis to meet the publisher but is disappointed when they edit it so much it no longer resembles her original story. Laura ends up walking away and a voice over by Michael Landon tells the viewer that Laura’s book was published forty years later without any changes. This is ironic when you consider Landon refused to stick to the original material as he felt there was not enough for a long running series and so he could push Charles Ingalls to the centre of the show.
Laura and Almanzo’s lives do change considerably at the end of the season when they are bequeathed a large house which they decide to turn into a boarding house in Hello and Goodbye. You get the sense the producers were trying to instil new life into the show by introducing the boarding house and Sherwood Montague (Robert Casper), a haughty English writer. The boarding house would have offered an opportunity to welcome short-term characters to the show who are just passing through Walnut Grove. Sherwood Montague is an intriguing addition to the cast and he should have been extremely irritating with his know-it-all attitude but I actually really liked him. We can only imagine the antics between him and Isaiah Edwards had the series been renewed.
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