Still Traumatized by LHOTP

Kristin Nilsen 0:02

Thank you and welcome to all of our new supporters on Patreon. This is an independently produced show written research produced, edited, distributed and promoted by us, Carolyn, Kristen and Michelle, and paid for out of our own pockets because it's important to us that you can help us pay the bills by clicking the Patreon link on our website, pop preservationists.com. Or by going to our Lincoln bio on Instagram, and finding the Patreon link in our link tree. It's one of the best ways for you to tell us that you liked what you hear, so we can keep on truckin. Thank you and enjoy the show. Welcome, everybody to this encore presentation of little traumas on the prairie. We're here today because 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Little House on the Prairie. That's how old we are guys.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:52

Gosh, I can't believe that. Yeah. 50th anniversaries but Oh, this one. This one, it hits hard. But I'm so excited that that it's so important still to people that we're celebrating its 50th anniversary is a big deal. Oh, such

Michelle Newman 1:07

a big deal. So much so that this this coming weekend in Simi Valley, they're having a really huge celebration. Unfortunately, we're not able to go. But we are so excited for all of you listening that are going and you know, send us an email, send us a DM if you're there, let us know what it's all about.

Kristin Nilsen 1:28

So this celebration in Simi Valley, California by Simi Valley, by the way is where the show was filmed. It's in the mountains outside of Los Angeles. And so they're having this gathering of Little House fans, and it's going and it's being organized by Almanzo and Nellie, Oleson. And Laura, and all sorts of people are going to be the people from the show. And lucky for us, we have some friends of the podcast who are going to be there and they are going to be reporting back to us. Their names are Shane and Jeanie. Yes,

Michelle Newman 1:59

they're sort of going to be like our field reporter since we're unable to be there, taking video and sending us just messages that we will be able to share with you all via our Instagram stories.

Carolyn Cochrane 2:13

I think if anybody can pull off some fun stories it's going to be Shane. I want to remind everybody that Shane was the reason that we got to interview our first celebrity guest, which who was Karen Grassley, ma Ingalls. And Shane had gone out of his way to go to her book signing and told her about us and one thing led to another and there we were face to face with with Ma. Oh,

Michelle Newman 2:38

yeah. And fun fact, Shane and Jeanne actually met because of our podcasts via just social media comments three years ago, have become such good friends. And I'm sure such a love of music from the 80s and 90s. That coming soon, you guys. They have their own podcast called Pop Rocks. You can follow them right now on Instagram. It's Pop Rocks 8595 on Instagram.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:04

It's gonna be so fun. I'm so excited for that live. Speaking of podcasts, there's a really fun podcast out right now called Little House 50 for 50. It's a podcast to celebrate this 50th anniversary and there will be 50 episodes. It is being hosted by three really fun people one we know well. It's our friend Pamela Bob. She is kind of the facilitator of the conversations that they have on the podcast. Also Dean Butler and Alison Arne Grimm, aka Almanzo al Manzo, he says at Dell Manzo, he kind of clears that up for a lot of people. I can't get the episode to do it. I know. Almanzo. But they didn't. Anyway, yes. So it's confusing. And Nellie are in conversation too, with Pamela as well as really fun guests that have come on. They've had Charlotte Stewart, you might know her as Miss Beatle. They've had some historian, they've just had some really fun guests and gives you kind of a an in depth look at not only the show, but the fandom that has happened because of that show. So if you haven't already been listening to that, you can find that anywhere that you listen to podcasts.

Kristin Nilsen 4:16

Pamela Bob, who Carolyn just mentioned, we've been on an episode with her before because she is not just a little house fan. She is an actor, and she has a comedy series on the interwebs a web series I guess is what they call that. Yes. Yeah, living on a prairie, which is about a woman and her love for a Little House on the Prairie. It is tongue in cheek. It is funny, their little five minute episodes. It will make your day it's so sunny and funny. I

Michelle Newman 4:45

love it. We can't recommend that enough. And we have many times because it's so hilarious. And gosh, Pamela Bob has just become such a great friend of all three of ours and she's just good people.

Kristin Nilsen 4:58

She's really people. And she's given us a a catchphrase that we will throw out all the time which is no, not the Waltons, not the wall. And if you watch you have to watch the show and then you'll know what we're talking about because we will throw it out there all the time that the Waltons well

Michelle Newman 5:14

and speaking of her amazingly just brilliant, kind of dark, funny series, she touches on some of those really traumatic episodes. Yeah, what is it about Little House on the Prairie? It's either this lovely little you know, children's skipping through fields carrying baskets to go to church,

Kristin Nilsen 5:36

family friendly,

Michelle Newman 5:38

or it's Mom cutting off her leg or Laura getting thrown in a in a cellar because she's kidnapped by a by a crazy mother who thinks she's her dead daughter. Wolves are barns burning down or Mary's baby. Oh my gosh, and John, your

Kristin Nilsen 5:56

beloved horse. It just keeps on going. It's

Michelle Newman 6:00

nonstop and that listeners is our encore episode today. And we had so much fun with this episode, and we had so much fun reliving some of these traumatic little house episodes with Raven stone who if you don't know him, he is at Mr. Stone author on Tik Tok and just again, people amaze me you guys what they can do like Pamela does, and I mean, he is so creative and so clever and so funny. What he does with these with these little house videos is brilliant. Yes. So he's on this episode that you're about to hear as well. chiming in with his thoughts on some of these traumatic little house episodes. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that Raven is like the same age as is our children basically. So this is the lasting effect that you know, little house it spans generations, it just not just us. So

Carolyn Cochrane 6:55

please enjoy episode 16 Little traumas on the prairie.

Speaker 1 6:59

Well, every time somebody lights a match they throw carry in the creek. Why didn't we get the kids here some water?

Michelle Newman 7:11

Is the sound like we're saying? Come on again.

Kristin Nilsen 7:22

We'll make you happy. Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who risked losing their eyesight if they set too close to the TV. We

Carolyn Cochrane 7:35

believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images. And if we don't talk about them both disappear like Marshall Wilson Harley on a routine expedition.

Michelle Newman 7:46

And today, in our final episode of season one, we're talking about some of the more traumatic episodes of Little House on the Prairie with tick tock sensation and our new friend, Raven stone.

Carolyn Cochrane 7:59

I'm Carolyn.

Kristin Nilsen 8:00

I'm Kristin.

Michelle Newman 8:01

And I'm Michelle and we are your pop culture preservationists.

If you listen to episode nine of the podcast, little Gen Xers on the prairie, you know that Carolyn and Kristen and I basically grew up in Walnut Grove, with half pine and PA and Mrs. Olson and Miss Badal and Doc Baker, the whole gang. They were like our second family. And when you find people who feel the same way, people who get your jokes about rabid raccoons are taking a knife to your own leg. You know, you're gonna be friends. Raven stone is one of those people. Raven took his love for Little House on the Prairie to Tiktok, where he slays us with parody videos of our favorite pioneer family, often featuring his own very special relationship with PA. Welcome to the PCPs Raven. Thank you. We're so excited that you're here today and joining our conversation. But first, we want to ask you a few questions. How would you describe what you do on Tik Tok? Like, what's your dinner party speech? Well,

Speaker 1 9:09

so I originally got on tick tock so that I would be well rounded as an author, I would be accessible on every social media platform. And I really didn't have a game plan. When I got on there. I was just kind of I made a few videos talking about my book. And they were still just they weren't they were just personal videos. And then there was a trend that I noticed as I was flipping through videos of the how many shots would it take me to sleep with the doctors of Grey's Anatomy or the Marvel superheroes and I was like, You guys are just completely missing the most important I'll do it it's fine. All right, we're gonna go through and see how many shots it would take me to sleep with the man of Little House on the Prairie. So Starting off with Charles angles, zero shots because look, it is hair as face. He shirtless in an episode where he falls out of a tree and breaks his ribs, zero shots. Here we have nose also in the shopkeeper and say, three or four, because he's kind. Here we have Adam Mary's husband, zero shots. He was my childhood crush. She's just gorgeous and kind. Here we have the dark Baker, say seven or eight. He's very scrunchie it's the Reverend Alden 100 shots, I would rather die than sleep with the Reverend Dalton. And finally, Almanzo Wilder, I'd say two shots just because I can't see his lips. So I did the how many shots did it take me to sleep with the amount of Little House in the prairie video. And that's kind of where I just accidentally stumbled into prairie talk. And all of these little house fans that I had no idea would even exist on Tik Tok, I thought it was just teenagers. So after that, and kind of I've started after I started making Little House on the Prairie content consistently, it just became more of a space where I can connect with these women predominantly, and, and things that I grew up with that they're always surprised that I grew up with to. So it's just an awesome, very specific, comfortable, cozy, nostalgic place that I kind of exist in on that app and that platform.

Carolyn Cochrane 11:39

I love that your grandmother is such a part of your story. Because, again, going down the Raven rabbit hole, and how she kind of introduced you to a lot of these shows and programs because you obviously weren't watching them in real time like we were because right ravens a little bit younger than so yes, you were about 1975 real time, which

Kristin Nilsen 12:06

makes me so happy to know that somebody who's 25 years old thinks that this is as important as I did, or is laughing as hard as I am now. Yes.

Speaker 1 12:15

Well, it's iconic. I mean, it's so iconic. It was on for nine years. And it was huge. And I like you said Carolyn with my, my granny and stuff. I mean, I wouldn't have necessarily been interested in the things I'm interested in now. And every aspect of my life, not just my not my not testing, you know, TV and movies and stuff, but music and, and just my overall personality and kind of morals and values that tend to be more old fashioned in a very liberal way. So

Kristin Nilsen 12:52

she was the one who brought you to Little House on the Prairie your granny?

Speaker 1 12:56

Yes, yeah, because she ended up they started coming out with the box sets on DVD. So she would she bought I remember she bought in the first four seasons. I was like I was in elementary school when she bought the first four seasons, and we just went through and watched them. And I think we watched four or five episodes because I would go over to her house every other weekend. And we would get little caesars and rent a movie or go see a movie and just hang out. So then when I went home that weekend, I was like, Can I take this with me? Can I borrow this, please? And then I just like was watching them at home and then we just kind of power through the first four seasons.

Michelle Newman 13:38

I love how you said that. It's what brought her or it's what brought people comfort, because I think that's what I mean little house has seen such a huge resurgence this past year for that very reason. It's it's, it's gotten so many new fans, but it's all the people like us who watched it and haven't watched it maybe in years or decades. Now at night. That's just kind of what I want to watch a lot even though when we say it brings us comfort like we're going to talk about in a little bit. It's more nightmare inducing, right? I feel them bringing me comfort, but it's the comfort in the nostalgia and the comfort and the memories and for you to I think just having even though you weren't watching them in the 70s You're finding comfort in the characters and in the stories because of the nostalgia. It brings you have the memories with your granny. I'm assuming granny had a pretty good sense of humor. Because I'm just imagining one how proud she would be of you to how you are almost all the videos and the content that you're creating is almost a tribute to her and look how many I mean, what did I just pulled up on Tik Tok? You have 51.8 1000 followers. You've had over a million likes on your videos and didn't just start these like last year.

Unknown Speaker 14:55

Yeah, I started in October. Okay, so

Michelle Newman 14:57

look at the joy that you've broad to people all because of your granny really. And so it's almost like what a beautiful tribute to her. But because of what you're by what you're doing,

Speaker 1 15:10

I like to think that too and but you know, she has

Michelle Newman 15:14

a hand and all of this though Raven, you think about it, I mean the success of that and just the the joy that you're bringing to people and then the future success you're going to have with all your forthcoming projects because of Little House and it's just, I like to think that it's her having a hand in it.

Speaker 1 15:29

For sure. I liked I liked that. I liked that, too. I just, yeah, it was a very special relationship that more than ever, in the past decade, I feel is very active and alive. Definitely.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:43

So.

Kristin Nilsen 15:44

Okay, speaking of special relationships, when make a hard turn. At what point did you start to understand that Pa was sassy? Because I'm looking back and like, I don't know, as a child, like, I may have been looking at him, but I didn't know what sexy was yet. So it's curious at what point did that hit you over the head? Well,

Speaker 1 16:05

I think it honestly not to get super, super, super deep. But I think that goes hand in hand when I realized that I was gay. It wasn't I mean, I'm this you're

Michelle Newman 16:16

probably not alone in that. Yeah. Michael Landon.

Unknown Speaker 16:22

He's really doing good work.

Kristin Nilsen 16:27

find themselves

Michelle Newman 16:28

you do quite a few impressions that we think are pretty spot on. So we were wondering if you would if you would maybe just like, do a few for us today. Our favorites. Carry it for sure. But my favorite is harissa. So you want to give us a little Harriet.

Speaker 1 16:51

You're putting me on the spot. No, it's funny. She's, she's the one that came. Just like completely naturally to me. It was like a year or two ago, one of my co workers and I, I was rewatching Luna House on the Prairie for whatever. However many times I've done it in the past, but I was rewatching it and he had also done a little house fan. And we were just when we are at work, we would just kind of go into character and I'd be like, oh, good day miss. He could not do any better be like oh, good day, Mrs. Olson

Michelle Newman 17:31

said today, so we have some favorites from your most harrowing tick tock videos and we'd like to pick your brain about them a little bit. See if we can trigger some people's memories and shed some light on the trauma. First up is the heartwarming, my Ellen. How is this episode? Anything but nightmare inducing?

Speaker 1 17:50

No. It's just I mean, I think it's just immediately it's like, Hey, I'm gonna It's like this week. It's gonna be so great. We're gonna go swimming in the lake with Alan. And then she drowns like, could you imagine they go back to school and it's like, how was your lake weekend? And she's like, she's dead dead?

Michelle Newman 18:10

Also, can someone please explain to me why these girls who are like Mary's like maybe 14 Why are they skinny dipping in the middle of the day. I remember being really disturbed by sub sub as a child because of the drought and because of the girl probably around my age when I was watching it is now dead. And the mother's grief is what gets me almost the most and then now rewatching it as a mother I've haven't watched this episode in decades. And you guys just the mother throwing herself on the coffin. Don't put dirt on my baby and then telling Reverend Alden. Oh my Ellen's so scared of the dark. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 18:48

Laura to and Bs. And when

Michelle Newman 18:50

she blames Lauren, nobody steps into to save

Speaker 1 18:55

her. There's just like standing behind her and be like, yeah, Laura. Nobody's gone swimming with you ever again. No. Funeral she's

Kristin Nilsen 19:01

doing this and have you killed my baby. Nobody's like now now. Or

Michelle Newman 19:06

even just understanding the mother's grief, even par ma just pulling her aside and saying it's okay. He waits till they're back home in the barn. She's got to sit with that little nugget of you know,

Unknown Speaker 19:15

did I call my friend? Yes.

Michelle Newman 19:18

Oh my god. I just felt like it was

Kristin Nilsen 19:20

eating when she threw herself over the coffin. The moms like Whoa, she throw herself on the coffin. I was eating a chocolate chip cookie. Oh, I couldn't swallow it. I just had to hold the chocolate chip cookie in my mouth for a while until that scene passed.

Michelle Newman 19:36

Because I think a lot of these episodes like that or moment let's just say moments like that are almost much more nightmare inducing to me as a child and as a as an adult than some of the more preposterous things that happen. The bear attacks are the giant because they're so much more plausible like they're so they're so they're so much more realistic. And so yeah that mother's grief before she goes nuts and tries to dress Laura like her daughter and make her call her mama and I'm on and Laura just, she just kind of goes with it, doesn't she? I guess yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 20:10

he's scared though. She's a little girl and she's scared. So I would you want her to be heroic and escape. But that's in a cartoon.

Michelle Newman 20:18

It's really up though. You'd

Kristin Nilsen 20:19

be scared of your kidnapper.

Speaker 1 20:21

Yeah. But it's interesting, too, because it's not just a kidnapper. It's like a, like her friends, one of her good friends mothers that she's known and as, you know, gone over to her like in the beginning of the episode. She's like, she hasn't suffered grief and she hasn't gone through this trauma. So of course, she's just your average Walnut Grove mother do hanging up the laundry. But it's interesting, because I don't know. Like, what would I have felt if I would have been kidnapped by one of my childhood friend's mother's after being accused of murdering my friend.

Michelle Newman 21:02

Layers? Yeah,

Speaker 1 21:03

it's very interesting that because it wasn't a stranger, but it's, it's like watching it. It's still very eerie. Like, yes, Laura, have you seen my basement? Oh, have you seen my bed? And she's just like, I need you to get these peaches. It's like you're in your 30s lady you can climb now that ladder. She goes down and

Michelle Newman 21:25

it was written so creepy. Like just the call me Mama and love you.

Carolyn Cochrane 21:29

And then when our hair isn't in the braids, and you know, she's got that other that was that was the that

Speaker 1 21:34

was the most me too because she's like, they it's not just suddenly like she on braids, the braids and she's just like, staring at her with her tea.

Kristin Nilsen 21:46

sent into madness is as she's unbreaking Lauren's

Speaker 1 21:49

hair right but like you said, Michelle like I think watching it even like I'm not a mother. And but I'm like an adult that has a better understanding of trauma than I did watching it before and I remember I would always have to like do a palate cleanser after I watched that episode and watch like literally company or something just to like send me into a peaceful sleep. But now I watch it and I'm like, Why didn't anybody help this woman she's literally begging she's she's unraveling and you see her unravel even before Laura gets trapped and nobody's nobody helps her turning her back on her and I'm looking at you Reverend Alden ever gonna be good for one thing? One thing you can't give this woman

Kristin Nilsen 22:43

that was so good.

Michelle Newman 22:47

I do think at the end of my Ellen though, they they seem very forgiving to was her name Eloise I think or something. Yeah. They seem very forgiving. I mean, you know, they're not like taking her away in handcuffs or anything which I would be calling for as the mother of that but you know, maybe we're shedding a little light on the mental health situation and maybe hopefully she's going to we can all just assume she's going to just go get the help however, we have to keep in mind they did just send their small children like two miles by themselves off to school every day through the Bronx. Which brings us to the next episode. So the next episode is the self explanatory one called blizzard. Which in itself is scary enough but it gets worse. We have the terror of all those children freezing to death, like expecting them to freeze to death and then we have to actually watch someone freeze to death. So I have one question for you Raven. Yeah. Why wasn't it Carrie? Why? Carrie because she was totally dead weight. She was Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:44

I think if they would have come home without regardless of how important or useful she is or is not if they would have come home without Carrie it just wasn't the time to get rid of her. I think the mineshaft mineshaft perfect opportunity. This was not the time

Michelle Newman 24:05

but it might have been blamed I guess. No Yeah, they didn't want

Kristin Nilsen 24:09

well

Speaker 1 24:10

yeah you don't want to you don't want to come home and have my yell at you because she when she does yell it is I am so sorry. I will never do anything wrong again. It's just it's the whole you don't want her to be disappointed. Which I think it's like I don't know that disappointed would be the correct term to us if she comes home and her daughter has frozen to death. Daughters I'm just disappointed that you guys left carried a freeze to death is just to support

Carolyn Cochrane 24:40

fetal she would have been just you know who knows?

Kristin Nilsen 24:47

Oh, and saves the day Willie Olson who you think is a complete a complete shit is the one who's comforting this beetle and like patting her on the back of her little her head on not We're

Speaker 1 25:02

eating her braided bun. Her braided bun. Yeah.

Michelle Newman 25:05

A lot of potholes on this episode. Especially all of us being in the Midwest and knowing what blizzards like so I have a question like for

Kristin Nilsen 25:12

instance, are the leaves still on the trees when

Unknown Speaker 25:16

that's never true. Blizzard

Kristin Nilsen 25:18

do not how it works. That's

Michelle Newman 25:19

absolutely we do can come up pretty quickly, however, must be it'll should have known that too. But however, what I think is so funny is there's these kids who come in they're like outside the door and they've maybe been on the Blizzard for 30 minutes. And literally makeup did a great job because their noses look frozen like frostbitten, they're all blue and they think they're dead. The baker, moms think they're dead. And they've been out maybe 30 minutes. Yeah, Laura, Mary and Carrie have bare legs, little leather shoes, and they're out for hours. They're out till after dark they they make their way to the shed. They managed to not burn it down with the fire and the straw not burned down.

Speaker 1 25:59

I know. Mary was in not just a fire but a fire that involved Mary was just such a little Pyro

Kristin Nilsen 26:07

foreshadowing.

Michelle Newman 26:11

But doesn't she burn the barn down a couple times and in the early episodes, but they first of all I also love how they can't see where they're going at all and we've all been in blizzards we know you can't see where you're going. But yet they know that know Laura, the shadows just a little bit further. So they get there. When Paul finds them miraculously because he stumbles in the blizzard he manages to find Laura's construction paper calendar, finds them it's pitch black, we kind of assume they've been out now for it's been three hours, maybe. But the first thing Paul says we got to get you back to the school.

Unknown Speaker 26:48

Top priority,

Michelle Newman 26:49

like first of all, how are they not already dead from frost. And now instead of like, let's just sit here in front of this fire a little longer. He's like, we gotta get it. And it's like

Speaker 1 27:00

you're you're human too. And you just traveled all of this way by I don't know what how you your internal compass. A father's love for his children must have just guided him. Yes. Yes. You don't want to warm up. You don't want to take a minute in the Shadow. Make sure that Mary stays far away from the fire.

Michelle Newman 27:22

Well, he's hard though. He's, he's invincible.

Kristin Nilsen 27:25

But you guys notice this is this. This is the kind of thing that bothers me in a show. And these are the things that I noticed. So Paul gathers up his children and he picks up Carrie and then they they all bend down and they're walking in the blizzard and the snows flying in their face, and they cut away. And when they come back to PA, he's clearly not carrying a real human in his arms. It's like a fake carry. It's basically it's like a rolled up newspaper with a jacket. Because he's now like kind of skipping, lightweight and that is not a human being no.

Michelle Newman 27:55

Notice at the very end of Blizzard, we'll wrap this one up. My favorite is when it's Christmas morning. And when Isaiah walks in, he is dead on Yukon Cornelius from No, yeah came in his voice. I actually had to look it up because my daughter and I both Yukon Cornelius and I had to look it up.

Kristin Nilsen 28:19

Yeah, I can't leave it because I was having some some feelings in that moment. And I couldn't fit. I thought maybe it was Mr. French from family affair, wasn't it? It was Yukon Cornelius. Yeah,

Speaker 1 28:30

it's the snow. It's the like the just like the complete mountain man.

Kristin Nilsen 28:37

And the snow coming in after you and your red nose.

Michelle Newman 28:42

But he has the he has the voice down. It's it's Danny it was

Unknown Speaker 28:48

everybody lose some children in a blizzard.

Michelle Newman 28:52

It's like exactly what you says when it comes in like I'm saved. I'm not dead. Cheers.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:00

A couple of things. One is in your Tiktok video when you describe the way that Mrs. Edwards runs the water. I laugh

Unknown Speaker 29:11

like she's running like these frozen people though. She's like

Kristin Nilsen 29:18

she's like doing the hurdles.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:21

So getting back to trauma mean so it's supposed to be Christmas. This is the Christmas episode. We're also happy everyone's back. Except for the one man who froze to death and stumbled and Mr. McGinnis saw him like you know Laura, this is trauma you saw a dead man that you'd like basically stepped on is you're trying to get passes

Kristin Nilsen 29:39

keep on moving your body. I gotta tell

Carolyn Cochrane 29:44

the woman who saw how much he loved her husband because he got her the sewing machine

Kristin Nilsen 29:53

frisky at the you know, the table will change. Yeah,

Speaker 1 29:58

but it's like everybody, everybody save all of our families are reunited and then it shoots over to them and they're like, then

Michelle Newman 30:04

you have to hear her whale. And then Paul thinks she's going to fix everything by the Gospel according to Luke.

Speaker 1 30:10

He's gonna fix anything. He should have started with taking off his shirt.

Michelle Newman 30:16

I was supposed to read this sermon today and he just the shirt off. Sorry,

Speaker 1 30:19

I'm a little warm. Yeah, I wasn't sure

Michelle Newman 30:24

how the Christmas story was supposed to make her feel yet

Carolyn Cochrane 30:26

because he was supposed to preach that was the Yeah, she was doing this morning because Reverend Alden was at the other

Michelle Newman 30:31

church. I know but but he could have maybe actually done a sermon and not Well, I agree he could he does like the gospel like the Christmas story of already knows which offers no um, yeah, well, I guess maybe for some people are gonna letters don't send it back. It

Speaker 1 30:45

would have been it would have been so great. If it would have been like, I had this is before today, I was going to go in and this is what I was going to talk about, but I don't feel like it's fitting anymore. Yes. And then go in and say, we've experienced loss today. We've experienced fear. And then,

Michelle Newman 31:00

so I have a shoe and he rips off his shirt.

Kristin Nilsen 31:04

And then the shirt comes off. Yeah, but he sprays it down easy. One of the

Michelle Newman 31:08

most scarring episodes I think we can all agree is May we make them proud. Where Mary has to watch her baby and Mrs. Garvey burned to death. Oh, well, she has to sorry. She has to listen to him burn to death

Kristin Nilsen 31:25

not support this, okay?

Michelle Newman 31:28

No, and also you guys when it's happening, we're gonna go back but I'd have to say when it's happening. All of those blind children are sitting on the house is an inferno when they're away. The wind and they're all sitting there. 10 feet 15 feet from it. Nobody thought to get them back a little farther.

Kristin Nilsen 31:50

Maybe a little. Maybe go to out into the field instead of in the yard. Well, every

Speaker 1 31:54

time somebody lights a match, they throw carry in the creek. Why didn't we get the kids here? What's the difference? The whole like, there's

Kristin Nilsen 32:04

so many missteps in this one. Are we to believe that Mary forgot her baby?

Speaker 1 32:08

That was my biggest moment. Because when I was watching that when I just read well, he just it was both of them, like Adam grabs her. So it's not just Mary neglecting to forgetting it's like Adams. She was like, I get the most important thing, the most helpless thing in this room and that is my blind wife. No, it's your kind of your baby that can't walk.

Kristin Nilsen 32:31

She's singing to the thing. She's at baby. And she's just like, let's go

Michelle Newman 32:36

and he says, I wrote it down. He yells Mary, there's a fire. Come on. We have to get the kids out and he grabs her hands away from the cradle.

Speaker 1 32:45

You would think the most important kid take the baby right?

Michelle Newman 32:51

Mrs. Garvey does it too. She goes in and gets a baby and she's like, the baby and

Kristin Nilsen 32:56

then it's like I'm in the bathroom. I'm stuck in the bathroom.

Michelle Newman 32:59

Can we all just agree that other than Albert it's that little boys fault for snoring? Oh yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 33:07

The scene where Mrs. Garvey is cradling a baby flames are flying up around her and she's using screaming and she's knocking out the window with her elbow holding the baby and at the same time you guys that Stephen King that I'm like is this is this the movie Carrie house on the prairie fire starter terrified yes it's Firestarter it's not funny

Speaker 1 33:35

buying it's just no because and I think what's even worse because it's like this is just just the the event in and of itself is horrifying. But then the little plot holes make it that much worse because neither of them had to die. I don't I would never ever call somebody a bad mother but reckless maybe forgetful ditzy I don't know. Baby,

Michelle Newman 34:05

your baby circling back to my question way earlier in this conversation about why did they make the storylines in real life you guys marry Engels did not ever have a baby and was never married. So this whole storyline was totally fabricated what good god why like what was the purpose and why did they have to go that extra step with Mrs. Garvey holding the baby and they couldn't just had like, they didn't have to have the scene where we had to see it. They just said the fire and then okay, and then the other scene the house is basically rubble. But yet Charles is able to not only find the corpses of the baby Mrs. Garvey, but the clay pipe with a burned pipe looks like a bubble pipe.

Kristin Nilsen 34:48

Totally dead. And when he hands over the baby corpse to Mary I was like do not have a lullaby. Don't do it.

Michelle Newman 35:11

There's the Stephen and I was like, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 35:12

yes. And then she has to hum the lullaby the whole frickin show. That's not been just,

Speaker 1 35:19

I mean, I so Alice and the baby breaking through the window. Yeah, that's traumatic. I didn't need to see that. But then later when Mary is having her breakdown, and and now that comes in, she's like, what's wrong? And it's like, did you? Were you in town? Do you not know what's wrong? Her baby was burned. She's gonna struggle 24 hours later.

Michelle Newman 35:49

My favorite piece of dialogue from this episode is at the beginning, and Mary said the cradle. This is before the fire the night of the fire, and she's got her hand in there. And Adam comes in and she says something about his grip and Adam says he does this literally, this is the die like he does have a grip he must take after his mommy

I paused it and I looked at my 25 year old and I looked at her and she looked at me and I go he did not just say that and she was laughing until she was crying and I had to like write it down on my iPad. He does have a he must take after his mommy. I'm sorry. I just went there. I know Michelle sorry.

Carolyn Cochrane 36:31

goes into her mind knows

Speaker 1 36:35

where else you're gonna go. Yeah. Where else do you go from there? Grip what?

Kristin Nilsen 36:41

What Adam?

Unknown Speaker 36:45

Adam? Yeah, we

Carolyn Cochrane 36:46

know he's I would have a grip on

Kristin Nilsen 36:52

both of them have those eyes. Like

Michelle Newman 36:54

his boys. It's the sunshine family come to life. A

Speaker 1 36:57

little bit. His best sir. Just. And he's an educator. That's right. It sounds sexy. It's the most badass profession there. It really is right now.

Carolyn Cochrane 37:10

Right? Right. I

Speaker 1 37:11

mean, he is just yeah, he's my oh my goodness. If I were my age, it would be awesome.

Kristin Nilsen 37:19

So this is this is out of left field. But does any of this relate to your real life? Like, like your day job? Do you? Do you have a day job? Is it is it on the prairie? To the prairie

Unknown Speaker 37:34

fires living

Michelle Newman 37:38

on this Raven?

Speaker 1 37:40

Yeah, no, I mean, it's Thankfully, no, none of these things. I'm very grateful. Do not apply. You know, I'm the head of the kids department at my Barnes and Noble and

Kristin Nilsen 37:53

round of applause Yeah.

Speaker 1 37:56

But I you know, it's a very, very rare rewarding job to have. And just the same way that little house is nostalgic and comforting and I get to live in that when I'm not at work. And in everything else I do outside of work. When I'm at work I'm surrounded by the books that I grew up with and I'm with little house and people come up to me like Do you have a Little House on the Prairie and I have

Kristin Nilsen 38:27

like, impression for them throughout a little Harriet.

Carolyn Cochrane 38:32

So Raven, do you have anything coming up that we should be looking out for ya

Speaker 1 38:37

so I am just going to continue be to post my videos and on tick tock and stuff but I'm recording my album in the studio in a local studio here in Michigan on April 5 through the seventh. I'm gonna be in the studio for like 10 hours those 30 days to write the songs or is it well yeah, so I Yeah, so it's folky fable. They're all like little queer individual love stories. They're just like kind of rewritten fairy tales, and not even rewritten just the tropes that you see in Grimms fairy tales all the time and making them clear and songs as well so I I love creating content about my book and just letting people know that this is something I've done and this is something I'm working on. And then the biggest one that my my little house fans are very excited about I'm going to be adapting my videos with Charles the love affair into a short stories Siri, because I can only do so much with with the dialogue that I write, hey, I can only do so much. So I'm going to be starting from the beginning where I first we first meet when I first arrived in Walnut Grove all the way through to the end so it's gonna be like a period article where subscribers can get early access and then it'll just be available to everybody the week after it comes out. So that's fantastic.

Carolyn Cochrane 40:07

And where's the best place for people to get that information?

Speaker 1 40:11

Do you have a website? Yeah, so my website is Mr. Stone author.com. Just like my everything is Mr. Stone author. So Mr. Stone author.com is my website, Mr. Stone author, it's by Tik Tok my Instagram, my Twitter. So I like to be user friendly.

Michelle Newman 40:27

Raven, thank you so much for joining

Unknown Speaker 40:31

us so fun. No, thank you for having

Michelle Newman 40:34

so impressive. I mean, you guys 25 Impressive. And we're just so happy to know you and share on your success and follow along and we really feel like we've met a kindred spirit. Oh, yeah, we're all friends. We're all blended together. And there are so many of them in the world. So unexpected.

Kristin Nilsen 40:52

Agreed Michelle, that is so true. And many thanks also to the kindred spirits who are listening with us today. And we hope you had as much fun as we did. And that my friends is the end of season one. Thanks to each and every one of you for listening and helping us make it a success. Yes,

Michelle Newman 41:07

thank you so much, you guys. I can't believe it. It's it's crazy. And it's been so much fun and has exceeded our wildest dreams. And so we want to thank all of you listening for that. Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 41:17

so much I who thought that, you know, our love of Shaun Cassidy, Land of the Lost and the Christie doll and Easy Bake Oven would be shared by so many others. So they found out so fun. Yes, we should. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 41:31

yes. And during our hiatus would love to still chat with you on social media. So make sure you're following along there. Just search pop culture Preservation Society. And it's also a great time to catch up on any of the previous 15 episodes you may have missed, and to share the society with friends, the reviews, share on social media, share our posts, tag us in posts. There's lots of ways to stay connected.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:54

Yes, definitely follow us on social media. That's where we'll be keeping you posted all about season two. And we're so excited about all things we have planned. You know, we are just dying to chat about Barry Manilow.

Kristin Nilsen 42:08

In the meantime, please raise your glasses for a toast, courtesy of Janet would Chrissy snow and Jack tripper to good times to happy days.

Carolyn Cochrane 42:17

To Little House on the Prairie. Cheers, cheers,

Kristin Nilsen 42:20

cheers rmation opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to me the crush ologists and Carolyn and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, I guess there's always a first time that PCPs is written produced and recorded at modern well a woman centered co working space in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional w j m studios and our beloved Mary Richards, man man and keep on truckin and may the Force be with you. Again, I have the feeling when we're saying in a song.

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