'Little House on the Prairie' star says controversial storyline 'would not happen today' due to age gap
Alison Arngrim, who starred as Nellie Oleson in "Little House on the Prairie," believes there's one episode from the series that wouldn't be made today.
On a recent episode of the "Little House 50" podcast, Arngrim spoke to host Pamela Bob, as well as "Little House" co-star Dean Butler, about an episode from the show's fourth season titled "Here Come the Brides," which aired in 1977.
The episode tells the tale of how Oleson is wooed by Luke Simms, a teen boy in town. The two eloped after a brief romance. However, after their parents found out, they were taken back to the Justice of the Peace to be unmarried.
Olesen said she had just turned 15 when they shot the episode. Her character was supposed to be 13.
"I was super… teenage [with] puberty insanity happening," Arngrim explained. "She's just barely 13. This cat is, he's playing I guess 16, 17. He's in his late 20s."
Bob Marsic, who played Simms, was 22.
"It's young girls — children — accosting a grown man who they have not been introduced to," said Arngrim about how the characters reacted to Simms' appearance.
"That would not happen today, right?" Bob asked. "That casting a full-grown adult to play or even kiss — and it was an innocent kiss, but it's a kiss — a minor."
Filming was awkward from the start, Arngrim recalled, noting that she hadn't met her on-screen love interest before they started filming.
"I think we were like kissing on the first day or something," she said. "Maybe the second — day two? It was pretty quick, it was like, 'Hi, introduce yourself, now you're in love.''"
Arngrim noted that if a similar scene were filmed today, there wouldn't be a significant age gap between the young actors. An intimacy coordinator, which didn't exist at the time, would also be on set.
The former child star described how at one point, Marsic brought his girlfriend to the set while the episode was filmed.
"That was another of the weird moments," said Arngrim on the podcast. "His girlfriend shows up, and it was weird because it was like … there was this vague thing of her wanting to be there for the romantic scenes."
"I was like, does this woman think that I am a threat?" she chuckled. "Really? This 15-year-old pimply girl? No. No. I am not a threat to your relationship. I am not stealing your man."
Back in June 2024, Butler spoke to Fox News Digital about how he had struggled with anxiety after discovering that he would be giving his co-star, 15-year-old Melissa Gilbert, her first kiss – both on-screen and in real life.
WATCH: 'LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE' CHILD STAR SAYS SET WAS LIKE 'MAD MEN'
Butler was 23 when he was cast in the popular TV show, which aired from 1974 to 1983.
"You just couldn't do it today," the actor, who played Almanzo Wilder in "Little House," told Fox News Digital. "There would be way too much blowback. It's remarkable that we didn't get more blowback than we did. . . . But I think it was handled so tastefully that people … forgot about the age difference."
"I think the audience had been watching Melissa for years and loved her incredibly," Butler shared. "They wanted to see when she, so honestly and innocently, declared her love for this young man. She fell in love from the first time she laid eyes on him. The audience was prepared to go right along with that."
According to Butler, the characters from the original book series were supposed to have a 10-year age difference. He noted that Gilbert had "complete trust" in her TV dad, who carefully supervised the scene.
"That was a very powerful relationship Melissa had in her life, the one she had with Michael Landon," said Butler. "When Michael said, 'This is the guy for you,' she was prepared to suspend all of her anxieties and just step into it. And Michael never led anyone wrong in the series. He really had it down. He knew what he was doing. He believed very strongly in his creative instincts. He trusted that it would work."
"I'm just really grateful that I was the guy that he felt he could trust with this," Butler added.
Still, both Butler and Gilbert had to overcome their fears in attempting to bring the scene to life.
"I think a lot of young actresses might've folded under the pressure," said Butler. "Melissa had no experience. She'd never been on a date. Never kissed anyone. Never did anything like that. That was still all ahead of her. So to ask her to step into that when she had no real life experience? It does speak to Melissa's gumption and her courage. She just did it. She put all of her anxieties aside and just stepped in. She knew what she had to do to be the Laura that she was supposed to be."
The pair smooched in the episode titled "Sweet Sixteen." Butler said that nearly 100 people surrounded them on set to make sure the shot was perfect.
"My job was to make it as easy for her as possible by really being the gentleman I was raised to be," Butler shared. "There's been no casting pairing like what they did with us since then. That casting could simply never happen today. Certainly not on a mainstream television show."
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