Patrick Labyorteaux Reflects On 'Little House' & Andy Garvey

Buzz Feed

5 days ago

One of the best parts of Little House on the Prairie is the memorable supporting characters. Who can imagine Walnut Grove without the Olesons or the Garveys? Season Four introduced us to Jonathan, Alice, and Andy Garvey, who became close friends with the Ingalls.
To continue celebrating 50 years of Little House, I chatted with Patrick Labyorteaux about his audition, working with his brother Matthew [who played Albert Ingalls], Michael Landon, favorite episodes, and more!
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BuzzFeed: You started Little House at the beginning of season four. Can you tell me about your audition?
Patrick Labyorteaux: It was a pretty awesome experience. I'd been a fan of Little House because I was the same age as Melissa [Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura], and I loved watching a kid my age go on all these adventures. On a Wednesday, I had just watched an episode — I think it was "Bunny" or "The Race" — and that Thursday, my mom told me I had an audition for Paramount. I auditioned for Susie Sukman, the casting director. She said, 'I want you to read for Michael Landon,' and it turned out it was for Little House. I thought, 'Great, I love Little House!'
They were shooting in Simi Valley that day, about 90 minutes from Paramount in Hollywood, so they put us on a bus. It was myself, my mom, and five other kids with their moms. We drove up there, and they had a base camp set up where all the big trucks and generators were in one area. We're coming up over this hill, and there's Walnut Grove, as we all know it, and under the main tree in the middle of the square was Michael Landon dressed up like Pa.
Michael had this amazing ability to make you feel like he's just another guy, even though he's Michael Landon. We auditioned, and then he gathered all of us around. I was right next to him; he had his arm around me, and he goes, "I want to thank everybody for coming to read. We'll let everybody know as soon as we make our decision." We all started to leave, and he held on to me and leaned down. He goes, "You stay here," and he said it in a way where I felt I was in trouble!
So everybody leaves. And he says, "Okay, you got the part, kiddo!" I couldn't believe it! I went to wardrobe, I tried on some outfits, and then I started work the next day. So Wednesday, I watched the show, and Friday, I'm on the show!
What was it like filming your first episode, "The Wolves?"
The next day after my audition, I was filming in the hay loft with Melissa, Melissa Sue, and the baby Carrie twins. At the end of the episode, I went around to say goodbye and thank everybody. Melissa [Gilbert] goes, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "It was great working with you!" She goes, "You're in the next episode!"
I was told that I was on the show, but I understood that to mean I was on the show this week. I didn't know Andy Garvey was a recurring character. It was around a month before I realized that I had signed a contract, and I'm in a lot of episodes. I thought it would only be a couple episodes, but then it ended up being a few years.
You had the unique experience of getting to act with your brother Matt. What was that dynamic like?
(Laughs) He's my brother. Sometimes we'd get along, sometimes I couldn't stand his face. If you have a sibling, you know! The funny thing is, it was unique if it were any other show other than Little House. Melissa and Jonathan were brother and sister, and we had multiple sets of twins on the show with baby Carrie and baby Grace. A lot of the kids who were extras, like in the class and in the church, were children of the crew members. So on Little House, it actually wasn't unique to be on the set with another family member.
Having said that, I was really happy that my brother and I got to do the show together. Getting to be on the same show and doing all of our press and appearances together was really helpful, for emotional support and for being under the gun. I remember we did this press tour where they flew us down to New Orleans. We were put in a hotel, and we did interviews for a couple of days. Back in the day, there wasn't Zoom — you would show up at a hotel, and they would interview all the NBC TV stars for the year. So we got to do those press junkets together, and it was always fun.
My brother and I were adopted at different times; I was adopted at nine months old and Matt at ten months. The big question from the press was, "What was it like living in an orphanage?" It's like, I don't know, man, I was nine months old! So my brother and I would laugh about that. As far as working on the set, it was really great. If we ever had scenes together, we could rehearse at home, and that would save us time.
I want to highlight a few specific episodes, starting with "Men Will Be Boys," where Andy and Albert go on an adventure in the woods. What are some thoughts you have on that episode?
That's my favorite episode, mainly because it was with my brother and me. We shot it up in Sonora, up in Northern California. I loved Little House because it's about Laura going on adventures, and this time, Albert and Andy were going on an adventure! There's nothing better than going camping with a full Hollywood movie crew. You're out in the woods and you're camping, but they've brought everything. They're doing all the heavy lifting, but we get to benefit from it. We got to swim, we got to do all this stuff.
The other reason why I love the episode is that Michael and Merlin [Merlin Olsen played Jonathan Garvey] were so funny in it. It was just us dudes hanging out on the set and working together. I loved Merlin, and Michael was an amazing inspiration as an actor, writer, and director. I really wish that Michael had done a comedy at some point, because he's really funny.
I also love the scene at the halfway house! All the actors in there were really, really fun to work with. It is definitely my favorite episode.
The next one I wanted to highlight is "The Cheaters," where Andy and Nellie cheat on their school tests.
Well, firstly, Alison [Alison Arngrim portrayed Nellie] is a force of nature. If you see her at any kind of event, she's at 100% and I've never not seen her at 100%. When I first met Alison on the set, it was outside in Walnut Grove. She walked up to me, and she goes, "Have you seen Pink Flamingos [1972 film]?" And I go, "I don't know what Pink Flamingos is." She starts explaining about John Waters to me, and she was into all these independent movies. I always describe meeting Alison like she started talking to me as if we were in the middle of a conversation, and that conversation has never really stopped. She's the same person I met 50 years ago.
The difference between Alison and Nellie was the same difference between Katherine MacGregor and Mrs. Oleson. When we were on set waiting to shoot, they were one type of person, and then when we were in the scene, they were a completely different person. For the most part, I think I was pretty much like Andy. I mean, I'm just a guy playing around and hanging out. Alison wasn't anything like Nellie, you know, Nellie was mean, and Nellie could be really manipulative.
When we did the episode "The Cheaters," I remember thinking it was an episode where I had a lot to do. In many episodes, I didn't have a lot to do, but I was still on set all the time. It was really fun to work with Alison — no matter how hard my mom tried to be mean when we ran dialogue, it wasn't the same as how Alison would do it.
The last episode I wanted to dive deep into is "May We Make Them Proud," with the fire at the school.
That's a super dramatic episode, especially when you're watching it with the David Rose music! For me, it was a difficult period because Andy's mom, Alice Garvey, dies in the blind school. Then in the next episode, Jonathan and Andy move to another town, so I'm leaving the show.
It was kind of a backdoor pilot that they didn't pick up. The idea was that Merlin would be the sheriff of a town, and I was going to be his son. The network said, "We want Merlin, but we don't want him as part of Little House." So they did the show Father Murphy, and had to cast a kid who looked just like me for that show.
It's kind of sad because I was leaving Little House. When you're 15 and getting fired, even though you didn't do anything wrong, you're losing a job, and it sucks. The good news was that my brother was still on the show, so I saw all my friends whenever I could.
We talked about a bunch of your co-stars, but can you tell me more about working with Hersha Parady and Merlin Olson?
I got along great with Merlin and Hersha. Hersha played my mom, and I remember her being very motherly. It was sort of like my mom was on the set. I'm not a method actor at all, but I was a kid. If there's a lady playing your mom, I didn't try to avoid her, but like, I didn't want to be scolded, or I didn't want to be taken care of by two moms. Don't get me wrong, Hersha was amazing. As an actor, I loved doing scenes with her — she's got a great history, and she was really talented. But I was basically acting like a young boy having his mom on set.
Merlin was a bit of a different story. My dad was really sick, and he was in the hospital all the time. I kind of needed that father figure, and I was looking to connect with Merlin. Merlin was an amazing guy who really took me under his wing. At the time, I didn't understand that he knew what was going on with my dad. I thought that I was getting away with getting an extra father for free, but he knew what was going on and was really sweet about that.
What are you up to now? I'm a fan of your podcast!
I'm still acting and writing screenplays, and I also started an acting school, Working Actors School. It's fully online; you can do it from anywhere. You don't have to be in Hollywood, and that's kind of the way the industry is now. It's for adults, it's for kids, and we have different classes for different age groups. It's a great school if you're looking to start out.
The podcast started around the Working Actors School. I thought, "Well, how am I going to get people to know that the school exists?" A friend of mine said, "Why don't you try TikTok? Talk about your school, or put up some lectures or something." I did a couple, and on one of them, I told a story about, I think, Carol Burnett. I got like 400,000 views, and I had only been on TikTok a few weeks. I thought, "I'll just tell stories about people I've worked with!" Then reality hit, and I was telling stories, and they weren't all getting 400,000 views, but I could see the idea was working. I would also mention the acting school, and that was my idea of promotion.
I realized I'm going to run out of stories, so I started talking to people that I've worked with. That's where the podcast came from. It's The Patrick LabyorSheaux with Patrick Labyorteaux. It's on YouTube and anywhere you get your podcasts. We talk about a person's career, their acting, and their experiences. I've had so much fun with it!
It's been over 50 years since the show aired, and it's still so popular. Are you surprised by the fanbase Little House continues to have?
I approach it from a couple of different angles. One, I'm a big science fiction and comic book guy. I understand the concept of a fandom, especially with shows like Lost, and also Star Wars and Star Trek. I get the idea of people connecting with Little House, especially since it was about something that really happened. I also think this recurrence got turbo-charged by the pandemic, and everybody found the show again. On a technical level, we shot on film, and so it's gorgeous. You can up-res to 16:9 because there's a film negative, which they've done to a lot of these episodes.
Michael and I had lunch one day. Mike would eat with everybody, because he wasn't like one of those TV stars. He was just a guy on the show, and it just happened to be his show. We were sitting there, and we ended up being the last two people at the table.
At the time, Mork and Mindy was a huge hit, and Robin Williams was breaking out, and you couldn't get away from it. I asked Michael, "Hey, are you worried about Mork and Mindy? It's huge!" They were on ABC, and we were on NBC, and I think we were going up against them.
He goes, "No, not really." And I go, "But they're so cool!" He goes, "Our show is about the past. We're already predated. You'll be able to watch Little House in 50 years, and it'll still be on TV." He literally said that to me. What I didn't understand was the idea of reruns and syndication and, at that time, that meant being on local stations. There was no cable, there was no internet, but local stations would buy the shows and rerun them. The reality is, he was absolutely right. This type of show will always be able to be viewed because it focuses on interactions between humans. That's never outdated.