Alison Arngrim And Dean Butler Share Hilarious And Heartwarming Memories As “Little House On The Prairie” Celebrates 50 Years

Growing up, my mom taped all the Little House On The Prairie re-runs, and many Friday nights were spent making popcorn and watching our favorite episodes. Michael Landon created a world that drew families in week after week, excited to see Laura and Almanzo’s love story, Mrs. Oleson and Nellie’s latest antics, and the tribulations the Ingalls family faced living on the prairie.

With the show’s 50th anniversary, a new podcast, and the release of Dean’s autobiography Prairie Man, it was a perfect time to catch up with two of the stars who brought the show to life.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

BuzzFeed: Alison, as someone who started from the beginning of Little House, when did you realize it was such a big hit?

We didn’t think it would be a hit when we first started. Nobody really did. I remember my father saying, “I don’t know why they’re spending so much money. No one will watch this. It’ll be over in six months”. But Michael [Landon] knew because a whole generation of women grew up reading the books and then became teenagers watching Little Joe in Bonanza.

I knew we were having some kind of impact—people were freaking out about my character within days. The very next day [after Nellie’s premiere], I went to school, and some girl called me a bitch, right there and then! I think it was around year three it was really becoming a thing, and it was getting recognized, and I thought, “The seven-year contract might actually be real!”

Dean, were you a fan of the show before you joined?

Alison Arngrim: There are actually multiple Wizard of Oz tie-ins with Little House. We have Ray Bolger and David Rose, who did our music and was married to Judy Garland. We also filmed at Paramount for several years and moved to MGM, where we took on stage 15. That’s where they filmed The Wizard of Oz. And yes—Melissa [Gilbert] and I did find part of the yellow brick road!

Little House had a 50th-anniversary event in Simi Valley this past March. What is your reaction to the thousands of fans who attended from all over the world?

It became crystal clear the first morning of our event at Simi Valley as we’re doing the day’s first panel. Coming out on stage, the tent was packed, and there was this roaring applause. I felt tears well up in my eyes. After the panel, I walked out of the tent, and there was a line of people half a mile long waiting to get in. By the time the weekend was over, we realized that 18,000 people from 27 countries had come to Simi Valley to celebrate Little House. It was a weekend so steeped in Little House love. It was an amazing, amazing time. Nobody who was there, certainly members of our cast, will ever forget that weekend.

Alison Arngrim: We had people coming up to the tables. People would cry, come up and bring gifts, come in costume, and come from all over the world. And the fans, they would help each other. They would get online and go, “I have a hotel room. Does somebody need a hotel room?” It was this community.

We saw it a couple of years ago in Walnut Grove, where fans waited in line, and then they started talking and became Facebook friends and pen-pals. I heard people say, “I was in line for four hours, but I’m best friends with this lady in Australia now!” It’s become this whole community, and it’s absolutely amazing to see.

Dean Butler: There were just smiles everywhere. There was this overwhelming sense of love and appreciation for the common connectedness that this show creates in people. It’s very special.

Nellie and Almanzo had many scenes together, especially in season six. Do you have a favorite memory about the iconic “cinnamon” chicken scene [when Laura swaps the cinnamon with cayenne pepper]?

The chicken was delicious. It was lovely baked chicken with no cayenne pepper. Our prop men were such wonderful cooks. I got the best food on that job. So our prop man brought us lovely, lovely, lovely herb-roasted chicken. And we sat there, and at one point, Dean, I think you said something like, “Should we put pepper, not a lot, just like a single dash of pepper on it, just to get the smell?” And then that was it. We started. And I think you [Dean] went first, where you froze and looked at me, and your eyes went wide, and then I started, and it was contagious. And both of us, our eyes got bigger, we both got red.

Then I’m doing the chugging-the-water thing. So when we’re doing this, I go to chug a huge mug of water, and I can’t chug it. I start to put it down, and Michael’s saying, “No, no. Keep it rolling. Don’t even cut. Refill her glass because, listen, you’re going to chug that entire glass of water. Do not put it down until it is empty. I don’t care if water comes out your nose. I don’t care if it comes out your eyeballs. We’re just going to do this. I promise you, it’s funnier.”

I chugged, and water came out the sides of my mouth, and water did come out of my nose. And, of course, it’s hysterical. It’s brilliant. He’s absolutely right. It was the only way to go. You have to chug the whole thing. And then we run into the kitchen, screaming as we’re with the pump and everything.

(Alison has since made cinnamon chicken on her YouTube channel).

Dean Butler: I’ve been explaining to people for years that they didn’t really want the chicken to be hot. I bet there was paprika on the chicken because it was delicious. You want the actor to do the work, and you don’t really want to choke the actor because you want the actor to be in control of the moment that they’re experiencing.

It wasn’t until about two months ago that I actually said, “Let’s make cinnamon chicken!” Someone had created a Little House version, and we did this recipe in my kitchen at home. It was absolutely delicious, and it’s not a hard recipe to do. And I did put a little cayenne pepper on it, just because I really like cayenne pepper.

(You can watch Dean’s cinnamon chicken adventure on his TikTok).

You both also had numerous scenes with the hilarious Katherine MacGregor [Mrs. Oleson]. Was it difficult to keep a straight face?

There were times when I felt it was The Carol Burnett Show where I was just going to lose it with that woman because she was so funny. You never quite knew what she was going to do. She’d really get going; she’d get up in your face when she’d make these noises (imitates Katherine).

She would take us children to the movies, and often, you know, something age-inappropriate, like Young Frankenstein. She wouldn’t let us buy the candy because she’d bring candy from the health food store. She took in stray people and animals. I mean, in real life, she was practically a saint. So yes, (laughs) all of those things were true at the same time.

Dean Butler: Right away, I noticed her talent was just voracious, and she was passionate about what she was doing. People have asked if she was the same on camera as she was off camera. I would have said absolutely. There are people who say, “No, that’s not the case; she was very different.” Maybe in subtle degrees, but Katherine was highly opinionated when she felt like she wanted to say something. She said it. She held nothing back.

I was just knocked out by her talent, and her willingness to help younger members of the cast around her do the best work they could do. I don’t know that Michael was always thrilled that she was coaching people, but she did, and watching her was just like an acting class.

It was a different kind of acting class than you got from watching Michael. Michael, who had perfected his persona through years of Bonanza, occurred so naturally and easily on camera. Katherine’s performance was sometimes a lot bigger than life. When she was working, you just couldn’t take your eyes off of her. She was really amazing.

Alison Arngrim: She made the bigger-than-life completely real. I remember my dad had to talk to her, because, no, Michael was not fond of her directing people. And she would try to keep giving me things to do and try to direct me. At one point, my father said to her, “You really have to rein in, and it’s great you’re giving advice, but Michael is the director.” And she says, “What does he know? He’s just the director!”

What has it been like working together on your podcast and releasing your books? (Dean’s Prairie Man and Alison’s Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch).

It’s been fantastic. We also work with the fabulous Pamela Bob in New York. She’s really the voice of the fans and knows what questions people want to ask. We’ve interviewed so many people from the show and also people about the history.

There have been episodes where I feel like I’ve been in heavy-duty therapy for two hours. I go, “Is this how I felt when I’d go to therapy? I need to go lie down or, like, have a coffee or something.” We’ve had episodes with people we worked with who suddenly, in the middle of our show, go, “I never told anyone this before.” 50 years later, they’re blurting stuff out, and we’re both going, “Wow, wow. Okay, I didn’t know that.”

Dean Butler: Many of our guests, like Melissa Sue Anderson and Karen Grassle, have great stories to tell, and I was so impressed by both of their candor. I’ve loved working with Alison. Alison and I have been doing things on the road together for a number of years now. Nobody in our group is more consistently on and connecting to fans as she is. She engages people at lunches, dinners, in lines, everything. Alison is the welcome wagon of our cast.

So, the idea of doing this podcast was just so automatic. I had this idea, and I think Alison was my first conversation about it. And when we both said yes, we knew we were going to make it.

Alison Arngrim: With my book, people wanted to know about Nellie Oleson and the show, and I knew it’d be funny. I met with HarperCollins, and they decided on that hot pink cover. I’ve met people who said, “I didn’t watch the show. I didn’t know what it was, but I was in the bookstore and saw this hot pink cover. And then there was that face on there, and I went, good Lord, what is this book about?” It’s been a much bigger hit than anything I could possibly have anticipated or imagined. I’m so happy people enjoy it and tell me all the stuff they got out of it.

Dean Butler: It’s a wonderful read. And you know, Alison’s story is so diverse. I think the thing that I love about Alison’s book is that when I read it, I hear her voice. There’s no question that Alison wrote this book because it’s just her rhythm.

In the summer of 2022, we were coming out of the pandemic, and I realized there were no men in our cast who had written a book. I thought, now this is really the time to do this, and there was no better time than around the 50th anniversary. Of course, I asked Alison and Melissa Gilbert to write forewords for [Prairie Man]. They both readily agreed, and both wrote wonderful forewords. If you’re a die-hard Little House fan, to see their names on the cover of this book, you’re going to give it a look. And so I’ve been very gratified by their support of this project.

I’ve read that Little House was one of the best TV shows to work on. Michael Landon truly did it all—act, write, and direct. Can you elaborate on what he was like as a boss?

It was interesting because he was two things at once. On the one hand, absolutely was he a taskmaster because he was writing, directing, and shooting the whole thing. I remember a friend coming to the set and seeing our call sheet and saying, “This says you have 12 pages, and there are multiple things that are complicated setups and tons of dialog. You can’t shoot 12 pages in a day!” Remember, this is film—this isn’t video or steady cams or anything. And, of course, we did the 12 pages.

He would do things very quickly. And when once he was done, he’d say, “Okay, that worked—print!” And then he’d go moving on. He knew his crew, they’d come from Bonanza, and the speed with which things happened was astounding. Now, he also was a huge jokester and prankster and screamingly funny, so you’d be working yourself half-senseless. He’d say stuff, and you’d be on the floor laughing. It got you through the day!

Dean Butler: When I think about Michael, I think nobody on that set understood or had as clear a vision about what was going to happen in every moment as he did. That’s not always the case. There are sometimes myriads of people who have a strong vision of what a show is, and they all need a voice. Michael’s was really the only voice that mattered on our set. He came in knowing exactly what he wanted to do. People have said that Michael cut, shot, edited, and scored the show in his head. As he was doing it, he knew exactly where he was going, and that created an enormous level of confidence among people.

In the beginning, I didn’t realize that asking questions was not really a welcome thing. On my first day, I asked Michael a very simple question after my first scene: “Was that okay?” The smile went away, and he communicated to me very clearly that when he said, “Cut—print!” that was it, and he had seen what he wanted to see. He was good to go, and we were moving on.

Everyone was given the opportunity to succeed, no question about that. But when he saw what he wanted to see, it was done. And I think that’s why he could shoot 12 or 14 pages in a day. We were all there for those days, so he really could move it. His crew was all in with him. They trusted him completely to get what they needed in order to make something good.

Alison Arngrim: He saw it in his head before he knew the shots. I remember someone saying, “Aren’t you going to turn around? Do we need to get that?” He goes, “No, we got it in the master [shot]. I don’t need it.” “But aren’t you going to do that other angle?” “No, I already got it.” He would save several steps. He didn’t have a monitor when he was watching the dailies [unedited footage]. We didn’t have digital. But it was like he did because he could see what it looked like on the screen in his mind.

Dean Butler: Michael was so smart about what he was doing. He knew the scenes in any episode that were really going to sell it. More time would be taken with those scenes to get those moments right. He didn’t have to answer to anybody else. There was no other executive producer in the room saying, “Well, where’s this shot?” Michael had great freedom to shoot what he wanted to shoot, make the schedule work the way he wanted to work, and create beautiful episodes.

What do you think Michael’s reaction would have been to the enthusiasm for the 50th anniversary and the Simi Valley reunion?

I think he would have absolutely loved it, seeing his children there, who we had worked with, Leslie and Mike Jr., taking in what our visitors were experiencing. They [Leslie Landon and Michael Landon Jr.] were so moved. I think they were absolutely certain that Michael would have been just really taken aback by it and loving it all.

Alison Arngrim: He would have been absolutely thrilled. I do think that at some point, he would have turned to us and said, “I told you. I told you 50 years later it would be like this! What did I tell you?” I think he would have been the funniest person on the panels. Can you imagine him on a panel with that size of an audience?

Dean Butler: Seeing multiple generations of people, from people in their 70s and 80s down to toddlers and teenagers, all gathered together—this was what his mission was for the show. He wanted multiple generations of people to be able to watch and enjoy something together, each bringing their own sensibility and experiences to it and learning something from each other in watching this program. I think he would have been absolutely thrilled that his dream had been fulfilled.

Thank you to Alison and Dean for sharing your memories and stories! Prairie Man and Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch are available for purchase in bookstores and online.