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"Little House On The
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Starring
Michael Landon (as Charles Ingalls) & Karen Grassle (as Caroline Ingalls)
Season 3 (NBC) (1976-77)
Episode Guide
compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by:
references:
TV Guide /
Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (https://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
######### Little House On The Prairie ########
############## season 3 1976-77 ##############
##############################################
NBC Mondays 8:00-9:00pm Eastern (new day)
3.1 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE COLLECTION
27-Sep-1976
Written by Arthur Heinemann
Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Johnny Cash .... Caleb Hodgekiss
June Carter Cash .... Mattie Hodgekiss
Ted Gehring .... Ebenezer Sprague
Hope Summers .... Addie Bjornesen
On his way to Walnut Grove to collect donations, Reverend Alden becomes ill. He
is rescued by Caleb Hodgekiss, an ex-con,
who volunteers to help him. While Caleb's wife, Mattie, tends to the Reverend,
Caleb goes to Walnut Grove, posing as a
colleague of Reverend Alden's to collect donations ... with the intentions of
keeping all the money for himself. However,
after participating in acts of kindness, Caleb has a change of heart and does
the right thing with the money.
3.2 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
I'LL RIDE THE WIND
4-Oct-1976 (some sources say 10-Jan-1977)
Written by Harold Swanton
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Walker Edmiston .... Mr. Frederick Deerling
Mary and Mr. Edward's oldest son, John are deeply in love, they want to be
married. There is only one problem. John has
gotten a scholarship to college to become a writer. John is afraid to leave Mary
because she will change while he is gone,
and Mary doesn't want him to go. Although Mary is only thirteen, the Ingalls
reluctantly agree to let her marry. Mr. Edwards
is exciting and begins plotting out land where John and Mary can live. However,
in the end, they both realize that John must
take the scholarship because writing is his dream, and he won't be him without
it.
3.3 [--] Little House On The Prairie: BUNNY
11-Oct-1976 (some sources say 4-Oct-1976)
Written & Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Eric Shea .... Jason
Laura and her horse, Bunny, are the favorites to win the horse race at the town
fair. However, Harriet has no intention of
letting Laura win; she purchases a thoroughbred, Sparks, for Nellie to ride and
offers her family's large silver cup as the
trophy. On the day of the race, Bunny is exhausted after riding to fetch Doc
Baker. It appears Laura will have to forfeit
but there's no keeping a good horse down. The race is close but Laura and Bunny
win. Laura graciously returns Harriet's
family heirloom.
3.4 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE RACE
18-Oct-1976 (some sources say 11-Oct-1976)
Written by John V. Hanrahan
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Walter Brooke .... Sandler
Carl Pitti .... Carl
When a horse riding accident paralyzes Nellie, Harriet blames Laura and wants to
have the horse, Bunny, destroyed. Laura
is able to hide Bunny from Mrs. Oleson for a while. Though it wasn't her fault,
Laura still feels guilty and services
Nellie's wishes. When Laura discovers Nellie was faking her injuries, Laura
decides to take Nellie outside for some fresh
air, and takes her to the top of the hill. Then, with a push by Laura, Nellie
rolls all the way down the hill into the creek,
where Nellie stands up shrieking, forgetting her "paralysis". Laura is praised
by Harriet Oleson for helping Nellie
miraculously recover. Nels returns Bunny to Laura.
3.5 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE MONSTER OF WALNUT GROVE
1-Nov-1976
Written by John Hawkins
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Candy Moore .... Sarah
Milton Parsons .... Thaddeus Moon
On Halloween, Laura accidentally sees Nels chop off a dolls head. She had only
seen the back of the head, so she believes
it to be Mrs. Oleson. Her friend, Carl, who is the only person to believe Laura,
helps her search for evidence to solve the
crime. Meanwhile, Mrs. Oleson has gone away so the two really think that she has
been murdered. When they tell Nellie and
Willie, they don't believe them, but decide to scare Laura and Carl by saying
that their father has been digging in the
cellar. One night the children meet in the cellar. Nellie and Willie scare Laura
and Carl, and while they are running out
of the store, Mrs. Oleson comes home and everything is cleared up.
3.6 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
JOURNEY IN THE SPRING (Part 1)
15-Nov-1976
Written & Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Arthur Hill .... Lansford Ingalls
Matthew Laborteaux .... Young Charles Ingalls
Mark Lenard .... Peter Ingalls
Hersha Parady .... Eliza Ingalls
Jan Sterling .... Laura Colby Ingalls
Jim Boles .... Brewster
When Charles' mother dies, his father, Lansford Ingalls, loses the will to live.
Charles brings his father back to Walnut
Grove hoping it will do him some good. Spending time with his grandchildren
helps Lansford recover. One day, Laura becomes
angry with her grandfather after there is an accident with her horse, Bunny, He
promised Laura Bunny would live and he was
forced to put Bunny down when the injury was too bad. Feeling bad, Lansford
leaves Walnut Grove. Realizing her anger was
misplaced, Laura is able to find her grandfather and convinces him to return
home with her..
3.7 [--] Little House On The Prairie: JOURNEY IN THE SPRING (Part 2)
22-Nov-1976
Written & Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Arthur Hill .... Lansford Ingalls
Jim Boles .... Brewster
Robert Gibbons .... Clerk
3.8 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
FRED
29-Nov-1976
Written by Robert Vincent Wright
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Don 'Red' Barry .... Rufe Parsons
Joan Tompkins .... Mrs. Parsons
Arthur Space .... Phineas Jenks
On the way home from school one day, Laura is conned into taking a billy goat,
named Fred. During the first night at the
Ingalls farm, Fred eats the crop, so Charles tells Laura that she must get rid
of the goat. However, trying to place the
goat with either Mr. Edwards, Reverend Alden, Mrs. Olsen, or Doc Baker all
result in very funny moments. When Laura finally
finds a home for Fred, she realizes that he is better off with other goats in
the wild, allowing him to set him free.
3.9 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE BULLY BOYS
6-Dec-1976
Written by B.W. Sandefur
Directed by Victor French
Guest Cast:
Rayford Barnes .... Bert Henderson
Roy Jenson .... George Galender
Michael LeClair .... Bubba Galender
Geoffrey Lewis .... Sam Galender
There is a new family in Walnut Grove ... the Galenders. They are three
brothers, with a really bad attitude. They start
in the store and buy supplies, then the lumberyard to fix their house. They say
that they have money due Friday. When it
doesn't arrive, the town gets angry. Charles gets beat up when he protects
Caroline from the two men, and the whole school
gets together to teach the third young bully a lesson. Reverand Alden is the man
that decides that the Galinders must
leave, so during church one Sunday the three are kicked out of Walnut Grove.
3.10 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE HUNTERS (90 min. episode)
20-Dec-1976
Written by Harold Swanton
Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Burl Ives .... Sam Shelby
Paul Brinegar .... Glover
Johnny Crawford
Michael Rougas .... Dr. Canby
Pa decides to go hunting, and Laura follows against Ma's wishes. When Pa and
Laura are preparing the camp, Laura accidently
stumbles over Pa's gun, which goes off, seriously wounding Pa. Laura runs to
Ben's house, but only Ben's blind father,
Sam, is home. As Laura doesn't know how to return to Walnut Grove, she has to
depend on Sam, who fears leaving the house.
But as Sam was not blind when he was younger, he and Laura set out, and after
losing their way several times, they manage
to find the place where Mr. Edward's was waiting for Pa and Laura. They save Pa,
and Sam, who has given up walking around
due to his blindness, gets back his courage and confidence.
3.11 [--] Little House On The Prairie: BLIZZARD
3-Jan-1977
Written by Paul W. Cooper
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Luana Anders .... Lottie McGinnis
John Carter .... Ted McGinnis
Johnny Timko .... Henry McGinnis
Don Dubbins .... Jim Bowers
Christopher Page .... Joey Bowers
Helen Stenborg .... Betty Bowers
Aaron Fletcher .... Peetrie
Robert Gibbons .... Mason
One winter day, before Christmas vacation, the children are at school. Miss.
Beatle realizes that a storm is brewing, and
lets the school children out early so that they all can make it home before the
storm starts. The storm starts before the
children can reach home, and Mary, Laura, and Carrie are caught in it, along
with other children. They set up camp in an
old barn. The men in the town search for the children while Doc Baker sets up
shop in the church to help the frozen
children as they each come in. One man goes outside and finds a boy who came
home by himself, but his Pa dies in the snow.
3.12 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
LITTLE GIRL LOST
10-Jan-1977 (some sources say 18-Oct-1976)
Written by Paul W. Cooper
Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
John Ireland .... Wendell Loudy
Carl Pitti .... Man
When Laura and Mary receive the assignment to collect bugs for studying, Carrie
wants to go with them. Mary becomes upset
and yells at Carrie to stay on the log after Carrie lets out all of Mary's bugs.
Instead, Carrie chases a butterfly, and
falls into an old mine's air shaft. Meanwhile, Mr. Hanson refuses to hire an
ex-miner Mr. Laudy because of his addiction
to alcohol and the fact that he had married Mr. Hanson's daughter against his
will. The whole town pitches in to help get
Carrie out of the shaft, but it is Mr. Laudy that actually finds Carrie before
the whole mine caves in, showing Mr. Hanson
that he should be forgiven.
3.13 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
QUARANTINE
17-Jan-1977
Written by John Hawkins
Directed by Victor French
Guest Cast:
Dick Farnsworth .... Wall
Ray Guth .... Dixon
Rance Howard .... Simpson
Marshall Kent .... Dr. Quimby
Alex Sharp .... Burman
Mr. Edwards takes Doc Baker to help a neighbouring town with an epidemic case of
fatal mountain fever. Upon Mr. Edwards
return, Walnut Grove is placed under quarantine. Mr. Edwards adopted daughter,
Alicia becomes ill with mountain fever,
and he knows he brought it to her, as he was also the carrier when his first
wife and child got sick and died. Mr. Edwards
takes her to his hunting cabin to tend to her. Laura doesn't realize the
seriousness of the illness and enters the cabin.
When she comes down with spots, the mountain fever symptom, she quarantines
herself with Mr. Edwards and Alicia, and ends
up tending both of them when Mr. Edwards collapses from exhaustion. In the end,
Mr. Edwards daughter recovers, and Laura
simply had a case of poison ivy.
3.14 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
LITTLE WOMEN
24-Jan-1977
Teleplay by B.W Sandefur & Dale Eunson; Story by Dale Eunson
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Roger Bowen .... Samuel Mason
Rachel Longaker .... Ginny Clark
Kay Peters .... Della Clark
Warren Vanders .... Harold Mayfield
Miss Beatle thinks that it is a good idea for the school to put on plays in
small groups. In Laura and Mary's group is
Ginny Clark, who doesn't have a father. Ginny's mother, Della, would like to
date the wood man, but she feels that she
doesn't look good enough. Wanting her mother to be able to date, Ginny cuts her
beautiful hair to sell it in order to
buy her mother a dress. Her mother doesn't know how she got the money, and
punishes her, believing she stole the money.
No one realizes it until during the play that Ginny has actually cut her hair
like in the play that they are performing
... Little Women.
3.15 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
INJUN KID
31-Jan-1977
Written by Arthur Heinemann
Directed by Victor French
Guest Cast:
Caesar Ramirez .... Joseph/Spotted Eagle
George Murdock .... Jeremy Stokes
Willie Aames .... Seth
Vincent Cobb .... Omaha
Ivy Jones .... Amelia
Joseph Stokes, also known as Spotted Eagle, the son of a Sioux Indian father and
a white mother, moves to Walnut Grove
with his widowed mother to live with his grandfather, Jeremy. Jeremy is ashamed
that his daughter willingly married an
Indian and treats Joseph with contempt. At school, Joseph is harassed by the
bullies. It is not until Joseph shows courage
under adversity when beaten up by the bulllies does Jeremy stand up for him and
accept Spotted Eagle as his grandson.
3.16 [--] Little House On The Prairie: TO LIVE WITH FEAR (Part 1)
14-Feb-1977
Written by B.W. Sandefur
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Ivan Bonar .... Dr. Mayes
Sheldon Coburn .... Dr. Wasburn
Naomi Ross .... Nurse Johnson
Ralph Smiley .... Conductor
Darrell Zwerling .... Horace Benson
Mary needs an immediate operation, so Charles leaves the farm to take a high
paying job in explosives.
3.17 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
TO LIVE WITH FEAR (Part 2)
21-Feb-1977
Written by B.W. Sandefur
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
James Shigeta .... Sam Wing
Ivan Bonar .... Dr. Mayes
Cordy Clark .... Sarah Mulligan
Sheldon Coburn .... Dr. Washburn
Darrell Zwerling .... Horace Benson
John McLiam .... Harris
M.P. Murphy .... Clancy
Naomi Ross .... Nurse Johnson
James Sikking .... Franklin
Paul King .... Chinese Workman
Charles risks his own life, and the lives of his crew by rushing a tunnel
dynamiting job.
3.18 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
7-Mar-1977
Written by Scott Swanton
Directed by William F. Claxton
Guest Cast:
Todd Bridges .... Solomon Henry
Don Pedro Colley .... Dr. Tane
David Downing .... Jackson Henry
Frederic Downs .... Kramer
Russ Marin .... Man
Maidie Norman .... Mrs. Henry
Slavery has just been abolished by the Civil War, but many, both white and black
people are still sticking to their old ways.
Solomon Henry is a black boy of eleven who decides that he is sick of being a
Negro. He wants to be white and go to school.
Solomon runs away, and starts living with the Ingalls family. He teaches the
family about slavery and also teaches Laura not
to take things for granted. Solomon ends up being proud of his family and goes
back to work on his families farm.
3.19 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE MUSIC BOX
14-Mar-1977
Written by Robert James
Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Lidia Kristen .... Mrs. Gillberg
Katy Kurtzman .... Anna Gillberg
Daniel Selby .... Winston
Fred Stuthman .... Judge
Many new things have been happening to the Walnut Grove students. Nellie has
started a club and Laura has a new friend, Olga.
Olga has a speech problem. While at Nellie's, Laura takes a music box that she
didn't think Nellie cared about. When Nellie
catches Laura with the music box, Nellie decides that she will either tell, or
make Laura do what ever she wants. Laura
must help with her chores, be in the club even though she doesn't want to be,
and she must also be mean to Olga. When Laura
can't live with Nellie's bossiness anymore, she tells her father, and gives back
the music box. Olga and Laura become best
friends once again.
3.20 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
THE ELECTION
21-Mar-1977
Written by B.W. Sandefur
Directed by Victor French
Guest Cast:
Charles Aidman .... Sam Dobkins
Mitzi Hoag .... Ellen Dobkins
Eric Olson .... Elmer Dobkins
Michael Landon Jr. .... Jim
Leslie Landon .... Kate
Wade Alberty .... Steve
Dermott Downs .... Kenny Bagby
John Herbsleb .... Joel Turner
The school house is having an election! There is two boys and two girls running.
One of the boys, Elmer Dobkins running is
not very popular. He didn't want to run, but one of the other boys nominated
him. The boy realized that the election was
going to be girls against boys and that the girls were splitting their votes
between the two running and the guys wouldn't
split their votes because no one would vote for Elmer. Elmer is picked on a lot
during the election, but he ends up winning.
In the girls election, both Nellie and Mary are vying for position of Class
President.
3.21/3.22 [--] Little House On The Prairie:
GOLD COUNTRY
(2hr. episode)
4-Apr-1977
Written by B.W. Sandefur & John Hawkins
Directed by Michael Landon
Guest Cast:
Wil Albert .... Mr. Delano
Larry Pennell .... Griffin
Dick Armstrong .... Grady Jennings
Robert Forward .... Harlan
Larry Golden .... Rev. Phillips
Brian Libby .... Jake
Alan McRae .... Angus Thoms
Vanna Salviati .... Mrs. Delano
Steve Shaw .... Sam Delano
Mark Stanoch
Sparky Watt .... Mr. Sawyer
Vernon Weddle .... Anderson
Ruined crops force Charles and his family to leave Walnut Grove and try their
luck in the gold camps, where Charles
gets gold fever.
######### Little House On The Prairie ########
############## end of season 3 ###############
##############################################
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