Video Gallery: The Most Scarring ‘Little House on The Prairie’ Moments

Last month Wendy McClure’s The Wilder Life, a book about her process researching the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was released. As a kid I could never get through The Big Woods, but I was completely obsessed with the Little House TV show.

People who have never seen Little House might use words like “sweet” and “wholesome” to describe it. Maybe they think of it as a quaint saga of family life on the prairie. And they would be wrong. Really, it’s a drawn-out horror movie about narrowly avoiding death until it finally finds you. The folks who brought us Final Destination must have been Little House fans, because they were cheating death long before Alex Browning came along.

A Plague on Both Your Houses…..and All the Surrounding Ones Too

There are a few rules to Little House plagues: the doctor must not fall ill, a few of the the muscly menfolk have to stay well so they can lift the dead bodies, and everyone turns into Dr. House.  A diagnosis and how to treat the disease? Not good enough. Where did these bad humors come from? Did little Mary Sue not pray hard enough on Sunday? What could have brought this pox upon us (and they were talking about real pox back then)? In case you’re wondering-the typhus came from rats, the anthrax came from sheep, and the mountain fever came from Mr. Edwards. Strike one, Mr. Edwards.