Amazon.com reviews for
"Little House on the Prairie" (1974)

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Little House on the Prairie (A Christmas They Never Forgot/The Craftsman) (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Tenderness was never in short supply on Little House on the Prairie, but this double feature got an extra sprinkling. In "A Christmas They Never Forgot," the entire extended Ingalls family (including Mary and Laura's husbands, this being a later-season show) gathers round the fire to swap tear-stained holiday memories. First up is gentle, soft-spoken Ma, who waxes sentimental when Esther Sue inquires about the "most unusual" necklace she's wearing--turns out it's a relic from Christmas past, a peace offering from a new step-pa whom Caroline, as a broken-hearted little girl, rejected outright during his first Christmas with his new family. Later, Laura remembers Mr. Edwards's snow-soaked adventure as a surrogate Santa to the girls--something that ingratiated him to Ma, who up to then eyed her daughter's wild-bearded spitting coach suspiciously. Then, Esther Sue meets up with her own pa during a sad stroll down a memory lane lined with racial prejudice. The same hackles-raising theme of prejudice is piped into the next episode, "The Craftsman." Here, Albert accepts an apprenticeship with old man Isaac, coffin supplier to the mercantile and the town's sole Jew. Despite the old man's peaceful, kindly nature, Albert is tagged a "Jew lover" and bullied by shortsighted farmers' sons. Being a boy of superior stock, he's nonetheless loyal to the old man, something he's grateful for when it comes time to visit the sage carpenter's own coffin. Throughout this episode, dear old Isaac dispenses the sort of wisdom--"Never be ashamed of work you've done, only be ashamed of what you haven't done"--that endeared this series to parents during its original run. With this release, the nostalgic can get weepy, as well as emotionally awoken, anew alongside younger generations. -Tammy La Gorce

Little House on the Prairie (Christmas at Plum Creek / The Creeper of Walnut Grove) (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Now that the series that dusted off late-19th-century American prairie life for 1970s viewers has itself been dusted off, keep your kerchief handy. The double feature of "Christmas at Plum Creek" and "The Creeper of Walnut Grove" succeeds, as executive producer Michael Landon and the warm, fuzzy behind-the-scenes folks so obviously intended, at stirring the sap within. "Plum Creek" carries the nostalgic back to the early seasons, when Laura was still a genuine half-pint, braids bobbing on either side of her head. Christmas is coming, and clan Ingalls is intent on surprising one another, their meager means notwithstanding. Secrets and bargain-driving abound, but in the main story line Ma wants a stove and Laura sells her most prized possession, pony Bunny, to nasty Nellie Olsen to buy it for her. When the magic morning arrives, her sacrifice is made bittersweet by Pa's gift of a saddle. "The Creeper" fast-forwards a few years and includes some familiar townspeople, bespectacled teacher Miss Beetle and Dr. Baker among them. Timothy, the town's top student and brightest prospect for a college scholarship to study medicine, turns amateur thief when his pa is laid up and no longer able to tend to the farm. He makes off with a pie, some jam and bread from the mercantile, and a hen in hopes of helping along his father's recovery, but junior sleuths Laura and Andy Garvey are hot on his trail. When the jig is up and Timothy confesses to Pa, the town's good folks come together to pitch in for the foundering family. That way, Timothy can accept the scholarship he's made Walnut Grove proud by winning. Both 46-minute episodes prove timeless--guaranteed to warm hearts and slake the thirst of anyone with a taste for sentimentality. --Tammy La Gorce