It Was Like Mad Men’: Little House On The Prairie Star Alison Arngrim Recalls On Set Experience In The 1970s During Show’s 50th Anniversary

Nasty Nellie heads back to the prairie 50 years later as the cast of Little House on the Prairie reunites for a milestone anniversary at Big Sky Ranch.

Alison Arngrim, who portrayed Nellie Oleson, reflects on the show’s enduring legacy.

“If you would have told us 50 years ago that this show would remain timeless, we would have thought you were crazy,” Alison Arngrim, who played mean girl Nellie Oleson, told Fox News Digital.

“We had no concept that this show would still be airing on television 50 years later,” she shared. “We didn’t even know if there would still be TV in 50 years! We were stunned that this show became a hit.”

What was the show about?

In the 1970s, Little House on the Prairie was a beloved TV series that chronicled the lives of the Ingalls family in the 19th-century Midwest. Led by Michael Landon as patriarch Charles Ingalls, the show captured the hearts of audiences with its wholesome storytelling and memorable characters. However, life on the set was different from the idyllic portrayal on screen, as former child star Alison Arngrim reveals.

“It was the ‘70s,” she chuckled. “People drank, people smoked. [Landon] did all of these things. It was kind of strange you’re… on set and people are standing around with cigarettes and glasses of gin. It seemed odd, but that was TV in the ‘70s. It was like ‘Mad Men.’ [Landon] was so not Pa. But then, if you think about it, what a brilliant performance. Here was this man who came to work in his unbuttoned shirt, in his gold chains, in his Ferrari with his Marlboros, and then he turned into Pa Ingalls in a matter of minutes.”