The Way I See It written by Melissa (Sue) Anderson

        Ah yes! Little House on the Prairie, that old TV show that aired its first season in June of 1974. The TV show that showed good morals, family, friendship, love, and tragedy into one episode for eight seasons. Remember the Ingalls family? Caroline Ingalls, Charles Ingalls, along with their four daughters, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace. Well if the book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch written by Alison Arngrim, wasn’t enough to read behind the scenes of the TV show Little House on the Prairie, read the book The Way I See It written by Melissa (Sue) Anderson, she played the role of the older sister in the Ingalls family, Mary Ingalls!

         Melissa was in the sixth grade when she started playing Marry Ingalls in the pilot for Little House on the Prairie. The definition of a pilot is when creating and filming the beginning of a potential TV show to see if a network would be willing to pick up the show and start filming seasons. After the pilot for Little House on the Prairie aired on TV, it was picked up by NBC and thus a seven - year contract (that later turned into a nine-years) was made. Therefore from the pilot film all the way to season eight, Melissa played Mary Ingalls.

         In her book The Way I See It, Melissa mostly described about her life being on set of Little House and talking about what happened in the well-known episodes in each season. She also talked about her life while doing other film work when she was taking a break from playing Mary. Instead of filming for Little House, Melissa also played a character in a movie called The Loneliest Runner, which is a story based on the life of Michael Landon, the director of Little House. Melissa played the part as Michael’s first girlfriend in the movie.

         Several interesting facts that Melissa (Sue) Anderson mentioned in her book was she and her costar, Melissa Gilbert who played her little sister Laura Ingalls, have the same first name, in order to tell them apart Melissa Anderson was called Missy and Melissa Gilbert was called Melissa for awhile until Michael Landon changed it to Half-Pint. Also, Melissa did have her real best friend, Tracie, play Mary Ingalls's best friend from school, Christy Kennedy, in the series (what a coincidence). Finally, remember that orphan boy, Albert, which the Ingalls decided to adopt? Well, the boy who played the boy who played Albert, Mathew Laborteaux, once played as the young Charles Ingalls in an earlier episode before given the part as Albert. Neat right? Finally, Melissa even said that she got her first on screen kiss from a Brady Bunch kid while guest starring on The Brady Bunch, another popular TV show that aired in the 70s; she played Bobby Brady’s, played by Mike Lookingland, first love interest. Years later, Mike Lookingland made a guest appearance in a Little House episode called "Time's of Change". 

         Overall, Melissa (Sue) Anderson tells stories of what went behind the scenes in one or two episodes of each season Little House on the Prairie, that does include of her talking about the episodes when had to act as Mary Ingalls being blind.  Besides, describing her life on the Little House set, Melissa did other shows and movies during and after the Little House series along with a tiny description of her life right now. If the beautiful Mary Ingalls was your favorite character in The Little House on the Prairie and you want to know more about life behind some of your favorite episodes, then I would suggest that you read this book.

Trivia Questions: 

11) While shooting the opening credits for Little House on the Prairie, Melissa had to run down the hill; while running she tripped and fell, what happened when she fell? 

22) Melissa once went to visit the famous movie director, Steven Spielberg, at the Universal Studios lot, what did she and Steven do together and why did he want to see her?

      Anderson, Melissa Sue. The Way I See It: a look back at my life on Little house. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2010. Print.