A Little Quiz on Little Parts on "Little House"

Answer: Willie Aames

On the episode in season 3 titled, "Injun Kid", Seth was one of the mean kids who made fun and beat up on the new half-Sioux Indian who moved to Walnut Grove. Laura made friends with the little Indian boy named Joseph Stokes. He wasn't welcomed by some of the children at school or his grandfather. At the end of the show his grandfather saw the error of his ways and accepted the boy.

Willie was a hit for many years in two main roles. One is the role of Tommy Bradford in "Eight is Enough" where he was one of many children and the second was in "Charles in Charge" with Scott Baio. He went from riches to rags, so to speak. He left the celebrity life and worked on the cruise ships.

Answer: Ken Berry

On the episode in 1979 entitled "Annabelle", Ken plays the small role as a performer in a circus. We find out later that Annabelle is the Fat Lady in the circus with a brother that doesn't want to admit they are related. It was Mr. Oleson and he was embarrassed that his sister is so heavy, as his wife and others laugh at her in the circus. At the end of the show Nels makes up with his sister and announces that he is in fact related to her. My surprise ending was that Nellie was proud of her father instead of embarrassed like her mother.

Ken Berry was mostly known for his small roles in shows like "F Troop", "Mayberry RFD" and "The Love Boat". He was friends with Carol Burnett and was on her show 19 times over her run and because one of the skits was so popular, "Mama's Family" spun off for 7 years. Ken played the role of her son, Vinton, for the entire run.

Answer: Jason Bateman

Jason didn't have a big part but he was in 21 episodes from 1981 to 1982. James and his sister, Cassandra both lost their parents in a horse and buggy accident. Both of the children were now orphans and Charles and Caroline needed to find the two children a home. After meeting up with their long lost uncle, Charles and Caroline decided to adopt the children themselves.

Jason has been in numerous television shows and movies since "Little House" in 1981. He was in "Arrested Development" for 3 seasons. He was in "Valerie" and continued on to "The Hogans" as David Hogan. He is perfect as a comedian in "Horrible Bosses" and "Identity Thief".

Answer: Johnny Cash

This was actually a fun episode to watch. You could see both Johnny and June in the episode, "The Collection", in the third season in 1976. Johnny was a swindle who wanted to steal from the local people. He pretended to be a minister traveling through Walnut Creek. Yet at the end of one hour he did turn to God, him and his wife decided to become upstanding people.

When you read about the episode, quite a few of the cast members were so excited to be working with real celebrity singers! They made friends with everyone and Johnny gave them an autographed copy of his book. Nice to see the Man in Black was not a black sheep.

Answer: Lou Gossett Jr.

In the episode, "The Long Road Home" you can find Charles and Mr. Edwards meeting Henry Hill in season 2. There was prejudice along the way as one of the men did not like Henry and was not hiding the fact that he was prejudice. Charles and Mr. Edwards stuck by Henry's side as they worked their way moving nitroglycerin from one spot to another. Yet at the end of the episode the two men worked out their racial differences.

After Lou was in the "Little House" role in 1976. Lou won an Oscar for the movie, "Officer and a Gentleman" in 1982, He has been in numerous television and movie roles including Fiddler in "Roots". Winning an Oscar didn't stop him from performing in television. He was in "Madam Secretary", "ER" and even voiced a character in "Family Guy".

Answer: Mariette Hartley

Most of the time you see Ma and Pa totally in love and never a jealous bone in their bodies, but in the episode, "For My Lady", Caroline did get a bit nervous when he spent so much time with Elizabeth Thurmond and her mind wandered a bit. Little did she know that Charles was paying off a debt to get Caroline a new set of China dishes in this episode.

Marietta played in a few roles in television including being married to the Incredible Hulk in the television show with the same name. She actually didn't marry the Hulk but David Banner (when he wasn't angry). She did win an Emmy for this role.

I have found the character's name on "Little House" as Thurmond and Thurman. Thurmond was used on IMDb.com.

Answer: Ray Bolger

Ray was in the episode, "Dance With Me" in season 5, and fell head over heals in love with Amanda Cooper. Amanda was not interested in Toby and kept refusing his "courting" as he described it. There was a dance in town and Toby went as a single gentleman and left with Amanda Cooper. Amanda was played by Eileen Heckart.

This wasn't the only time that Ray was on the show. He was on the series one other time, where he gambled and won quite a large sum of money. Unfortunately he drank and gambled away everything!

Answer: Lance Kerwin

Charles Ingalls needed some money since his crop was ruined by a hailstorm that season. He went to work as a miner in a quarry, blowing up rocks and had met Jack Peters, who also was a miner. Jack's son was Danny who was played by Lance in the episode, "100 Mile Walk" in 1974.

Lance didn't have a lot of luck getting big parts in television. His biggest role was "James at 15" for only one season. He did have bit parts in a few shows including, "The Bionic Woman" and "Gunsmoke".

Answer: Sean Penn

Sean didn't have a large role, but he did start his acting debut with "Little House on the Prairie" in the episode, "The Voice of Tinker Jones". Sean's father was the director for an episode in the first season and cast his son as a student in the episode, with no name.

The episode of "Tinker Jones" was about the town wanting a church bell and of course, Mrs. Oleson always wanted her name attached to everything. Especially if she was footing the bill. Tinker was a deaf mute and took it upon himself to make the bell with all the children's help.

Answer: Patricia Neal

Patricia played the role of Mrs. Sanderson. Mrs. Sanderson was dying and needed to find a home for her three children. Charles Ingalls made a promise to Mrs. Sanderson that he would find them homes.

In the second part of "Remember Me", Mr. Edwards and Grace were married and adopted the children.

In a bit of trivia, when Mrs. Sanderson had her funeral, the words spoken by the Reverend in the television show were the same words spoken at Michael Landon's funeral.