Melissa Gilbert has entered the chat regarding Jason Bateman’s allegations that he experienced hazing on the Little House on the Prairie set.
“Who? Who did this to you?!?! I will kick their tush….no one smacks down my little bro ! @people #iwillcutabitch,” the actress wrote alongside a repost from People’s Instagram page after Bateman, 56, made the claims on a September 18 episode of Hot Ones. (Gilbert, 61, portrayed Laura Ingalls Wilder on the series, while Bateman played James Cooper Ingalls, her onscreen little brother.)
During the Hot Ones episode, host Sean Evans asked Bateman if it was true that “the older kids in the cast played an April Fool’s joke on you by telling you that your character had died.”
Bateman said that while that rumor was “untrue,” he did allegedly experience other crazy antics on set.
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“What they did do is they pinned me down on the ground, straddled me with knees on my shoulders and gave me noogies or whatever they call it on my chest,” he claimed.
Evans, 39, then asked, “There was a hazing ritual on Little House on the Prairie?” to which Bateman responded, “Yeah.”
Bateman said that “they knocked on my chest like I was a front door.” In the end, though, it was actually Bateman who got the last laugh.
“I went to the makeup artist and said, ‘Put a big black-and-blue mark all over my chest,'” he recalled. “And then I went to their parents and I said, ‘Look what your kids did to me.’ And that was good. I got them in trouble.”
Jason Bateman Everett Collection
It’s not the first time Bateman has opened up about time as a child actor on the historical drama series. Bateman memorably worked with Michael Landon, who played his onscreen dad, Charles Ingalls, while also serving as an executive producer, writer and director. (Landon died in 1991 at age 54 from pancreatic cancer.)
“Everybody loved him,” Bateman said during a February episode of the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast. “He was — George Clooney would be the perfect comparison today. His ease with people, with the process, with the business, with just Joe on the street. Women are crazy about him. Guys wanna be his buddy.”
Bateman was impressed by Landon’s leadership and ability to wear multiple hats both simultaneously and effortlessly.
“Watching him juggle all those balls and be this leader and presence on a set and be kind with people, but also be kind of a stern boss if he needs to, that was pretty inspirational,” he shared.
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Gilbert echoed a similar sentiment about working with Landon throughout the show’s initial run.
“Michael was the quarterback, right? So he set the tone of what we were doing,” she told People in September 2024. “Mine was unique in that I was the only cast member who regularly socialized with him and his family.”
“We all vacationed together during spring break to Hawaii — the same hotel every year,” Gilbert added. “Mike’s kids went to the same school I went to. I slept over at their house all the time. They slept over at my house.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
