Actor Patrick Labyorteauxopened up about leaving the hit ’70s series,Little House on the Prairie.
While speaking to Buzzfeed in July 2025, Labyorteaux discussed his time playing Andrew “Andy” from the show’s fourth to seventh seasons. According to Labyorteaux, he was fired from the series after Season 7, Episode 21, “The Lost Ones.” He explained that his character’s mother, Alice Garvey (Hersha Parady), had died in a fire, causing him and his father, Jonathan (Merlin Olsen), to move away from Walnut Grove. According to Labyorteaux, Jonathan and Andy going to “another town” was going to lead to “a backdoor pilot that they didn’t pick up.”
“The idea was that Merlin would be the sheriff of a town, and I was going to be his son. The network said, ‘We want Merlin, but we don’t want him as part of Little House.’ So they did the show Father Murphy, and had to cast a kid who looked just like me for that show,” said Labyorteaux to Buzzfeed.
Labyorteaux also said he wasn’t happy about his Little House on the Prairie exit.
“When you’re 15 and getting fired, even though you didn’t do anything wrong, you’re losing a job, and it sucks,” said Labyorteaux in the interview.
He shared, however, that he was still able to interact with his former Little House on the Prairie castmates because his brother, Matthew Labyorteaux, continued to play his character, Albert Ingalls, until the show’s ninth and final season.
“The good news was that my brother was still on the show, so I saw all my friends whenever I could,” said Labyorteaux to the publication.
Patrick Labyorteaux Said He Had Issues With Jason Bateman After He Departed ‘Little House on the Prairie’
In a July 2025 TikTok upload, Labyorteaux said that he didn’t have a great experience with fellow child actor, Jason Bateman, after he departed Little House on the Prairie.
Labyorteaux said that he and Bateman, who joined the Little House on the Prairie cast toward the end of Season 7, went to a school for child actors, where they had less-than-ideal interactions.
“I was just fired from Little House and he was just hired and he kept calling me a has-been and he kept throwing garbage on me,” said Labyorteaux.
Labyorteaux said that he once visited his friendTodd Bridges while he was filming Diff’rent Strokes at Universal Studios, where Bateman was also shooting a show. According to Labyorteaux, Bateman came across him and Bridges and proceeded to make “fun of both of [them].”
“Todd and I decided that we’ve had enough. And so Todd and I grab this guy and we throw him into a garbage bin,” said Labyorteaux in the video.
While Labyorteaux clarified that he’s “not proud of” the situation, he maintains that “it was a real good feeling to throw Jason Bateman in the garbage.”
Bateman said he had some difficulty on the Little House on the Prairie set in a September 2025 interview on Hot Ones. According to Bateman, who played James Cooper Ingalls until the show’s 8th season, he experienced some hazing from the other children on the cast.
“What they did do was, 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,” said Bateman in the interview.
Bateman then said he managed to get those castmates in trouble.
“And then I went to the makeup artist and said, ‘Put a big black-and-blue mark all over my chest.’ 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,” said Bateman during the Hot Ones episode.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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