<\/p>\n
Little House on the Prairie<\/em> ran on NBC for nine seasons from 1974 to 1983, but did you know the series was almost an entire season shorter?<\/p>\n During the Thursday, Oct. 9 episode of the Little House 50<\/em><\/a> podcast, actor Dean Butler<\/strong> reflected on the season 8 two-part episode \u201cDays of Sunshine, Days of Shadow,” which ultimately secured the historical drama a ninth and final season.<\/p>\n In the series, Butler played Almanzo Wilder, who marries Melissa Gilbert<\/strong>\u2019s Laura Ingalls in the season 7 premiere. In the real Laura Ingalls Wilder<\/strong>‘s life, she and her husband both contracted diphtheria in 1888, leaving Almanzo partially paralyzed. The episode \u201cDays of Sunshine, Days of Shadow” offers a fictionalized version of this real-life event.<\/p>\n \u201cThere could have been a more noble way to play this problem, but it was written the way it was written,” Butler said of his acting in the episode, noting producer Michael Landon<\/strong> “never tweaked” his portrayal.<\/p>\n After watching the episode back in preparation for the podcast, he continued, \u201cI was so depressed thinking, \u2018Oh my god, this is so not what I think of when I think of what this character was.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He did admit, however, that he loved the beginning and the end of the episode, where Almanzo is his normal self.<\/p>\n Along with being a producer, Landon also starred as Charles \u201cPa\u201d Ingalls. After deciding he and Karen Grassle\u2019<\/strong>s Caroline \u201cMa\u201d Ingalls were going to depart the series after season 8, he used the episode as a test to see if Butler and Gilbert could carry the show on their own.<\/p>\n \u201cThe underlying motivation for the episode was Michael had made the decision that he was going to step away at the end of the eighth season. And [producer Kent McCray<\/strong>] said, \u2018We need to find out if you and Melissa can carry this.'” Butler said.<\/p>\n The producers also told Butler and Gilbert they were “going to throw every calamity we could throw at you.”<\/p>\n The actor said that even though the episode was \u201cdepressing,\u201d ratings for the two-parter were \u201cspectacular,\u201d and that \u201cit worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n While filming, Butler said both he and Gilbert were \u201cnervous\u201d and asking themselves, \u201cWhat if we can’t pull this off?”<\/p>\n \u201cI think we both went into it knowing that this was very important,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that she and I worked very well together during this episode because we both knew that there was something at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think Michael used the success of this episode as part of the argument to say we can go on,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Little House on the Prairie<\/em> ended up going on for one more season, season nine, which ran from 1982 to 1983. The show concluded with three post-series movies.<\/p>\n The Little House 50th Anniversary<\/em> podcast is hosted by Pamela Bob<\/strong>, a Little House<\/em> super-fan and actor, writer and producer of the award-winning series, Livin’ On a Prairie<\/em>. Butler and co-star Alison Arngrim<\/strong> (Nellie Oleson) are also featured on the podcast.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfacSIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox\ud83c\udfac<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Little House on the Prairie ran on NBC for nine seasons from 1974 to 1983, but did you know the series was almost an entire season shorter? During the Thursday, Oct. 9 episode of the Little House 50 podcast, actor Dean Butler reflected on the season 8 two-part episode \u201cDays of Sunshine, Days of Shadow,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2089390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[354860,393873,366582,360825,354838,330671,330120,366583],"class_list":["post-2089389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-almanzo-wilder","tag-charles-pa-ingalls","tag-dean-butler","tag-laura-ingalls","tag-little-house","tag-little-house-on-the-prairie","tag-melissa-gilbert","tag-michael-landon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Little-House-on-the-Prairies-Dean-Butler-Says-This-1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2089389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089391,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089389\/revisions\/2089391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2089390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2089389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2089389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2089389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}