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On “Little House on the Prairie,” Michael Landon was the boss — but behind the scenes, he was the class clown.
Patrick Labyorteaux, who starred as Andy Garvey in the hit series, recently posted a video on his YouTube channel about how the beloved TV patriarch let loose and became a prankster when cameras stopped rolling.
“Everybody knows that Michael Landon is an amazing actor,” said Labyorteaux. “When people think of Michael, they think of ‘Pa,’ and they think of the good, strong family man who would never play a practical joke on anybody. But that wasn’t Michael.”
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Michael Landon is seen here on the set of “Little House on the Prairie,” circa 1974. The drama, adapted from the novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), starred Landon as Charles “Pa” Ingalls. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
“On the set, Michael was always telling jokes, doing these crazy things, the 60-year-old shared. “And one of his favorite targets was our script supervisor, Mary [Yerke]. And Mary was this delightful woman who stood about two feet tall, and she had this huge script.”
Labyorteaux said Landon would quietly put rocks in saddlebags on her chair. When she carried her chair between filming locations, she thought it suddenly weighed a ton.
“She’s dragging her chair,” Labyorteaux recalled. “She’s got about 10 pounds of rocks in her chair with her scripts, which are really heavy. And I remember her saying, ‘Man, I must be getting old. These chairs are getting so heavy.’ And Michael would just laugh and laugh and laugh.”
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“She would drag the chair along with her,” he said. “Michael thought this was hysterical.”
Landon then took his jokes to the next level.
“Michael, this one time, had a real stern look on his face,” said Labyorteaux.
Patrick Labyorteaux as Andrew “Andy” Garvey. (Ted Shepherd/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)
“He looked over at Mary and called her over. He wasn’t saying anything. Mary went over with her script and said, ‘Yeah, boss.’
“He leaned in and opened his mouth. Out flew this tiny frog — we had thousands of them in Simi Valley. He’d put it in his mouth and just about scared the life out of her.”
“It was like the best kids’ joke ever,” he gushed. “Frogs jumping out of Michael Landon’s mouth? Yes, please. I’ll have some more.”
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Michael Landon is seen here with Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls Wilder, Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary Ingalls Kendall and Charlotte Stewart as Eva Beadle on the set of “Little House on the Prairie.” (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)
“Little House on the Prairie” chronicled the adventures of the Ingalls family in the 19th-century Midwest. Despite its wholesome storytelling, life was different on set.
“It was the ’70s,” Alison Arngrim, who played mean girl Nellie Oleson, told Fox News Digital in 2024.
“People drank, people smoked. [Landon] did all of these things. It was kind of strange — you’re on set, and people are standing around with cigarettes and glasses of gin. It seemed odd, but that was TV in the ’70s. It was like ‘Mad Men.'”
Pictured: Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
“[Landon] was so not Pa,” she insisted at the time. “But then, if you think about it, what a brilliant performance. Here was this man who came to work in his unbuttoned shirt, gold chains and Ferrari with his Marlboros — and then he turned into Pa Ingalls in a matter of minutes.”
Landon passed away at age 54 from pancreatic cancer in 1991. The actress described her late co-star as a straight shooter who smoked heavily and battled insecurities.
Alison Arngrim attends the Maltin Modern Master Award ceremony during the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival at The Arlington Theatre on Febr. 11, 2023. (Ruby Wallau/Getty Images)
“Michael was in many ways a Hollywood person,” the now-64-year-old explained. “Yes, he owned a Ferrari. He had fast cars. But the show was therapy for people. And I believe it was therapy for Michael in a lot of ways. [What surprised me] was that insecurity, because he was so powerful.
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Actor Michael Landon on the set of “Little House on the Prairie” on Feb. 16, 1977. ( Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
“He was the executive director. He was the producer. He was the writer and star of the show. He was everything. He was loved by millions, absolutely gorgeous, very much in charge. He’d be cracking jokes. He had a wonderfully twisted, warped sense of humor. He was hilarious.”
“But you could see that there were moments when he was trying so hard, ‘Will this be good enough?'” Arngrim continued.
“He wanted it to be good enough to be perfect. And you could see that there were times when he’d get that look like, ‘Oh, my God, maybe this isn’t going to be perfect.’ And I think that was maybe the thing that drove him — maybe scared him. That it wouldn’t be perfect.”
Michael Landon (left) is seen here filming the episode “At the End of the Rainbow,” which aired in 1975. (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)
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Decades later, Arngrim still views the beloved patriarch as “complicated and fascinating.”
“That was the most fun you could have on a set without getting arrested,” she said. “[He was all about] the jokes, the foolishness, always wanting to make the kids laugh … and then being very supportive and respectful at the same time. And then being an absolute taskmaster … all at the same time, all day long. I don’t think I’ve met anybody [else] quite like him.”