'Little House on the Prairie's Big Kiss Was Even More Surprising Behind the Scenes (2024)

Throughout the nearly decade-long run of Little House on the Prairie, there weren't many longstanding romances between the infamous Laura Ingalls (played on the series by Melissa Gilbert) and the handful of boys that crossed her sights. No matter how many guys Laura was interested in, audiences who knew the true story of the character were just waiting for Almanzo Wilder to show up. When he finally did (played by Dean Butler), we were forced to wait just a bit longer before these two officially became an item, which happened at the tail end of the Season 6 episode "Sweet Sixteen." But there was more to that famously intimate kiss than meets the eye, and many longtime fans are just finding out about it nearly 50 years later.

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Little House on the Prairie

TV-PG

Drama

Family

Romance

The life and adventures of the Ingalls family in the nineteenth century American Midwest.

Release Date

March 30, 1974

Creator

Blanche Hanalis

Cast

Melissa Gilbert , Michael Landon , Karen Grassle , Rachel Lindsay Greenbush , Sidney Greenbush , Melissa Sue Anderson

Seasons

9

'Little House on the Prairie' Teased Romance Through Season 6

For most of Little House on the Prairie, Laura doesn't have a beau. Sure, she's kind of boy-crazy throughout the show (something that, ironically, wasn't true of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder), but she usually hung around her family rather than chasing anyone specific. It wasn't until the two-part "Back to School" Season 6 premiere that Alamanzo Wilder first showed up on Little House, but when he did, boy, did he leave an impression on young Laura. As one of the oldest in her class (not to mention one of the brightest), the second Ingalls daughter thought of herself as older than the rest of her peers because, well, by all accounts, she was! But in the eyes of newcomer Almanzo Wilder, a young man she instantly crushed on, she was nothing but a "nice, young friend."

Though he had a cute nickname for her ("Beth," after her middle name, Elizabeth), that was about as intimate as these two would get, at least at first. They could often be seen teasing one another, and Laura visited Almanzo often, but the show danced around the idea of setting these two up as long as it could. It didn't feel so much like a traditional "will-they/won't-they," where both parties are interested but don't act on those feelings, but rather an instance of unrequited love. For a long time, Almanzo just didn't seem interested. As Season 6 continued, Laura tried every trick in the book to make "Manly" see her as anything other than a young girl, but nothing quite worked. He was either oblivious to her affection or unwilling to commit, and in both cases, it often left Laura hurting. Of course, their age difference likely had something to do with it (Almanzo is about ten years her senior,) but that didn't deter Laura in the slightest.

It also didn't help that Almanzo wasn't shy about seeing other girls. There are a few episodes where the Wilder boy is seen courting another young lady (one older and perhaps more suitable than Laura). For a time, even Nelly Oleson (Alison Arngrim) had Almanzo in her sights, though thankfully, Laura saw an end to that. But, finally, Little House couldn't keep these two apart for much longer, and near the end of the sixth season, it was decided that the audience had waited long enough. Just like Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson) had gotten her happy ending the season prior, so too was Laura graduating into adulthood.

"Sweet Sixteen" Changed the Game for Laura and Almanzo

In "Sweet Sixteen," Laura is offered a temporary teaching job in a neighboring town where the teacher has had an accident and can't work for a few weeks. Though she is practically still a student herself, her teacher, Almanzo's sister, Ms. Eliza Jane Wilder (Lucy Lee Flippin), helps Laura get her teaching certificate so that she can help meet this need. Despite her age, Laura handles the entire thing like an adult, with the sort of attention and grace we hope all teachers might. Laura's students likewise take to her, and it isn't long before she recognizes that this could be the rest of her life. Graduating to this adult position also prompts Laura to finally take the advice of longtime family friend Mr. Edwards (Victor French), who had once upon a time told her that if she put her hair up, she'd look more mature. From here on out, she never wears her pigtails again.

To help Laura out, Almanzo offers to chauffeur her to the neighboring county, which she graciously accepts. Along the way, Laura hopes that Almanzo will finally see her as an adult, more his peer than a younger friend he jokes around with, though he initially shows no signs. Things eventually turn around for Laura as one day, something changes in Almanzo, and he sees her for who she really is. He sees that she's now all grown up. Unable to stop thinking about her, Almanzo uses every excuse in the book to compliment and see Laura, including driving out to her schoolhouse unexpectedly to surprise her. But when he does so, he sees a student putting his hands on her and punches the young boy square in the face. Enraged, Laura tells Almanzo to leave, revealing that the student (hoping to one day be a doctor) was simply showing her a medical technique.

Because this is a Little House episode, everything is wrapped up neatly in the end. Laura learns from her father, Charles (played by former Bonanza star Michael Landon), that Almanzo regrets his actions and that he was jealous, meaning that he's in love with her. That night, at a church social, the two make up, and the intimate moment gets even steamier as they share a quick kiss. In the very next episode, Almanzo proposes to Laura, and by the Season 7 premiere, aptly titled "Laura Ingalls Wilder," the two are soon married. Eventually, they run the Little House show, with the series renamed (and re-branded) in its ninth and final season as Little House: A New Beginning, centering on the adventures of their new family.

Melissa Gilbert Hated Kissing Dean Butler In "Sweet Sixteen"

Folks likely wouldn't have been able to tell while watching the episode, but Melissa Gilbert couldn't stand kissing Dean Butler on screen. It wasn't that she disliked Butler as a person, but Gilbert (who was 15 herself at the time) didn't want to have to kiss someone so much older than herself (Butler was 23), despite the historical accuracy of it all. "I was hit by a perfect storm of disappointment, fear, anger, and nausea," Gilbert wrote of Butler's casting in her book Prairie Tale: A Memoir, later noting that she'd expected the producers to find someone more in her age range. "Instead, they had cast a man!" Of course, it wasn't a complete shock to Gilbert, who had read the Little House books herself and knew this would come eventually, though the show was known to occasionally depart from the original material.

When recounting her moments kissing Butler in the episode, she noted that she had absolutely no desire to be there. "I didn't want to kiss a man," she wrote. "I didn't want to kiss anyone with stubble!" But it turns out that Gilbert wasn't the only one who was a bit nervous. "I think that there was anxiety on both sides of that kiss and how is this going to go? But we stepped up to it," Butler told People in 2024 while reminiscing on the series for its 50th anniversary. "I've often said to Melissa, 'I wish we could have been a little closer in age when we were doing this.' But that's not the way it really happened. Laura was 10 years younger than Almanzo." If there's one thing that could be said about this moment, it's that it was at least accurate to the real-world history of Laura and Almanzo.

Of course, what could've been incredibly scandalous was anything but when you're watching the actual episode. "It was Little House, it was never going to be scandalous," Butler reminded the U.S. Sun back in March. "It was always going to be handled very carefully and very sweetly as the show was intended to be, and as it was always done." The way Butler describes it, series star, producer, and director Michael Landon saw to it that Gilbert's first on-screen kiss was handled appropriately. In fact, it was handled so well that the show was later honored for it. "TV Land gave us an award years later for the most memorable kiss in television history," Butler revealed in 2021. "It was a funny kiss because Melissa's mother was off-screen nearby crying. She was seeing her little girl have her first kiss ever, both on-screen and off so that was a big deal."

Years Later, Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler Have Moved On

But all these years later, all that awkwardness has washed under the bridge for Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler. In her memoir, Gilbert calls the two of them "great friends," and Butler has likewise said the same. "He knows he scared the crap out of me [back then]," Gilbert penned back in 2009. "And as a result, I made a point of doing everything I could to make him as uncomfortable as possible." Gilbert recalls laughing hysterically when Butler would mess up on set, including while driving a team of horses in his first episode. Though they've each done more in the years since Little House ended in the early 1980s, Gilbert and Butler have appeared together at plenty of Little House-themed events. Most notably, they were each present at this year'sLittle House on the Prairie 50th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Festival, which was held in March at the series' original filming locale of Simi Valley, California.

It's amazing to think that a show like Little House on the Prairie, which excelled at mixing family-friendly material with hard, real-world topics, is still as beloved today at 50 as it was when it first aired on NBC. It's a testament to those involved in the series, including the late Michael Landon, that Little House has remained a staple in the television industry and escaped the clutches of the infamous rural purge. To this day, the love story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder is one for the history books, both real-world and television history. It's no wonder we're still talking about it, and episodes such as "Sweet Sixteen" after all this time. Here's hoping we'll continue to reminisce on these stories even more in the future.

Little House on the Prairie is available on Prime Video.

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