One recent comment from Martha asked some questions about physical tasks like arm wrestling and horseback riding in an episode entitled WILDER & WILDER. She wondered if the situations were real? She wondered if I could’ve beaten Michael Landon in an arm wrestling match and if I actually rode the horse in the WILDER & WILDER episode chase scene. This seems like a good opportunity to discuss the craft of fights, chases, physical distress and violence in general. Its always great to be involved in action/danger situations on screen because the actors have an opportunity to plug into authentic emotions and in some cases genuine, though controlled, physical jeopardy.

But here’s the deal. As dangerous as some action may seem to be on the screen audiences should never feel that the actors they are watching are ever in real physical danger. If actors were ever in real danger audiences would become extremely uncomfortable and detached from the story. I think most people would agree that there is a big difference in watching fights and car crashes in movies vs. watching real fights, car crashes or airplane crashes on the news. The movies are pretend while the news is real. In the vast majority of stunts shot for the screen the actors and stunt men walk away from the most deadly action with barely a scratch. Even in the bloodiest screen fights its rare that the actors ever make full force physical contact with each other. The fighters are all acting and being very carefully coached by master stuntmen who make sure that even the most devastating action is relatively harmless. Certainly mistakes are made occasionally, but they are rare…such as the tragedy of the TWILIGHT ZONE crash in which Vic Morrow and two children were killed when a helicopter crashed while shooting a Vietnam War sequence. That was a case of unnecessary risks being taken in order to make the action more spectacular. Today that sequence would likely be created in a computer rather than risk injuring actors and crewmembers. In the real crashes people are almost always hurt, sometimes terminally. Most of us push away from watching the real crashes, but we can’t get enough of the pretend crashes and other kinds of violence we see on TV and in movies.

Today’s computer graphics, CG, and animation have made it possible for producers and directors to create astonishing action sequences for the screen with no risk to actors or crew members. Just watch any of the recent Bond, X-Men, or Spiderman films…to name just a few. The action is amazing and puts audiences inside the action in ways that weren’t possible even ten years ago. Many of those sequences, like Spiderman flying on his webs through the caverns of modern skyscrapers, would not only be extraordinarily dangerous to stage practically, but putting crews and real cameras in positions to get those shots would be nearly impossible.

While we weren’t doing anything exceptionally demanding like the extreme action in many of today’s movies, virtually everything you saw on Little House was real. One exception I know of is the tornado in DAYS OF SUNSHINE, DAYS OF SHADOW. That was an effect shot. But otherwise the conditions we faced were “real.” Skilled special effects crews carefully created the extreme conditions we faced in numerous episodes - fire, rain, snow and hail happened on the set with the cameras rolling and absolutely influenced the performances you saw and enjoyed. Despite how dangerous it looked from time to time nobody got hurt. Although I do remember having to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night after shooting the hail scene in DAYS OF SUNSHINE because a piece of the chemical hail get into my ear and was making me nauseous and dizzy until it was removed by a doctor. That special effect made me sick for an evening, but it worked great on the screen, as did all the others.

I’m frequently asked if I was really packed in ice by the special effects guys in the HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT episode. The answer is yes but it was wonderful for Dean the actor because the cold of the ice helped me play the chill of high fever. All I had the do was feel the cold and experience it as Melissa and I played the scenes in which Laura came to Almanzo’s sick bed willing him to recover.

Being packed in ice to simulate the delirium of a high fever reminded me of the famous scene in Mutiny on the Bounty in which Fletcher Christian (Marlon Brando) was burned in a fire at the end of the movie and lay dieing on the beach. In order to simulate the chill of the burn Brando played the scene while lying on top of blocks of ice. The ice did its job. Brando shivered as he would have if burned. Most actors would agree that it doesn’t matter how a result is achieved…it only matters that the performance works for the audience.

While we were all there to experience most special effects throughout the series, in THE LAST FAREWELL none of actors were present when the buildings of Walnut Grove were blown up. Instead there was a five-camera crew, special effects crew, and fire prevention crew on hand as Walnut Grove disintegrated in massive explosions. The actors shot their plunger scenes on a separate day before the town was actually gone. Michael helped us use our imaginations to play those very difficult moments. In the end it was very believable and emotional and nobody got hurt.

Legacy Documentaries produced REMEMBERING THE LAST FAREWELL as bonus content for the 2008 Little House DVD release from Imavision. Melissa Gilbert and I return to Walnut Grove and remember the way it was during those final days. There are some never before seen pictures in this presentation that will make it a must have for all Little House fans.

Through ten years of production great care was taken by our Little House crew to create conditions that would effectively enhance the cast’s performances. When you look at scene after scene through over 200 episodes I think they did a fantastic job.

Dean

Coming soon…an all new video documentary about the boyhood life of Almanzo Wilder. In mid November Legacy Documentaries will present a short trailer to announce the Spring 2008 release of ALMANZO WILDER: Life Before Laura. The trailer will be available for viewing on The Almanzo & Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead site, the Legacy Documentaries web site, as well as web video sites such as YouTube.

Life Before Laura will be sold exclusively by the Almanzo & Laura Ingalls Wilder Farm. Look for updated sales and release information in the weeks ahead.

Dean

Earlier this week I sent a remembrance of Michael Landon to the Landon Legacy Project which began last October 31 as a celebration of what would’ve been his 70th birthday. This year he would have been 71 on his favorite holiday. It doesn’t seem possible that Michael could ever be in his 70s. For me his image is frozen in time in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was operating at full power in those years. Little House was at the top of the ratings, Father Murphy was coming, and Michael exhuded unshakable confidence that he knew all the answers to the big questions surrounding ultimate success in TV. He clearly knew a great deal about success in television and wasn’t afraid to share when asked.

“You can’t be all things to all people,” he was prone to say. “You’ve got to know your audience and give them what they want.” Michael did. He knew that for every person who had no interest in his shows that there was an equally large number of impassioned viewers who couldn’t get enough of what he was doing. Michael wanted only one point of view driving his shows. He didn’t believe in committees that would water down his message. His tireless conviction gave the millions who loved what Michael produced exactly what they wanted to see year after year after year.

With Bonanza, Little House, and Highway to Heaven still on cable and DVD he’s been touching the hearts of audiences for half a century. He knew his themes were timeless and he never backed away from them despite a general indifference to his work from within the Hollywood community. But after all the hip, trendy shows of the moment have come and gone we’re still watching Michael Landon. Even after his sudden passing on July 1, 1991, more than sixteen years later, audiences young and old are still tuned in and loving every sweet, funny, tearful moment. We all miss him, but he’s never far from view.

You can read other remembrances of Michael Landon and write one of your own at

Dean

Thanks for the nice comments about the initial “Process of Making” post.

When I came into the Little House world in May of 1979 at the beginning of season six the show was a well oiled machine. Michael Landon was in total control and the entire company was on the same page with him. Having never worked on a series before I didn’t have any meaningful frame of reference but there was no doubt that this group was happy and worked well together. I’ll never forget that first morning…May 22, 1979. It was a Monday morning…the first day of shooting for the new season. That previous weekend I had celebrated my 23rd birthday and graduated from University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. Two days later I’m on the set of one of the biggest shows on television.

I remember being driven in one of the company vans from the parking lot at Big Sky Ranch up to the company staging area, which that day was at the place where the Ingalls “Little House” and barn was built. I was blown away by the number of vehicles and the size of the crew…there were more than seventy on the crew and probably 10 big units that included camera trucks, grip trucks, mobile dress rooms, a make up trailer, wardrobe truck, livestock transport, catering, props, and personnel transport. All the vehicles were branded with a logo for a company called Movie Wheels and the biggest of the trucks had billboard signage on the sides which said “Watch Little House on NBC, Monday’s at 8 PM”. I had arrived and it all looked amazing.

The second assistant director met me when I got out of the van and showed me to the Honey Wagon which contained all the actors’ dressing rooms. Seeing your name on a dressing room door for the first time is a big moment for any actor…this wasn’t my first time…that happened on THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO during the summer of 1978…but that was just one day…this was going to be my professional home for the next five years.

Hanging inside the dressing room was my costume. Several weeks earlier I had met with the men’s costumer, Mike Termini, for fittings at Western Costume near Paramount Studios in Hollywood. There we had picked out shirts, pants, belts, and of course a number of hats. All of these things needed to be approved by Michael Landon. Mike and I drove to MGM Studios to meet with Michael in person. When I went into his office with Mike he was sitting behind his desk writing. I got up very enthusiastically and came around the desk to shake my hand. It was surreal. We proceeded to go through the wardrobe and Michael approved everything very quickly. But when it came to the hat he took his time. “A man has got to have the right hat,” he said, “because the hat tells us all about who that man is.” I had never thought about hats in that way. I’d worn cowboy hats for years, but mine had always been shaped like my grandfather’s hats, because I wanted to be like him. Michael knew he wanted my hat to be like Dan Blocker’s BONANZA hat because he wanted Almanzo to be simple and honest like Dan’s character, Hoss.

That round simple hat was waiting for me in the dressing room. I changed into my costume for the first time and headed off to the make up trailer where I would meet Whitey Snyder and Hank Edds. Whitey would apply the initial make up to set the look. While he was working on my face the door to the trailer swung open and there was a little girl in pig tails wearing a calico dress. I knew that I was going to eventually become Melissa Gilbert’s TV husband…she was so young…just 15 at the time…that whole idea of being married to her…even pretend married seemed bizzare. She welcomed me with a blur of energy, talking a mile a minute. Melissa, then and now, is a person who comes into a room and takes her space. How was I going to keep up with her? I was going to find out for the first time in a matter of moments.

More later…

Dean

This week Legacy Documentaries is moving to a new, larger home at the Santa Monica Airport…our new space will be quite an upgrade for us and we look forward to being able to work more effectively for our present and future clients. Having the right space can make doing creative work much more fun…and we’re looking forward to having lots of fun in the years ahead.

Dean