Little House On The Prairie tv show question

Water Stones

Sun, Nov 20 2016, 6:55 pm

We have a tv and I been watching a show Little House On The Prairie that I love so much.
It's a family from the Americafarm days from 1800s time.

So the show a Jewish man and wife came to visit they Jewish son. They are religious and made Shabbos and want to make it sure that the grandson will be a Jewish raised.

My question
The Jewish grandfather hugg and kiss the other not Jewish grandmother.
So long ago did Jewish religious men be allowed to do this or the tv show told a lie???

debsey

Sun, Nov 20 2016, 6:59 pm

Seashells wrote:

You're honestly asking a shaylah based on an American TV show? It's fiction! The writers wrote it in, I'm sure after doing TONS of research (as in, maybe 5 seconds) on Jewish life.

Enjoy the show. Don't think into it. It's not a documentary or Toras Moshe MiSinai. It's just plain fiction.

dee's mommy

Tue, Nov 22 2016, 5:31 pm

Seashells wrote:

This show is not based on the books, and certainly not historically accurate. It is more reflective of 1970s movie of the week type of genre. I think they were trying to preach acceptance, tolerance, etc, without actually doing any research. (I have seen the episode you mention, among many others.) The show also tackled issues such as drug addiction (yes, really), child abuse, domestic violence, bullying, alcholism, rape, adoption, and so much more that is really more appropriate for the 1970s than 1800s.

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 22 2016, 5:35 pm

dee's mommy wrote:

To the bold: Why do you think that these weren't issues in the early and mid 19th century, both in America and in Europe.

Certainly it is a tv show, but factually ALL of those issues existed in the 19th century. Although Laura Wilder didn't really address those issues in her novels, they were addressed by other writers of the time.

dee's mommy

Tue, Nov 22 2016, 5:55 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

Maybe I should clarify: these issues were not true to the novels. I don't meant that they didn't exist in the 19th century and earlier, but as a series that had the name "Little House on the Prairie" that already bore very little resemblance to the books, and was a family show, whenever this type of thing came up, it just felt so out of place.

Now, some things although not in the books, but did take place in Laura's life were actually in the shows, such as the death of her brother, and son, Mary's blindness (though that was done very differently) were not so out of place. And yes, there were times in the novels when Laura had to encounter things beyond her comfort, such as when she went to teach for the first time. It's sort of addressed but in a very different way, except for some reason they had Mary teach and the challenges were different. There are other episodes that deal with prejudice to both Native Americans and African Americans, that is certainly in issue in the books, though portrayed very differently (and with a very different, and more appropriate message for the 1970s). There are many others too.

It's really some of the artistic decisions I am pointing to. Instead of a series that is based on a classic book series, it sometimes becomes a movie/ issue of the week.

I still enjoyed it though.

mommy3b2c

Tue, Nov 22 2016, 6:05 pm

dee's mommy wrote:

The death of her son is definitely mentioned in the last book. Mary's blindness is also mentioned, although it just shows up from one book to the next without much of an explanation, as does the birth of grace. I never knew she had a brother. After which child was he born and how old was be when he died?

dee's mommy

Tue, Nov 22 2016, 6:14 pm

[quote="mommy3b2c"]The death of her son is definitely mentioned in the last book. Mary's blindness is also mentioned, although it just shows up from one book to the next without much of an explanation, as does the birth of grace. I never knew she had a brother. After which child was he born and how old was be when he died?[/quote]

The death of her brother was never mentioned in the books at all. There was a two year period she didn't write about. During this time, her brother Charles Frederick was born and died at around nine months. Mary became blind (I think she had some sort of illness, but not scarlet fever, as mentioned in the show), and Grace was born.

So Freddy (as I think he was called) was between Carrie and Grace.

There was a very emotional episode very early on about Freddy. How accurate it is, I don't know, but I think a lot of artistic licence was used.