Alison Arngrim: EPISODE LINK
One Woman Show: CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE B*TCH
Transcript:
Colleen: welcome to Hot Flashes and Cool Topics. We are thrilled to welcome Allison Arngren to the show.
Welcome.
Alison:- Hi, hi, thank you for having me.
Colleen: – Oh, we have been looking forward to
this interview. So many of you will remember Allison as Nellie Oleson on “Little House
on the Prairie.” You know, you were the bully before I think probably one of the
first bullies I ever saw on TV But we’re gonna get into all that because we are
of the same demographic but I Wanted to start with gosh,
you know when I was researching what you’ve been doing. What happened you’ve been
doing is really the question Hardest working woman in show business Honestly,
you have energy to spare.
First off, stand -up comedy. Was that always what you
wanted to do?
Alison: – I started doing stand -up when I was like 15. I’ve been playing the
club since I was 15, 16 years old. So the comedy store and the improv and
everywhere. I think the first time I went on like tour tour was like, I was about
19 or 20, I think. So yeah, yeah, I’ve been doing stand -up forever. And then some
years ago, I started doing my one woman show “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch”, which
is all true stories with a question and answer segment. And that just took off
because that’s what people really wanted. It’s the book. I met a literary agent.
Usually people do the book and then the show. I was doing the show and a literary
agent came to my show and said, “Is there a book to go with a show?” And I said,
“Oh, there could be.” And he said, “I need four chapters.” Funny I just there’s
four chapters right there. Oh these here and just you know bang, zoom and I’m on tothe
next thing And I’m meeting with every publisher in New York. It was absolutely crazy
so yeah The I’ve always done stand up. I guess now I get really most of my life
really cuz I’m going how old am I sir 50? Yeah, pretty much all my life
It’s it’s work for me because you know some people from work in the 70s when you’re on a
series a lot of people sang or did things you’d go in the talk shows You know
Merv Griffin and dance and you’d sing. I can’t sing can’t sing or dance.
So I had to take up stand -up comedy and It worked. It’s just worked for me so
well and it means that no matter what’s going on if I’m not getting work if
there’s a strike if there’s a Nuclear war is declared somewhere. I’m in a bunker
doing stand -up.
Bridgett: And you’re coming to Nashville soon. I saw your tour
schedule.
Alison: I am in May because I started, yeah, I just did Atlanta. I came back
from France on like a Monday and left for Atlanta on Thursday. I do a show in
Atlanta and I’m May 11th. I am in New York. And then what am I the, I think it’s
like 15th. There’s my calendar because I’m on 15th and 16th.
I am the 15th in the 15th in Nashville,
and then I’m in Louisville the next day, the 16th, and both at a place called Club
Play, which I did do last year, Marvelous Place.
Bridgett: Yeah, yeah. Well, we’re in
Nashville, and I’m from Louisville. So I saw both of those, and I was like, if I
Miss her here,. I’ll catch her there.
Alison: It was so hysterical. So there’s this dude,
this drag queen, Veronica Electronica. Yes, as good as it sounds. And they do all
kinds of comedy and drag and crazy stuff at these clubs. And Veronica last year
came out and opened the show by coming out to introduce me dressed as Mrs. Oleson.
It was that good. Oh, it was good. Oh, it was that good. But it was like
sequence, like Mrs. Oleson.
And He called me and said, “I have a plan for this year. I have a surprise. I
have a new costume.” You were like, “No, what are you doing?” So it’s going to be
epic. It will be absolutely epic.
Bridgett: So Colleen, you’re going to have to go. I am in
town.
Alison: You need to come. You need to come.
Bridgett: Okay. Yeah. Because we’ve got to see it.
We’ve got to see it. We’ve got to wait to see what it is. Oh, we would love
that.
Alison: You can ask me anything. I have a huge segment of the show where I have
little cards that say ask Alison anything and it’s so funny because I did the
cards because people could feel more anonymous and ask whatever they wanted and not have
to raise their hand and have the pressure but now I get the cards and people have
all written their name and they’re like phone number their email like I would I’m
so okay so this is Joe right over there like you know like you’re identifying
yourself with this crazy question I said yeah so um but yeah indeed come on down
Colleen: how much of your material did you get from your seven years on Little House? I
mean, I would think a lot.
Alison: A lot, a lot. As I always say, you know, do you write
your show? No, my show writes itself, because it’s just all true stories and all
things that actually happen. And indeed, I do talk about the show because it’s so
crazy to have been Nellie Oleson and talk about what is, you know, to be a crazy
ex -child star, to grow up in Hollywood, to be famous at 12 and have people Um,
and my, my whole crazy Hollywood family, my mother was Casper, the Friendly Ghost
and my father managed Liberace. I mean, how’s that for starters? I mean, it’s like,
yeah, so it’s all just like, what, who, what, my life is very bizarre. And me getting
The Little House was part of it. And so yeah, I just tell all the best stories and
all the dirt and, uh, it’s a scream.
Bridgett: I love your book. So I read your book, of
course.
Alison: The book, I go more in depth than I talk about sad
things, but, you know, yes, there’s many things in the book or in the show, and
there’s things in the show that aren’t in the book and things in the book that
aren’t in the show. So, collect all 12. You must, yes.
Bridgett: It is completely fascinating.
I mean, it is. You know, we start out talking about, well, how your parents and
their career got started. But the part about Liberace in the book where they were,
can you share a little told you. “Don’t talk about it.”
Alison: Well, I mean, my father was
working at Seymour Helen Associates and they said, “Okay, you are assigned to
Liberace.” He said, “We’re living in a house around the corner from Liberace. We had
to go rent a house in the hallowed hills near Liberace in case he had an
emergency.” And I’m like, “Okay, what constitutes a Liberace emergency?” what is
that? His sequin fell off. I don’t know what happened. So we were ready for
anything. And so they take me to a show and because, you know, take the eight -year
-old to Liberace and my parents said be on your best behavior, don’t
say anything because you know, no one must know that Liberace is gay And I said,
I’m sorry. I’m eight. I know he’s gay and It was so hysterical because these women
were in love with him, but they knew on some level, they knew they really were
like, oh, he’s so cute. Oh, he’s one of those. They knew. It’s like if you went up
to these women, of course the old days I mean remember he was huge in the 50s and
said is this man gay? They would say how dare you don’t you say anything bad about
it? Liberace no, no, but if you said are you going to marry him they would have
gone No!
But it was this unspoken thing and they did not care, they did not care
they went we want our Liberace We want the songs we’re buying a ticket. We’re
buying all the merch. We’re going to the show. We don’t care. We do not care. We
love him. And it was just an amazing thing to witness. You couldn’t get a ticket.
I mean, he sold out every freaking show. And that was always the running thing. The
critics would make fun of him because he’s ridiculous. Yes, he can play well, but
the sequence of the writing, he drove a car on stage. He flies over the stage.
He’s twirling a baton. I mean, seriously, And yeah, go try to get a ticket.
It sold out. He was like one of the most successful entertainers in the world.
Bridgett: Yeah, yeah. It was just amazing. And just the places where you lived– Chateau
Marmont?
Alison: I said, I am a princess. I know, because I lived in a castle.
Colleen: If we could start at the beginning with Little House and then work our way into
the very busy career that you have now. But I find it really interesting that you
tried out for Laura and Mary when you’re so clearly perfect for the Nellie role.
Alison: Well, I have to admit, I wasn’t terribly surprised when I didn’t get either of
those. I mean, I’m not a country girl. Definitely. You read the book. I’m a city
girl. And I, so I read for Laura and I was like, yeah, no, not happening. And I
mean, I read for, I remember I read for Nanny and the Professor. I remember I
liked that one. I think I read for everything. And they went and made the pilot.
And so, of course, I see the pilot. There’s Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson. I
understand. I’m like, duh. Yeah, okay. These people. And I didn’t think any more
about it. I just like la la la. I hadn’t read the books. I had not read the
books. I was totally clueless. So when they said, you have to come down to
Paramount and read for Little House on the Prairie, I thought, what are they talking
about? Because we did that. Little House on the Prairie has been cast, it has been
made through. And I didn’t know what other characters. And I get there and they
hand me the sides and I’m sitting there with my dad and I started reading it and
I turned to my father. I remember I’m like 12, I said, this is not a normal part,
she’s awful, this girl, she’s a bitch. And my father was like, what are you talking
about? I go, she’s a complete bitch. He goes, no, I start reading it for him. And
it’s that first episode, it’s “Country Girls”. So it’s all that “my home is the best
home.”
My father’s like dying laughing and he goes, “Okay, okay, don’t rehearse it, don’t
read it again.” He snatches the pages out, he literally grabs it, he puts them face
down and goes, “Don’t look at them, don’t even look at them. Go in and do whatever
you just did.” He’s like, “Literally just do that.” Okay, so I go in and I do
just that and it’s Michael Landon, the producers, and they go crazy, they start
laughing. They say, “Could you do it again?” They go, “Yeah, what do you want me
to change?” They go, “Nothing, do the thing about the house again.” Okay, they wanted
to see if it was a fluke. Clearly at 12, I got the joke. I mean, when Nellie
says,
still cracks me up 51 years later. And I watched it recently and I went, “Yep,
that’s funny. “We have three sets of dishes. “One for every day, one for Sunday,
“and one for when someone very special and important comes to visit which we have
never even used yet.”
She’s bragging about these dishes but doesn’t realize that like how you live in
Walnut Grove, the Queen of England is not coming for tea, that you don’t know
anybody famous or important. Nobody’s coming and to say and which we’ve
never even used yet and that she’s too dumb to realize that she’s just revealed
this about herself and to get that joke that this person is bragging about this
thing and is an idiot and doesn’t realize what they’ve just said, do all 12 -year
-olds at the audition get that joke? I don’t know. But I did. I remember I read it
and I went, “That’s funny as hell.” They went crazy. I was hired on the spot.
We drove home. We didn’t live that far. My agent was on the phone going, “Oh,
they’ve already called. We’ve made a deal. While, you were in the car, we made a
deal, it’s done. And that happened a lot. I know that all of us are talking about
it endlessly, everyone from the show. Everyone’s telling similar stories of, well, I was
doing the audition and then Michael suddenly jumped up and said, that’s it, you have
the part. And then the other producers went, “shh, we have to talk to the network
first, we have to call their agent, stop that.” And that he was constantly hiring
people in the middle of the audition. They would like barely, barely get the lines
and he would say “next.” And he would just say, “You’re it.” And then they’d have to say, “Okay,
we’ll call you.” And like days later, and he would do that. I mean, Dean said it
took a while because it didn’t make phone calls, but he said, “Are you available on
these dates?” And he went, “Oh my God, he’s offered.” And then he did decide, like
immediately. Pat Labyortteaux, who was Andy Garvey was reading and they said,
can you come down? Can we take you out to the location? They’re filming right now
and Michael wants to see you. Can we take you to the location? Okay, so a couple
of kids from the Studio and my others all pile in these cars and they take
them all the way out to Simi Valley and they come out and there’s Michael on set.
He’s like, this is getting weird. They’ve brought me to the set to read for the
producer. He’s in costume, this is like bizarre. And so he reads and then he says,
Michael says thank you and they all start to head back for the car, Michael says you
could all go and he starts to go and Michael grabs him. Michael goes not you, and then
he says can you get him in costume and he hires him and puts him to work that
day. That is crazy.
He knew what he wanted. He always said he was always like he like had this vision
of he knew it. That’s a kid. That’s why show worked the chemistry between the
actors. He knew immediately this is the person I want and he had this vision of
how it was supposed to look and sound and how it was going to be and it was like
this is how it’s going to be and if that person walked in he was like I’m done.
Bridgett: That it is amazing what he did because and that’s why that show was so successful
can you share about the infamous scene about the the
wheelchair going down the hill, which has become a meme.
Alison: When I talk to people from other countries, or I’m in France, and people say, “Oh,
the episode, the episode,” and they go, “This is the international gesture for down
a hill in a wheelchair.” And it’s like when they make the back of the town, they
guess the episode, I know it. It’s what is imprinted on people. And yeah, Of course,
it’s my favorite episode, but it’s apparently Nellie fanatic’s favorite episode because
who does that? I mean, did anybody in the Waltons or the Brady Bunch scoot down?
No, no one has done this. I’m the only person. It’s so insane. And when we did
it, I went, this is completely insane. Nobody who does this. But it was so
incredible because it’s like Nellie normally she does things to ruin Laura’s life.
But in that episode where I’m pretending to be paralyzed, I’m ruining everyone’s
life. I mean, I’ve dragged Doc Baker into it. My parents are hysterical. Crying, I
make my parents cry. Mr. Ingalls has to drop what he’s doing and make a wheelchair.
It’s like everyone’s life is being horribly impacted by this crazy 13 -year -old girl
and her problems. And it’s just like, “Oh my God, this is terrible.” So then I get
shoved down a hill in a wheelchair. So they had a stunt woman, and so it was like
a five -part thing edited together ’cause we had no CGI. It’s like 70s technology.
First they put me in the chair and there’s a steel cable in the back of the chair
and they go, “Go.” And we start to go like roller coaster, “We’re going to go down
the hill.” And then, “Stop.” We back out. Then a very brave, very highly trained
stunt woman gets in the thing and goes down that hill and does that like mid -air
summer salt, the insane thing, into the pond. So I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not doing
that.” Then they take me to a different hill on a different day.
After she did the somersault in the pond, I then got in the pond and came up
soaking. But then they shot the part where they took me to another hill. It was
actually by the little house ’cause it was a longer but less steep hill. So you
could film longer, more footage of screaming and put me in the chair and roll me down
that. And they were hoping to scare me by saying, “Oh, the rope broke down in the
chair,” but the rope wasn’t controlling anything. And I was already sure there were
no seatbelts. I’m not strapped in. I’m in my underwear and bedroom slippers and
nothing else and no seatbelt. No protective gear of any kind going down a hill
outdoors in an 1800s wheelchair, which is going to like come apart at any minute.
And I’m like, the hell did I let myself get talked into? And I could hear my teeth are
rattling in my head. It was, it was technically Had it tipped over? Had I hit a
bump tipped and tipped over? Had I fallen out of it? I would have, yes, I would have gotten
hurt. It was like ridiculous that we were doing this. There was like nothing
holding, like they could have put a rope, something on me, nothing.
Bridgett: A seat belt?
Alison: Nobody would have done that. And so we just did it. And so I’m screaming for dear
life and hanging on. And they edited this in the stunt woman and then I of course
come up spinning and it’s, it’s brilliant, it’s truly in the same episode there’s the
thing you know I run into the tree branch I’m on the horse that goes slamming the
tree um again no CGI so I’m sitting on a box, I mean I never could ride a horse
I can’t ride a horse, so I was always sitting on a box going giddy up and some
stunt woman riding, so I’m sitting on a box yeah, do do do giddy up again but this
time They have a mattress behind me and I’m on this box, doing the giddy -up thing,
and two crew members, two grips are holding a sheet of plexiglass, and one guy’s
even windexing it every couple of minutes to make sure there’s nothing on it, so we
can’t tell it’s there. And they’re holding this plexiglass, and the third guy takes
a tree branch and swings it and slams it into the plexiglass, and I go, “Ah !” and
fall over backwards. And they film this and they put the camera here and the tree
back. I’ve watched it now. I’ve watched it a million times. You can’t tell, I’m like that
Freaking looks like I went face first to a tree branch. It really does. I’m
like, I don’t know that looks like I hit that tree But I look like it hurt and
it was genius literally plexi glass and a tree branch and me going “oof” So we did
a lot of amazing things Technologically
And It’s so just demented and off the charts crazy and the whole like whatever
happened to baby Jane except It’s like Bette Davis is in the chair Yes, the
hairdresser worked for Bette Davis for 800 years. So like does the wig look like
Bette Davis? Yes, it does. Is that an accident?
Of course it looks like Bette Davis. It was Larry Germain. It was her hairdresser
for years. So yeah, that
Colleen: – It’s so funny. – It is. – I can’t even imagine a set
with a whole bunch of teenage kids on it and you’re trying to be professional and–
Alison: – Right.
Colleen: – How was it with, you know, puberty hitting for a lot of you and—
Alison:- Oh,
it’s like we can murder each other all. The fact that nobody killed anybody was
really just amazing ’cause, you know, we talked about, few people would visit us
from other sets and I noticed this early on they would visit from other shows or
they’d be guest star and they would say, “God, you guys get along so well. It’s
ridiculous.” And someone would say, “Oh, well, you know, not always.” And they go,
“No, your guy’s idea of a big spat is I’m not going to sit with you at lunch.”
They said, “There’s other sets. People have restraining orders against each other.
There are other sets. No one has spoken to each other in year and they’re still
filming it now. You yo -yos are like hanging out at the holidays and having slumber
parties and buying each other Christmas presents. Like this is not normal. People
like each other way too much. But yes, as teenagers, you know, tween girls,
anyone who’s ever taught school or had children, tween girls. Let’s take a bunch of
tween girls and lock them in a studio for seven years. What could go wrong. So I
always say the fact that nobody murdered anybody was just a miracle. Melissa Gilbert
and I did hit it off. We bonded immediately and had slumber parties each other’s
house and became friends. We’re still friends. We’re still texting each other. It’s
crazy.
Melissa Sue, I always said to her, I think her mother told her that Melissa and I
were juvenile delinquents and to avoid us. And in retrospect, as adults, this seems
to have been partially like what happened because now she’s, she’s gotten she’s got
positively friendly. um i always say you know like armistice was signed, uh in june
at the beach in Monte Carlo last year uh there was a whole event Monte Carlo, a
bunch of us were there and next thing i know Melissa Sue Anderson and I are like sitting
there drinking champagne at the beach Monte Carlo going “well this is pleasant” we
shook hands and like you know – Yeah, we’re cool. I don’t know, we’re going for
mani- pedi’s. I don’t know. So we’re like, didn’t Elton John and Madonna just make
up recently?
Bridgett: – They did. They did on “SNL.” – Yeah.
Alison: – That’s, you know, there’s a very few people on earth I really can’t stand that I
hate. I generally, somebody has to do some really tough, there’s only a few people
on earth. I’m like, okay, yeah, no, I really don’t like this person. Generally, and
like, yeah, whatever. And if it was something stupid, that we just didn’t get along.
And it was like, and we were 12. I’m yes, if Madonna and Elton John can make up,
then yes, I can have the occasional conversation. I guess with Melissa Sue.
Bridgett: And that,
you know, I love in the, in your book, how you talk about how Melissa Gilbert
brought the group together and other children.
Alison: Yeah, she’s always had that. That’s why she was president of SAG. Absolutely. She was organizing as a little girl She’s always had this thing. Okay, here’s what
we’re gonna do and it’s always been that way, when we have had you know the reunions we have
when she is there. She’s like, okay, I have a plan. Okay, where we’re gonna ,here’s
we’re going to dinner, it is what we’re doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah even when we had
the big Hollywood show reunion, which is one of the reunions right before the 50th,
we knew we all had to go to dinner at The Smokehouse
in Burbank because that’s where, you know, it’s near Forest Lawn. Every time someone
from the show died, we’d all go to The Smokehouse. So it was tradition. So we’re
getting together and it was like we were texting each other. She’s like, OK, we have to get together after. And like five people, we all
texted Smokehouse, Smokehouse. And I was like, dude, already made reservations. And
so, but yeah, She does, she’s like the organizer and she did. She heard rumors
starting, little girls, oh my God. And then stage mothers, oh, stage mothers, what
are these people thinking? And so gossip gets going because people are competitive
and stage mothers start. Stage mothers will actually start rumors about children.
Children, those cheerleader moms. When they’re on TV, maybe they’ve had a cheerleader
mom try to kill another cheerleader.
Bridgett: – Yeah, – Sports moms do it, sports moms do it.
Alison: – Sports moms, it’s a sickness and sports moms cheerleader moms, it’s a thing. And
so yes, they literally try to talk down other child actors in competition to enhance
their child’s career.
Colleen: – That’s insane. Isn’t that, oh my gosh.
Alison: – And so we knew
something was wrong with the story that there was this rumor like, I was a problem.
Like, okay. And This is like, okay, this is not normal. And next thing, she’s got
all these people jammed into her dressing room, all these kids. And she’s like,
okay, I need to know now, like who’s saying this? And they’re all like, it wasn’t me, it
wasn’t me. And they finally copped to this poor girl who it wasn’t like, but she’s
perfectly nice. What are you talking about? She would do something like that. She
totally would not. And that’s not a very nice thing. And they went, well, it’s her
mother. And we went, oh, good Lord. And so she sees now, we all know and she
said the adults are gonna try to make us compete because it’s Hollywood and
they’re gonna try to make us kids compete against each other and stab each other in
the back and all this and we’re not doing it, we’re just not doing it, we have a
united front now, God help us all! Yeah and that’s true and that’s why I feel
that like child actors are the only kid on a show and some studios figured it out
and started saying okay we I have one kid on the show, two on this one. Let’s put
them all in a school room for the three hour school together. So they have some
community ’cause that’s where child starts to get isolated. Kids where there’s a lot
of other kids on the show like the Waltons, like Little House, we tend to do a
little better because we have our own little society. We do have a little group and
can back each other up. –
Colleen: Right. What was the 50th reunion like? We had Dean on
the show and he was like, it was insane, bigger than bigger than we could have
imagined.
Alison: – I think we’re booked every weekend. It was out of control. So we
thought, okay, let’s go back. So we planned this event for Simi Valley. And it
literally, the Simi Valley, that was years in the planning, we actually almost threw
an event in Simi Valley in like 2019 before the pandemic. Seriously, we were
meeting. It’s a baby Carrie event. I was like, this is a Baby Carrie party. Rachel
Greenbush, yes, one half of baby Carrie and her husband, Danny Sanchez, these people,
they live in Simi. Danny grew up in Simi. He said, I’ve been pestering people in Simi
about it, ’cause they have like a pioneer day. Why do we not have like a Little House
thing? We should, duh, they filmed here. And so next thing you know, this whole thing
progressed. We’re all on, he’s been making these sets. We wind up in the office of
the Chamber of Commerce. This woman of the Chamber of Commerce Facebooked me and said
“I want to do something about Little House” and I said that’s so weird I literally
just had lunch with people discussing so we wound up having this meeting and it was
her and we talked about going into the ranch and see me what could we do and then
obviously pandemic hit at one point we said we’ll make it a drive in we’ll just
drive you won’t get out of the car we were well then of course the 50th is coming
back okay we’ll do it 18,000 people showed up so this was years in the planning
there was a planning committee of like 40 people meeting regularly. It was huge. And it
was a three-day thing. And 18,000 people over three days showed up. And I knew it
was going to get nuts. When we sold 10,000 tickets, I started flipping out and
like calling the people who are in charge on the committee for security and going,
you do have enough security, right? You know that 10,000 people are coming. This
is, I said, it’s going to go Woodstock. It’s going to go Woodstock. They’re going
to just rip down the fences. I said, we hadn’t even done TV yet. And then
me and Karen Grassle and Melissa all went on the foundation. I’m like, they’re
going to rip the doors off the hinges. And they damn near did. So it’s 18,000
people. Luckily, they were very well behaved. And, and we didn’t have to arrest
anybody. And they didn’t rip the fences out of the ground. So we’re really relieved.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, because madness.
Bridgett: I looked up for tickets and it was I think buses and charters were sold-out
Alison: Yeah, they were out They were sold out like you were gonna have to just the buses
had I think you see 60 people or something and they kept they put on more buses
the buses which are Going like this up and down the hill and they started before
we even got there. There was like the early morning bus before anything started or
the actors got there for the autograph sessionn and they went until sundown because
suddenly animals will eat you. There’s wild animals in Simi. You’ll get killed and
eaten by something if you go after dark. And not to mention the rattlesnakes in the
daytime, it was like madness. That’s what we do in the spring, ’cause we say we
sure as hell ain’t doing this in the summer. And we had the buses going and then it
rained and then it rained. And so they couldn’t run the buses ’cause they get stuck
in the mud and everybody went nuts. And they said, your tickets will be honored,
your tickets will be honored tomorrow. Come back, we’ll add more buses. And that was
chaos. And then they said, OK, we have to do a makeup date. So like a couple of weeks
after the event, they said we called back the bus rental people. We put the flats
back up and we’re having like “trust the bus ride”. People could work just the bus
ride because we were we’re done. We’re done. We’re not having the event. Yes. But
we’re going to have the bus rides and some of us from the cast would come and I
would like do the bus ride. The tour thing would and people bought tickets and came
and trusted the bus ride up to the set. This is still going on. It’s spring.
They’re going to be scheduling more bus rides. I don’t know. This is ever gonna
stop
Um, and then we had other events We had some events planned smaller events and all
of a sudden none of those were small events anymore Thousands and thousands of
people began showing up at these things. Some of them got a little out of control
where people were waiting six hours There was one that was so nutty. They
didn’t know what they were doing. They didn’t plan it properly. And there were too
many people. And they were waiting outside and was getting hot. Now, we were all
exhausted and ready to collapse. And people wound up going to the doctor like the
next day for dehydration. People wound up, people got sick. And so we’re like, okay,
this is getting bad. And they said, these people are outside. It’s really hot. And
we said, is there water? Did someone get them water? No. And we went, oh my God.
So the cast had of our team are to go to the store and buy water and snacks for
the fans in line. Yeah. Yeah. Just get just get something.
And next thing you know they’re like being given candy bars and water going courtesy
of you know Almanzo and Nellie the gang. I was like okay the actors are starting to
buy treats and water for like, what is what is going on? But there’s too many
people. There’s too many people. And so we’re now this year, we said, okay, okay,
this, it was just insane. It went on and on. I went to France, we went to, I
did, there was a thing in Monte Carlo. We were everywhere and we were exhausted. So
this year, since there’s still demand, which is totally blowing all our minds, we
said, okay, okay, but we’re going to get involved in the plan. So we have this
huge event in June, the first of June 6th to the 8th in store, but we’re like running
this thing. So we said, okay, first of all, we are going to have a ceiling on
tickets, which means it will get sold out, like the VIP, the Gold Country,
LittleHouseGoldCountry.com, the Gold Country, Columbia one VIP, three day passes sold
out immediately. I think there’s VIP one day passes, and there’s still three day
passes and regular tickets, but certain ones sold out. We went, yeah, that’s how
it’s going to be. And at some point we’re going to say it’s completely sold out
because we’re not going to just infinitely, we’re not doing 18,000 people again,
it’s taken on a life of its own.
Colleen: But why do you think that is?
Why do you think there is still such a love for the show 50 years after the fact?
Alison: It’s so great. It is the thing that it was a very emotional show. People relate to
it totally an emotional visceral level, they identify, they want Ma and Pa to be their
parents. A number of people who say if only my parents were Charles and Caroline,
they would have understood. People identify with the situations, it’s all life, death,
birth, everyone has Nellie at their school, everyone has a Mrs. Oleson at their job,
we’ve met these people, I know these people, it’s real for them and It’s more like
being on oh Star Trek or in the Wizard of Oz. It’s not like a regular show
because I start thinking about all the shows I mean that were hits at the time
when we were on that it’s been their 50th. I’m like where are you?
Happy Days, they’re kind of the rock and if they’re getting out there. 18,000 who has 18 ,000 people. and who has who has celebrations for their 51st?
Colleen: Good point.
Alison: But yeah, we are Limiting the number of ticket sales. Yes, it’ll be
terrible because at some point we sold out, but that means we’re gonna we figured it
out. We did like a whole mathematical thing if we have this many people at this
many hours we could actually speak to all of them and not wear ourselves
out, wear them out not make people wait for 17 hours. It’s that we can make it like
a little more civilized.
So we’re hoping all our events are more civilized. And then I have my shows I’m
doing, and I’m throwing in Pasadena Comic Con on the 24th. So let’s go there.
But who has 51? Usually 51 is a complete, like we had, for year 40, we had the
40th who was big, but we didn’t really do much of anything for the 41st. We had a
thing for the 45th, 50th blew up. We went, okay, okay, we just wrote it off. We
just, everybody said, just scrape this year off the calendar, you’re not doing
anything but this. We know we’re not doing anything but this is what we’re doing.
51st, we’re selling things out. It’s year 51, what is, what is happening? But that’s
what people tell, we meet people from all over the world. You know, it shows in
140 countries. And I meet people from Sri Lanka, Peru,
Borneo. And I’m like, What does it mean? What does this show even mean in these
other countries? This is the story of Laura Ingles. It’s white American pioneers, a
bunch of blonde, blue, white people and covered wagons on a prairie. You don’t have
a prairie in your country in Borneo. What does it mean? And they said,
but we can identify. Most people in the world aren’t rich. They’re not living in
those giant apartments on Friends. They said, most people don’t have a lot of money.
They’re living in a tiny house a lot of children not sure if they’re gonna make it
through the month if the crops fail. It’s a big deal They have a horrible Mrs.
Oleson or someone in town making their life miserable. These are things we can add in.
Will we be able to afford shoes for the children for school? These are things that
normal people in pretty much most of the world are dealing with and this is
what these people we get.
Bridgett: Yeah, it’s Yeah, it’s personal. Yeah. Yeah,
this show gets people pulled in. It’s a very
personal for people. Yeah, I I know, you know growing up, I’m around your age, So I was watching it as a child and then you know in high
school, it would be on after school I’d come home from school people would watch it. I
have a friend that her parentsm ade her stop watching it because she and her
sisters cried too much.
There’s people who are kind of addicted. She would come home and they would cry
every day. She and her two sisters would cry so much that her mother said, I can’t
have this after school. I could see banning you from like, I don’t know,
the Simpsons or South Park.
Alison: It’s what have you seem to think Pamela Bob who would do the podcast with Dean and I. We do the
podcast with she’d wrote a thing called “Living on a Prairie” about this woman who’s
obsessed and it is this woman is so obsessed with Little House where life has just
gone off the rails. She can’t do anything that isn’t related to it. So they are out
there It’s a thing and they jump at the chance. Then the generations we had the primetime
generation the after school generation the before school generation The VHS generation
the the DVD generation, now we’re onto the streaming generation. So we have
different, we’re down to the ages, like our six, seven generation of viewers and
it’s not stopping. That’s what gets me, I have young people show up to these
events, young people come to my shows and I’m like, come here, how old are you?
You want, you watch them all the time. I’m like, what? Yes, I’m really into it,
you have no idea. And I’m like, you’re 18, very strange. Very strange for us.
Colleen: – But
– There’s also a simplicity, no social media, no, you know, instant gratification for
things. If you wanted to go somewhere, it took a while to get there. And there is
a—
Alison: 3 Days to get to Mancato, isn’t it? (both laughing)
Colleen: – But there’s a simplicity that I
think a lot of people miss in life.
Alison: And, you know, there was death,
there was reality. There, you know, it wasn’t coded that at the end of every
episode, everybody was happy, happy, happy. Well, right. And we had all the topics.
My God, we did drug abuse, alcoholism, spousal abuse, child abuse, sexual assault,
racism, anti -Semitism, anti -native Americanism. We did everything happened.
It all happened and was but was dealt with in a way that people could wrap their
minds around because you knew you knew Charles Ingalls was going to come. He was
going to do the right thing and that Ma would say something and that you knew that
they would fix it, that it would be okay. But they let you hang. I mean, in the
end, “The Wisdom of Solomon”, when Todd Bridges, you know, goes back to his family,
it’s like, well, he did learn to read, but like, yeah, no, he probably can’t grow
up to be whatever he wants. And he may actually be a sharecropper. And we don’t
know. And how’s that going to go for him? Yeah, we don’t know.
Bridgett: Yeah, yeah,
it did it just it really did touch on things and even like Nellie comes through in
the end And that was one of my favorites is when you fell in love on the show. I
mean, finally, you had yeah, you know, it just and I love that in the book to just
the relationship that you had
Alison: Well, you know, I say nights were lonely on the
prairie clearly. I mean that was the thing Nellie was misunderstood and needed
someone to love Yeah. Yeah.
Bridgett: And then just that whole, just the way that that
relationship took off and your activism took off as well.
Alison: Exactly. Well, you know,
Steve Tracey was my friend, and what a guy he was. And I started volunteering. We
went public with his AIDS diagnosis in ’86, and I started volunteering at AIDS
Project Los Angeles. And to just find out as much as I could, because people were
just asking all the, it’s the ’80s, people thought they were going to get it off
the door knob for God’s sakes. And so I wound up being on the hotline, the
Speaker’s Bureau and everything. And Steve was an amazing person. I mean, he went
public because he wanted to help people. And he was so brave. And this is the
early days, they didn’t know those these drugs now, people are living for decades.
And they’re like, undetectable viral loads. And these miracles we’re seeing, that was
not a thing then. And he was on an experimental drug Um,
I don’t know what, but what was really cool though his family supported it back then when people’s
Families, many people in Hospices their parents wouldn’t take
them but his mom and his sister were on the first plane out to see him. They absolutely took care, of him.
When he was towards the end he went on this very very rough experimental drug
with injections was pain I said “ doesn’t that hurt” and he’s like, “oh, yeah”, I think
he didn’t care and I said “my God Is it going to work” and he literally said,
“no, it’s too late for me.” I said, “what?” He said, “oh, no, it’s too late.
I’m letting them do this so they can save people after I’m gone” Wow. That’s kind
of person Steve Tracy was.
Bridgett: Yeah, I just, you know, it makes you just appreciate
someone like him even more.
Alison: And he was so fantastic in that role as well. And when
you see Percival stand up and tell Nellie will you be quiet and stand up to the
Olesons and Nellie. Yeah, that’s the kind of guy he was. He was a tough guy.
Bridgett: Wow. Yeah, I just, and then in that how you met your husband eventually is through
that AIDS activism.
Alison: Exactly. That’s what’s so crazy. You know, as an actor,
when we’re on the show, we all sit around like, “Oh, we’re all going to go on and do
something else.” And we’ll all forget about this. No one will remember this.
But it’s weird because all roads kind of lead to Walnut Grove. All these things are
meshed. And yes, Bob Schoonover was running the hotline when I met him,
where I was, because Steve Tracy had been, it’s like, I can’t,
you can’t escape it. It’s very crazy. Everything I do, I go, oh, well,
well, well, I did this. And why did you do that? Well, because of the gang and it
wasn’t back at all, it’s like, you can’t,
it’s like, there’s no way to disconnect from it. No, yeah. And maybe they’re telling
you not to, that all right. And so again, at some point,
and that’s what people say, well, you really embrace the character in the show.
Yeah, at some point, you figure it out, and you say, can’t beat em, join em, And
you throw in the towel and you go, I guess this is what we’re doing. And you go
with it. And some years ago, I went, okay, this is what’s happening. And I went
with it and everything’s gone really well for me since. And the rest of the cast
at this point have said, I give up, okay, what’s the next reunion? What am I
doing? Just we’ve all just given up and said, I guess this is the train we are
- and so be it, then yes, Little House, as Dean says,” Little House forever.”
Yes, here we go.
Colleen: – You embrace so many stories in your one woman show,
which I just think is amazing, that led into a book. Now you’re doing this all,
this is not like five years after the show’s ended. This is quite some time later.
Alison: – Before me, after I was in my 40s, and this is, you know, we’re talking about hot
flashes, things. So I start hitting like perimenopause, menopause, and it was all
very weird because, you know, my mother, menopause symptoms, when they say, “Oh,
they’re different from…” My mother had no symptoms. I had no one to go to, like,
because my mother also died when I was 40. And so it was
like, that was hard. But when she would have had menopause, and then later had
something to tell me, When I asked her some years later, so what would happen?
When you went through menopause? Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t really have menopause, I’m
sorry. What? Well, you know, I went to the doctor because yeah,
you know my period stopped, So and I said aren’t I supposed to be feeling something
said yes ,You’re having menopause there and she said and he said are you having
hot flashes now? Really and went down the list and he said having this,” No”. She
simply had no symptoms or didn’t notice them. I don’t know. But she said nothing
happened. She did. She didn’t go on estrogen. No, she didn’t go on anything because nothing
happened. We don’t know why she was just like that.
Bridgett : And there are some people like that, you know, very few. They go yeah, I don’t know, man. I guess I had menopause.
Alison: I’m like, how do you do what? So that was her. She just was oblivious to these
sort of things. What’s menopause? So she wasn’t any help for that sort of thing. So
I and I had and as people know now there’s like 37 symptoms of menopause besides
having hot flash that we didn’t talk about for years now. I had them all had them
all. I tell my friends to go oh no no see I didn’t have hot flashes. One day I
got hot and then just stayed there for about 15 years. It’s kind of just now
winding down. I just got hot. It was great. Like I’d be somewhere where it was
really cold and I’d go “does anybody want anything from the store” and make up
excuses to go outside when it was like sleeting with like no jacket just to get
out where it’s cool. There’s just no blankets on the bed for like a decade. Yeah,
I know I just got hot and stayed there. It didn’t come and go.
Bridgett: There was no flash.
Alison: Yeah. And it came on weirdly like, what is happening? Like a flash,
so I went, oh, well, and now, and now it’s supposed to stop. Nope, okay, this is
life now. I just got hot and stayed there, absolutely bizarre. I had the weird
dreams.
And I say had because eventually it just kind of winds down. As my doctor said, we
tried different things. There was like a patch and there was a pill and there was
a cream and I’m highly sensitive to all medications, it’s like, I break an aspirin
in half. So I would have way 300 times the effect it was supposed to. I’d like
to, any estrogen, I’d like fall asleep. – Oh, wow. – I was like, (murmurs)
Bridgett: – Progesterone. – How much did you take? – Yeah, progesterone will put you to sleep.
Alison: – How much did you take? Half a pill? What’s happening to you? I mean, finally she
said, try the patch. You can cut it up with scissors and use a smaller piece
anything so very crazy but then my doctor said well you know i mean eventually it’s
the up and down of the hormones eventually it stops and then you’re just wherever
you are and i went oh i’ll take that thank god um but i had weird dreams and
these nightmares and she said oh dear because she said she’d gone of the same thing. She said, “Oh, the murder dreams.” I said, “No, worse.” She said, “What?” I said, “Well, you know,
like in Roger Rabbit when he goes into Toon Town and there’s all those little
dancing singing cartoon people like in his face, like really loud, like that, or
like if you’d went on, it’s a small world, but it was at 45 RPMs about 10 times
as loud.” I said, “Yeah, dancing, singing dolls.” She said,
Good God, I think I’ll take the murder dreams
Yeah, so I had I did have the screaming dancing singing dolls problem
Colleen: That’s a new one.
Of your dreams, but I haven’t had that but we probably will now that you put it
in our heads.
Alison: So like techno color to really bright too. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh my. And then you
like weird horror because it’s like all pink and like multicolor Barbie colors.
Bridgett: that does not sound fun. The Dumbo was that Dumbo where they
had the pink elephants on parade. Yeah. That sounds like it
Colleen: you’re just making it
– Worse now, you’re making it worse.
Bridgett: – Now I’m gonna dream about it too.
Alison: – Now you’re gonna dream this up, God, I’m sorry.
– My friend, Robin, oh my God, you have to have Robin Tyler. My friend, Robin
Tyler, you have to have Robin Tyler. Robin Tyler, a famous standup comedian and gay
activist. She is the bomb, she’s brilliant, she’s hilarious. She just had her
birthday, oh my God, how old is she now? She’s so brilliant, I’ve known her for
300 years. she is hysterical. She said, okay, I know how to cure the insomnia,
because I had the thing you wake up. Is it always 3am? Do we always wake up at
3am? Yeah. She said, I got it. She said, do you have a TV show that you like
that’s kind of boring, like soothing boring? I said, I like the animal shows,
like the meerkats, you know, perfect, perfect. She said, I like old episodes of
friends and that that and said, “Okay.” She said, “So you get this on whatever
you’re streaming back then, the Tivo, whatever you have, so you have access to these
episodes right away, okay?” She said, “When you wake up,” and it’s always 3 a .m.
and you’re like, you know, having the heart palpitations 3. She said, “You repeat to
yourself,” I am having a normal physiological reaction to a normal physical process.”
Because you are. It’s This is what’s happening. You’re just, “I’m having a normal
reaction to normal physiological process and I am going to go back to sleep.” She said,
“Now, you repeat this as many times “as you need to, but then you watch the very
soothing, “mindless television that you’ve selected, “like, you know, Meerkat Manor.
“And you stare at this while you repeat this.” She said, “Now,” she said, “The
first few times I did this, “it took hours, but it eventually worked.” She said,
“I’ve now reached the point. “I barely have the remote in my hand and I’m asleep.”
Bridgett: – Oh, man, that’s crazy.
Alison: I tried to she said oh believe me she said you have it
she said I she was she said I was put on nearly every drug they had it was
a disaster nothing worked so I did do this instead I’m not on anything now I said
get out of here so 3 a .m. comes, put on Meerkat Manner and
like the second night, I’m highly suggestible second, third night I was like I am having
a normal fizzle
Bridgett- Wow, wow, oh, no,
Alison: I don’t, I sometimes wake up, but I can go back to sleep. And if I’m really in
trouble, I can, you know, they’re streaming and go find little animals.
Bridgett: – Oh, if my
Husband doesn’t wake-up too, if I can sneak and turn that TV on with that, but it’s funny,
I’ve been doing this lately, waking up. And I mean, I’m on hormone replacement and
it was doing great. Now I’m waking up and I keep waking up, then falling asleep again and I say “Oh, I’m getting
ready to have second sleep, and third sleep.” It’s like three and then five and then
it’s seven. I’m on third sleep now. Okay, don’t bother me.
Alison: – Some weird study that
in ancient times, prehistoric times are really until we all got clocks and things,
people would get up at sunrise and do their work and then they’d go to bed
ridiculously early at sunset and then they’d wake up in the middle of the night and
get up for like two hours and have like a snack.
Bridgett: I remember hearing that.
Alison: Yeah. Go work, talk, eat, and then go back to bed. And that this was actually even in like medieval times there was this was the thing that in the middle of the night
everybody kind of got up and had a little something to eat and sat around talked about
the day and then then went back to bed. And this was completely normal and maybe
Bridgett: I’m channeling my ancestors.
Alison: While having a hot flash. Yes. Yeah. I was taught these crazy relaxation techniques
and talking yourself down and watching your television. And apparently works really
well and you know, beats winding up on sleeping pills. So, you know, those sports
towels that that microfiber thing where you wet them down and wring them out
completely so they don’t drip but they’re called. Yeah, you want to keep a couple
We used to in the refrigerator. – Yeah. – Yeah. – And I learned about those ’cause
like, well, doing autograph shows out in the hot sun or later on in the back of
the neck and it keeps getting heat stroke. So yeah, and you can get them in
beautiful colors. I remember wearing a pretty blue and everyone thought it was just
decorative.
Bridgett: – It was scarf.
Alison: – I thought it was really great scarf. And it was ice
cold.
Bridgett: – Ooh, ooh. – Oh, that’s awesome.
Alison: Spray bottle. (laughing) – And you can – We’re
keeping the cat at bay also.
Bridgett: – Oh my gosh.
Colleen: – Whatever works.
We’re always like whatever works.
Alison: – I have learned. Learned the hard way.
Colleen: – And it’s women sitting here like this saying, “Okay, what worked for you? What
worked for you?” ‘Cause a lot of times the doctors can’t always answer your
questions.
Alison: – They can’t. And sometimes you say, “You’re on the hormone replacement.
They’re doing everything. They’re state -of -the -art technology. They’re giving you the
thing this is whatever millions of medical tests and procedures and research we’ve
got and you’re still waking up at 3 in the morning.
Bridgett: Yeah. Yeah. And I’m like, when
did this happen? I mean, it just like started like five months ago and I’m like,
sick of it. What the heck, you know. So I don’t do it every night,
but it happens right.
Alison: But it’s that’s the thing is that even with I mean, some
people say I don’t want to take anything. So then they have to find a whole thing,
but then even if you’re taking the things there’s still like the weird things going
on So yeah, yeah, and then of course I did the book tour. So right about the time
menopause hit I went on like an international book tour and was too good to like
know that anything was
Yeah, so other hours other time zones just oh my gosh I know my friends are like,
yeah, yeah, menopause. So you went to France. Like, yeah, that, that’ll work. There
you go.
Colleen: But you love France. You even learned to speak French after 40,
too. That’s amazing, too.
Alison: I know. To, uh, Alliance de France has a little, Pasadena,
what they’re all over the country, all over the world. And I went to French school.
I had taken French in school, but it wasn’t very good at it. And, um, I later
found out, yeah, the teacher wasn’t that great either. Everyone who had him was
like, were you read Well, you read about the teacher.
Bridgett: I did that in the book. Yes.
Yes.
Alison: They made me change. I had to completely change that man’s name because they
were like, you can’t even identify. Yeah. They were like, they said,
this is the kind of guy who’ll come after you. Um, yeah. Oh my God. And everybody
who had him was like, seriously, that guy. Um, so yeah, I just didn’t work. My
junior high French teacher, she was really good. I think that’s like why I knew the
months and the days of the week because she was like that. But I had to go back
to school if I was going. So doing a show in French, it was insane. I was having
to learn French while doing the show. And so I went back to school and of course,
hanging out with my French friends, some of whom don’t speak any English. Yeah, you
start to catch on. And I learned French. And so now I go and the guy,
that I did the show with him. He wrote a second show And now a third show,
we’re on our third show, Nellie Olesen on Flam, Les années 80 which means Nellie Olesen sets Fire to the 80s, and I just did a whole nine shows in March sold out and I’ve got
another, I’ve got shows for October. We’ve booked a couple shows from October and
two of them are sold out.
Bridgett:
Wow. Wow. And how the French embraced you Like in the
you know in your book you share how as a child a lot of kids didn’t They were
like very mean to her. They didn’t understand the right.
Colleen: They didn’t understand thedifference
Bridgett: Yeah, but like chase you down and hurt you,
Alison: you know, like someone threw a McDonald’s cup of orange soda at my face during the Christmas parade of
all things It was just so bonkers. But the first time I talked about the talk show
I was on France and they really did They started like analyzing Nellie. She’s a
child. She’s a child without a smile, the poor Nellie. And I’m going, is this, am I
being declared innocent under French law? What is happening? And they did, and just
the French people really, really love Little House on the Prairie. If you’re walking
in the park with some French people and there’s like a meadow with flowers, one of
them will scream, “I am baby Carrie and fall down”. They’re obsessed. They’re obsessed
and they love the prairie and they love Nellie Oleson and they like me and my weird
off kilter personality and sense of humor. They think I’m a hoot. I like them. Like
I said, in the book, I always wanted to go to France. All the storybook said
there’s always the French castles and little French. And now I’ve been to all the
French castles. I was just that one. Um, yeah, so it’s it’s completely bonkers. I
get all the escargot I can eat all the champagne I can drink. It’s not a
bad deal.
Colleen: Yeah. It’s a win -win. There you go. It’s a win -win.
Alison: It’s a win -win.
They’re happy. I’m happy. We’re all, yeah.
Colleen: Are you excited to see
them remaking and doing a reboot?
Alison: And the some people cry, it’s not a reboot. I mean, I guess for a lot of people,
reboot would be rebooting like the 70s version of our show. So it’s like, it’s
almost a prequel. I’ve been calling it the prequel because they’re going back to the
books. Like Laura’s going to be really young. It’s like Kansas. So at one point I
was like, are they going back to Big Woods? It looks like they’re going back to
Little House in Kansas, but it is like, like the pilot era, like way
back. So yeah, yeah, way, way back. So it’s, it’s, it’s, if it was, this was
Marvel or something, it’d be a prequel. And it’s, you know, all new, everybody.
And people say it is all unknowns. We were all unknowns. When our show started,
Michael was the only person anybody knew who he was. Victor French and Richard Bull and
a lot of people were famous character actors, Deb Square, they’ve been in everything,
but nobody knew who they were and nobody knew who the heck Karen Grassle was or
Melissa Sue Anderson or me or anybody. I mean, yeah. So again, they will discover a
whole crop of new people who will be Laura and Mary and Ma. And if they find the
right people, which I know they’re really going to work and going full forces on
this, if they get the right people, they could really pull it off because it was
absolutely about the chemistry between the actors. If that somewhere, somewhere is
that girl, that girl shows up at that audition and is Laura, then we’re off to the
races with this thing. So we basically all of us from the original show, we’re like
sitting there with the popcorn waiting to see what happens. We’re like, yeah, we’re
on the edge of our seats. We can’t say but they’re keeping us in the loop. It’s not, you
know, the people of the rights, they’re like, okay, we are doing the show.
Here’s when it’s happening. Locations scouting is starting.
They’re just scouting locations and having auditions. Literally, they just started
having auditions. So people are people are saying like, Well, when does it air? They
just started to have casting. They don’t even have everyone yet. the breakdowns
the script like just happened like five minutes ago so eventually I mean there’ll be
a huge announcement when everybody’s cast there’ll be a huge announcement I’m sure
when it starts filming there’ll be announcement when it’s about dare I mean this is
not gonna stop this is just gonna they’re gonna pump this continuously all year but
I am a believer in the rising tide floats all boats theory look what this is doing
the fact that there’s all this interest in the Netflix show, whose phone is ringing?
Hi, all of us from the show, everybody wants to ask us, well, what do you think?
I am old enough to play Mrs. Olson now, they have my phone number, I’m just
saying. (laughing) Totally, totally there. I’m also totally available if they need
coaching for the new Nellie, if she needs any tips and that bit. Totally there.
for the new Nellie. I said, “Yeah, it’s marvelous, but our phones are ringing, we’re
all getting pressed from it. People want to come to our events and see us.” And
now our show is streaming like mad. And remember we had that really long,
really difficult Screen Actors Guild strike, right? And we were all just like, “Meh.”
And they said, “Well, yeah, but people are not getting money from streaming. We have
to do this. We have to get something from streaming because eventually it will be
all streaming it’s all going to be streaming that would be saying this is the new
TV is streaming and it would be like not getting residuals from the new thing which
is going to be the only thing because everything else will go away probably because
ah that’s how stuff works. I mean when TV first started all the movie people said
TV yeah that’s not gonna be anything um but streaming is so we have to
know make sure that people are compensated something for streaming because there’s so
much and when we were having this strike a lot of us on the old show said yes
but they’re rerunning all the old shows we know all the new shows are going to be
properly paid for streaming but are we old shows we’re not, but apparently we
are um what’s what marvelous is Little House was started around the time of what
they call the in perpetuity clause so we do get residuals now when you rerun
something, it’s less each time. So it’s been 51 years. And they’ve been rerunning
around the clock. So no, it’s not like real money at this point. But now we are
going to start receiving apparently we’re getting money from streaming now. So we’re
like, good, good. Because all these years later, everything’s gone full circle.
And we’re getting a completely new different and totally other set up of residual
payments that never happened before. And there’s a new version of the show starting.
Bridgett: Awesome. Wow. That’s wonderful though. I thought that’s all
happening. I always felt so horrible because somebody’s making that money and that’s
your talent. Yeah. I mean, that’s your talent on there.
Alison: And there’s a lot of
extra child stars who don’t get residuals. A lot of the very old shows, they either
paid no residuals or they paid for six airings and the seventh airings, you’re on
your own. But in ’74, ’75 was when they said residuals forever.
And as I said, they get smaller and smaller and smaller. I mean, I just got my
dollar and 68 cents for my fantasy island. Yes.
Colleen: Oh, wait. We didn’t even get to
your fantasy island. We didn’t even get to your fantasy island.
Bridgett: No, we have a guy
in our neighborhood that was in a band and he would check, here’s money I collect in the
street that I find, here’s my residual check. And he compares them.
Alison: The money he
would get putting out his guitar case and playing versus his royalty would make him
so much more. A guitar case is going to pay way better. I can tell you that.
Colleen: This was so fun, Allison. Guys, Make sure you check out her
website that has so much
information on it.
Okay, we’ll put it the link in
the show notes.
Alison: I’m on Facebook and I’m on Instagram. I’m on everything. I’m
everywhere, uh, guys tiktok occasionally. I’m on everything. And then, of
course, the fabulous podcast with Dean Butler and Pamela Bob. And then I have the
Alison Arngram show. I’m having Jill Whelan from Love Boat on. Oh, yeah.
We’re just everywhere all the time. We’re bad. We’re nationwide. Yeah.
Colleen: Oh, my gosh.
That would be so fun. We’d love to have her on. Tell her to come over here. Just
tell her to come over. Yes.
Alison: But boy, you want to talk about menopause. You need Robin Tyler on. She is a
screen. Love it. Love it. Yeah. We’ll have to get her info. Yeah. Yeah. And,
you know, if you’re in any of these areas, you got to check out and check out
Allison’s show because she’s coming to Nashville. I’m coming. Global. So can’t wait.
Make sure you check it out. So thank you so much. You can text me anything. So
it’ll be good.
We’re going to be in the back going, wait, which we ask, what should we ask? Thank
you.