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The Little House on the Prairie cast is remembering some of the show’s historical inaccuracies, noting that long acrylic nails with French manicures (popularized in the 1970s and 1980s) can be seen throughout episodes set in the late 1800s.
In the Nov. 6, 2025, episode of the Little House 50 podcast, co-hosts Pamela Bob, Alison Arngrim and Dean Butler spoke about the nails and how they continually pop up throughout the show — particularly in season 5, episode 9, titled “The Wedding.”
At one point in the episode, Mary Ingalls accepts Adam Kendall’s long-awaited marriage proposal — which is exactly when co-host Bob notes that audiences can see Mary’s decidedly synthetic manicure.
“This is the moment when we first see the nails, the French tips,” Bob says in the podcast.
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Arngrim — who played Nellie Oleson on the show —adds that the more modern nails can be seen “repeatedly through this episode,” with Bob adding: “They’re shiny, shiny new. Beautiful. They are shiny new acrylics.”
Arngrim then described how she, too, loves a fresh manicure, but always made a point of removing any polish before filming days.
“Now you know I love doing my nails … I love doing my nails,” she said. “I did do that. Even during the show, I know I did not have any sort of acrylics during the show [but] I would often on the weekend paint my nails many interesting colors. … but Sunday night [removed it] with the nail polish remover.”
She continued; “And I don’t know. Because Melissa Gilbert had the acrylics. Melissa Sue had the acrylics. They all had the French tips. It was so in in the early eighties. And they all did and I did not. … I said, ‘I’m on a TV show and I have a full seven year contract for a TV show where apparently I live in the 1800s and don’t have nails.'”
“Yeah, if it was any any later … God, the 1930s, maybe we’d gotten away with it,” Arngrim said.
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Added Bob: “It is so weird that Michael Landon was like, ‘Yeah. I’m cool with it. It is weird to me.’ “
Michael Landon — who played patriarch Charles Ingalls on the show — acted as the show’s producer, even directing many of the episodes.
Landon died on July 1, 1991, three months after publicly announcing his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, and is often remembered by the cast of the show.
In a May 2025 episode the podcast, Butler said of Landon: “I think people respected Michael, but I don’t think that he had that industry respect that he deserved. He captured audiences in this profound way and continues to capture audiences. In a changing world, he still is able to capture people because there’s truth in what he’s writing about.”
