Product Description
A trip to Chicago makes Charles and Mary appreciate
their home Laura and Mary witness the drowning of
a friend Andy and Laura become crime investigators
Outlaw, Jesse James, and his brother hide out in
Walnut Grove - Nellie falls in love and makes
wedding plans Laura finds a mysterious message
that leads her to an abandoned baby Charles
inherits some money from a relative - Caroline
becomes pregnant with their fourth child The
Ingalls are devastated by the news that Mary is
going blind - These and all of the other exciting
adventures from the entire Fourth Season are
presented in this Special Collectors Edition!
Season 4 (1977-1978)
22 episodes
#
Airdate
Prod. Code
Title
Overview
68
September 12, 1977
4003
Castoffs
Caroline Ingalls orders Laura to
care for her dog, Jack, before going to town to
greet a newcomer, Kezia Horn--who lives in a house
without walls. Laura becomes frustrated at Jack and
gives up trying to take the
foxtails out of his ears. Mary, Laura, Nellie,
and Willie go to visit Kezia and find out what a
unique yet kind person she is. When Laura arrives
home, she finds old Jack dead in the barn. In tears,
she and her family bury him in the meadow. Later,
Charles brings home a stray dog (Bandit) that
followed him home from Mankato, but Laura refuses to
bond with the dog. Kezia speaks to Laura about how
the dog only wants to love her, and how she also
wants to love others but hasn't been accepted.
Guilt-ridden Laura runs to find the dog and bonds
with him. Reverend Alden speaks with Kezia and she
decides to leave Walnut Grove because no one is
accepting of her. It's up to Laura to get everyone
to change their minds before it is too late.
Note:
First appearances of
Merlin Olsen and
Hersha Paraday as Jonathan and Alice Garvey,
friends of the Ingalls family.
69
September 19, 1977
4002
Times Of Change
Charles takes Mary to Chicago,
where he is attending the Grange. There, Mary meets
up with John, Jr., who has started a job as a cub
reporter for a newspaper. However, former lovebirds
John and Mary soon find their lives headed in
separate directions.
70
September 26, 1977
4007
My Ellen
When Laura and Mary go
skinny-dipping with their friend, Ellen Taylor,
some boys come by to get a glimpse. The girls hide
underwater until they go away. Laura and Mary come
back up, but Ellen becomes trapped under the surface
and drowns. Ellen's grief-stricken mother blames
Laura for the tragedy, then rebuffs efforts by
several people to cheer her up. Later, when Laura
turns up missing Mrs. Taylor had trapped Laura in
the basement, thinking she is Ellen suspicion
falls on Busby, a retarded man whom Charles had
warned his daughters to stay away from. While the
hunt is on for Busby, Laura must rely on her wits to
escape Mrs. Taylor's clutches and help her come to
terms with Ellen's death.
71
October 3, 1977
4004
The Handyman
After Caroline complains about
the small size of her kitchen, Charles decides to
build an addition onto the house. However, he must
leave to take a rush delivery to Mankato. Caroline
hires a handsome young handyman named Chris Nelson
to complete the job. Chris stays with the Ingalls
family and unwittingly becomes head of the household
in Charles' absence, prompting Carrie to mistakenly
call the man "Uncle Chris." Mary soon becomes
convinced that her Ma and Chris are becoming
romantically involved, and she freely expresses her
opinions. Nellie and Mrs. Oleson don't help matters
when they share Mary's suspicions. Eventually, Mary
confronts Chris with her suspicions and tells him he
must leave, only to find out later it was a
misunderstanding. Charles later returns and finishes
the kitchen.
Laura and her new friend, Andy
Garvey, find an injured mother wolf trying to tend
to her pack of baby pups. Andy takes the wolf and
her babies home to care for them, but decides to
move them to the Ingalls' barn when he learns
Larabee wants to shoot them. Things turn deadly when
a pack of rabid dogs advance on the barn, trapping
Andy, Laura, Mary, Carrie, and Bandit inside,
leaving them to rely on Jonathan and even more so,
Bandit and the mother wolf to save them from being
mauled.
73
October 24, 1977
4006
The Creeper of Walnut Grove
Laura and Andy become detectives
to solve a series of burglaries in Walnut Grove.
After an incident at the Oleson's, Charles becomes
very angry with his daughter. However, things get
worse when Laura sets some traps to catch the
culprit, but winds up catching Charles instead (at
one point, causing him to be doused with green
paint). It is soon revealed that a boy named Timothy
Ferrel was the creeper all along.
74
October 31, 1977
4001
To Run And Hide
When Dr. Baker is unable to save
a terminally ill patient, he chalks it up to
incompetence and resigns as Walnut Grove's doctor.
While he tries his hand out at farming, a new doctor
Dr. Logan accepts a call to replace Dr. Baker.
However, he is ill-tempered and has no compassion
for his clients, prompting Charles to go all-out to
convince Dr. Baker that he is a good doctor and that
the people of Hero Township need him.
75
November 7, 1977
4008
The Aftermath
Outlaws
Frank and
Jesse James bring their trail of treachery to
Walnut Grove. They stake out the town and take
aliases while trying to blend into the background,
even hiring Mary to do their work. However, their
cover is soon blown when a posse arrives to arrest
the James brothers, causing them to take Mary
hostage.
76
November 14, 1977
4009
The High Cost Of Being Right
When the Garveys' barn burns
down, Alice takes a job at the post office.
Johnathan believes that it's a man's job to support
a family, and is outraged.
77
November 21, 1977
4011
The Fighter (90-minute episode)
Boxer Joe Kagan's career costs
him everything, including his family. Ultimately, he
faces his greatest challenge...his own grown son!
Note:
This episode introduces
Moses Gunn in the title role of Joe Kagan.
78
November 28, 1977
4012
Meet Me At The Fair
The Oleson and Ingalls families
travel to a fair in Mankato, where Mary hopes to
spend time with a boyfriend. Instead she is
propositioned by her boyfriend's boss. Meanwhile
Nels and Charles enter a donkey riding contest, and
Laura has a hard time staying with Carrie.
Eventually, Carrie falls asleep inside a hot-air
balloon that accidentally gets set off.
79
December 5, 1977
4010
Here Come The Brides
When Adam Simms and his son Luke
move to town, Adam instantly takes a liking to Miss
Beadle, while Luke and Nellie fall in love. After
Nellie talks to Miss Beadle, she and Luke run away
to have a very short-lived marriage. In the end,
Adam and Eva get married themselves! This episode
features one of the first looks at the softer side
of Nellie's personality.
80
December 12, 1977
4013
Freedom Flight
An
Indian tribe comes to Walnut Grove, asking for
help for their sick chief. Charles and Doc Baker
agree to help, angering several racist citizens, who
are convinced the Indians mean to attack them.
Charles is kept busy nursing the tribe leader back
to health and warding off an imminent war.
81
January 9, 1978
4014
The Rivals
Charles and Jonathan compete
against another team to win a freighting contract
that would take them away from their families for
long stretches of time. Laura, who is in love with
Jimmy Hill, must compete with somebody else for him.
In the end, Charles and Jonathan decide not to
accept the new job, and Laura eventually wins Jimmy
over, resulting in her first kiss.
82
January 16, 1978
4015
Whisper Country
Mary gets her first teaching job
in the backwoods community of Willow Prairie, but is
met with stern, purely hateful opposition by the
settlement's leader: an elderly woman who has driven
away previous teachers and has thwarted all attempts
to establish a school and uses the Bible in a
hateful way to back her beliefs. The father of a
student she stays with, a loyal follower to the
woman, is just as bad. The woman's adamant beliefs
against common things such as reading and cleaning
with soap and water are the cover for her own
shameful secret: She cannot read. Mary is driven
from the community, but after Charles gives her a
pep talk, she is able to expose Mrs. Peal.
Afterward, she learns to accept and embrace
education.
83
January 23, 1978
4016
I Remember, I Remember
While waiting for Charles (who is
stuck in the rain with a broken wagon wheel on her
anniversary), Caroline tells the children the story
of how she and Charles met.
Note:
In this episode
Matthew Laborteaux portrays young Charles,
in the next season he would return, but as
orphan child Albert.
84
January 30, 1978
4017
Be My Friend (90-minute episode)
When Laura finds a bottle with a
note inside that reads, "Be my friend," she
convinces Charles to help her look for the person,
but they find a baby. They then look for the child's
parents.
85
February 6, 1978
4018
The Inheritance
When Charles receives news that
he is the heir to a late relative, Mrs. Oleson
becomes oddly friendly. The Ingalls sure they've
inherited a fortune go on a wild spending spree to
upgrade their farm and equipment. Then, Charles gets
the inheritance and finds out he's inherited
Confederate money. Mrs. Oleson immediately decides
to foreclose on the Ingalls farm, putting the
Ingalls' friendships to the test.
86
February 1, 1978
4019
The Stranger
Nels' brother sends his
12-year-old son, Peter, to Walnut Grove after the
boy's behavior grows unmanagable. However, Mrs.
Oleson babies the son, prompting a frustrated Nels
to turn to Charles for assistance in rehabilitating
Peter, which leads to a reconciling between Peter
and his father.
87
February 27, 1978
4020
A Most Precious Gift
Charles has always wanted a son,
and has another chance to get one when Caroline
announces she's pregnant. But Caroline fears how
Charles will react if the baby is a girl.
Eventually, it's all for naught, as Charles loves
his baby Grace just the same.
Note:
The Ingalls' youngest biological child, Grace,
is born.
88
March 6, 1978
4021
I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
(Part 1)
Just as Mary falls in love with
newcomer Seth Barton, her eyesight begins to worsen.
Charles takes her to an
optometrist, but the news is not good: Mary's
vision cannot be saved, and she will soon go blind.
In denial, Charles does not tell his daughter until
the day before she wakes up and finds to her horror
she is completely blind. Mary becomes very bitter
over her predicament and having to rely on others
for basic needs.
89
March 13, 1978
4022
I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
(Part 2)
Mary is sent to a blind school in
Iowa, where she meets her husband-to-be, Adam
Kendall. Mary refuses to accept Adam's help at
first, but he eventually helps her learn to deal
with her blindness. When Adam encourages Mary before
her return to Walnut Grove, he says a key line that
serves as the title of this episode. Meanwhile, the
town of Walnut Grove faces bankruptcy as its
citizens prepare to move out.
Note:
This marks the first appearance of
Linwood Boomer as Adam Kendall, and the
final appearance of
Charlotte Stewart as Miss Beadle-Simms.
Note:
This was intended by NBC as the final episode of
the series, but the show ended up being renewed
for the following season.
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