This two-fer from the classic family series loosely based on the works of pioneer author icon Laura Ingalls Wilder features a pair of holiday-themed episodes. Up first is the 1974 first season episode “Christmas at Plum Creek,” which plays out à la O. Henry's “Gift of the Magi”: Mary and Ma (Melissa Sue Anderson and Karen Grassle) secretly work on the exact same shirt for Pa (Michael Landon), who is busy earning extra money in order to buy a stove for Ma and a saddle for young Laura (Melissa Gilbert), who won't need a saddle because she is trading her horse…for a stove for Ma. The second entry is the festive clip-show “A Christmas They Never Forgot” from the 1981-82 penultimate eighth season. Offering quite the narrative jump between years for viewers unfamiliar with the series (here, both Mary and Laura bring their husbands for Christmas Eve dinner, while various adopted children—including a ‘tween Jason Bateman—have seemingly sprung up out of nowhere), the episode includes an excerpt from the 1974 pilot that closely hews to Ingalls's real-life 1935 book Little House on the Prairie, along with new “flashbacks” on the lives of Ma, Laura's man Almanzo (Dean Butler), and black character Hester-Sue (Ketty Lester). Presented in a deluxe remastered edition, this is an optional purchase likely to be appreciated by diehard fans only (who may already have the complete season sets). (J. Williams-Wood)
Little House on the Prairie: A Merry Ingalls Christmas
Lionsgate, 100 min., not rated, DVD: $9.98 December 15, 2014
Little House on the Prairie: A Merry Ingalls Christmas
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