Little House on the Prairie: Season 7

Even by this beloved series' own heart-wrenching standards, life in Walnut Grove takes many dramatic turns in the seventh season. Laura gets married to Almanzo and promptly faces a financial crisis, while Adam miraculously regains his sight and becomes a lawyer. A considerably nicer Nellie gives birth, and Caroline learns she can no longer bear children. There are orphans to be relocated, an abandoned daughter to be reunited with her mother, and an emotionally distant football hero father who risks estrangement from his more sensitive son. And in one of the series' most harrowing episodes, the Emmy-nominated two-parter, "Sylvia," a masked rapist (!) stalks one of Adam's classmates. After all this tumult, it's always a nice change of pace when the series kicks back with a comedic episode. In "The In-Laws," getting there is all the fun as Charles (star Michael Landon) and his new son-in-law bet to see which route to the town of Sleepy Eye is fastest. Through it all, the 18 seventh season (1980-81) episodes--based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder--collected in this six-disc boxed set steadfastly extol the virtues of hard work, independence, honesty, responsibility, and tolerance (as the loathsome Mrs. Oleson struggles to come to term with her daughter's Jewish husband and his parents). Landon, the heart and soul of the series, wrote and/or directed many of this season's most memorable episodes, including the two-parter, "Laura Ingalls Wilder," "To See the Light," "Sylvia," and "The Lost Ones," which adds two new young members to the Ingalls brood, including future Arrested Development star Jason Bateman, then 12 years old. "The little house would be full," Laura narrates, "full of love." Not exactly subtle, but that's the kind of heartfelt sentiment that continues to make this home a welcome one for families to revisit. DVD extras include interviews with Dean Butler (Almanzo) and Alison Arngrim (Nellie), audio commentary by Arngrim on the episode “Come, Let Us Reason Together,” and an interactive quiz. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)