Little House on the Prairie - The Complete Season 4

Little House was one of my favortie shows growing up. My friends and I would read the books during the day and watch the show at night every week. I bought the set for myself but I look forward to introducing my young daughter to it one day. A must have for your DVD library.Disc 1CASTOFFS: Pa gives Laura a new dog when Jack, her old dog, dies. Laura just can't seem to get attached to Bandit even though he is obviously quite fond of her. She later has a change of heart after visiting Aunt Kezia.TIMES OF CHANGE: Charles and Mary look forward to their trip to Chicago with great anticpation, only to discover that life in the big city isn't what they expected.MY ELLEN: Laura and Mary convince Ellen's mom to let her go swimming with them. Tragically, Ellen drowns and Eloise, Ellen's mother, can't accept her death. Believing that Laura is actually Ellen, she lures her into the cellar with the intention of locking her up.THE HANDYMAN: Charles must interrupt the construction of an addition to his house when he is called upon to make an urgent delivery in Mankato. Caroline hires a handsome man, Chris, to finish the house, but things get complicated when Mary suspects that her Ma and Chris are falling in love.Disc 2THE WOLVES: When Charles and Caroline go away and leave Mary in charge, Laura and Andy find baby wolves and set up a pen for them in the barn. This attracts wild dogs which surround the barn trapping the children inside.THE CREEPER OF WALNUT GROVE: Laura and Andy set out to find the person responsible for stealing from the citizens of Walnut Grove, creating an unexpected reaction from the townspeople, including charles Ingalls.TO RUN AND HIDE: When Doc Baker is unable to save a patient, he decides to stop practicing medicine and finds a new doctor to replace him in Walnut Grove.THE AFTERMATH: Jesse James and his brother, Frank, hide out in Walnut Grove. When the townspeople discover their true identities, the outlaws decide to take hostages.Disc 3THE HIGH COST OF BEING RIGHT: Mr. Garvey's barn burns to the ground with his crops inside. His wife Alice, goes to work at the post office to help out. Mr. Garvey is opposed to this, as he believes that a man should be able to support his family alone.THE FIGHTER: The people of Walnut Grove gear up for a big boxing match. Charles is one of the fighters and is surprised and concerned when he defeats his opponent with ease.MEET ME AT THE FAIR: The Ingalls travel to the annual fair where Carrie gets tired and climbs into the basket of a hot-air balloon for a nap. The real adventure begins when the balloon lifts off!DVD Extras (on Disc 3):Looking Back at Season 4Gain unique insight into what occurred behind the scenes during the creation of Season 4. Author and journalist, Patrick Loubatiere, recalls conversations with "series insiders" regarding these episodes and shares some of what he learned!1. A true gentle giant2. From the author's pen to television3. Her own theme song!4. Like father like son5. Ruth Foster to the rescue!6. A generous boss7. Bravo Melissa Sue!Disc 4HERE COME THE BRIDES: Adam Simms and his son Luke move to Walnut Grove and find love when Adam falls for Miss Beadle, and Luke and Nellie Oleson fall for each other.FREEDOM FLIGHT: An Indian boy comes to Walnut Grove seeking help for his sick father. The townspeople become very hostile toward the Indians and Charles must step in to help them leave town.THE RIVALS: Charles fights off a competitor to save his business, while Laura must compete for the attention of Jimmy Hill.WHISPER COUNTY: Mary becomes a teacher in a distant rural community where Miss Peal is against having a school at all. She convinces the other people in the community that school isn't necessary. Mary asks Miss Peal to read a passage from the Bible. The community, including Miss Peal, then becomes more receptive to the school.Disc 5I REMEMBER, I REMEMBERIt is a miserable rainy day when a wheel breaks on Charles' wagon preventing him from getting home on time. This day is also Charles and Caroline's wedding anniversary. While waiting for Pa to arrive, Caroline reminisces and tells the children how hard it was to get Charles to notice her so many years ago.BE MY FRIEND: Laura finds a bottle with a note inside which says, "Be my friend". She convinces Pa to help her look for the person who sent the note and they find a baby. The search for the baby's parents begins.THE INHERITANCE: Charles receives a sum of money from one of his relatives and must listen to everyone's advice on how to spend it! However, his windfall turns into nothing but rouble when it is discovered that he has inherited confederate money!Disc 6THE STRANGER: A nephew of Mr. Oleson's comes for a visit to try to learn some morals. Mr. Oleson ends up sending the child to Mr. Ingalls. Mr. Ingalls has the child help him on the farm. After being with the Ingalls, he learns how he should behave. He goes back home again a changed man.A MOST PRECIOUS GIFT: Charles must demonstrate his "medical skills" when Caroline, who is expecting their fourth child, goes into labor earlier than expected.I'LL BE WAVING AS YOU DRIVE AWAY: In this dramatic two-hour episode, Charles takes Mary to an eye specialist when she begins to experience difficulty seeing. He is devestated to learn that she will most certainly lose her sight, and for a while, cannot bring himself to tell her the truth about her condition.

Season four sure does bring a lot of changes to the residents of Walnut grove and specifically to the Ingalls Family. I'm only fifteen so these episodes were all new for me and boy is season four a fantastic season. This season offers a few more very dramatic episodes than the previous season and I am fully convinced that these actors are the best actors in the history of television. Too bad I can't say this DVD collection is the best in the history of DVD's.There are a few problems like the last three releases with the quality of the film but hey, what are you gonna do, like I mentioned in my previous reviews in the pamphlet they explain that there may be scenes missing and film deterioration so I'll leave it at that. There is a bonus feature but don't get excited, it's entitled "Insiders share their memories of season four"...in the form of notes. I'm sorry but I would much rather watch in interview than read notes with a very small font, nonetheless, they are interesting but if there were some better bonus material I would give this season a flat out five star rating. (Oh and there are a couple interesting stories in the pamphlet that I'd recommend looking at.)But all these little nit-picks aren't even a big deal because season four is fantastic! I don't think I can name my favorite episodes because they were all so good. There are quite a few changes in season four, Laura's dog Jack dies and Charles finds a stray dog called Bandit who becomes a member of the Ingalls family, Nellie falls in love with a surprising ending, Laura begins to become attracted to a boy at her school, just to name a few. And some of these episodes are so intense! "My Ellen" is very creepy, Laura and Mary go swimming with a friend named Ellen who drowns, and Ellen's mother cannot accept her death, in this episode you definitely see how hard it must be to lose a loved one, but by far the most emotional episodes is the final two parter "I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away" as we witness the slow deterioration of Mary's eyesight.But really, it's impossible to list all of the best episodes because every episode is darn near perfect, all I can say is buy season four and every other season of Little House. I'm dying to get season five as fast as I can...oh yeah, WHERE THE HECK IS MR. EDWARDS DURING THIS SEASON!!!

In many ways season four marks the end of 'Little House On The Prairie's early episodes where despite the many ups and downs with regard to the fortunes of the Ingalls family (and others) by each episode's end things stayed pretty much unchanged.This season marks more significant growth where certain events create an indelible mark on the futures of a number of the leading characters. For example, Miss Beadle gets married which eventually leads to her departure, Caroline becomes pregnant with her fourth child, an economic slump in Walnut Grove would later result in many families being forced to relocate (including the Ingalls), and most significantly Mary loses her sight.However, these events don't really effect 'Little House On The Prairie' in the shortterm as the show manages to remain very much what it had been in earlier seasons - incredibly heartwarming with stories which have a great deal of compassion and family values. I do feel, though, the loss of Mr Edwards (and family) is a significant blow. Apparently actor Victor French had a few grievances with the show which led to his departure which is unfortunate as his fun loving personality complimented the more serious tone of some of the storylines incredibly well. His gap was filled by Jonathan Garvey (played by Merlin Olsen) yet Jonathan's character (and that of his family) are nowhere near as well rounded. However, this doesn't prevent season four being as equally enjoyable as the earlier seasons. If anything the last episode - the two part 'I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away' (where Mary loses her sight) is arguably the biggest tearjerker of any 'Little House On The Prairie' episode ever.Season four is, perhaps, the final season which displays the childrens carefree innocence - there are a number of indications they are beginning to reach adolescence which they do incredibly fast in the seasons that follow.The picture/sound quality on this DVD is (like season three) consideraby better than the British versions of seasons one and two yet some of the scenes are still cut a little sharply. A multi regional DVD player is strongly recommended.All in all season four is, like seasons one, two and three, highly desirable with 'Little House On The Prairie' maintaining its own very high standards.'Little House' lovers won't be disappointed.

Far be it for me to disagree with the previous reviewer, but I have to. Season 4 seems to me to be a somewhat cheaper production. The first story regarding the old biddy living in town is woeful. Jonathan Garvey is introduced with no explanation. The series seriously misses Victor French. The stories seem to be written as they are in production. But then, it did have a lot to live up to as I think Season 3 was excellent and was not bettered by any of the subsequent seasons. I am a huge fan of the early episodes, the later ones - not so much.Technically the Region 1 is not great. Picture quality is poor and the sound is not great either. The set looks as if it was moved and placed in a dry, arrid desert.The characters seem to be growing up quickly, especially Mary, and the story about her blindness is a blinder (no pun intended)!But, it is Little House and if you are a fan then you will enjoy.

I have always loved this programme, and the new "remastered" DVD releases by Lionsgate are great. The improvement in picture and sound quality with respect to previous releases is impressive. (I imagine that the Blu-Ray version will be even better, but I haven't checked.)Note that these DVDs are intended for Region 1, so if you want to watch them in Europe you'll need a multi-region DVD player.

We have been watching and collecting the Little House box sets for a short time and looked forward to getting Season 4. Our two children love watching them too. We found that Season 4 had changed to the extent that it was more adultlike in its portrayal. There are a couple of episodes which we decided not to let our children see as we saw them as a bit too adult-like in the approach and a little frightening. However saying that we thoroughly enjoyed watching them and look forward to getting Season 5.We like the fact they are clean and moral. They are focused around a little community church and Rev Aldren is quite profound in some things he says.

As with all of the other seasons I bought, this came in a Dutch box with Dutch titles and automatically plays with Dutch subtitles that you have to turn off each time. Otherwise the classic remains unchanged! Love watching them in all these years later.