‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Finally Reveals Why Everyone Said Almanzo’s Name Wrong
As all Little House on the Prairie fans know, the show’s characters had a slightly unusual way of pronouncing the name of Almanzo Wilder, Laura Ingall’s love interest. And as actress Lucy Lee Flippin has revealed in a new interview in BuzzFeed, the epic mispronunciation goes back to the nerves she felt on her first day filming.
Flippin, 82, portrayed schoolteacher Eliza Jane Wilder in the show’s final three seasons. With her thick glasses and red curls, Flippin was one of the series’s more visually memorable characters, inspiring fans to embrace their “Eliza Jane Era” in modern times.
But Flippin’s most lasting impact on the Little House franchise, for better or for worse, is a mispronunciation of her on-screen brother’s name, Almanzo Wilder.
When speaking with BuzzFeed, Flippin said that she and Dean Butler, who played Almanzo, were “both a little nervous” on their first day filming.
“We were in the buckboard, and Dean had to handle the horses, which I don’t think he was used to doing. I mean, we were sort of like two brand new puppies, you know, very wide-eyed!” said Lucy Lee. “I remember we were in the town square, and the first scene we shot was when I introduced Almanzo to Laura [played by Melissa Gilbert].”
“I introduced him as Almonzo,” explained Flippin, adding that she made an ‘o’ sound when it’s supposed to be Almanzo, like man. “No one corrected me — the script supervisor didn’t, Michael Landon didn’t, and Dean Butler never said a word! So I feel unfairly blamed for that. I thought my way sounded nicer!”
What makes it more bizarre is that Eliza and Almanzo Wilder were real people. Almanzo would—spoiler alert!—marry Laura (ergo, the ‘Wilder’ in Laura Ingalls Wilder). As Butler revealed in a 2024 interview, after Almanzo was introduced on the series, “the letters poured in” from fans of the book, chastising the actors for pronouncing the character’s name incorrectly. But by the time that episode had aired, Butler recalled, “already … five or six more episodes had been shot … so, it was set in stone.”
Flippin did say that the greatest part of playing Eliza Jane on Little House was the fact that she existed. “I’ve read a lot about her life,” she told BuzzFeed. “It’s fascinating. She was a real feminist, and she was a homesteader. She lived by herself in a little house in the Dakota territories and then moved to Washington, D.C., to be a government girl.”
“She’s such an interesting person, historically,” she added. “I’ve loved going to the different geographical places where she actually lived.”
Puzzler '80s Comedy Classics
Vol 1, Issue 6
This issue is packed with puzzles and trivia from all your favorite '80s sitcoms.
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