It’s hard to believe we just celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the hit television series Little House On The Prairie. The long-running show included actor Alison Arngrim, named “TV’s #1 Bitch” by Vanity Fair magazine for her role as nasty Nellie Oleson. TV fans around the world will remember Arngrim as the acid-tongued hellcat who tormented pure, sweet Laura Ingalls for seven years.
Today, Arngrim, 63, can be found performing in her critically acclaimed global one-woman show, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. This riotous show recounts her role as the bratty Oleson and life behind the scenes. Never afraid to dish the dirt, Arngrim startles audiences internationally with off-color stories about child stars and TV icons of the 1970s and 80s including Melissa Gilbert, Michael Landon, RuPaul, Liberace, Carol Channing, Bette Midler and others.
Arngrim offers an evening of anecdotes, stand-up comedy, and multimedia content about life as the scorned yet beloved devious pre-teen, complete with frilly petticoats and curls. Her one-woman stage show made its debut in New York City in 2002 and has since become a global sensation, drawing packed houses in the U.S. and abroad. The hit show spawned Arngrim’s record breaking New York Times Best Selling memoir, similarly, titled Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated (HarperCollins).
I was fortunate to meet Arngrim at a Hollywood red carpet event a few years ago and recently chat with her on Zoom.
Sheldon Baker interviews Alison Arngrim
AM: Seven seasons on Little House on the Prairie is no small feat. How did the role come about?
Ms. Arngrim: I auditioned for the part of both Laura and Mary before the pilot but they hired Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls Wilder and Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary Ingalls Kendall.
AM: When the show’s producers said you were going to play the role of Nellie Oleson were you excited?
Ms. Arngrim: I was ecstatic, because in essence it was like getting your own series. Some girls grow up thinking they’re going to be Miss America. In my case I was getting a television series. For me, that was like winning the lottery. I was told the part they wanted me to play was the bad girl role and I initially thought it was funny. But then I just felt if that’s the part I get, ok. NBC-TV bought the series and I signed a seven-year contract, a huge deal. My parents looked at me feeling of all the parts I auditioned for that’s the role I was targeted to play, the villain role seemed odd, and my friends were like ‘are you serious?’
AM: Vanity Fair magazine named you TV’s number one bitch. Did any real life experience prepare you for that role?
Ms. Arngrim: What’s so crazy is before I got the part I was very shy and I was the kid who was clobbered by bullies when I was young. I was much more of the girl to be beaten up by Nellie than be her type. But it was great when I got the part because some people were scared of me and a few bullies then felt I was one of them. It gave me enormous confidence. I thought, if I have the ability to have a different attitude and a different way of speaking, and somehow be intimidating, why am I not using that more often in my day-to-day life when it could come in handy. I became a whole lot less shy.
AM: Did the fact that you were a shy child actor have its challenges?
Ms. Arngrim: Yes, it did sometimes during auditions. I still think auditions are a brutal process. But as a young child auditions were difficult, because I could read the part but I had to talk to all those strange people. I had to come in and say good morning and actually look at them before I read the script. When I read for Little House there were so many people in the room. I was a little overwhelmed.
I’m very sympathetic to shy people when people tell me about their shyness. It can be a real drag if you want to go to a party and go up to a person and talk to them. You may see someone who’s cute and want to ask them something but you can’t do it. It’s a nightmare. But if you can breakthrough and find whatever psychological thing you can do for yourself you can approach people and not faint or die.
AM: Had you portrayed the role of a villain in previous acting parts?
Ms. Arngrim: No, but I liked villains growing up. I watched the old Peter Pan film when I was little and thought Cyril Richard, as Captain Hook, was the greatest thing ever. Villain roles were really cool and so was the bad guy. I understood as the villain in Little House it could be fun. It really made for an interesting character.
Right away people said they hated me and I didn’t feel bad because you’re not supposed to like me. People threw things at me and called me a bitch to my face, yelled at me and threw orange soda at my head during a parade. That was a little much and right away I thought what am I doing that made them mad.
A few years ago, a woman came up to me at an autograph table and said, ‘I forgive you’ and walked away. Here was a grown woman and she’d probably had been holding it in for at least 30 years. People really got emotionally involved in Little House in the Prairie and apparently I was no exception. Everybody has a Nellie at their school. Everybody has a Mrs. Oleson at their job. People could really identify on an emotional level with what we were doing every week. I just think this shows we all did a hell of an acting job and people are still attached to it so many years later. Nevertheless, I have to take all this as a compliment if people are this riled up about it.
AM: Did you get along well with the other cast members?
Ms. Arngrim: Oh, yes. The first person who came barreling up to me was Melissa Gilbert. She immediately reached out and that’s why I love Melissa so much. She told what was what and who was who. I confess I was a little intimidated. But she was hilarious and seemed like my sister. We immediately bonded and that’s why I love Melissa so much. Michael Landon was also very nice. Katherine MacGregor and Richard Bull, who played my parents, immediately embraced me like I was their child. She was kind of crazy but adored me so I loved her. Richard absolutely was very fond of me too. But I got along with everyone. The first few weeks I was skittish, but luckily Melissa, Katherine and Richard totally eased me through it. I thought if I never speak to anyone I could at least talk to these people.
AM: What do you feel was your first big show business break?
Ms. Arngrim: My first break was a commercial for Hunts ketchup. I was six and a tiny little thing. It was a big campaign that included a series of commercials with kids trying to get a tomato into a bottle showing they had fresh tomatoes in the bottle. I was pushing and the tomato broke and splattered all over me on a cute little white outfit. I literally had tomato juice all over me which probably scared a lot of people. I liked Hunts ketchup and it was a really good commercial. My little blonde hair and push on the tomato for a huge national commercial was a big deal.
AM: When Little House came to an end for you, did you have some thoughts about what might come next or did you have something lined up?
Ms. Arngrim: My agent and dad said you’re 18 now and not limited to the nine hours on set and three hours in school. There’s a larger pool of people who will hire you.
The roller boogie episode of “CHiPs” and my role as a hooker on Fantasy Island are the two things I remember and I’d say were slightly embarrassing roles.
AM: I assume you do a number of fan events.
Ms. Arngrim: Yes. A number of people come up to me at these events and tell me they drove seven hours to get there just to shake my hand, I tell them that’s really nice, but they say I don’t understand. Their response is, ‘I was stuck in my apartment losing my mind, but for an hour a day Alison is reading the Little House books, and I just could turn everything off and go and then think what did Mary say to Laura?’ They were just like this was the greatest thing that ever happened to them. They’re watching the show and then reading the Little House books every day.
When I had days off, if I had nothing to do, Dean Butler who played Almanzo Wilder on the show asked if I could read the Long Winter as he liked that one. Little House books in 2025 may be more popular than they have ever been. And now there’s a new Netflix show and as we keep saying not a reboot. It’s not our show made again.
AM: You started your one woman show Confessions of a Prairie Bitch over 20 years ago.
Ms. Arngrim: About 23 years as of this interview. I thought what if I took all my true life’s stories I tell my friends and added a question and answer segment that would be funny. It’s going to be totally experimental, but the audience went wild and they asked for an encore. I was on stage for two hours. It was the nuttiest thing ever. That was the birth of Confessions in New York, and I’ve added pictures and video and other stories that I change every year for my shows nationwide. It’s all great fun. ‘
AM: Now the show is a huge hit everywhere even in France.
Ms. Arngrim: We did the French version, and it became a French adaptation, not only translated in French, but as my friend said there’s some things that don’t translate, but some of your story does. So, we did this French version, and then he wrote another show called Nellie Olsen’s Drunken Treasures, and we have a new show called Nellie Oleson Sets Fire in the 80s. We just did several more last year so I still have a fresh review. It’s hysterical. At Alison-arngrim.com you’ll get the whole scoop on the French show.
AM: Regarding your book. Confessions of Recurring Bitch, were you surprised at the book’s popularity?
Ms. Arngrim: I kind of was, but my friends and husband weren’t. People who’d read the rough drafts really liked it. It’s funny because most people read the book then see the show. I was doing the show first. I was surprised that the show was popular when I first performed in New York. I thought it was a fluke but people went crazy. There was that encore and who does an encore with stand-up comedy. I had to come back out and talk, so I wound up being on stage for two hours and thought what’s happening here. When I did it in Los Angeles the first time, everybody started standing up at the end. I thought they were going to get their cars out of the parking lot. It took me almost a minute to realize it was a standing ovation. I guess I’m slow on the uptake sometimes. With the popularity of the show, I wrote the book.
I put everything into it and didn’t hold anything back. Everything and the kitchen sink and I believe that helped. I have always used the old equation, pain plus time equals comedy. Things are always funny, eventually. I took the approach that the book is going to be funny and I just put it all out there.
AM: Did your husband help you writing the book.
Ms. Arngrim: I remember my husband saying he didn’t want to pry and just tell him when it’s completed. I showed him the rough draft before it went to the editors, and he read that whole thing and was absolutely beside himself. He said, ‘Do you know what this is?’ I sent a couple chapters to a few friends who were librarians and book editors, and they were like what are you writing.
My father died before it came out, so he kind of got to be the finale. My editor said, ‘We hate to make you rake about your father’s death, but we’re almost done, and we need an epilogue, and everybody wants to know what happened to your crazy father. He’s become a character in the book, so I wrote about that. I remember reading a chapter about my father to my husband and he couldn’t believe I wrote about him.
My agent took me to several publishers, one of the women at the publishers was the head of editing held up the chapter she’d been sent and said, ‘Is the rest of the book written like this?’ I said I don’t know any other way to write it and it is. There was something about the way I was writing things that early on people were saying I tapped into to. I knew I just had to keep going that way. Eventually, it made The New York Times bestseller list and people are still buying it. People still want this book and I am absolutely floored.
AM: You’re quite involved in activism work for AIDS and HIV organizations, and political issues surrounding child sexual abuse and exploitation. Please share a little bit about that.
Ms. Arngrim: In the 80’s, Steve Tracy who played my husband Percival Dalton on the show, went public with his AIDS diagnosis. This was in 1985 and nobody was doing anything about that disease. He died in 1986, but he put up a heck of a fight and also went public. Rock Hudson had just come public but nobody from TV voluntarily came out. Steve said, ‘I’m a face people know and I’m someone who’s living with AIDS.’
That really generated a lot of hoopla and buzz. People didn’t know what to think. I was getting calls and said I need to know more about the disease. I went and volunteered for the AIDS Project in Los Angeles. I went up on their hotline and participated in their speakers bureau and I did everything I could. I was able to help my friends who had AIDS and I was able to support people who didn’t know what to do and how to assist their friends. So many people at that time thought they’re going to get it off a doorknob. For God’s sakes. Nobody knew what was going on. I was able to answer the phone and tell people here’s what’s really going on, where you could get tested and get help. It was just wonderful to help a lot of people, as well as assist a lot of the smaller AIDS agencies.
There’s still many AIDS service organizations nationwide. Tiny places where they don’t have big stars coming to their gala events, and I was able to go out and do AIDS walks, and events for these places in towns in Midwest states like Missouri and Iowa. There’s a marvelous place in Orange County California right now, Radiant Health Services. They just had an event and I donated a bunch of stuff for their silent auction. I still go out and try to help these kids. It’s still happening and there’s still agencies dealing with people who are sick.
I was approached a few years back by a group called the National Association to Protect Children or protect.org. They said we’re going to fight child abuse, but we’re pursuing legislation because people are doing a lot of really cool stuff.
We’re seeing laws where there’s loopholes and all these things happening that are just not a good spot for victims. The victim is being put in a terrible position like a statute of limitations. At this time, we have a big problem and it’s still in effect in many locations. We changed it in seven states, the exception being where if it was a family member it was somehow a lesser offense. People were doing literally zero jail time. They’re eligible for no jail time, and having their record expunged as long as the child that they sexually abused was a relative. It makes no sense. The majority of people who are sexually abused are abused by someone they know and most often it is a relative. There should be no exceptions. It’s usually the rule, and if anything, it’s worse than the stranger. It was a real boondoggle. It had to do with money and crazy politicians and people making weird deals and lawyers saying they can get all their clients off without doing any work. It was a bad thing and it was happening a lot. We went in with teams of lawyers and people who knew how to write legislation and met with Senators, and we got a bill. It was quite the fight, because there were a lot of people in positions of power who just said no. We can just empty the courtroom quickly and nobody goes to jail. But then we don’t have any trials, and we said victims have to identify their abuser. They need to be able to bring charges if they want.
We fought and won. We changed things at the state and federal level. We’re still doing things because there’s so much going on with kids. There’s still a whole lot going on and we’re doing all kinds of different things to help children. But the political thing is just amazing, because most people didn’t know these laws were on the books, and we help people in the public learn such laws exist. I think we opened up a lot of people’s eyes to what was happening.
AM: What’s your secret to staying healthy, fit, and looking so marvelous.
Ms. Arngrim: I’m 63 years old. I have fabulous lighting like my ring light. I like to carry my ring light with me so that I can just hold it over my face 24 hours a day. My agent called asking what I was doing. I said I have a ring light for all these Zoom Meetings I have to participate in.
I drink tea. I love morning thunder herbal tea and green tea, but I like coffee too. I do have that in the mornings too because I like caffeine.
I try to eat fairly healthily. I like my vegetables, yogurt, fish and chicken but I also like tacos and pizza. It balances out. I don’t eat much junk food or things that come through the window in a paper bag. I generally try to eat real food. To me, pizza is real food. You can get good pizza which is just tomato sauce and cheese.
My doctor wants me to increase my exercise regimen. I’m going to France on doctor’s orders because you walk everywhere in Paris. It’s physically energetic, and between the shows and the traveling I get an enormous amount of exercise. I try to get as much exercise as I can and force myself to do it and eat relatively healthily, when I think about it. I look at how people eat. A lot of times I was posting pictures of my meals in France because I was eating all this gorgeous food in restaurants and people’s houses. I would take photos and people said this is like food porn.
Some of my friends said they were seeing a lot of fish, salads and vegetables and healthy food on my plate, but not seeing the foie gras. I had to keep going for six weeks in France so I try to do all the healthy things they tell you to do.
Sleep is hard, but if I know I’m going to have a late night with a show I try to schedule for that. I’m not getting up terribly early the next day. If I have a chance to go to bed early I try to take advantage of that. Fortunately, I have been blessed with the ability to sleep anywhere. My mother could sleep standing up leaning against a wall.
When I do those 11 hour flights to France it’s a good night. I wake up, watch a movie, eat something, go back to sleep, wake up again, have a glass of champagne and go back to sleep.
AM: I assume you have a vitamin regimen.
Ms. Arngrim: I joke about Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). I was given CoQ10 by my dentist a long time ago because he thought I had an infection that showed from a shadow in an x-ray. They had to drill into my gums and it was horrible. Luckily, I had good painkillers and an antibiotic. They also said purchase CoQ10 to help your gums heal much faster and my gums would bleed less when they take the stitches out. It may also help with heart-related conditions and prevent blood clot production. It really worked.
There were also benefits of taking CoQ10 and collagen together. Collagen supports skin structure elasticity, while CoQ10 protects skin cells from oxidative damage. They were having patients come in a few months after taking CoQ10 due to dental work and said their skin looked fabulous.
I saw they were putting collagen in face creams and it apparently does do wonders. It lowers cortisol levels, which is good for the heart and less stress. Friends said I looked good and thought I got Botox work done.
My parents looked quite young until they were very old so I do have some good genetics. But I continue to take CoQ10. I feel good and my face looks great.
AM: Thank you for sharing the CoQ10 story.
Ms. Arngrim: Oh, and my husband and I take a multi, Omega-3 fish oil, and vitamin B and D. Thank God for vitamin B. I’m sort of a combo when I go to my doctor if he does have to give me a shot for anything he always applies Western medicine, but then he says go get physical therapy, or see the chiropractor to fix the actual problem.
AM: You’re always holding cast reunion events. June 2025 there’s going to be a Little House on the Prairie cast reunion in California.
Ms. Arngrim: It’s huge. We’ve been pushing for this one because it’s in California’s gold country. It’s at Columbia State Historic Park where we filmed a lot of the show with access to water for the Simi Valley episodes. It was the location away from home. All the camping, river and forest episodes were shot there. We’re doing autographs, breakfast, and a train ride with a wine and cheese party. Miss Beadle, Almanzo, Baby Carrie and a host of other cast members will participate.
Every time you saw a train number three in Little House that’s the train at Columbia. That train is in every western movie you’ll see. Apparently, there’s only one train in Hollywood and it’s always number three.
