Little House on the Prairie star Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson from 1974 until 1982. TV audiences loved tuning in each week and watching her character’s sassy exchanges with Laura Ingalls (played by actor Melissa Gilbert). What is Arngrim doing now? Here’s everything we know.
Why Alison Arngrim left ‘Little House on the Prairie’
Arngrim enjoyed working on Little House on the Prairie. However, she was ready to leave the show as the seventh season approached. In her book, Confessions of a Prairie B****, she says her character’s storylines became less interesting. Arngrim’s character, Nellie, was a mean girl, but she became mellow after marrying on-screen husband Percival Dalton (played by the late Steve Tracy). Arngrim wasn’t happy with the way things were going.
“Nellie, now ‘reformed’ by her marriage to Percival, had become bland and boring,” she writes. “I didn’t seem to have much to do.”
Arngrim also had a challenging contract negotiation. The executives would not honor requests for raises or additional episodes.
“The network refused all requests from my agent for raises, extra episodes, or any type of concession [my agent] suggested, no matter how small,” says Arngrim. “Their offer was four years, same money, same conditions—take it or leave it.”
Arngrim decided her best option was to leave the show. She announced her seventh season would be her last. Arngrim’s character was written out of the show during Little House on the Prairie Season 7 Episode 22 (“The Lost Ones Part 2”). She briefly reprised her role as Nellie Olsen during Little House on the Prairie Season 9 Episode 8 (“The Return of Nellie”).
What Alison Arngrim is doing today
Arngrim continued acting after her Little House on the Prairie exit. One of her first roles after leaving the series was the TV movie I Married Wyatt Earp. Some of her other projects include CPR Talent Agency (2015), Life Interrupted (2017), and Even in Dreams (2021).
Arngrim also has a career as a stand-up comedian. She started doing stand-up in high school. Her father used to manage a comedy troupe. One night, a comedian dared her to try stand-up. Arngrim took him up on the dare, and she hasn’t looked back since.
“I wound up playing every single coffeehouse and comedy club in LA, most of the time four nights a week, while I was still working on Little House,”says Arngrim. “Stand-up was always a rush—but at 19, I was still trying to be an actress. So, I ran all the way to Edmonton, the capital of Canada’s Alberta Province, to do dinner theater for three months.”
The role Alison Arngrim would want in a ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reboot
Arngrim discussed her ideas for a Little House reboot. Her vision for the cast would include younger characters alongside the original actors.
“I would like to see a reboot of the show with the fabulous new young people, some adorable little girls in LA, a gorgeous little blond awful child as me,” Arngrim tells Fox News. “But have everyone from the old show do a cameo. Just pop in.”
The late Katherine MacGregor played Nellie’s mother, Harriet Oleson. Now that Arngrim is older, she believes she would be a good fit to play Harriet.
“I am the correct age now to play Mrs. Oleson, and I’m available, so I have no shame,” says Arngrim. “I would play her in a second. I would totally do that.”
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