Can we all agree that Mary Ingalls Kendall is one of series television's most unlucky characters? When young she's constantly the goody-two-shoes overshadowed by her more interesting little sister; as she grows up, she goes blind, miscarries a baby, is robbed of an infant by her brother's carelessness, loses her husband to the sighted world, and eventually just disappears. Yeah, don't stand next to this woman in a thunderstorm.
This is the "robbed of an infant by her brother's carelessness" episode. Albert's smoking in the basement and mindlessly leaves his pipe to smolder and catch fire, burning down the blind school. With all those blind kids, a sighted adult woman and Mary's baby are the two who die. Mary goes nutso and then goes catatonic (which gives her father the opportunity to do a Scientology-like slam against psychiatry). Poor girl never wins.
This would be a very intense story--hard to watch, actually--if Melissa Sue Anderson could act her way out of a paper bag. God, she's awful. Her utter lack of talent isn't so big a deal usually, since the show's focus is generally on either Michael Landon or Melissa Gilbert. Those few "Mary episodes" are uniformly lousy, not because the character is the repository for all kinds of misery but because Anderson is such a dreadful actress. Too bad about it this time; "May We Make Them Proud" could've/should've been a fantastic episode.
This is the "robbed of an infant by her brother's carelessness" episode. Albert's smoking in the basement and mindlessly leaves his pipe to smolder and catch fire, burning down the blind school. With all those blind kids, a sighted adult woman and Mary's baby are the two who die. Mary goes nutso and then goes catatonic (which gives her father the opportunity to do a Scientology-like slam against psychiatry). Poor girl never wins.
This would be a very intense story--hard to watch, actually--if Melissa Sue Anderson could act her way out of a paper bag. God, she's awful. Her utter lack of talent isn't so big a deal usually, since the show's focus is generally on either Michael Landon or Melissa Gilbert. Those few "Mary episodes" are uniformly lousy, not because the character is the repository for all kinds of misery but because Anderson is such a dreadful actress. Too bad about it this time; "May We Make Them Proud" could've/should've been a fantastic episode.