Little House on the Prairie (TV Series) A Wiser Heart (1981) User Reviews

Patrick Collins

[lukefan · 7/10 · 23 April 2016]

I loved Patrick Collins as Mortimer.

This was a funny episode, though bit unrealistic when seeing how Mort and the bad Professor ended the episode. Eliza Jane was not acting in her usual personality and I wish Laura had just come out and told her what the Prof was up to!

Interesting to see Leslie Landon again as an extra character. Also love the period detail.

Darlene Conley was sufficiently mean as the dishwasher boss. Wish there had been more to Eliza Jane finding out the daisy giver was Mort. A sweet episode. Interesting look into harassment at the time, but as mentioned before, not realistic in resolution of the serious issues at hand. Looked to be more like a Walnut Grove style fight vs two adults with a serious disagreement over grading.

Hello, Sis!

[mitchrmp · 7/10 · 28 October 2013]

Eliza Jane has come back for one episode as she and Laura go to the big city to attend a great poetry seminar for the summer. Amazingly, even though Laura should be really pregnant by now, she's still as flat as can be! Makes me wonder what the writer's were thinking after making her pregnant last season...

Anyway, men are involved. Eliza Jane likes the new professor, but he likes Laura. Unfortunately he's married and she's married and he doesn't see a problem with it. Laura tries to warn Eliza Jane about the situation, but she doesn't believe her and thinks the prof is in love with her.

Meanwhile, there's Mort. He's a sweetie and just wants somebody to love. Perhaps he's found this with Eliza Jane.

The best part of the episode is the dish washing job Laura takes. You just gotta see it to believe it! Classic scenes.

What's with the name Woestehoff?

[theladysings · 7/10 · 17 August 2016]

You asked "What's with these names?" A friend of ours, Chris Abbott, a girl I met when I was in 8th grade, who was writing for "Little House on the Prairie" at that time, needed a name for the professor that was subject to many mispronunciations and could be made fun of. My maiden name was INDEED Woestehoff, and my father was INDEED a professor (as was hers...that's how we knew one another). We pronounce it WES-tuh-hoff, (remember that the professor wrote it on the board and said," Wes-tuh- hoff...three syllables...don't mess it up"), but people would say Wes-ter-Hoff, Woe-ster-hoff, Wes-tern-hoff, Woo-ster-hoff and even Wes-ting-house. During this episode, I heard variations on our surname that I had never heard before. We weren't quite sure whether to be flattered or offended. We lived in and spent summers in several states while growing up, and had a HUGE circle of friends and acquaintances, so there were MANY, MANY people who got the joke.

For the record, my father was a WELL RESPECTED professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester, and FAR from being a sleaze. Coincidentally, my brother had,that very year,applied for a professorship at the University of Arizona. He did not get the job, and I've always wondered whether or not this episode influenced the U of A's decision.

Thanks Chris..from "the other Kris."

Eliza Jane

[susanbachero · 10/10 · 14 September 2018]

After her sad ending with Harve in an earlier episode I was happy when it looks like Mortimer will be her future husband at the end.

Fresh and Fun for Season 8!

[Quinn4077 · 9/10 · 18 December 2021]

It's so nice to have an episode with one-episode-only guest actors/characters who are not crazy racists, bigots, bamboozlers, huckster evangelicals, narrow-minded extremists, escaped criminals, "Gypsies", circus people... well, you known Little House! These are intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals and a few female (yea!) "big city" folk, etc. Set in a university town with summer classes and odd jobs. Laura is great with only a brief appearance of her hubby Manly (ugh - he does improve from their courtship of ultimatums), her new lovable academic friend Mort, a questionable professor, and good ole LIZA JANE in yet another CRAZY head space. The difference with her here though is that this one is resolved! A fresh and funny episode that I've always liked. It's nice to see Laura out on her own as adult too and, again, away from at least one Wilder...

Seriously

[drexmaverick · 6/10 · 15 June 2019]

Honestly this was a really dumb episode. Laura is a teenager still and married. That pig had no business being interested in her!

Getting Schooled.

[ExplorerDS6789 · 5/10 · 13 July 2011]

Laura was ready for a vacation, and this might just be the ticket: Eliza Jane wrote, requesting Laura come to Arizona and take a writing class with her. She would even be attending a seminar in which Ralph Waldo Emerson would be speaking. Now this episode takes place in 1884 here/around, and as we all know Ralph Waldo Emerson died in 1882 so for him to appear live at a seminar will be an amazing feat, even for him. Anyway, it didn't take much to sell Laura on the idea and so she packed up and boarded the train to Arizona. During her trip, she met a nervous young man named Mortimer Carstairs. Yes, that really is his name, and it's one of the funniest I've ever heard. Our friend Mortimer has a knack of having on-again, off-again teaching jobs, and he goes to school in between. So after that horrendously long journey, Laura arrives in Assholeburg, Arizona (and you'll soon find out why it's called that) and is immediately greeted by the shrill cries of Eliza Jane. That evening, the two girls go to dinner where Eliza Jane accidentally gets knocked on her ass and she instantly fell in love with the guy who did it. Story of her life. Turns out Eliza Jane's new object of infatuation is their professor, William Woestehoff (what is with these names?) So she gets Laura to invite him out for dinner. They even bring Mortimer along to liven things up. The evening was a success and I think Woestehoff will prove to be a good mentor for Laura...if he can ever get Eliza Jane to stop drooling over him.

When not in class, Laura had a part-time position washing dishes for an extremely busy restaurant and I think her boss takes the job a little too seriously. This new job made Laura late for class and as a result, she had to stay after. Remember what I said about Woestehoff being a good mentor for Laura? I take it back, the man is a douche. Despite Laura being married and him being married (won't Eliza Jane be shocked?) he still wants to be romantic with her. He threatened to fail her if she didn't. As if that weren't bad enough, Eliza Jane interrupted Laura in the sweat shop to ask why she wasn't going with she and Woestehoff to the art exhibit. Laura's dictator boss blamed her talking while working. On top of everything else, Laura has also found herself stuck in the middle of a weird love triangle: Mortimer likes Eliza Jane who won't give him the time of day and she likes Woestehoff, who fails to notice. I'm sure this isn't what she had in mind when she thought about a vacation. Thankfully she could confide in Mortimer, the only other sane person in this backwards town. His futile attempt at sending Eliza Jane flowers only further complicated things, as she thought they were from Woestehoff. So after finally giving her boss what she deserved, Laura went to school where special guest speaker Ralph Waldo Emerson finally made his appearance. After his cameo, Eliza Jane finds out that Laura was right all along and so they make amends. Okay, 1 problem down, a dozen more to go. Now here's where things really heat up: Laura, Mortimer and Eliza Jane are given the results of their final exams, and Laura failed. Mortimer suspected foul play when he double checked her paper and it was perfect. He and Woestehoff engage in a debate of scholarships and skills, Mortimer coming out the superior, and so they take it outside to settle things with some good old fashioned fisticuffs. It was a short fight. Mortimer knocked his ass out! Sure all he lost was Woestehoff's recommendation for a job, however hope came in the form of Eliza Jane who spoke of a position at her school in Minneapolis. So Laura boarded the train back to Walnut Grove, having gained a very prosperous education from this wild and wacky Arizona summer.

This episode was, for the most part, very annoying! Eliza Jane was annoying, the professor was a scumbag, and Mrs. Pierce was the definition of bitch. These three mistreat Laura non-stop. It's frustrating to watch. Needless to say Melissa Gilbert was very good. Patrick Collins was very good as Mortimer, a quite likable character and, as I said, the only other sane person in town. Lucy Lee Flippin brings her A-game as Almanzo's insipid sister. I swear, Eliza Jane sounds like Glinda the good witch and Minnie Mouse had a baby. It's grating as all hell. Props to Joe Lambie as the nastiest teacher since Applewood in Season 2. The last 5 minutes of this episode were very good, but the rest of it was insufferable. It's nothing but watching Laura get abused and having to endure Eliza Jane and her endless infatuation with Woestehoff. Mean is a term I'd use to describe "A Wiser Heart". It's very mean-spirited and full of hate. But if you like Laura and you like Little House, then I'd recommend this one. But if you hate Eliza Jane, then skip it. This one is kinda worth skipping, except for the last 5 minutes when Mortimer cold cocks Woestehoff. That moment was worth the 55 minutes of torture.

Disappointing episode

[bigwhiskers-12170 · 5/10 · 30 August 2023]

This episode was really disappointing because the professor was a scumbag who should have been brought up on charges of sexual harrassment and fired. But instead all he does is get cold cocked in the end yet still gets away with flunking Laura for not sleeping with him. And I also wanted to slap Eliza Jane for being so ignorant, whoever does the writing should really be slapped as well because Laura should have come right out and told her what a scumbag the guy was and Eliza Jane needs to grow a pair I mean my goodness how long is she going to act like this little shy two year old. If anything the professor really should have been taken to the cleaners and fired and Laura should have received a passing grade. Disappointing.