Post 33: "At the End of the Rainbow"

From 13-Year-Old Anne's Journal —December 13, 1982 – GOOD "Laura & Jonah find iron pirite (sic) but they think its gold. Laura keeps imagining how rich they’re going to be. The banker tells them it’s not gold & they’re disappointed."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2j9Hm7RJOk____________________________________________________From Anne —

Disney princesses and dreamy castles meet prairie asceticism in this memorable episode.  Dig the red carpet-worthy hairdos on Laura, Mary and Ma!  The hair stylists on the set must have been over the moon at doing something other than braiding pigtails.  The wardrobe people must have creamed their pants over the blinding white tulle!  It’s pretty jarring to see that castle mirage rise out of a hill in the W.G. And Laura with her stick of candy looks like a gangster nursing the finest Cuban cigar.A second reason I love this episode is Shane Sinutko, who plays Jonah:I thought he was cute then and still do.  Check out his website. He was a double for Jason Bourne!  His line delivery is super flat in this episode … but he was also the star of Disney’s The Shaggy D.A. (circa 1976) and my buddies and I freakin’ loved that film, also with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette.A third reason to dig this one is the awesome rushing creek itself.  What a great spot.  I used to sit by a creek near our house when reading the Little House books.  The cinematography (lush nature shots, slo-mo dream sequences) and sound editing (hillbilly banjo music for the destitute Olesons) in this episode are pretty damn skippy.____________________________________________________

From Tracy — OMG! I loved this episode too!! Not sure why 13-year-old Anne decided it only rated a "good"? If I had been keeping the journal, I would have rated it an EXCELLENT with three exclamation marks. And possibly a heart.It reminds me of the best of the ol' switcheroos. Like when Spock has a beard and is evil. We love to see old familiar characters get put under a spell and walk around wearing different clothes and attitudes.Watching this episode again after all these years I couldn't how believe how beautiful all the girls looked. Mary looked glorious and even hillbilly Nellie looks so pretty with her hair down. She looks completely different! Yup the wardrobe people probably jumped at this opportunity but I mostly thought of the actors and how much fun it must have been for them!While watching this I also had some vivid childhood flashbacks …  like pretend panning for gold in the creek in our neighborhood. Which I think may have been inspired by this episode. There was also the very early childhood memory of finding "gems" in the street gutters. I was quite a bit younger than Laura and was playing in the court where our house was. I spotted something sparkly and was convinced it was a precious gem. I showed my mom and I think I even said "We're rich!" I didn't realize that it was polished broken glass from beer and wine bottles. It was still pretty.Which is why I was sad to see Laura and Jonah toss the iron pyrite back into the creek. Couldn't they have spread a little around their houses and gardens to bling their drab places up a little? Sigh. I guess that would not be very W.G.