Little House on the Prairie: Season 08  (1981)

Theatrical Release Information:
Little House on the Prairie: Season 08

Season eight of Little House on the Prairie finds Mary Ingalls Kendall (Melissa Sue Anderson, formerly a series regular and now a "special guest star") moving to New York, where her husband, Adam (Linwood Boomer), has joined his father's law firm. Back in Walnut Grove, Mary's father, Charles (Michael Landon), has added orphans James and Cassandra Cooper (Jason Bateman, Missy Francis) to the Ingalls household. Meanwhile, the Ingalls' neighbors the Olesons, suffering from "empty nest syndrome" after the marriage of daughter Nellie (Alison Arngrim), decide to adopt a little girl named Nancy (Allison Balson) -- who turns out to be a terrifying clone of the nasty brat that the now-reformed Nellie had been in her youth. In more serious developments, Charles' daughter Laura (Melissa Gilbert) must cope with the anger and self-pity exhibited by her husband, Almanzo (Dean Butler), when he suffers a stroke -- and his bitterness also threatens to dampen the happiness experienced by Laura when she gives birth to her daughter, Rose. Elsewhere, Charles' old friend Isaiah Edwards (former series regular Victor French) suffers the death of his son, resumes his heavy drinking, and causes the breakup of his marriage; thus, by the time he returns to Walnut Grove, he is seriously contemplating suicide. And in the two-part season-eight finale, "He Was Only Twelve," Charles' adoptive son, James, is left comatose from gun wounds suffered in a bank holdup. Arguably the most fascinating of the season's episodes is "The Legacy," in which an auction taking place in the year 1982 unearths several valuable antiques: chairs designed and constructed by none other than Charles Ingalls. ~ All Movie Guide