'Little House on the Prairie' Reunion: Actors Say They Were 'Protected' On Set

Some of the cast of the classic TV series "Little House on the Prairie" reunited at the 63rd Monte-Carlo Television Festival this weekend, where the former juvenile actors recalled their experiences on set 50 years ago as being positive.

People magazine reports Alison Arngrim, 62, who was the show's iconic villain Nellie Oleson, said she felt "very protected" on the set.

Matthew Labyorteaux, 57, who was Albert Ingalls, chimed in, "I always felt our crew was very protective of us children."

"If someone had actually bothered me or the girls and the crew found out, you wouldn't find the body," Arngrim went on. "That was the atmosphere that I was given there, that we were very protected to some degree."

Their comments held special import in the the wake of "Quiet on Set," which exposed abuses of young actors at Nickelodeon in the '90s and early '00s.

Karen Grassle, 82, who played Caroline Ingalls, did admit, "[Producer and star] Michael [Landon] was smoking. We were smoking around the kids... We were putting out our cigarettes in the dirt of the Little House on the Prairie. Can you imagine? Sacrilege."

Arngrim said, "And no one thought that was strange at all."

Grassle said the party-like atmosphere on the set was similar to that of previous shows Landon did, including "Bonanza." But all agreed that even allowing for the different era, the set was tame.

Labyorteaux, who had worked with John Cassavetes on the film "Woman Under the Influence" in 1974, said, "'Little House' was unlike any set I'd ever been on."

"Little House on the Prairie" was a big, family-centered hit for NBC from 1974-1983. Producer and actor Michael Landon, whose daughter Leslie Landon was on hand in Monaco, died of cancer at 54 in 1991.