User Reviews

Guest stars take this episode away from the cast regulars as Michael Landon becomes something of a catspaw in romantic machinations.

Neighbor Jeff Corey who has a few bucks of his own has an unmarried daughter played by Joanne Linville. She's not that old, but by standards back in the day Linville is in danger of being an old maid.

He tries to buy her a husband in widower neighbor Ron Hayes. All I'll say is a little more subtlety all around would have achieved the desired result.

Corey, Hayes, and Linville all do some fine work on this story.

Jeff Corey is not that well cast as a grown woman's father. He is hard on the eyes. The whole episode looks a little soggy from the beginning. Also. the regs of the show seem to quickly take a back seat to the guests --is the a pilot for a show that did not sell? Check out Joanna Linville in her better work in Hawaii Five-O original!

This is a hard episode to get through if you can somewhat relate to the storyline.

I like the actress playing Maggie but feel like she's miscast. Yeah, the cinnamon buns on both sides of her head is a stupid hairstyle but basically the only thing Maggie had to do to look pretty is to take her hair down or at least wear it in different ways. I also thought the actor playing the father is also miscast. For him saying the vile things he's saying to his daughter, man, this guy better look hotter than Pernell Roberts and he didn't come close. When you're not a looker, you better not be screwing with somebody else's mind about how they look.

So let's get to the storyline. This father is a pretty cruel man imo. He's all the time talking down to his daughter about being a spinster*, being homely looking, trying in a horrifying way to get his daughter a man, etc. The spinster crack was made in front of Ben and Ben wasn't having any of that. He tried to tell this father he's doing Maggie wrong. He just won't listen. The attempted purchasing of a husband really embarrassed Maggie to the point where she actually was doing stuff I was rooting for. She was aiming to go to the Cartwrights and ask Ben if he could write a letter of recommendation for Maggie to get a teaching job and Maggie could move away and stay away from her toxic father. But nope, here comes the storyline of Joe playing along 'romancing' Maggie in order to make another man get off his butt and admit his feelings he has about Maggie. The father didn't need to try and buy this man's love for Maggie because the feelings he had were already there. Of course everything works as planned. This guy punches Joe out for romancing Maggie and it's the assumption the two will live happily ever after.

I wish the episode had focused on Maggie going away. Perhaps show the real life of somebody that might not ever settle down. But again, the actress is too miscast for a role of being a spinster. I feel like 'Little House on the Prairie' did a better job with Eliza Jane being a spinster. Eliza Jane wasn't a looker and doubt she'd look better even taking her hair down. But the lady wanted romance and the storyline she had involving Harve Miller was excellently written. Eliza Jane was a brutally honest character. She confided in Laura about multiple things. She'd never had a beau. The only boy she ever danced with was with Albert Ingalls at a town dance. She admitted her flat out inexperience when it concerned a lot of romantic topics. It worked for Eliza Jane. But I think what I like best was it still showed Eliza Jane could have a life even if she didn't have a man. Eliza Jane had means to support herself, belonged to the community and had friends. Eliza Jane would still be okay whether or not a man was attracted to her or not.

There was another storyline that featured Eliza Jane getting all hot to trot over a married Professor. The guy's a sleaze bag and he's all hot to trot over Laura. Laura's already married to Manly by this time. There was a character Laura and Eliza Jane are hanging with in this episode and he had the hots for Eliza Jane and Eliza Jane never knew/noticed. Little House never touched base on if Eliza Jane and Mort ever got together romantically.

But yeah, I kinda wish they had flipped the script a bit. I'm also homely and romance isn't in the cards for me either. But it also doesn't bother me. There's probably women that'd have meltdowns at being in their late 30s and are still unmarried. I feel like in a lot of ways I dodged a bullet. Maybe there's a lot of women and men that feel the same way. I have no use for drama or being treated like crap. One can be happy at the start of a relationship but will it stay that happy? How many people do you know that are unhappily together? Or things ended but there's a lot of bitterness in the air now? It's nice if your relationship stays a happy one but I feel like that's something that rarely happens. You just have to know your own mind and what you want or don't want out of life.

In one of the better stories in the collection, we have a father that still has his late 20's daughter living at home. The downside is that the father, Tuck Dowling, is a widower himself and cannot see the harm that he is doing to his daughter, Maggie. The father believes that the reason that Maggie is still at home is that she is homely looking and no one would want her. He even tells her right to her face and cannot see the harm he is doing.

There is a young man that lives nearby, Jared, that lost his young bride. Now he is living alone and Maggie's father goes out and tries to sell his daughter so that Jared can pay off a loan. This leads to another uncomfortable situation.

But it seems that Jared really likes Maggie but does know how to tell her. When Little Joe gets involved by helping Maggie out, Jared may realize what he is losing.

Was not expecting much from the show but was pleasantly surprised. The story was interesting and the topic, at times unfeeling, but came across entertaining. The look on Maggie's (Joanne Linville) face at the end of the episode makes any person feel better for watching. Good watch.