User Reviews

This is the story of John Bevins. He's a kind man, but very self conscious. He's aware of his large girth and is doing his best to bring it down. He and his family have just moved to Winoka where he's found himself a fine job working as handyman at Adam and Mary's blind school. His wife Bess loves him, but as for his daughter, Amelia, it seems rather unsure. So after chatting with two local idiots, John arrives at the school to begin work, just as Laura, Albert, Andrew and Amelia come walking by and see him. Albert and Andrew laugh at him, as does Laura in a strangely out of character moment. This causes Amelia to run away, and honestly, who could blame her? Laura was sorry later...okay, that's more like it. As for Amelia, John overheard her crying to her mother, basically saying that she was ashamed of her old man. Poor John was forlorn and felt four inches tall. This gave him the push he needed to make a decision: take a job on the railroad, but it wasn't just for the higher pay. It would be a chance for John to go out and find who he really was. Find the man inside, as it were. He would have to go alone, and although Bess was against the idea, John knew it was for the better. The next day, Laura apologizes to Amelia over insulting her father, but the girl denied the man being any relation. What a brat.

The railroad job was a cover-up. John had really moved into the supply room at the blind school. I've heard of bringing your work home to you, but bringing your home to work? Well, it was only a matter of time before Laura found out Amelia fibbed about her Pa, and according to Mary, John said the only family he had was back east. I guess he's just as ashamed of them as they are of him? What's more, John has been very reclusive, always staying in. He even refused an invite from Adam to join he and Mary on a picnic. That poor man was hurting. And speaking of which, one night John was up on the roof doing repairs, like he'd been doing the past few nights, when suddenly he slipped and suffered a very nasty fall. The doctor proclaimed him to be in critical condition. His spleen was seeping and it could go at any time, but he refused an operation. John has basically lost the will to live. So it looks like it's up to Charles Ingalls to save the day as he goes to talk to Bess, who learns the awful truth of her husband's deceit. But putting all that aside, she and Amelia rush to John's side. He had given up, feeling too sorry for himself, but Bess insisted on the operation. Meanwhile, a kind speech on John's behalf from Sue in class left not a dry eye in the house. This made Amelia reflect on how horribly she's treated her father. But in the end, it all worked out. John was soon back to normal and had an even stronger relationship with his daughter.

Very well acted and well written episode. A lot of credit goes to Cliff Emmich who plays John. Such a sentimental character, you feel for him the entire time. He's a nice, selfless man, even when people were cruel to him. This one is quite the tearjerker, as most Little House episodes can be, but it's still very good. This storyline was remade in Season 8 as "For the Love of Nancy" where that horrible brat takes advantage of an overweight kid named Elmer; "The Man Inside" can teach you to like other people for who they are, not letting what they look like be a contributing factor, how truly strong love can be, and most of all, Adam Kendall loves Mrs. Ingalls' fried chicken!

The Man Inside is an outstanding episode in this series. As other reviewers here have described, it features Laura and a new schoolgirl, Amelia Bevins, heading home from school the day they met, walking with Albert and Andy, and seeing Amelia's father down the street, outside the blind school. Having no idea that the man is a relative of her new acquaintance, Laura joins in the joking of the boys about the man's rotund dimensions.

We have already met John Blevins. Played by Cliff Emmich, I think his performance here should have, at least, been considered for an Emmy. He sparkles as a loving husband and devoted father, who is loved by the blind children at the school where he has recently begun working. They don't know how large he is. But that evening, he overhears his daughter telling her mother how ashamed she is of her father—just for his girth.

He pretends to arrive home afterwards and tells his wife a fib. He says he got a job with the railroad and will leave them in the rooming house in Winoka for a while and rejoin them later. He then moves into a storage room at the blind school—with permission. Nobody there knows his family is living in town.

Later, Laura hears the name of the man who is working at the blind school and surmises he is the father of Amelia. She feels horrible and the next day rushes up to apologize. Amelia, wanting Laura to not know that was her father—since he won't be around now—lies to Laura, saying that man wasn't her father. She says, truthfully as far as she knows, that he works for the railroad.

Laura later learns this isn't true. But it's not until John has a bad fall from the school roof that causes the family to be reunited in a rather tearful sick room, first with John's wife, then with his daughter.

I think this episode showed the depth of a man's love for his family. John hated hearing how much he embarrassed his daughter and thought, as much as it hurt him, he would move out and not embarrass his daughter anymore. He was a kind, friendly man who was quickly loved by students at the school and liked by staff. He took the extreme measure of moving out because he wanted his daughter to be happier. It was obvious he wasn't going to leave them forever, but he felt a strong need to move out for a while.

I thought the drama was very well-written and performed, as well as characters behaving realistically, thus it gets a rare 10 rating for me as one of the series' best shows.

A lot was focused on Laura saying unkind things in this episode, but the person who was the most cruel and in my opinion the one who needed to apologize the most was the guy's daughter herself.

She didn't stand up for her father when they were making fun of him. She was crying to her mother, but wasn't mad at the kids for making fun of him, she wanted to go where people didn't see her father.

And the worst part of it was - when Laura did the right thing to apologize, she lied and denied her own father in public. That was 100 times more cruel than the worst fat joke Laura or the other kids could think up. She drove her father to do what he did. He didn't want to hurt her with his presence, but her mother should have told her to stand up for him. If he'd been in a wheelchair, the show would never have been sympathetic to her, and the viewers would have been up in arms hearing how a guy with a disability (in the beginning, it was established that the doctor didn't know what was causing his obesity) accommodated his cruel daughter by nearly killing himself. And when he's in the hospital wanting to die, she didn't speak up; she would have let him die.

She only goes to her father after she hears other people praising his kindness and goodness. She lived with him her whole life and should have been the first to speak up for him.

I love Little House, but this one missed its mark. As a personal observation, if they really wanted to give the right message, the wife should have been the obese one and the husband should have been hunky instead of the other way around. The overweight husband/beautiful trim wife who sees "the man inside" is no new ground, even back then. Had it been the man who saw "the woman inside", then it would have been a sight to see.

As the reviews state, this was a story about being ashamed of being fat. All descriptions are accurate.

What is omitted is the moment Laura learns the man's name and realizes he must be related to her new friend and she just made fun of him in front of her.

Laura runs home to her mother and in tears, tells her what happened and how they made fun of the man. Before Caroline can focus on how cruel was, Laura follows thru with the crucial introduction and what she had done.

Caroline realized there was no punishment she could deliver unto Laura to equal what Laura was feeling. Well done by both Gilbert and Grassle.

The actor who played Bevins was effective, but unfortunately would go on to portray the unfortunate security guard in Halloween II. Not the best way to be remembered, alas.

Well, he was also the villainous Candy Man on Happy Days when Fonzie's auto shop blew up.