Divorce, Walnut Grove Style was not at all a drama, but a broad comedy featuring the series' favorite newlyweds, Almanzo and Laura. Seeing two wildly different reviews here caused me to want to put in a vote after watching it today.
Laura annoys Almanzo by not telling him until just after he takes a bath that she forgot to wash the towels. She is distracted around suppertime, grading school papers and serves him watery, uncooked stew. She says it'll just be another half hour and the kind groom agrees that he won't starve in that time. He starts to pick at his guitar, but Laura insists she needs to concentrate on her papers. He says he'll go upstairs, but she informs him that she can still hear him there and asks him to take his music outside. He goes, but is clearly getting upset.
After a night apart, (he slept on the couch) Charles suggests to Laura that she make amends right away. She heads for the feed store only to see him chatting with a young lady whom she knows, Brenda Sue Longworth. She goes up and rudely interrupts Almanzo's attempt to tell her Brenda's good news (she got a song published titled, My Only Love) because she's stewing over Almanzo's happy chat with this young woman after he talked about working so hard just yesterday.
In the fine tradition of sitcoms, Laura runs home to mother and stays overnight. Next morning, she goes home to cook breakfast and patch things up. But on arrival, she finds no husband, only a note saying, "My only love, Brenda Sue Longworth," written by Almanzo.
Harriet Oleson has gotten wind of the squabble and she races triumphantly into the restaurant to proclaim the great news to Nellie—Laura and Zaldamo (her name for him) are getting divorced! It was interesting how Nellie seemed stunned but showed no sign of the joy her mother had. She really had grown up! Ahh, but Laura hadn't. Not when she confronted Brenda Sue, who had no clue anything was wrong until Laura attacked her the same way she used to attack Nellie on occasion.
Charles was working on a project at home—replacing the window with many small frames with a large picture window. He had just placed it in the wall, not secured it, when Laura came in and slammed the door, causing it to fall out and break. Laura later caused it to break a couple of more times, with Charles taking each hit in stride.
Of course the couple do get back together once Laura finds out what that note was all about. Almanzo was befuddled most of the show trying to figure out why she was so mad at him.
I thought this episode was full of laughs over the outrageous misunderstandings and the overreacting each newlywed had to the little trouble at the start. We knew Almanzo wasn't even flirting with Brenda Sue, so we weren't concerned at all that the marriage was shaky. The incidents with the broken windows led to a good funny scene near the end as Charles and Caroline talked about how it had been a long time since they had a good argument, and, sort of, wished they could have another one because it is such fun to make up.
Now I cannot claim there were so many laughs that this was a great episode, but there were plenty of laughs to generate a rating of 8 from this reviewer.
Laura annoys Almanzo by not telling him until just after he takes a bath that she forgot to wash the towels. She is distracted around suppertime, grading school papers and serves him watery, uncooked stew. She says it'll just be another half hour and the kind groom agrees that he won't starve in that time. He starts to pick at his guitar, but Laura insists she needs to concentrate on her papers. He says he'll go upstairs, but she informs him that she can still hear him there and asks him to take his music outside. He goes, but is clearly getting upset.
After a night apart, (he slept on the couch) Charles suggests to Laura that she make amends right away. She heads for the feed store only to see him chatting with a young lady whom she knows, Brenda Sue Longworth. She goes up and rudely interrupts Almanzo's attempt to tell her Brenda's good news (she got a song published titled, My Only Love) because she's stewing over Almanzo's happy chat with this young woman after he talked about working so hard just yesterday.
In the fine tradition of sitcoms, Laura runs home to mother and stays overnight. Next morning, she goes home to cook breakfast and patch things up. But on arrival, she finds no husband, only a note saying, "My only love, Brenda Sue Longworth," written by Almanzo.
Harriet Oleson has gotten wind of the squabble and she races triumphantly into the restaurant to proclaim the great news to Nellie—Laura and Zaldamo (her name for him) are getting divorced! It was interesting how Nellie seemed stunned but showed no sign of the joy her mother had. She really had grown up! Ahh, but Laura hadn't. Not when she confronted Brenda Sue, who had no clue anything was wrong until Laura attacked her the same way she used to attack Nellie on occasion.
Charles was working on a project at home—replacing the window with many small frames with a large picture window. He had just placed it in the wall, not secured it, when Laura came in and slammed the door, causing it to fall out and break. Laura later caused it to break a couple of more times, with Charles taking each hit in stride.
Of course the couple do get back together once Laura finds out what that note was all about. Almanzo was befuddled most of the show trying to figure out why she was so mad at him.
I thought this episode was full of laughs over the outrageous misunderstandings and the overreacting each newlywed had to the little trouble at the start. We knew Almanzo wasn't even flirting with Brenda Sue, so we weren't concerned at all that the marriage was shaky. The incidents with the broken windows led to a good funny scene near the end as Charles and Caroline talked about how it had been a long time since they had a good argument, and, sort of, wished they could have another one because it is such fun to make up.
Now I cannot claim there were so many laughs that this was a great episode, but there were plenty of laughs to generate a rating of 8 from this reviewer.
