Hello and Goodbye (21 Mar. 1983)

The father of Matthew Rogers, the mute boy Mr. Edwards has been caring for, arrives to reclaim his son. A heartbroken Edwards moves in to Laura's new boarding house, where newlyweds Willie ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Landon

Writers:

Laura Ingalls Wilder (based upon the series of books "Little House" by), Don Balluck

Stars:

Melissa Gilbert, Dean Butler, Scottie MacGregor

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Melissa Gilbert	...	Laura Ingalls Wilder
Dean Butler	...	Almanzo James Wilder
Scottie MacGregor	...	Harriet Oleson (as Katherine MacGregor)
Richard Bull	...	Nels Oleson
Victor French	...	Isaiah Edwards
Kevin Hagen	...	Dr. Hiram Baker
Jonathan Gilbert	...	Willie Oleson
Allison Balson	...	Nancy Oleson
Stan Ivar	...	John Carter
Shannen Doherty	...	Jenny Wilder
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Casper	...	Sherwood Montague
Robert Darnell	...	Philip Rogers
Ruth Foster	...	Melinda Foster
Jonathan Hall Kovacs	...	Matthew Rogers
Peter Kwong	...	Employee

Storyline

The father of Matthew Rogers, the mute boy Mr. Edwards has been caring for, arrives to reclaim his son. A heartbroken Edwards moves in to Laura's new boarding house, where newlyweds Willie and Rachel Oleson, and eccentric Englishman Sherwood Montague have also taken up residence.

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Genres:

Drama | Family | Romance | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 March 1983 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Big Sky Ranch - 4927 Bennett Road, Simi Valley, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ed Friendly Productions, National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last regular show of the series. Three TV-movies would follow.

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Quotes

Sherwood Montague: [after reading Nancy's essay, for which she got a D] Your Miss Plum was very generous in giving you a passing grade.
Nancy Oleson: You hate me, too!
Sherwood Montague: Not yet, but if I spent some more time with you, I'm very sure it could develop into that.
Nancy Oleson: I'm gonna kill myself!
[runs upstairs]

User Reviews

There is no stronger bond than that of family...

As our story begins, we are introduced to a brand new character in the series, Sherwood Montague. A scholarly British man with the most extraordinary talents, who has come to Walnut Grove to work on his book. Now on the same stagecoach was another man, Phillip Rogers, coming into town to locate his long, lost son Matthew. Mr. Montague was set to stay in the Oleson's hotel, only to deem his room inadequate, unacceptable and un-suite like. That's when he's told of the Wilders' boarding house, where Willie and his new bride Rachel are now living. Montague decided to give it a try, much to Harriet's dismay, and come to find out: the room was just right. It was equipped with old antique furniture and the connecting room was ideal for a study. Welcome home, Mr. Montague; meanwhile, Phillip finds Matthew, now living with his surrogate father, Edwards, and he hears of everything the poor boy went through since he left him: Matthew had been bounced around from place to place, even been put in a work farm where they forced lye down his throat so he could now only communicate in sign language. Phillip tries to apologize for abandoning his son, saying it was over a matter of life and death, though the boy says he would have preferred the latter. Seems Phillip had the intent on taking Matthew back with him, but that was dropped after finding out his own son hated him.

Knowing a thing or two about medicine himself, Montague seeks Doc Baker for a passage in his book on frontier medicine, and ends up giving the doctor a full physical. Then he heads into a neighboring town with John Carter to drop his laundry off at the Chinese. He knows the language fluently. He's also quite adept at getting Rose to stop crying simply by speaking her language...is there anything Montague can't do? Well according to him, no. Meanwhile, Phillip had to try once more to get his son back, despite the fact he was perfectly happy with Mr. Edwards. If nothing else, he at least wanted to know Matthew didn't hate him, and come to find out, the boy has miraculously forgiven him. Before parting, Phillip gives Matthew something very special: his mother's Bible. Had it ever since she was little. So while Matthew wrestles with his feelings, Montague goes to Oleson's Mercantile where he saves Harriet from choking to death and gives a much-needed dose of brutal honesty to Nancy, who runs up to her room to kill herself. Edwards pays Phillip a visit at the hotel while he was getting ready to leave. It seems ever since Matthew got the Bible, he'd changed. He was hurting emotionally, and maybe, just maybe, he wanted his biological father in his life. So in the end, as much as it saddened Edwards, he knew Matthew had to do what he felt was right, and so a week later he left Walnut Grove with his father. Feeling loneliness was something he could no longer take, Edwards decides to move into Laura and Almanzo's boarding house, because he felt the best thing for him was to be with family. I think he and Mr. Montague will get along just fine, don't you?

A few days later, Harriet Oleson choked on a sour ball and died. Well not really, but that's how I'd end it. However, she doesn't appear in the three finale movies, so you never know.

Well, this was the last regular episode of Little House on the Prairie. It was followed by three made-for-TV movies, one in which they actually blow up the town, which is kind of dumb but it was just Michael Landon's way of getting back at the network for canceling this show; As for this episode, Montague steals the show. I can't believe they waited until the series finale to introduce him. What a great character! He and Edwards should have had their own spin-off! They'd have many wild, wacky adventures together. They pre-date The Odd Couple after all. I would call it "A Touch of Crass." So Montague was great and Victor French was magnificent at portraying all the emotion and the sadness being felt by Edwards as he is eventually forced to be separated from his surrogate son. Both funny and sad, this episode is a good finish to a great series.