Bonnie Bartlett reflected on her decades-long career and marriage to Boy Meets World star William Daniels (a.k.a. Mr. Feeny) on the April 28 episode of Pod Meets World
Bartlett remembered how Michael Landon personally cast her as Grace in Little House on the Prairie after she had taken a long acting hiatus
Bartlett said working on the series was “pure pleasure”
Bonnie Bartlett is looking back.
The actress, 95, opened up about her time on Little House on the Prairie on the April 28 episode of the Boy Meets World recap podcast Pod Meets World. Bartlett has been married to William Daniels, a.k.a. Boy Meets World’s Mr. Feeny, since 1951. She also appeared in the show as his on-screen love interest, Dean Lila Bolander.
But back in 1974, she joined the TV series Little House on the Prairie as Grace Snider Edwards, and ultimately appeared in 26 episodes of the series. Bartlett explained to the Pod Meets World hosts — Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong — that though she had been an actor for decades, before getting cast on Little House, she had taken a hiatus from her career to focus on raising the couple’s two sons, Michael and Robert. She told the podcast hosts that break with her kids was “the best time of [her] life.”
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Bonnie Bartlett as Grace Snider in ‘Little House on the Prairie’ in 1975
“I didn’t work because I had the two little boys,” she said, though she did “some theater.” Then, the family of four moved to California, where Daniels, now 98, was “working a lot,” and his agent decided to send Bartlett for some auditions too.
“His agent sent me over to Michael [Landon], and he said, it’s just a general appointment. But as it turned out, he hired me that day,” Bartlett said. Landon starred on the series as Pa Ingalls and also served as an executive producer and director of the series, a loose adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book series (itself a loose adaptation of her life). “He met me and he said, ‘I’ve got a part for you,’ ” Bartlett remembered, and just a few days later, she was filming her first episodes as Grace.
She told the hosts he was a “really nice guy,” explaining, “I was so happy to do that show. I loved the part.” Grace is a widow who works in the post office of Walnut Grove. She eventually marries Isaiah Edwards (Victor French) and they adopt the three Sanderson children. Eventually, Grace leaves town and divorces her husband.
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Bonnie Bartlett (left) and William Daniels in 2017
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“It was pure pleasure,” she said of being on the series, which ran from 1974 to 1983 for nine seasons, adding that it was “just delightful.” Outside of one of her first jobs, the soap opera Love of Life, she said she’d been “so lucky” that “I have never been in a movie or play or anything that I didn’t enjoy. And I liked all the people.”
Related: William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett Admit They ‘Didn’t Think We’d Make It’ After Brief Open Marriage (Exclusive)
Fishel, 43, noted that Bartlett also appeared on classic series like Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show and Hart to Hart. She asked if there was a time she finally felt like she was “making it” in Hollywood, but Bartlett said that was never a concern for her or for her husband.
“We just liked the work,” she said. “We didn’t have a career. We wanted to work, we wanted to make enough money to send our kids to school and things like that … People went into the business just to work. I don’t think they went into the business to become stars.”
Related: William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett ‘Never Stop Being Surprised’ by Each Other as They Hit 73rd Wedding Anniversary (Exclusive)
Bartlett later won two Emmys for her role on St. Elsewhere, which she also starred in with Daniels; in 1986, they won Emmys on the same night. Friedle, 48, asked if those wins made them feel like they’d “arrived” and become “established,” but Bartlett said they “never felt that.”
“Winning an award is nice, but it doesn’t get you anywhere really,” she said. “Except that, forever, you will be described as an Emmy-winning actor.”
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