The endless parade of new students to Walnut Grove's schoolhouse and there always being a seat for the new student no matter that the previous episode(s) showed all the seats were full.
I'll try to only post new ones, although I know I'll mention a couple technically mentioned, but I'll alter it slightly.
- Good weather all year in Minne-freakin-sota except for Christmas episodes or a plot device (like rain when things are sad or dramatic; blizzard in an episode devoted to it).
- Laura often going for guys way out of her league.
- Bad alcoholics redeeming themselves, usually thanks to Chuck. (Throw in Albert's morphinism.)
- Nels muttering something to Harriet, and when she inquires, he changes it to a positive statement that rhymes with his last said word.
"Will you miss me, Nels?" "Like a crutch." "What did you say?" "Oh, very much!"
One time I think he mentioned "grief," but then he changed it to "beef." (..."that roast is a good peice of beef!")
- Nancy's debut shows her having naturally thin hair, but once in the care of Harriet, Nancy gets full hair that holds its curls. Even a day in the wilderness ("The Return of Nellie"), it doesn't fall flat, even turning to a wild, frizzy mess.
- Caroline's pregnancies last one episode.
- Albert being Mr. Perfect except when he hustled on the streets or was drugged out in the cliched-1980s "Just Say No" episode, "Home Again."
Main characters' amnesia problems. Examples: Mary tells Adam after adjusting to the blind school that "she never learned" an instrument, particularly the piano. I guess she blocked out her music lessons with Granville Whipple, getting to take the mini piano home with her! The worst example is probably Caroline and Chuck joking about gettting to be grandparents one day. "Uh, you had a grandson who died in a fire!"
- Members playing different characters even after they've been well-established as someone else. (Little Chuck becomes Albert, Alicia becomes that daughter of the drunk, loser rich dad when Cbuck is their houseguest.)
I forgot a couple of well-known speech annoyances. Once Mary goes blind, she develops a stuttering problem. "I, I... I know." "I... I'm losing him, Hester Sue!" "I, I, I..."
Chuck saying something twice for effect. "I don't know, son. I don't know." "That he does, half-pint. That he does." "No more! No more!"
Always, the "TARA"!!!!! Turn And Run Away! That's always the best way to solve a problem or miscommunication.
Laura freaking out over nothing with Zaldamo that if she was a halfway decent wife she'd just ask him about her issues instead of letting them fester. For example, the whole "My One True Love" song written by Betty Sue. Zaldamo used to date her, and he couldn't even commit to his dim memory one silly song title and her freaking name!!! And how dumb is Laura to think that Zaldamo would write that if he meant it and just leave it on the desk in the living room!
Hester Sue's annoyingly cloying voice.... She'd put emphases in the weirdest places.
Another failed crop just means another year of being poor on the prairie.
What’s even more baffling was a guy like Zaldamo that was capable pulling babes like Brenda Sue, marrying Laura instead. That blind school was short a pupil 😎
Did anyone mention the cliche of someone leaving town and getting replaced by a blander, less interesting clone (Edwards/Garvey, Nellie/Nancy, Cassandra/Jenny, Charles/John Carter, Caroline/Sara Carter, Beadle/Plum etc.).
And they were big on biblical retribution: fire, flood (well, bad weather anyway), wild beasts, pestilence, etc.
I wasn't a huge fan of WKRP in Cincinnati, but it did have one line describing Little House delivered by Edie McClurg that I will never forget because it's hilarious and accurate: "It's about blind children out West, and every week they have a fire or someone gets an incurable disease."