Melissa Gilbert is responding to former co-star Jason Bateman‘s comments about being “hazed” on set of Little House on the Prairie.
If you didn’t know, Jason, 56, played James Cooper Ingalls, the adopted son of Charles and Caroline Ingalls, on seasons seven and eight of the beloved series from 1980 to 1982. Jason was 11 when he joined the show.
During a recent appearance on Hot Ones, Jason claimed that he was “hazed” by some of the other actors on the show.
Keep reading to find out more…Host Sean Evans asked Jason if it was true that “the older kids in the cast played an April Fool’s joke on you by telling you that your character had died.”
“Untrue,” Jason responded. “What they did do is they pinned me down on the ground, straddled me with knees on my shoulders and gave me noogies or whatever they call it on my chest.”
Sean then asked, “There was a hazing ritual on Little House on the Prairie?”
“Yeah,” Jason answered. “They knocked on my chest like I was a front door.”
Ultimately, Jason was able to turn the table on those that were picking on him.
“I went to the makeup musician and said, ‘Put a big black-and-blue mark all over my chest,’” the Emmy winner recalled. “And then I went to their parents and I said, ‘Look what your kids did to me.’ And that was good. I got them in trouble.”
After Jason‘s “hazing” comments started making headlines, Melissa, 61, who played Jason‘s character’s older sister Laura Ingalls Wilder, took to Instagram to react.
“Who? Who did this to you?!?!” Melissa wrote while reposting People‘s original post about Jason‘s comments.
“I will kick their tush….no one smacks down my little bro!” she continued, while adding, “#iwillcutabitch.”
Find out more about the upcoming Little House on the Prairie reboot series that’s in the works at Netflix.
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