You probably remember her as the mean and nasty Nellie on Little House on the Prairie who faked her own paralysis after falling off a horse so that she could guilt Laura into doing favors for her. She was not above lying, stealing, or cheating (which is why we love to hate her). Hollywood FYI recently had the privilege of talking to Alison Arngrim about her days as Nellie, her appearance on The Travel Channel's TV Road Trips (airing tonight!) and what she would like to work on in the future.

 

“Nellie Oleson actually saved my life as a child with the whole shyness thing. I compare it to the small animals in the wild that change their coloring to look like more dangerous creatures. I was like that because people were terrified of Nellie. I would walk into a room and people would back away from me. People would introduce me to friends and say ‘This is Nellie from Little House.’ They would get nervous and be shier than I was. They would back away and then say, ‘We don’t want to upset her. Is she ok?’ At first I thought it was so weird, and then I thought I could use it to my advantage. I thought, ‘what if I’m in a room full of people who I don’t know. Maybe I should let them be terrified for a few minutes while I get my bearings. It worked really well. I would be in situations where I would feel like I was out of my element. I would show up and people would be so busy having a fit that I was Nellie. They would be so intimidated that I had to try to stop myself from laughing. I would just sit there and be quiet and watch them make fools of themselves for a minute and by then I would be over it. So we would all get over it at the same time and get along.”

 

Believe it or not, Alison was an extremely shy child. “Bette Midler was pathologically shy and would overcompensate. One of the things that she and Nancy Walker would talk about in interviews was that they were painfully shy. So, they developed this tough persona. I studied both of them as a kid because prior to Nellie Oleson, I was terribly shy. When I tell people that now, they laugh in my face and say, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I say, ‘it is the Bette Midler and Nancy Walker School of Overcompensation. My greatest achievement, I would say, is retaining my sense of humor. There’s a quote from Spiderman that sums up my existence perfectly, ‘For me, the choice to lead a normal life is no longer an option.’”

 

Who are some of Alison’s heroes?

“I would say all of the Betty’s; Betty Paige, Betty Boop, Bette Davis, and Bette Midler. The hairdresser on Little House used to make me do impersonations of (Bette Davis). When I was a kid, Larry would get me in that wig and it would look so Whatever Happened to Baby Jane that in the morning, he would hand me a cigarette and I would have to do a Bette Davis impersonation before I could get out of the chair. It was a little weird. It was like “Hmm, What a dump!” “OK, you can go eat breakfast now.”

 

“Betty Paige is also a huge hero of mine. I love her. I actually got to talk to her on the phone. I did a fundraiser in honor of Betty Paige’s birthday and people dressed up as her.” A mutual friend of Alison’s put her in touch with Betty. “So, I got on the phone with her and she was a huge fan of Little House and wanted to talk to Nellie and I wanted to talk to Betty. We had a nice phone chat ended up exchanging autographs. She got autographed pictures of Nellie and I got an autographed copy of her book.”

 

Let’s not forget Carol Channing. “When I was a little girl, I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other girls wanted to be Mary Tyler-More or Julie Andrews I wanted to be Carol Channing. I wanted to live in a big house and have all of these strange men around playing, bullfighting, and airplane riding.”

 

Another hero for Alison was her Little House co-star Steve Tracey who played her husband Percival. Steve passed away in November of 1986 due to AIDS. “He came out and publicly announced that he had AIDS at a time when other actors like Rock Hudson were afraid to admit they were infected with it.” Since 1986, Alison has been actively involved with AIDS Project Los Angeles.

 

Alison’s Real Husband

My husband, Bob, who is a rock-n-roll musician, is even shyer than I am. However, he’s this straight guy from Ohio who can out-bitch the biggest drag-queen in Hollywood . He comes across as quiet and sweet and then he opens his mouth and I have seen him shred six foot drag queens. He’s like, ‘Please, I’m married to Nellie Oleson. You didn’t think I would be able to do what?’ He was actually the seventh person who was hired at APLA back in 1984. (He was) the token straight man. For the first six months, he thought his name was Mary. They tortured him because they thought it was funny. He took it and dished it right back out.

 

 Bob is going to be playing with his band, Catahoula, this Saturday night (April 12) at Molly Malone’s (575 S. Fairfax Ave.) @ 10:30 p.m. For those of you who don’t know, Catahoula is the state dog of Louisiana . They have a Cajun-New Orleans style in their music. Stop by and check them out!

 

Alison’s taste in music is all over the map. HFYI caught her in the middle of listening to Donna Summer and Pat Benatar doing covers of Edith Piaf. Some of her other favorites include Eric Clapton, Steele Dan, Blondie Violent Femmes, Indigo Girls, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols. Oh, and let’s not forget a certain group of skate punk bands which Alison had hosted a leukemia benefit with. “The Bad Samaritans, Drug Damaged Youth, and Nothing Yet were three of the more interesting bands. They were dedicating songs to ‘Nellie Oleson’ at the benefit. I had no idea that there were twenty year old skate punks who were Little House on the Prairie fans.”

 

As for Alison’s hardcore fans, “It’s really weird.  I’ve found that one person in a couple won’t care and the other person will be the huge “Nellie” fan; husbands and wives, gay couples, or roommates. I’ll talk to the one who is like ‘Oh, that’s nice. I saw a few episodes of that when I was younger.’ Then they will come back to me the next day and say, ‘I got things thrown at me last night because I didn’t come home with your autograph.’”.

 

What would Alison like to see in her future?

If I could be on a show like Six Feet Under, I‘d be very happy. If I were on Six Feet Under, I’d be more than happy, I’d be hysterical. Everyone wants to be on Six Feet Under, or a show like an Americanized version of Ab-Fab or even Sex in the City.

 

Be sure to see Alison on the Travel Channel on Thursday night where she takes us back to the set of Little House in Semi Valley . Would she like to go back to the days when life was simpler? "I don't want to live in a century where I can't get a botox injection and a green apple martini, preferably at the same time." Alison gives Hollywood FYI the inside scoop on just where to get the best green apple martini. “I would have to say that the best place to get one would be at the APLA fundraisers. They get all of these great volunteer bartenders and all of this donated liquor and they make the best green apple martinis. Then you drink it for a good cause at least, and you spend more money at the silent auction.

 

Check out Alison’s official web-site to get up-to-date information on her endeavors at http://www.hgd.com/alison/ .  

 

TV Road Trips airs Tonight
on  The Travel Channel
@ 10pm (est/pst)

 

Encores:
April 11 @ 1am (est/pst)
 April 13 @ 5pm (est/pst)