‘The Office’ Has This ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Connection You Probably Missed
Most fans of The Office are aware of one well-known connection the show has with Little House on the Prairie, but there’s another way the shows are connected that you might have missed. One main actor on The Office appeared on Little House on the Prairie, but did you catch this beloved Little House actor making a brief appearance on the hit sitcom?
Was Jan from ‘The Office’ on ‘Little House on the Prairie’?
A lot of fans of The Office knew that the actor who played Jan Levinson, Melora Hardin, was on Little House on the Prairie too. Did you know that Hardin played two characters on Little House though?
Hardin can be seen in two episodes as Belinda Stevens (in “The Reincarnation of Nellie, Parts 1 and 2”). She also played Michele Pierson, a love interest for Albert, in the 1983 TV movie Little House: Look Back to Yesterday.
Fans noticed ‘Miss Beadle’ actor on ‘The Office’
While Hardin is the more well-known Little House on the Prairie and The Office connection, there’s another one that eagle-eyed fans caught. During the Feb. 10 Office Ladies podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey revisited the second half of The Office’s third season. They did one of their signature “deep dives” into some of the finer details of these episodes, including some fan catches they pointed out.
Some fans noticed that in the season 3 episode “The Return,” when Dwight works at Staples, he assists a customer who is played by an actor who also starred on Little House on the Prairie. Charlotte Stewart was credited as “Woman” in the episode and she played school teacher Miss Beadle on Little House.
Fischer shared the fan catch that appeared a little after nine minutes into the episode. “Well, in this episode, Dwight goes to work at Staples and we had a fan catch from Elvira Lin 84, that I loved,” Fischer explained. “At nine minutes, twenty-three seconds, the woman in Staples that’s talking with Dwight was played by Charlotte Stewart, who played Miss Beadle on Little House on the Prairie.”
Fischer added, “It might be a fun fact that only an older generation can appreciate.”
The actor added how she revisited Little House on the Prairie during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and found some comfort in the TV classic.
“You know, I watched it growing up and my memories of Little House on the Prairie are like the baby got a fever on Christmas Eve and Pa had to go out in the rainstorm, and Nellie was always being mean and — did it hold up?” Kinsey asked her co-host.
Fischer explained what it was like to watch the TV series all these years later. “It does hold up … and it’s a really weird thing to watch during current times because like this family, they’re just on their own in their little farmhouse and the kids have to be friends with each other. And it’s just the family unit.”
“And every once in a while, Pa will venture off to town and he’ll bring back some special treat,” she added. And it’s all very exciting.” Fischer said it felt “very relatable.”
