Melissa Gilbert is speaking up!
The “Little House on the Prairie” alum, who currently appears on Hallmark’s “When Calls The Heart,” came to the defense of her former on-screen brother, Jason Bateman, after he opened up about being hazed while working on the classic TV series.
Bateman, who portrayed an orphan adopted by the Ingalls family during the early 1980s, detailed during a recent appearance on “Hot Ones” that some older kids on the set had physically dominated him.
Among his claims: they “pinned me down on the ground, straddled me with knees on my shoulders,” and gave him noogies. He also said they knocked on his chest “like I was a front door.”
Gilbert Defends Bateman
On social media, Gilbert — best known as Laura “Half-Pint” Ingalls — posted, “Who? Who did this to you?!?!” underneath an image of a PEOPLE story covering Bateman’s remarks.
She added: “I will kick their tush….no one smacks down my little bro!”
Bateman joined “Little House on the Prairie” when he was about 11 years old, appearing in numerous episodes across 1981-82.
At that age, per his account, he experienced this treatment from more senior cast members.
He said he later went to the makeup artist to fake a black-and-blue mark on his chest and brought the matter to the parents of the offending kids to get them in trouble.
Bateman Previously Spoke About His Time on Set
The “Arrested Development” star opened up about going to set in February during the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast.
He recalled how he started to see behind the “magic trick” that is filming a television show.
“I was starting to really notice what this magic trick is of making fake life,” Bateman recalled. “We all look through the paper towel tube when you’re a kid … And outside that tunnel, it’s stuff you can’t see, the microphone and the lights and all that stuff. And so just inside that tube needs to be pristine.”
Gilbert also previously spoke out about her time on the show in a September 2024 interview with PEOPLE.
“The show itself is just so special and so wonderfully well written,” she gushed to the outlet, “but also because that’s my childhood and that’s my surrogate family. I have these wonderfully elaborate ‘home movies’ with many people who are not with us anymore, and I get to revisit them now when I watch a rerun of ‘Little House.’”
Gilbert added she always feels the popularity of the show when she attends events, as fans still love the show years later.
