Speaking with Remind magazine in January 2026, Labyorteaux, 60, looked back on the “sad” events that led up to his character’s exit from the show. “It was a really weird time,” Labyorteaux recalled. “Because we had on the show that I would lose my mom. …It was just kind of sad. I was leaving the show, and then you read the script, and it’s like, it’s sad.”
“It was also a period of time where we thought maybe we would be doing a new show, so it didn’t feel like we were leaving. It felt like transitioning,” Labyorteaux explained. “And then later, they didn’t pick the pilot up, and then ended up doing Father Murphy with Merlin Olsen, and they couldn’t have the same kid on a different show with the same guy. So, they got another kid who looked just like me. That was a bummer. That was when it was hard, and that was about eight months later.”
"The idea was that Merlin would be the sheriff of a town, and I was going to be his son," Labyorteaux added. “The network said, 'We want Merlin, but we don't want him as part of Little House.' So they did the show Father Murphy, and had to cast a kid who looked just like me for that show.”
‘Father Murphy’ Was Not a ‘Little House’ Spinoff
Father Murphy premiered as a TV movie on NBC in November 1981. The series was created and directed by Little House on the Prairie star and producer Michael Landon, but had nothing to do with the Minnesota-set show.
Unlike Little House, which aired for nine seasons on NBC, Father Murphy was canceled after just two seasons.
“One reason I was sorry to see Father Murphy go is there aren't many programs that families can sit down and watch together," Olsen said at the time.
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