After MGM acquired the show from Paramount, the crew tore up old sets that were used for MGM productions to make room for the new sets that were needed for the show. When Michael Landon removed flooring from one of the old sets, he uncovered the Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz (1939), which was still intact. Melissa Gilbert and the other kids got extremely excited when they recognised it.
While working on an episode of the show, Garett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam, chatted with former NFL player Merlin Olsen between scenes. Olsen mentioned how limited he thought television coverage of football was because the static cameras didn't give the audience any sense of the speed and movement of the game. With that in mind, Brown eventually designed what he called Skycam, (now also known as Cablecam or Spidercam) the floating hydraulic camera system that flies around the stadium above the players, with a 360 degree viewing angle. It has since become an essential tool for covering live sporting and stadium events.
According to Alison Arngrim's autobiography "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch," Katherine MacGregor was a nice person, but a disruptive element on set. She would argue with the directors and try to give other actors and actresses direction. Even her onscreen husband, Richard Bull, had to put his foot down about it. Michael Landon seriously considered firing her, but her performance as the show's villain was just too perfect to let her go.
Throughout the series, when the Ingalls sat down to eat, they ate Dinty Moore Beef Stew. If they had fried chicken for dinner, it was Kentucky Fried Chicken.