Loved the show, but loved the books even more. I know a lot of shows don't follow the books - which is very irritating, but I remember one episode where Laura refused to sell her stories because the publisher wanted her to change the story line to a boy as the main character. She did not want to change anything. Which was very hypocritical of Michael Langdon since he played very loose with the story line.
The saddest difference was that Mary did not get married.