Little House on the Prairie (TV series)

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox television

Little House on the Prairie is an American Western historical drama television series loosely based on the Little House on the Prairie book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The series is centered on the Ingalls family, who live on a farm on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s–1890s. Charles, Caroline, Laura, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls are respectively portrayed by Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, and twins Lindsay and Sydney Greenbush.

In 1972, with the encouragement of his wife and daughter, television producer and former NBC executive Ed Friendly acquired the film and television rights to Wilder's novels from Roger Lea MacBride and engaged Blanche Hanalis to write the teleplay for a two-hour motion picture pilot. Friendly then asked Michael Landon to direct the pilot; Landon agreed on the condition that he could also play Charles Ingalls. Conflict between Friendly's and Landon's vision for the show ultimately led to the disinvolvement of Friendly in the production, leaving complete creative control to Michael Landon.

The pilot, which first aired on March 30, 1974, was based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's third Little House book, Little House on the Prairie. The rest of the regular series premiered on the NBC network on September 11, 1974, and last aired on March 21, 1983. In the show's ninth and final season, with the departure of Michael Landon, the title was changed to Little House: A New Beginning. Three post-series movies were made. Since the original series run, the show has aired continuously in syndication and is available on a number of streaming platforms.

Although initial reviews from critics were less than positive, the series ultimately became an audience favorite, with strong ratings through most of the series run. Initial reviews drew comparisons to The Waltons, which was getting solid ratings at the time. Ultimately, positive reviews followed the first season until cancellation, and continued through syndication as the show has remained popular with audiences.

Synopsis

Loosely based on the autobiographical Little House series, episodes of Little House on the Prairie usually concern members of the Ingalls family, who live on a small farm near the village of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Many episodes concern the maturation of the family's second daughter, Laura. Other episodes focus on family and community members, providing a depiction of life in a small agrarian community in late nineteenth-century America. The show's central characters are Charles Ingalls (farmer and mill worker), his wife Caroline, and their three daughters, Mary, Laura, and Carrie, though the family expands as the seasons progress.

At the conclusion of Season 4, Mary goes blind and is sent to a school for the blind in Iowa, leaving Walnut Grove behind. This introduces Adam Kendall, a teacher at the school who is also blind. Meanwhile, in Walnut Grove, the school has closed, with no plans to reopen, as Miss Beadle marries and leaves Walnut Grove. Season 5 opens with Adam, with Mary's help, opening a new school for the blind in Winoka, Dakota. The Ingalls move to Winoka, and the Garveys and Olesons soon follow, as the economic situation in Walnut Grove has soured. An orphan in Winoka, Albert, becomes a recurring character. When the families move back to Walnut Grove, the Ingalls take Albert with them. Later in season 5, the blind school in Winoka must close, and the decision is made to merge with another school from Kansas, moving both to Walnut Grove.

The storyline in season 6 introduces the Wilders—Eliza Jane, who arrives to replace Alice Garvey as the teacher in Walnut Grove, and her brother Almanzo. By the conclusion of the season, the romance between Almanzo and Laura has blossomed to a marriage proposal, with the couple agreeing to wait a year to be married. As season 7 begins, Eliza Jane leaves Walnut Grove, with Laura being offered the position of teacher in the school. Although they still have six months of their agreed engagement period, Laura and Almanzo are married in the season's two-part premier.

Following season 8, Michael Landon decided to leave the show and the series was retitled Little House: A New Beginning. The focus is now placed on the characters of Laura and Almanzo. Charles is forced to sell the house and move to Burr Oak, Iowa, to pursue new work. Laura and Almanzo remain and become the central characters. More characters were added to the cast. A new family, John Carter, along with his wife Sarah and sons Jeb and Jason move into the Ingalls house. Meanwhile when Almanzo's brother dies, Almanzo and Laura take in their niece, Jenny Wilder, and raise her alongside their own daughter, Rose.

Cast and characters

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Landon on the set
Michael Landon on the set of Little House on the Prairie
Landon as Pa
Michael Landon as Charles "Pa" Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, 1974
Laura Ingalls
Laura Ingalls (played by Melissa Gilbert) with her dog Jack (played by Barney), 1975
Melissa Sue Anderson
Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, 1974

Main cast

Recurring cast

Guest stars

Little House had many guest stars and incorporated a number of well-known actors, including Academy Award winners such as Ernest Borgnine ("The Lord is My Shepherd"), Red Buttons ("The Circus Man"), and Patricia Neal ("Remember Me").

Other established performers included Forrest Tucker ("Founder's Day"), Richard Basehart ("Troublemaker"), Theodore Bikel ("Centennial"), Johnny Cash ("The Collection"), Burl Ives ("The Hunters"), John Ireland ("Little Girl Lost"), Nehemiah Persoff ("The Stranger"), Ray Bolger ("As Long as We're Together" and "Come Dance with Me"), Arthur Hill ("Journey in the Spring") and Barry Sullivan ("Author, Author").

Some guests were second generation performers, such as Dirk Blocker ("School Mom"), son of BonanzaTemplate:'s Dan Blocker, Anne Archer ("Doctor's Lady"), daughter of Marjorie Lord and John Archer, and Julie Cobb ("Money Crop"), daughter of The Virginian's Lee J. Cobb.Template:Sfn

Episodes

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} List of Little House on the Prairie episodes

Background and production

Development

Ed Friendly, former television executive and producer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, had noticed that his daughter had a habit of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's series of books every year and was convinced they had enormous licensing potential.Template:Sfn The copyrights of the works were at the time owned by Roger MacBride.Template:Sfn Friendly purchased the television rights to Little House on the Prairie to develop a family-oriented series, while he and Blanche Hanalis wrote the initial screenplay; but the result was not received well by the networks.Template:Sfnm

Upon seeing the Bonanza episode "The Wish" directed by Michael Landon, Friendly thought Landon could possibly direct the series. Friendly's daughter delivered a copy of the screenplay to Landon, after which the latter not only wanted to direct the pilot, but also to star in it.Template:Sfn Following the cancellation of Bonanza, Landon had been given an exclusive contract with NBC to develop new projects.Template:Sfn When Landon discovered his daughter had been reading the book series and that his wife had also read them, he also saw the opportunity for a family-oriented series that would encourage children to read.Template:Sfn NBC was hesitant; they would be committing to a project from an era the networks were leaving behind.Template:Sfn But NBC ultimately trusted Landon's intuition and committed to a two-hour pilot movie and a series to follow if ratings warranted.Template:Sfn

Although they agreed that the series should look authentic, Friendly and Landon had different visions of what that meant. Among other differences, Friendly wanted the Charles Ingalls character to have a full beard, while Landon thought it would be bad for his image.Template:Sfn Friendly wanted to strictly follow the stories in the books. Landon, on the other hand, noted that a series run of several years would require much more drama and character development.Template:Sfn Eventually, Friendly wanted Landon removed. However, NBC backed Landon, and Friendly ended up as a silent partner,Template:Sfnm leaving the show in mid-1974.Template:Sfn Ultimately, Landon "closely-supervised dimensions of story and character that were not present in the original material... nurtured the cast and crew, directed and wrote most of the stories, and entirely supervised every detail of the series."Template:Sfn As executive producer, his "personal vision is embossed on every one of the 204 color episodes".Template:Sfn The result is a series that is "so different from the books as to constitute a separate body of work".Template:Sfn

Casting

Following NBC's commitment to the series, Landon put his effort into casting. Forty-seven actresses were auditioned for the role of Caroline Ingalls before Landon settled on Karen Grassle.Template:Sfn Hersha Parady had been seriously considered for the role.Template:Sfn However, Landon thought Grassle was perfect because she "looked like a pioneer woman".Template:Sfn Grassle had very little in the way of television and no film acting experience.Template:Sfn She was primarily a theater actress with university training and a degree in theater, along with a number of repertory theater credits.Template:Sfn Landon also cast other actors with theater backgrounds and minimal television exposure including Katherine MacGregor and Richard Bull.Template:Sfn

Landon's most difficult task was casting the children. He did not want "professional daughters with stage mothers".Template:Sfn He wanted "real little girls".Template:Sfn He selected Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary, and Melissa Gilbert as Laura, and gave them the nicknames "Missy" and "Half Pint" so they could be told apart on set.Template:Sfn Anderson had only been working in television for less than a year, while the 9-year old Gilbert had been working in television since she was three.Template:Sfn Hollywood's work rules for small children required the use of twins for the character of Carrie, who was played by Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush.Template:Sfn

Writing

Writing was one of the many creative differences between Ed Friendly and Michael Landon. Friendly wanted to remain faithful to the original storylines of the books, while Landon saw that producing at least 22 hours of episodic television per year would make it necessary to build fictional stories around the incidents from the books.Template:Sfn Landon also incorporated completely invented characters not found in the books.Template:Sfn Thus, only some of the material for the series was taken directly from the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, as well as from the actual lives of the Ingalls family. While many of the stories were pure fabrications, each was meant to be true to the character of the book series.Template:Sfn

The original screenplay adaptation was written by Ed Friendly and Blanche Hanalis.Template:Sfn As many as a dozen script ideas were later submitted by Ed Friendly and Roger MacBride, but all were rejected.Template:Sfn Other writers, including Michael Landon, were used for the series and the post-series movies.Template:Sfn

Some episodes written by Michael Landon were recycled storylines he had written for Bonanza. In season 5, the episode "Someone Please Love Me" had the same theme as the Bonanza episode "A Dream To Dream".Template:Sfn Likewise, "Little Lou" in season 9 conveyed the same theme as the Bonanza episode "It's A Small World".Template:Sfn To feature Karen Grassle, Landon wrote "A Matter of Faith" in season 2 based on the Bonanza episode "A Matter of Circumstance".Template:Sfn

Production design

Both Ed Friendly and Michael Landon wanted the series to look authentic. Landon studied books on frontier life, using them to develop the set design, including tools and household utensils.Template:Sfn Along with series production designer Trevor Williams, Landon reviewed more than 50 books about frontier life in 1870s Minnesota. Each building used was a replica of an actual building.Template:Sfn Walter Jefferies served as art director for the series.Template:Sfn

Make-up was supervised by Allan "Whitey" Snyder, who had been Marilyn Monroe's personal make-up artist.Template:Sfnm One of the problems that had to be addressed with the child actors was what to do about braces, which were not something one would see on a homesteading child of the 1870s. Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim each at one point had braces which were hidden by white candle wax applied to their teeth.Template:Sfn

The lead hair stylist was Larry Germain.Template:Sfn Several female characters were outfitted with wigs in order to present a more period-authentic look.Template:Sfn Originally, Alison Arngrim's hair was her own, but this required constant curling of her naturally straight hair. After a short period of filming with her own hair, Germain had Siegfried Geike create a wig for Arngrim.Template:Sfn

Filming

From the beginning of the pilot, cinematography was handled by Ted Voigtlander, giving a picture of what prairie homesteaders faced in the late 19th century.Template:Sfn He remained as principal cinematographer throughout the series, and for the three post-series movies.Template:Sfn

Initially, two sound stages at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles were used for the interior shots.Template:Sfn This included the massive sound stage 31 at Paramount.Template:Sfn In 1978, filming moved to stage 15 at MGM Studios. This was the biggest soundstage at MGM, having been the set for The Wizard of Oz.Template:Sfn

Location filming for the pilot was done in Sonora, California.Template:Sfn During the series, exterior shots for the Ingalls home at Plum Creek and the village of Walnut Grove were filmed at the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley.Template:Sfnm The arid desert land of Ventura county was watered by a series of underground pipes to convert the California desert into a greener Minnesota.Template:Sfn Old Tucson Studios was also used for location filming as the village of Mankato, Minnesota.Template:Sfnm

As a period show, outside dialogue was looped to avoid the potential of sounds such as cars or airplanes.Template:Sfn

Music

The series theme song was titled "The Little House" and was written and conducted by David Rose. Rose composed and scored the music for the pilot movie, 204 episodes of the series, and the movies.Template:Sfnm The ending theme music, also written by Rose, originally appeared as a piece of incidental music in "Top Hand", a January 17, 1971, episode of Michael Landon's previous series, Bonanza.Template:Sfn

Cancellation

In a 1980 interview, Michael Landon stated the series would end after season eight due to "many contractual agreements".Template:Sfn The show continued beyond that, going into a ninth season. As ratings declined in the final season, Landon felt that the series had run its course, noting, "[W]hen we started this show, we never imagined it would last this long".Template:Sfn The 1983–84 television season was the final season for the series, after which three made-for-television movies were released: Little House: Look Back to Yesterday (1983), Little House: The Last Farewell (1984), and Little House: Bless All the Dear Children (1984).Template:Sfn

The Last Farewell was the final movie to be filmed and incorporated a unique ending in which each townsperson takes a turn blowing up his own building in an emotional farewell to the town. The reason for the ending was due to an agreement NBC made with the property owners when it leased the land from the Getty Oil Company and Newhall Land and Development Corporation. The agreement required that at end of the series, the acreage would be put back to its original state. Michael Landon decided to write the demolition into the show, thus dismantling the sets on camera.Template:Sfn

Themes

Opinions vary on whether the series is considered a Western, with critics generally split on this point. Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present suggest that the series is "not a Western in the usual sense. There were no cowboys, Indians, or cowtown saloons in this version of frontier life—it was more like The Waltons in a different setting."Template:Sfn The producers deliberately avoided the "black hat" conflict of the standard Western, even though critics claimed the show lacked action.Template:Sfn In The BFI Companion to the Western, Edward Buscombe calls it a "middle Western" and a domestic Western.Template:Sfn Most television critics have classified it as a "pioneer drama" or a "family Western".Template:Sfn The series hit several themes that place it within the Western genre, including "cowboys and Indians" (pilot and "Freedom Flight"), its west of the Mississippi setting, as well as gunplay and violence.Template:Sfn It has also been characterized as a "prairie soap opera"Template:Sfn or a "soap opera with horses".Template:Sfn

With total creative control, Michael Landon presented a vision of "the strong, honest pioneer family whose spirit of love and devotion overcomes all physical harshness and obstacles of the heart, and always taught a moral".Template:Sfn He put more emphasis on the family's courage rather than their weaknesses.Template:Sfn This is especially prominent in the character of Charles Ingalls. Landon preferred a portrayal of Charles that was different from that presented in the books, almost a total opposite.Template:Sfn Landon presented him as strong and wise, yet able to maintain his vulnerability.Template:Sfn In The Myth of the American Superhero, John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett describe this portrayal using the model of the "Heidi man" as a monomythic hero who, like Heidi, uses nonviolence to "heal the sick and bring happiness to the lonely".Template:Sfn They describe the themes of Little House as "domestic redeemer tales" and Landon as a "male Heidi [figure] who redeem[s] by nonviolent manipulations".Template:Sfn Using the September 24, 1975, season 2 episode "Ebenezer Sprague" as an example, Lawrence and Jewett delve into the Pa Ingalls character as embodying the hero's journey of the monomyth.Template:Sfn

Church, faith, and prayer were all strong themes in the series, in a way that reflected Landon's personal experience.Template:Sfn Religious themes are more prominent in the television series than they are in the original book series. As historian John Fry notes in A Prairie Faith: The Religious Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, faith, and Christianity in particular, plays a part in the books, but it is not a central theme, whereas it is much more central to the television series.Template:Sfn In Favorite Families of TV, Christopher and Michael Denis suggest that "[t]his show in many ways was about a strong Christian family struggling to practice Christian principles".Template:Sfn Episodes contained a type of sermonizing that was not a "fire-and-brimstone kind of preachiness, but always the moral lesson learned through tolerance of those different from us, compassion for those less fortunate, patience with those less able".Template:Sfn

Landon's writing not only reflected his personal experience, but also his views on social issues. Little House explored themes involving many social issues including adoption, alcoholism, faith, poverty, blindness, menopause, aging, and death. Other plots include subjects of contemporary social issues such as leukemia, child abuse, premarital sex, and rape.Template:Sfn The challenges of a Civil War soldier's struggle with drug addiction and suicide in "Soldier's Return" mirrored the struggles of the returning Vietnam War veterans of the 1970s.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Melissa Gilbert noted that Landon "was very vocal in his support of people of color and women and very against a lot of the violence and bigotry that he was seeing in the world".<ref name=":2" /> This is echoed in the plotlines of episodes that deal with prejudice and bigotry of various types. The episodes "Dark Sage" and "Injun Kid" deal directly with racism, while "Come, Let Us Reason Together" addresses antisemitism. Prejudice against new and different ideas is explored in "Whisper Country" and prejudice against little people is seen in "Little Lou".Template:Sfn

Release

Broadcast

The pilot movie aired on NBC, March 30, 1974.Template:Sfn Beginning September 11, 1974, the series began airing on Wednesday nights in the 8:00–9:00 ET timeslot.Template:Sfn It was moved to Monday nights in the 8:00–9:00 ET timeslot on September 27, 1976 and remained in that timeslot until cancellation.Template:Sfn

Following the cancellation of the series, NBC aired three made-for-television movies. Look Back to Yesterday aired on December 12, 1983, The Last Farewell aired on February 6, 1984, and Bless All the Dear Children aired December 17, 1984.Template:Sfn Bless All the Dear Children was filmed prior to The Last Farewell, but ended up being the last of the three movies to air.Template:Sfn Given its Christmas-related content, NBC made a last-minute decision to change the broadcast order, airing it during the Christmas season. A voice-over was added explaining the events occurred prior to the destruction of the town to resolve the continuity problem.Template:Sfn

In the United States, NBC originally licensed syndication rights for Little House on the Prairie to Worldvision Enterprises for a period of thirty-five years,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> since fin-syn rules prohibited networks from airing syndicated programs in which they had a financial stake.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following its original run, the series has aired continuously in syndication.Template:Sfn In syndication, it has aired in more than 100 countries.Template:Sfn

Home media and streaming services

Initially, some individual episodes were released on DVD and VHS.<ref name="Peacock pride" /> In 2003, as DVD players reached more than half of the homes with VCRs for the first time, and trends began towards watching entire seasons on DVD,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> full seasons of Little House were released on DVD by Goldhil in partnership with NBC Enterprises.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the U.S. and Canada, NBC Enterprises partnered with Imavision Distribution to release full-season collector's editions, due to Imavision's expertise in family-oriented products.<ref name="Peacock pride">Template:Cite journal</ref> These initial releases used time compressed episodes that had been prepared for syndication.<ref name="New Seasons">Template:Cite news</ref> These sets included interviews with former cast members Alison Arngrim and Dean Butler.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> For the original movies and complete series sets, Imavision included special features such as interviews with cast members such as Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson, as well as specials highlighting Michael Landon and the casting of the show.

Lionsgate signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Imavision in 2007 to release the entire series on DVD.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2014, Lionsgate Home Entertainment began re-releasing the series in North America formatted as blu-ray full-frame, DVD full-frame, and ultraviolet HD digital download. The episodes were restored to their original broadcast length and were remastered for high-definition picture and sound.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Seasons 1 through 6 each contain a roughly 15-minute segment of a special called "The Little House Phenomenon".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Following the release of the series, an all-movie collection was released in 2016.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

To address declining DVD sales in Canada, Imavision began offering the series via real-time streaming in 2012.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This was followed by streaming on Amazon Prime Video in 2019 and Peacock in 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Availability on free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels began with Amazon Freevee and Xumo in 2023 and expanded to platforms such as The Roku Channel and Pluto TV.<ref>Multiple sources:

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Reception

Critical reviews

The New York Times television critic John J. O'Connor gave the pilot film mixed reviews but also noted that it "contained enough family warmth and struggle to make The Waltons look like a pack of pampered snobs", noting that the possibility of a weekly series did have promise.Template:Sfn The series itself, however, did not start off with positive reviews. Landon biographer Marsha Daly said, "It was as if they resented its simple, sweet characters, and preferred the trash-with-flash type shows then making in-roads on television."Template:Sfn Daly specifically notes a review by Richard Schidel of Time in which he said that Landon looked "as if he just stepped out of a unisex beauty salon on the Strip rather than 430 episodes of Bonanza" and that the show seemed "to be striving for a simple, straightforward style, minimizing both molodramatic and sentimental excesses".Template:Sfn Writing for TV Guide, Cleveland Amory wrote, "the show wants to have it both ways... an adult show and a children's show. It isn't bad as either... [b]ut if it had decided to be just one or the other, it would have been a whole lot better".Template:Sfn By the end of the first season, Amory noted that TV GuideTemplate:'s most disagreeing mail was his critique of Little House, and that most viewers considered it to be a good family show. Having admitted to going back to watch it again, he agreed that he had been too hard on it.Template:Sfn

Perhaps one of the most glowing reviews came from The Christian Science Monitor when it wrote that "to watch Little House on the Prairie is to fall in love with a time, a place, a way of life, a particular family", further noting that it was "an astounding, skillful production".Template:Sfn Early reviews made constant comparisons to The Waltons, a comparison that flattered Landon.Template:Sfn During the airing of the series, in 1975 a poll of Scholastic Newstime named the show its national favorite.Template:Sfn

Even after the series was cancelled and entered syndication, it continues to receive positive reactions from viewers. In 1993, the series was named "All-Time Best Family Show" by a TV Guide reader's poll.Template:Sfn In 1997, TV Guide included the two-part episode "I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away" as #97 on its 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list. The episode was about Mary going blind.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The BFI Companion to the Western calls the episodes written and directed by Landon, "among the finest episodic stories ever aired for this type of drama".Template:Sfn Christopher and Michael Denis wrote in Favorite Families of TV, "The fact that the series was a resounding success, and continues resonating in syndication, affirms Landon's belief in his own visions and his remarkable ability to translate them successfully for a mass audience both in the U.S. and abroad."Template:Sfn Even as recently as 2020, outlets such as The New York Times have described it as "perfectly balanced between sweet and sour", while highlighting its simplicity, self-sufficiency, and sentimentality.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Viewership

The pilot movie beat the competition with a 26.2 rating, representing roughly 45% of all television sets in operation at the time.Template:Sfn With the success of the pilot, the series was scheduled into the fall line-up for Wednesday nights at 8Template:Nbsppm.Template:Sfn

Although the pilot was a ratings success, the series began with low initial ratings. While NBC had concerns, it believed that Landon's production was one of its better bets. Realizing that it takes time to build an audience for a quality show, NBC was not about to cancel a program that was receiving high praise from parents and teacher groups.Template:Sfn Season 1 had moderate ratings, while season 2 was the lowest ranked season of the series. In 1976, the series was moved to a Monday night time slot. From season three through season 7 it was one of NBC's highest rated scripted series. In season 4, it reached a peak of seventh in the Nielsen ratings, the highest rated show for NBC that season.Template:Sfn

Template:Television season ratings

Accolades

Year Organization Award Result Template:Abbr
1976 Emmy Award Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, "Remember Me" Template:Nominated citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1976 TP de Oro, Spain Mejor Actriz Extranjera (Best Foreign Actress), Karen Grassle Template:Won <ref>es:Anexo:Premios TP de Oro 1975</ref>
1978 Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Melissa Sue Anderson Template:Nominated citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1978 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, episode "The Fighter" Template:Won <ref name="Voigtlander">Template:Cite news</ref>
1979 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, episode "The Craftsman" Template:Won <ref name="Voigtlander" />
1979 Emmy Award Outstanding Music Composition for a Series, David Rose, episode "The Craftsman" Template:Won
1980 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, episode "May We Make Them Proud" Template:Nominated citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1980 TP de Oro, Spain Mejor Actriz Extranjera (Best Foreign Actress), Melissa Sue Anderson Template:Won <ref>es:Anexo:Premios TP de Oro 1979</ref>
1981 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, episode "Sylvia" Template:Nominated citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1981 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best TV Script, Michael Landon, episode "May We Make Them Proud" Template:Won citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1982 Emmy Award Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), David Rose, episode "He Was Only Twelve" (Part 2) Template:Won citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1982 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, Ted Voigtlander, episode "He Was Only Twelve" Template:Nominated <ref name="Emmys_1982" />
1983 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography for a Series, Harry Wolf, episode "The Wild Boy" Template:Nominated
1983 Young Artist Award Best Young Actress in a Drama Series, Melissa Gilbert Template:Won
1984 Young Artist Award Best Young Actress in a Drama Series, Melissa Gilbert Template:Won

Subsequent adaptations

Following the production of the pilot movie and his objections to how Little House was adapted for the screen, Ed Friendly remained involved in name only, although he retained billing in the show's credits and received royalty payments.Template:Sfn Friendly teamed up again with Blanche Hanalis to produce a similar series based on books from Rose Wilder Lane. The television film The Young Pioneers was faithful to the book and received positive reviews from The New York Times. After a second movie, ABC bought the series and turned it over to Lorimar Productions, with Earl Hamner as executive producer. Although the series received positive reviews from critics, it was a flop for the network and was subsequently canceled.Template:Sfn

Friendly also produced a six-part Little House on the Prairie miniseries for Wonderful World of Disney in 2005. These were based on two of Wilder's books and remained more faithful to the original material as Friendly had desired with the original series.Template:Sfn

A musical adaption of Little House was staged and performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota in 2008. The production starred Melissa Gilbert, this time in the role of Ma Ingalls. The production toured other cities in 2009.Template:Sfn

In October 2012, Sony Pictures announced that a film adaptation of the Little House on the Prairie novel was under development. In early 2016, it was reported that Paramount Pictures had picked up the project in turnaround, but an agreement was never reached.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In December 2020, Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content announced they were developing a reboot as a one-hour dramatic series adaptation.<ref name="reboot">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Meeting together at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2020, cast members of the original series expressed their doubts on the likelihood of success with such a project, suggesting that it would not work without the genius of Michael Landon.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On January 29, 2025, Netflix announced a new series based on the Little House on the Prairie books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder with CBS Studios in association with Anonymous Content Studios, following from the 2020 reboot plans. Rebecca Sonnenshine is showrunner and an executive producer. Trip Friendly, son of original series producer Ed Friendly, is also an executive producer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Original cast members Allison Arngrim and Dean Butler told ReMIND Magazine the new series would be more focused on the original books, rather than a reboot of the original series.<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Legacy

Although there are fans of the book series who scorn the television series, many fans enjoy both the books and the show.Template:Sfn Ultimately, the television series did serve to boost readership of the books, with many people coming to learn of the books from watching the series, bringing hundreds of thousands of new readers to the books.Template:Sfn Additionally, it helped boost the popularity of historic sites where the Ingalls and Wilder families lived as well as leading to the creation of several museums.Template:Sfn The original homesite in Walnut Grove, Minnesota averages 10,000 visitors per year.<ref name="Stands tall">Template:Cite news</ref>

Several cast members have written memoirs detailing their work on the series, including Melissa Gilbert in 2009,Template:Sfn Melissa AndersonTemplate:Sfn and Alison Arngrim in 2010,Template:Sfn Charlotte Stewart in 2016,Template:Sfn and Karen Grassle in 2021,Template:Sfn and Dean Butler in 2024.Template:Sfn

Surviving cast members Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Anderson, Lindsay Greenbush, Matthew Labyorteaux, Alison Arngrim, Dean Butler, Charlotte Stewart, and Karen Grassle reunited for the show's 40th anniversary in 2014 for an Entertainment Weekly interview. It was the first time many of them had been together following the 1991 death of Michael Landon.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The 50th anniversary of the series in 2024 spawned multiple reunion interviews and appearances. In March, 2024, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Alison Angrim met for an interview ahead of a planned "Prairie Palooza" event at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The three-day event included panel interviews with cast members, exhibits of Little House artifacts such as scripts, merchandise, and other items, as well as recreated miniatures of some of the sets. Michael Landon's golf cart that had been made to look like a surrey was also on display.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A documentary about the anniversary called "Loving Little House" aired in fall 2024 on Cozi TV.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Responding to comments in 2025 from Megyn Kelly about producing a planned remake as a "woke" version of the series, members of the original cast pointed out that the original series covered topics many consider to be "woke" such as racism, addiction, nativism, antisemitism, misogyny, rape, and spousal abuse.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Melissa Gilbert suggested that the show's appeal is based on universal themes that were relevant not just when it aired but decades after its release.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Writing for Politico, Jason Kyle Howard suggested that the discussion illustrated how American society had become more politicized, and the show handled issues such as race and Christianity in ways that did not come across as partisan during its initial airing might be seen more controversially in the present day.<ref name=":3" /> In the context of the planned Netflix remake, a journalist for The Ankler revisited the tension between Friendly, who wanted the series to be a close adaptation of the books, and Landon, who saw it more as a vehicle for telling modern stories, and questioned how the new series would resolve the interests of new and older audiences, against the backdrop of the continued popularity of the original series.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

References

Notes

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Sources

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