Amid an early 1970s television landscape full of cop shows, car chases, and controversy-courting sitcoms, producer Ed Friendly rolled the dice on a family-centered historical drama based on a beloved series of children’s books. After a successful two-hour pilot film aired in March of 1974, the regular series was greenlit to launch on September 11 of that year. The series, Little House on the Prairie, would be a significant hit, firmly entrenched in the Nielsen Top 20 for six of its nine seasons. Here’s how that little house got built.
The real Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born in Wisconsin in 1867 to Charles and Caroline. She was the second of the Ingalls children, following her older sister Mary and preceding Carrie, Charles Jr. (who died at nine months), and Grace. The family moved frequently during her youth, including stays in Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Dakota Territory. Laura began teaching at 16 and married Almanzo Wilder when she was 18. By 1894, the Wilders began to build a successful farm that over time included dairy, poultry, and fruit. Laura became a familiar face in farm organizations and she grew into a public speaker.
The Missouri Ruralist invited Wilder to write for them in 1911, and she quickly became an established columnist (“As a Farm Woman Thinks”), then editor. Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, had developed her own writing career, and by the 1920s was experiencing her own success and establishing herself as an early Libertarian thought-leader. Lane encouraged her mother to write more; two of Wilder’s pieces appeared in The Saturday Evening Post-affiliated Country Gentleman. Eventually, Wilder published the first of the “Little House” books, Little House in the Big Woods, in 1932.
The “Little House” series consisted of eight official releases — Little House in the Big Woods (1932), Farmer Boy (1933), Little House on the Prairie (1935), On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), The Long Winter (1940), Little Town on the Prairie (1941), and These Happy Golden Years (1943) — and a ninth book that was published posthumously that is also considered part of the series, The First Four Years (1971). Additionally, there are around twenty other books that are compilations of Ingalls’s journals, diaries, columns, articles, and letters that present a broader picture of her experiences across her entire life. After Wilder’s passing in 1957, control of her estate and publishing rights went to Lane; upon Lane’s passing, they went to Roger Lea MacBride, a lawyer and Libertarian politician with whom Lane was close.
In 1972, Ed Friendly acquired film and TV rights for Wilder’s work from MacBride. Friendly had produced the hugely successful Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and was a former executive at NBC. He brought in Blanche Hanalis to write the show’s pilot as a TV movie. He then approached Michael Landon to direct. Landon had just finished doing Bonanza for 14 seasons (the only cast member to stay the duration) and had developed a solid reputation as a writer and director on the series. To Friendly’s request, he had one of his own: Landon would direct, but also wanted to play Charles Ingalls. With that deal in place, work proceeded on the pilot film.
The TV movie cast included the core of the Ingalls family that would appear throughout the series. Melissa Gilbert, aged 9 at the time, was cast as Laura. Karen Grassle was cast as Caroline, Charles’s wife and the girls’ mother. Melissa Sue Anderson played oldest daughter, Mary, and twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush shared the role of Carrie. Also cast was Victor French as the family’s friend, Isaiah Edwards. The TV movie aired on March 30, 1974, and was received well enough to guarantee the greenlight for the series. The first proper episode aired on September 11, 1974, and the series finished out the first year at 13th in the overall ratings.
One of the most popular elements established early in the series was the inclusion of the Oleson family. Kindly mercantile owner Nels (Richard Bull), his nightmare wife Harriet (Katherine MacGregor), and their spoiled children Nellie (Alison Arngrim) and Willie (Jonathan Gilbert, Melissa’s real-life brother) were very popular, particularly as Harriet and the kids often provided comic foils to Caroline, Laura, and Mary. Bull, MacGregor, and Gilbert stayed for the entire run, while Arngrim departed after the seventh season and guested in the ninth. Two other cast members who would stay for the duration of the series were Kevin Hagen as Doctor Hiram Baker and Dabbs Greer as Reverend Robert Alden.
As the series got rolling, Landon proved to be the strong visionary behind the progression of the series. Leaning more on the novels in the beginning, the series began to branch out and explore other storylines and social issues. There were always comedic moments (or occasionally, entire episodes), but they balanced against frequently serious storytelling that translated ideas like poverty, alcoholism, and child abuse into message episodes. Landon directed 87 episodes of the series, French directed 18, and Landon’s old Bonanza colleague William F. Claxton directed 68; Landon also had writing credits across 49 episodes. Bonanza composer David Rose was also brought on to score the series; the main theme of Little House was originally a piece of incidental music on the “Top Hand” episode of Bonanza from 1971 that Rose adapted for the series.
Not only was the show extremely popular during its run,it was also held up as an example of quality programming. Among 17 Emmy nominations, it earned four wins (two for music and two for cinematography); Melissa Sue Anderson was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1978 for the story arc in which her character goes blind from scarlet fever (something that happened to the real Mary in 1879). The show also notched 19 Young Artist Awards nominations, including two wins for Melissa Gilbert in 1983 and 1984); in 2002, the awards recognized Arngrim with a Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award.
Melissa Gilbert on the legacy of Little House (Uploaded to YouTube by FoundationINTERVIEWS)
At the end of Season 8, Landon, Grassle, and the Greenbush twins left the series, though Landon did continue to produce, write, and direct. The show was revamped into Little House: A New Beginning, which was technically a spin-off but is listed in syndication, boxed sets, and streaming packages as Season 9. The last season put the focus on Laura and her husband, Almanzo, who had taken in Almanzo’s niece, Jenny (Shannen Doherty). The last season wrapped in March of 1983, but various plot threads played out in three additional TV movies that ran through December of 1984. The Last Farewell (which was the second aired but last in chronological order) documents how the residents of Walnut Grove blow up the town to foil a railroad tycoon. In reality, it was the answer to a practical problem as the producers had promised the landowners that they would raze the buildings and return the land to as close as its 1974 state as possible when the show wrapped; it was Landon who suggested the explosive ending.
Today, Little House is available in its entirety (including the three follow-up movies) on streaming service Peacock. In recent years, certain episodes of the show have popped back up in the cultural conversation. The two episodes centered on Mary losing her sight, “I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away” (Part I and II) are widely concerned two of the finest episodes of television ever, with TV Guide ranking the pair at #71 in their 2009 list of the Top 100 Episodes of All Time. The two-part “Sylvia” episode might be the most notorious storyline from the whole series, as it regularly appears on online lists of terrifying or haunting TV episodes; a harrowing tale of a girl menaced by a rapist in a clown mask, the episodes were the impetus for a wide-ranging interview with Sylvia actress Olivia Barash last year. On the lighter side, Season 3’s “The Monster of Walnut Grove” was a Halloween homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window with a bit of the Headless Horseman tossed in; it’s often brought up in the discussion of favorite Halloween-themed episodes.
Little House on the Prairie turned out to be a major success for NBC and unquestionably bolstered the reputation of Wilder’s books. The nine “Little House” books have remained in continuous publication, and other books like her West from Home are also still available. As the show wrapped up in 1984, Landon created another series for NBC, Highway to Heaven, once again taking colleagues with him like composer David Rose and co-star Victor French. Today, Little House retains a reputation as one of the great family TV shows. It’s a reputation that, thanks to the availability of every episode on streaming, is likely to endure.
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Comments
Little House changed My life. No one did as much for people with disabilities as Michael Landon.I was born with one leg shorter than the other.My father thought that that had been done to him.My mother complained that I couldn’t walk straight. I am proud of My challenges and I owe it to Michael Landon. I walk without a cane, drive ( I have driven across the country multiple times) and can see hear and have so many blessings. The role models on that show encouraged Me to push out of My comfort zone.
I still watch episodes. There is nothing else like it. It’s a reminder of early years in the midwest but also gives life lessons to all of us. The cast and writers were remarkable. Wearing costumes with high temperatures for hours they like the early settlers had much to endure.
Thanks to all the cast, writers, and all who were involved in this awesome series. I will continue to watch it as nothing else cones close to it.
Great feature on a timeless classic series that would NEVER be made today. It was a case of the the right people at the right time in their lives at the right time in this country otherwise. Though not mentioned here, I think the success of ‘The Waltons’ that preceded ‘Little House’ by 2 years certainly helped pave the way.
Culturally it was part of the zeitgeist of recovering from and trying to move past all of the damage done in the late ’60s, which was considerable. Before either of these shows came about, there was the fresh new version of the old The Saturday Evening Post first, which also helped set the tone and the stage.
I was a big Bonanza fan, and ‘Little House’ and Michael Landon carried over much of the previous show’s elements even if it didn’t seem like it on the surface. I appreciate the link to the 1971 episode that used the future ‘Little House’ theme. Also the interview with Melissa Gilbert.
Even though the show took place long ago, nearly everything applied to the present day when new, and still does. One of my favorite characters was Mrs. Oleson, played to perfection by Katherine MacGregor. There’s a great interview with her on You Tube that goes into how she managed to create love for her selfish, often foolish, sometimes prejudiced character. Harriet always got her comeuppance every time, that taught valuable life lessons.
This was my Aunt’s favourite show and we watched it every week without fail.