The pilot for Little House on the Prairie opens with Caroline saying goodbye to their family in the Big Woods of Wisconsin as they head west by covered wagon. Though this actually doesn't happen until the beginning chapter of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, Little House on the Prairie, it is in Little House in the Big Woods that readers are first introduced to the Ingalls family and their extended family.
Little House in the Big Woods, which I reviewed here, shares four-year-old Laura's story of growing up in their little gray house made of logs. For the sake of its connection to the television show, we meet the immediate family unit--Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and their dog Jack. The roles of Pa as the playful and capable father and Ma as the caretaker of the home and disciplinarian are outlined. We see Laura's jealousy over her older sister's golden hair and how Laura saw Mary as a good girl (pg 174). This all makes its way into the show in one way or another.
Scenes from Wilder's Little House on the Prairie book make it into the pilot movie, even if they are reimagined in some way:
- The Ingalls family trades for Pet and Patty before crossing the creek, where Charles must hop off the wagon and lead the ponies to shore. (pgs 19-23)
- They think Jack has drowned because Charles didn't put him in the wagon, and Pa worries about what they will do without a good watchdog, (pgs 25 and 27)
- They are surprised when Jack returns. (pgs 34-36)
- The family stops in Kansas (pg 52), and after Caroline gets hurt helping Charles lift logs to build the house, he brings Mr. Edwards over to help him. (pg 63)
- While Charles is away from home, Native Americans pay visits to the house and help themselves to food and supplies. (pgs 140 and 227-229)
- Pa scolds Laura for thinking of untying Jack when the Native Americans stop by the house because he told the girls not to untie him. (pgs 145-146)
- Charles takes a job working with cowboys. In exchange he gets some beef and a cow. (pg 168)
- Mr. Edwards comes for Christmas, bringing presents for Mary and Laura and sweet potatoes for Christmas dinner. (pgs 245-251)
- Charles and Caroline put out a prairie fire. (pg 276)
- Soldat du Chene, second chief of the Osage, convinces the tribes not to attack the white settlers. (pg 300)
- The family watches as the Native Americans leave the area on horseback. This chapter includes what some might think is the most offensive scene in the book--Laura begging to keep the papoose. (pgs 302-311)
- In the final two chapters, Charles learns he is miles over the line into Indian Territory and decides to leave the next day. (pgs 312 - 335)
There might be a few others, but these were what stuck out to me as I skimmed the first two books of the Little House series.
As far as differences go between the Little House on the Prairie book and the pilot, I will point out the following:
- Along their journey, the television Ingalls family lived out of their covered wagon. However, in the early days of their journey in the book, they camp overnight in an abandoned house. (pgs 7 - 8)
- In the book, the Ingalls family has neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Scott, who live two miles away from them. Mr. Scott helps Charles dig a well. Mrs. Scott takes care of them when they are sick and brings the doctor. Mr. Scott also ends up taking the cow when Charles packs up to leave Kansas, versus Mr. Edwards taking the cow in the show.
- When the prairie fire happens in the show, Caroline puts Carrie in the creek while the rest of the family works to put out the fire. Then it starts raining, which saves the house. In the book, Charles and Caroline fight the fire while all the girls are in the house. A stick comes down the chimney and lands on the floor, putting Mary and Carrie--who are sitting in the rocking chair--in danger. Laura bravely pulls them out of harm's way and throws out the burning stick. Charles starts a back-fire, which saves the house. (pgs 276 - 282)
- In the show, Soldat du Chene comes to their house with two members of his tribe to tell the Ingalls family that he convinced the tribes not to kill the white settlers. In the book, Charles meets a member of the Osage tribe in the woods, who tells him all about it. (pg 300)
- While Charles learns from Mr. Edwards and Mr. Scott that he is three miles into Indian Territory in the book (pg 316), at the end of the pilot, Charles is visited by soldiers with a letter.
Laura might have been younger in the books than she is on the show. It's hard to tell because we know her age as four in Little House in the Big Woods, but I didn't specifically search for it in Little House on the Prairie, and I don't recall it being mentioned in the show. In Laura's narration in the Season 6 clips episode, "The Little House Years," she says she was eight years old when she was in Kansas.
Michael Landon's Charles has a more emotional reaction to Jack returning after they thought he drowned than book Charles, but book Charles has an angrier--at least to me--reaction to learning he is three miles into Indian Territory than TV Charles does. Landon's reaction comes off more as distraught. Either seems valid, as the family needs to start over again unexpectedly. Both book and television Charles accept the Native Americans and appreciate their help.
Book Caroline seems more stern than television Caroline, though as we know, Grassle's Ma can show her temper upon occasion. Book Caroline appreciates Mr. Edwards from the start, but TV Caroline doesn't care for him much until he brings Christmas gifts for the girls, showing her a different side to him. Of course, television's Mr. Edwards is known to frequent saloons, whereas the only mention of a saloon in the book is when he says he saw Santa Claus by the light of the saloons.
In the book and in the pilot, Mary is more fearful of new situations, whereas Laura shares her Pa's sense of adventure and is excited and curious about new places and people.
The pilot stuck closer to the source material than as the series progressed. I will continue this analysis with other books and episodes.
