Readers have graciously followed me through numerous posts comparing the Little House books to the Little House on the Prairie television show. Here they are again if you missed them:
"Little House in the Big Woods & Little House on the Prairie Versus Little House on the Prairie Pilot"
Click here to read the first post.
"The Long Winter & Little Town on the Prairie Versus Season 6 of Little House on the Prairie"
Click here to read the second post.
"Laura and Almanzo's Courtship - These Happy Golden Years Versus Season 6 of Little House on the Prairie & the Episode 'Laura Ingalls Wilder' (Season 7)"
Click here to read the third post.
"Laura and Almanzo's Married Life - The First Four Years Versus Seasons 7 - 9 of Little House on the Prairie"
Click here to read the fourth post.
"On the Banks of Plum Creek Versus Season 1 of Little House on the Prairie"
Click here to read the fifth post.
There tend to be three groups of Laura Ingalls Wilder fans:
- Fans of the books and Wilder's real life,
- Fans of the television show, and
- Fans who willingly accept and appreciate that they exist in the same universe.
With news of a planned Little House on the Prairie production coming from Netflix (see here), there is a new division in Laura land: those who plan to watch it and those who have already sworn it off due to their dedication and love for the original television series. I remain cautiously optimistic, just like when the 2005 Little House on the Prairie mini-series and the television movies, Beyond the Prairie and Beyond the Prairie II, aired.
I also totally understand the reservations of others. Michael Landon, who the world lost in 1991, had a vision for bringing the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family to life for viewers that has resonated with people across the globe for more than half a century. The show has not been off the air since 1974. People found themselves rewatching and discussing Little House on the Prairie during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out one viewer's article here. In 2024, Little House on the Prairie garnered 13.3 billion minutes of streamed viewing time, which topped viewing minutes for everything else out there, including new shows. Check out this Dateline article that talks about it by clicking here. Others have tried to recreate Landon's magic with the same source material, but have been nowhere near as successful. And there is a growing movement toward modern homesteading that embraces frugal living, self-sufficiency, and environmental consciousness. Those themes run throughout the show, even if that last one wasn't fully developed or discussed.
But, I digress...
When we compare the books to the Little House on the Prairie television show, what are themes we see running through them?
Books
- The importance of family and working together for the common good
- How to be resourceful, especially when times are tough
- The enjoyment of the simpler things in life
- The need to be resilient, work hard, and persevere to survive
- The importance of community--school, church, town
Television Show
- The importance of family and working together for the common good
- How to be resourceful, especially when times are tough
- The enjoyment of the simpler things in life
- The need to be resilient, work hard, and persevere to survive
- The importance of community--school, church, town
- Acceptance of and respect for others
- Women as equal partners
When we boil it right down to this, Michael Landon embraced the core themes of the source material. Did he add characters that never existed? Yes, but the stories he wrote for those characters still embraced everything fans love about the Little House books and the themes Wilder wrote about in her sixties.
More than two decades after the first parent expressed concerns for Wilder's depiction of Native Americans, Landon was writing shows for her fans that espoused acceptance of and respect for others in episodes like "Injun Kid," and "The Wisdom of Solomon" and "The Craftsman," which elevate the source material and allow for engaging, meaningful discussions between modern readers and viewers.
Perhaps the Almanzo and Laura romance storyline is the best example for those who say he strayed too far from the books. Could anyone, however, see a twenty-something-year-old man pursuing a fifteen-year-old girl as acceptable in the late 70s? What was Landon to do? And after some nonsense in the early days of their marriage, can't we say that Landon captured the true partnership between Laura and Almanzo that we see reflected in the books and in real-life accounts?
Even in Season 9, when one could truly say the show had some out-there episodes, did Landon ever regularly deviate from the core themes of Wilder's books? I believe he didn't.
Michael Landon's magic was in being able to take scenes and themes from the books and either reimagining those scenes or crafting new stories based on those themes that touched the hearts of Laura fans. Clearly, he sought to honor Wilder's work while bringing it to the small screen. Landon had one foot in Wilder's world and the other in his, creating an enduring, cherished show that fans will continue to love for decades to come.
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