The popular tv show Little House on the Prairie premiered on this day fifty years ago. I fell down a rabbit hole several months ago and developed what some might call a mild obsession with this show. It all started because my Roku tv recommended their new Little House on the Prairie Channel which airs the show in sequence 24 hours a day.
I didn’t even consider tuning in for the first several days. Then, one afternoon, I flipped over for a little nostalgia and literally never left. From sometime in late winter until just a few weeks ago, if my tv was on, it was probably on the Little House Channel. Sometimes it was just for noise in the house while I was doing other things. I’m not very good at just sitting down and watching tv but I noticed that I was more apt to sit for this show than for anything else available to me.
Then I began googling the actors, read a couple of the books and started noticing Little House connections all around. I think this all was a result of decision fatigue. I never had to scroll through thousands of viewing options because Little House was on. Little House is ALWAYS on!
Life in fictional Walnut Grove was appealing because the people and the town had everything they needed without too many distractions from the outside world. The arrival of the telephone in their sleepy village was a source of trouble. There was no internet and there was a sense of scarcity that made every possession seem much more valuable to most residents. Mrs Olsen and her terrible daughter Nellie were fabulous villains (or at least very realistic prairie era mean girls) but they nearly always got what they had coming to them so that made it better.
We value very little in our disposable 21st century society. We throw away rather than fix everything from expensive gadgets to the people in our lives. Walnut Grove was a refreshing break from that. It’s also a nice break from the constant bickering over the handful of social issues designed by politicians to keep us all divided.
It’s important to note that life wasn’t so simple back in 1974 when this show debuted. Post Vietnam America was a stark contrast from the late 19th century setting of this show. This was the year President Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal, forever altering the lens through which we view our presidents. The Cold War and energy crises raged on as Patty Hearst dominated the headlines.
By September 11, 1974, America needed a sickeningly sweet throwback to simpler days when right and wrong were easy to distinguish and when all the world’s problems could be solved in under an hour.
The popular NBC program was made possible by television producer and former NBC executive Ed Friendly. He acquired the film and television rights to the popular Laura Ingalls Wilder book series and hired television legend Michael Landon to direct the pilot and play Charles Ingalls.
That pilot was a two hour tv movie that aired on March 30, 1974. The regular series premiered on September 11.
I was very small when the show went off the air so I really only know the show from syndication. Yet it has always felt like comfort food to me. It’s the tv equivalent of a plate of steaming hot mashed potatoes, green beans from the garden and a buttery biscuit.
At this point, I believe I have seen every episode at least once so that’s 204 regular shows and four specials. I haven’t felt the urge to even check which episode is on since before the Philadelphia trip and I’m quite pleased that I have gone cold turkey.
Of course, I’m not watching much of anything else either. TV news is detrimental to my mental health (And yours too. Turn it off, please and read some better journalism.) and there’s very little that seems worth my time. The television landscape is cluttered with reality shows that are totally disconnected from reality, with drama and horror, with so much news that’s written to inflame and with comedy that doesn’t really make you laugh.
Aren’t we all ready for something that warms the heart and that gives us a break from reality? I know I am. Maybe give Little House a try. They played fast and loose with some of the actual history but many of the stories still hold up today.
Who knows? The wholesomeness of it all may make you just a little bit happier. As rabbit holes go, this one is kind of rewarding!