Throwback Thursday: 50 Years Ago This Week...

 

One of the most beloved and enduring shows premiered on primetime television.
 Called,  "Little House On The Prairie" this Emmy Award-winning, NBC series,
loosely based on the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder,
  ran for nine seasons (1974-1983) and is still a popular favorite on family-
friendly streaming services, cable channels, and on DVD today.

The 1970's marked the beginning of a changing world for the television industry
in America.  What was called a "rural purge" of networks (in particular CBS) began
as a series of cancellations of  popular, rural-themed TV series like, "The Beverly
Hillbillies"  "Mayberry R.F.D."  "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres",
not to mention country music variety shows such as "Hee Haw".

Tired of being called, "The Country Broadcasting System" and "The
Hillbilly Network",  CBS decided to move away from these countrified 
classics in order to appeal more to urban and suburban audiences, and
particularly young people, who rejected the rustic in favor of more here and now
 entertainment like Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcom, "All In The Family".

Of course, one show that CBS did not cancel was "The Waltons" a heart-
warming weekly drama centered around a close-knit rural Virginia family 
living during the Great Depression and World War II.   The show aired
for nine seasons, with each episode ending with family members
 saying, "Good Night" to each other before going to bed.

From left to right: Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert)  Charles "Pa" Ingalls (Michael Landon) Caroline"Ma" Ingalls

(Karen Grassle) holding Baby Grace Ingalls (played by twin sisters Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh)

Mary Ingalls (Melissa Sue Anderson) and Carrie Ingalls (played by twin sisters
 Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush).
Image courtesy/New York Post

Unlike the Ingalls family in the "Little House On The Prairie" set of historic
 fiction novels, the television Ingalls family lived for most of the series on their   
 little farm at Plum Creek,  located near the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
 Pa purchased the farm from town elder Mr. Hanson, after the family was
  unceremoniously kicked out of their home in Indian Territory, Kansas
 by soldiers, as depicted in the pilot movie for the series.

Although mostly light-hearted fare with lots of moments of love
 and laughter, the show did not shy away from addressing serious, 
 even controversial subjects, in order to resonate with the modern viewer,

tackling issues such as alcoholism, adoption, drug abuse, affliction, poverty,
  sexual harassment, racial prejudice- even rape, not to mention portraying
the reality of frontier lawlessness on the prowl, as in the suspenseful,
Season 6 episode, "Darkness Is My Friend" when Mary and
Laura are menaced by a trio of desperate criminals.

In addition to the Ingalls family, other memorable characters on the series
included the gossipy, trouble-making store owner,  Harriet Oleson (Katharine
MacGregor) who liked to make life hard for the Ingalls family; her nasty,
spoiled brat daughter, Nellie (Alison Arngrim) frenemy of  "country girls"
Mary and Laura:  her mischievous son, Willie (Jonathan Gilbert); and
  her hen-pecked, but kind husband, Nels Oleson (Richard Bull); dedicated
 town physician Dr. Hiram Baker (Kevin Hagen); feisty mill owner and
 founder of the town Lars Hanson (Karl Swenson); pretty schoolteacher
Miss Eva Beadle (Charlotte Stewart); sweet-natured, elderly town seamstress
Mrs. May Whipple (Queenie Smith);  the rugged, yet good-natured mountain
man Isaiah Edwards, (Victor French) first introduced in the pilot movie,
who comes to Walnut Grove and later marries town postmistress
 and mid-wife, the widowed Grace Snyder (Bonnie Bartlett), and of
  course, the much loved circuit riding minister of the Walnut Grove
 church, Reverend Robert Alden (Dabbs Greer).

Many famous celebrities and entertainers made guest appearances on "Little House".
 Veteran screen and stage actress Patricia Neal played a terminally ill mother 
  of three children in the two-part Season 2 episode, "Remember Me".

 In this story, Charles promises to find good homes for her children, and after 
 some setbacks, the kids are adopted by newly married Isaiah and Grace Edwards.

The poem read at Julia Sanderson's (Patricia Neal's character's) funeral brings a
 poignant twist to the story of "Remember Me".  It was written by Michael Landon
 himself and was read aloud by Melissa Gilbert at his memorial service in 1991:

"Remember me with smiles and laughter,

For that's the way I'll remember you all.

If you can only remember me with tears,

Then don't remember me at all."

Others who made guest star appearances on "Little House" over the years
 included actor Ernest Borgnine, who portrayed an angel sent to watch over
  runaway Laura; comedian Red Buttons as a seller of "miraculous cures",
  American country music legends Johnny and June Carter Cash as a con artist
 and his wife out to fleece the flock of Walnut Grove; actor James Olson
as a phony faith healer; and Broadway stage and screen star Theodore Bikel
as a poor Russian immigrant ignorant of America's property tax laws.

Another acclaimed Broadway, movie, and television actor,
Louis Gossett Jr. played a wagon freighter, who, along with Charles
and Isaiah, agrees to haul dangerous blasting oil for the railroad 
in Season 2's  "The Long Road Home."

In another Season 2 episode, "For My Lady"  actress Mariette Hartley
 plays a beautiful young widow and new neighbor, who comes under
 suspicion after Caroline Ingalls learns her husband is taking off from
  working at Hanson's Mill early to do extra work at the woman's home.
In reality, Charles is working on restoring her woodwork in exchange 
 for the young widow's old set of pretty dishes as a gift for his wife.

1980's TV sitcom actor Willie "Charles In Charge" Aames played Seth, 
a schoolmate of Mary and Laura in the Season 3 episode, "Injun Kid".
Actor Sean Penn, whose father, director Leo Penn, worked on the show
during the fourth season in 1977, also appeared  as one of the kids
 attending Walnut Grove school, along with teen idol Jimmy McNichol,
in the Season 1 episode, "The Voice Of Tinker Jones".

One of the future stars of the hit NBC comedy, "Different Strokes"
Todd Bridges, also made a guest appearance on the show 
 as a runaway farm boy who longs to go to school in the
Season 3, episode,  "The Wisdom Of Solomon".

In the two-part, Season 4 episode, "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away" 
 teen-aged Mary, who is studying to become a teacher, learns that 
 she is going blind as a result of contracting scarlet fever.  Charles 
 and Caroline decide to send her to a school for the blind in Iowa
where Mary gradually learns to accept her condition.

She also meets handsome Adam Kendall (Linwood Boomer), a
teacher at the school, who later invites her to teach at a new blind
 school in the wild frontier town of Winoka in Dakota Territory.

In Season 5, the Ingalls travel to Dakota Territory so that Mary can
 start teaching at the blind school.   She later marries Adam Kendall and the
 couple eventually returns to Walnut Grove to open another blind school.

Charles and Caroline also return to Plum Creek  from Dakota Territory,
bringing with them a street urchin named Albert Quinn, (Matthew Labyorteaux)
 whom they later adopt. In Season 7, they adopted an orphaned brother and sister,
James and Cassandra Cooper (Jason Bateman and Missy Francis) after
their parents are killed in a wagon wreck.

In 1982, the ninth season of the show premiered as "Little House: A New Beginning"
after star Michael Landon left the series.  This drama centered around the lives of
Laura, who married Almanzo Wilder (Dean Butler) and their young daughter, Rose,
(twin sisters Sarah and Jennifer Coleman) and of course, the residents of Walnut Grove,

  including long-time resident villainess Harriet Oleson, who adopted an even
   more obnoxious child than Nellie ever was, daughter Nancy (Allison Balsan).

Meanwhile, a new couple, John and Sarah Carter (Stan Ivar and Pamela Roylance)
moved into the Ingalls former home on Plum Creek with their two young sons,
Jason and Jeb (David Friedman and Lindsay Kennedy).

The ninth season also featured actress Shannon Doherty as Almanzo's niece,
  Jenny Wilder, who comes to live with them after the death of her father.
Bratty Willy Oleson grows up to become a responsible young man and marries his
  hometown sweetheart Rachel Brown (Sherri Stoner) against his mother's wishes,
 while Laura and Almanzo invested in the large home of a widower and turned it
into a boarding house. Meanwhile, Nellie Oleson, who married a man named
Percival Dalton (Steve Tracy) and moved away to New York City,
comes home to Walnut Grove for a visit.

There were also three post "Little House" series movies:

"Little House: Look Back To Yesterday"  (1983)

Little House: Bless All The Dear Children"  (1983)

*"Little House: The Last Farewell"    (1984)

"I wanted to destroy the entire town, which I did.  We were together for
nine years, and that's why we blew it up. That, plus the fact I didn't want
anybody making a trashy movie at Walnut Grove because I like that town."
-Michael Landon

* In "The Last Farewell"  the town of Walnut Grove is blown up by the townsfolks 
so that a greedy railroad tycoon can not claim the site. The mid-1980's was the height 
of the slash-and-trash horror film era.  I am sure Michael did not want the memory of 
 his beloved "Little House" set tarnished by some teen-stalking, knife-wielding serial killer!