While looking through some LHOP stuff online, I stumbled on this site. What a nice surprise!

When LHOP started airing on TV in 1974 I was 5 years old. It wasn’t until the 3rd year of it’s airing that I started watching the show (I was 8). I had spent my younger years as an only child, but my mom was pregnant with my little brother at the time, and she was very involved in her pregnancy (and eventually my brother) at the time. I don’t remember what was the first episode I watched, but I remember being hooked on the show from the first moment. I had to beg my parents each week to stay up late (and sometimes I would sneak out of my room to watch TV without my parents knowing so I could watch the show).

The summer after the 3rd season (my brother was born by then), my parents bought me the whole series of the LHOP books to occupy me during the summer (while my mom took care of my baby brother). I read the whole series, and developped a new appreciation of the show.

Both books and TV series hooked not because Laura was like myself but more because I desperately wanted to be like Laura, the tomboy, the outspoken. Instead I was a child that was very shy and sheltered (instead of being involved in sports like I WANTED to, I was involved in ballet, which I hated, because my mom said sports were unlady like for a girl).

As Laura grew up, and was coming of age, I very much identified with her, especially when she met Almanzo. Some of the shenanigans she pulled to get his attention, were exactly the types of things I would of done to attract boys/guys as well (until I became more mature that is ;).

I hate to admit this, but I had a huge crush on you Dean at the time… Like many girls at the time that were involved in the show. When the storyline veered really really wildly from the books, you were the one who kept me hooked on the show.

As an adult (now 39), married with 2 boys, I still watch all the reruns of the show when they air on TV (which drives my husband nuts because he has always HATED LHOP because he was forced to watch it as a kid). I have a new appreciation of the series. Although I am fully aware of the struggles faced by Laura and her family during her time, life was much more simpler and oriented towards real values as compared to life today. In many aspects my childhood years were a bit carefree as was Laura’s childhood. However, it is very different for today’s youth and it makes me very sad for my boys. Everything is extremely fast paced and material oriented and it totally disgusts me. The airing of the TV series now makes me nostalgic for my own childhood and for an era long gone where family values were the most important thing of all.

I have kept all the LHOP books that my parents gave me that summer in 1977, thinking that when I had children someday they would also read the books. My oldest son who is 8 has read 5-6 chapters of the first book and totally lost interest. That seriously broke my heart. But I guess he cannot identify with Laura, being he’s a boy and light years away from the type of life portrayed in the book. Maybe I can get him more interested in a few years… My youngest son is at a good age to introduce him to this literary classic though (he’s 4 and a half), so there is still hope.

It’s funny how LHOP has a different meaning for me as a child and now as an adult. Guess it’s because I’m all grown up now

BTW, one thing is certain, even as an adult I think Almanzo is cute as a button still In the original series as well as the more recent pictures of you Dean. You haven’t changed that much and still very handsome

Little House was such huge part of my growing up! My family sat around and watched each episode together. The neighbor kids and I played Little House and even dressed up as the characters for a fourth of July parade. I did a project on Laura Ingalls and built a coverd wagon when I was in 5th grade.

As I grew into my teenage years and as an adult I watch the reruns and the DVD’s. I felt part like I was part of the Little House family…

Now I have a 7 year old who wants to be Laura.. We have read the books together, and visited the Wilder farm as it is only 30 miles from our house.. I think it is all about family.. And sticking together no matter what. That is what makes it so special…

~I was born several years into the show’s original airing, and I remember both the show and the books as constants in my life. Ladylike was a bad word, hehe, and I still braid my hair and love black boots to this day…Independence, love of family, memories, writing, telling stories, traveling, a restless, wandering, childlike spirit, and the protection of my now-grown baby sister are just some of the myriad ways that Little House has influenced me…Oh, and I was the only one who knew what homesteading was in my high school history class!

I’m now a librarian, and I still cite the Little House books as influential favorites…!

Dean, it’s very cool that you’re becoming personally involved with the real characters and history, and Almanzo was a neat character in both books and show.

kath

I started watching Little House when it first aired in 1974 and stayed with it until the The Last Farewell. I was 22 years old at the time. I have the whole series of Little House books plus a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert which was taken from Laura’s unpublished memoirs. In this case, it was the show that came first; the books came later.

My favorite episodes are the Laura and Almanzo ones and my all time favorite is still Sweet Sixteen.

Your blog about the making of the Little House series is interesting and I’m looking forward to more installments. I am also looking forward your new dvd “Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura.

Thanks for keeping Almanzo Wilder alive for all the Little House fans like me.

Susan

I can remember being in elementary school and being so excited whenever the reruns would begin again with the first season because even as a young child, I recognized that the books and the tv show were very different. But those first few episodes contained parts from the books, and I liked to sit there with On the Banks of Plum Creek open before me, reading and watching the bits that were the same simultaneously.

“Little House” was a part of every day for me, reruns on every afternoon, and those extra special Monday nights when I got to stay up late with Mom to watch the newest episode.

I work with disabled children in their homes, and it happens from time to time that the family will have “Little House” on while I’m trying to work. I’m very good at ignoring the television, but when “Little House” is on, I just cannot keep my mind on my work, it sucks me right in every time. It is filled with such nostalgia for me.

As a huge fan of the real Laura and her books, I cannot equate the tv series with the books at all in my mind, they are two entirely separate entities in my mind. However, Little House is such an excellent program in its own right.

My feelings on Little House are very similar to each post I’ve read. The warmth of the stories still remains in the heart of this 45 year old wife and mother.

I would like to add a behind the scenes perspective of the tv show…

In 1979-1980 I lived in Sonora, Calif. I was a senior in High School. My sister was in middle school. One day she came home from school and said a tv star from Little House on the Prarie had come to talk to her class. She said he was so nice and talked to each of the kids who had the nerve to approach him. If my memory serves, that tv star was you, Dean. I thought that was so nice.

When Little House came to town to film, it seemed like everyone had encounters with the cast and crew. All the encounters I heard of were possitive. I was able to watch filming in the old town of Columbia. It was very interesting to watch the process of filming the show. Michael Landon would wave and say hello, even though you could tell he was very busy. The crew would talk to us and tell us were to stand so we were safe from wagons and horses.

It’s nice for me to know that the possitive format of the tv series also reflected on to the cast and crew behind the scenes. I still stop and watch the tv show when I come across it on tv. All these years later, the stories can still make me smile and even shed a tear.

Thanks for the memories!!

Tammy