Having just come home from one of my many Little House weekends from over the past 27 years I seems to me that this is a good time to think just a bit about what the show was all about…from my perspective. My point of view will be similar to many of yours but also distinctly different because in addition to watching the show, which I did religiously during my five years, I was also there on the stage and on location experiencing the reality of making it.

Its amazing how time softens and smooths our memories. Years ago I could’ve written in detail about every day I was there…about virtually every shot and the nuance of each performance choice. When you’re in the moment everything that happens is incredibly vivid and very important because what you do in one scene influences what you will do in the next and because most scenes are shot out of sequence there must always be an awareness of the overall. This is important because its not inconceivable that you could shoot the last scene on the first day and the first scene on the last day…requiring everyone to process where we’ve been before we’ve been there. Film acting as a process is very unlike acting in a play, where you begin each performance at the beginning and finish at the end having played out the complete arc of the character. Film acting is like the process of working on a jig saw puzzle…the pieces come together in no particular order to create a unified whole.

Here’s another way to look at the difference. Acting in a play akin to playing in a sandbox where you explore every grain of sand completely and work with it again and again performance by performance discovering your character and serving the play. Acting on film is more like taking a point to point run on the beach because you never play in the same sand twice…you’re moving through the script with the other actors playing scenes, sometimes totally out of order, knowing that when all the scenes are shot you’ve completed the run.

Because each script is an original composition you don’t really know if its going to work until you see it at the end. You think it will work, you hope it will…you’re committed to making it work out, but so many other talented artists need to put their stamp on the film before the actor comes in…writers, designers, costumers, carpenters to name a few…and after the actor is finished…picture editors, sound editors, a composer, and so many others. At every stage everyone has to be on the same page working towards a common goal with a common vision and even then, because its always an original creation you never know until its done. And being done is often more about running out time than really being done. Everyone, at every stage of the process has to balance their desired outcomes against time and the reality of cost.

That reality makes the long term success of any television series a kind of miracle that should be appreciated and treasured by everyone involved. I can say with great confidence that all of us who were involved in the Little House series are proud of what we created together and honored that our efforts have been so loved by so many for so many years.

I’ll continue on this topic in the days ahead…

Dean