Why Are We Suddenly Streaming “Little House on the Prairie”?
Families isolated on a scary new frontier confronting 2020 style issues — but set in the 19th century and made in 1974–83
Why are modern viewers rushing to stream a 1970s TV show about life in the 1800s? Because the issues and concerns are so strangely similar.
Everything old is new again
“‘Little House on the Prairie,’ … provided people with the reminder of what we went through when we started this country, and how difficult that was,” Melissa Gilbert tells CBS. “I think we’re at that place again. If we could have done what we did in the 1800s, in the 1970s, we can do this. The keys are gonna be compassion, community, faith (whatever that faith looks like), love — that’s it. That’s all that matters.”
Show re-frames “Everything that’s going on in the world right now’’
Authentic literature, culture, and history are timeless: Stories about the 1800s, written in the 1930s, turned into TV in the 1970s? Yet just as relevant to the world of today? Metaphors and parables transcend time.
“Little House,’’ based on the classic series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder from 1932 to 1943, was especially popular with little girls in the stagnant ’70s. The show debuted as America dealt with Watergate, a recession, wars, and other crises.
But it’s suddenly being rediscovered by a much more diverse audience ready to learn from history.
“There’s no great loss without some small gain,” Wilder wrote, adding: “We start learning the minute we’re born, Laura. And if we’re wise, we don’t stop until the Lord calls us home.”
“Little House’’, is widely available on YouTube and Amazon Prime and includes episodes on such timely topics as:
Plague
Are people terrified about getting sick, worrying about who or what could be carrying a deadly disease? Americans have dealt with such issues throughout their history, we see in the first season episode. More on the 1975 episode “Plague.’’ The settlers endured a typhus epidemic. It takes many deaths before the stars track down the source of the plague.
Quarantine.
Again, quarantines are part of U.S. history, and “Little House’’ had an entire episode in season three called “Quarantine.’’ Social distancing? Check. Businesses forced to close or switch to deliveries? Check. So many issues are timeless, and history is an influential teacher.
Race
In “The Wisdom of Solomon,’’ race is touched movingly. Todd Bridges, long before he appeared on “Different Strokes,’’ is going viral in clips shooting across the internet. Bridges describe the pain of his skin color and later explains by asking star Michael Landon whether he would rather be black and live to be 100 or be white and live to be 50. The pain in Landon’s eyes is breathtaking.
Isolation of “a new world’’
The isolation of being in a “new world,’’ starting your life all over with mainly just your family is ever-present. The sense of isolation soared in 2020. Stay home and safe. And even when we re-emerged, we were told to keep our distance, encouraged to limit travel, and stay home. Many felt abandoned or on their own in a new world. The early American settlers depicted in the show were similarly “families on their own’’ in a new world.
“I absorbed so much without even realizing what I was learning — really important life lessons about family, community, tolerance,” Gilbert tells CBS. “Having to understand all of these things, they became a part of what I learned as well…
“The show’s values, I think, were absolutely a reflection of the values of our leader, of Michael Landon… He believed that people are always really good at heart. And that anyone is redeemable, and that the only way to change things is to do it from a place of love and fairness and understanding.”
