Little House on the Prairie : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

A long-running drama based upon the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Little House on the Prairie" follows the lives of the simple, farming Ingalls family: Charles, Caroline, Mary, Laura, Carrie and then Grace and the later adopted Albert, James and Cassandra, who settle into a quaint little house on the banks of Plum Creek near the small town of Walnut Grove during the late 1800s. Often narrated by Laura, the series follows her simple farm upbringing from her childhood until her adulthood with Almanzo Wilder with whom she starts a family of her own. While the series is based upon the Little House books (and thus the real life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder), it is a very loose adaptation, with mostly only key events and elements of fact surviving the transition from book to TV series, the most important being Mary's eventual blindness, and Laura's future. Several other fictitious (some factual) characters make up the friendly community of Walnut Grove, including teacher Miss Beadle (succeeded by two other teachers, then Laura, then Etta Plum), Dr. Hiram Baker, Rev. Robert Alden, Mr. Hanson (of the Hanson lumber mill), and the well-to-do Olesons, owners of the local mercantile, and also the primary rivals of the Ingalls family (except the Oleson patriarch). Family friends include the Edwards family, the Garvey family and the Carters, who, in the final season, move into the Ingalls' little house.

In the "The Last Farewell", they really did blow up the town. Producer/star Michael Landon didn't want the bulldozers to crush the buildings. So he wrote a story which gave the inhabitants the chance to destroy their town themselves. They did not however destroy the home that the Ingalls had lived in. That was destroyed by the fires in California in late 2003.

Out of the many young girls who auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls, Michael Landon was convinced immediately that Melissa Gilbert was the perfect candidate. In fact, he was so certain that Gilbert's was the only screen test that he sent to the producers at NBC

Alison Arngrim originally auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls, but was not successful. She then tried out for the role of Laura's sister Mary, to the same avail. However, when auditioning for the role of "Nasty" Nellie Oleson, she was hired on the spot for playing mean so convincingly.

In the episode "Here Come the Brides", Scottie MacGregor was actually injured in the scene where Mrs Oleson falls off the horse. Because MacGregor was unable to do the next sequence, 'Ruth Foster' (who plays Mrs. Foster in the show) dressed in Mrs. Oleson's costume and filmed the scene for her instead

The character 'Charles Ingalls' was ranked #4 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (20 June 2004 issue).

The character 'Nellie Olson' was ranked #3 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" (27 March 2005 issue).

'Dean Butler' remarked that the first kiss between him and Melissa Gilbert (Laura) was so nerve racking for everyone, that there were chaperones on the set, to make sure nothing unseemly was going on. From the sidelines, Melissa's mother Barbara was wailing "My baby", so much so that she had to be consoled.

Filming locations:

• Big Sky Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA
• Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Clark Fork River, Stanislaus National Forest, California, USA
• Columbia State Historic Park, Tuolumne County, California, USA
• Donnell's Lake, Stanislaus National Forest, California, USA
• Donnell's Vista, Stanislaus National Forest, California, USA
• Golden Oak Ranch - 19802 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California, USA
• Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Red Hills Ranch, Sonora, California, USA
• Simi Valley, California, USA
• Tuolumne County, California, USA

• Creation date: 2003/07/01 by abdest
• Last Update: 2007/05/01 by laurita