Melissa Gilbert remembers 'Little House on the Prairie,' as it turns 50 | The Excerpt

On a special episode (first released on April 17) of The Excerpt podcast: If you’re a woman who is part of Generation X or the baby boomers, then you probably, like me, spent your Monday nights growing up watching one of America’s most enduring and endearing TV series. The show followed the wholesome Ingalls family and their life in Walnut Grove, Minnesota in the 1800s, loosely based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The show’s star was Melissa Gilbert who played little Laura Ingalls, an optimistic, curious and mischievous young girl who quickly became America’s sweetheart. The pilot for the show aired 50 years ago on March 30th on NBC and the series ran for a remarkable nine seasons. Melissa joins The Excerpt to talk about the show's outsized impact on American culture and share her experience being part of it.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Laura Trujillo:

Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Laura Trujillo, managing editor for Life and Entertainment at USA Today. Today is Wednesday, April 17th, 2024. If you're a woman who is part of the Gen X or Boomer generation, then you, probably like me, spent your Monday nights watching one of America's most enduring and endearing TV series, Little House on the Prairie. The show followed the wholesome Ingalls family and their life in Walnut Grove, Minnesota in the 1800s. It was loosely based on the books so many of us read as children. The show's star was Melissa Gilbert who played little Laura Ingalls, an optimistic, curious, and mischievous young girl who quickly became America's sweetheart. The pilot for the show aired 50 years ago on March 30th on NBC, and the series ran for a remarkable nine seasons. Here to talk about the show's outsized impact on American culture and share her experience being part of it is the woman who played its star Laura, Melissa Gilbert. Thank you for joining me, Melissa.

Melissa Gilbert:

Well, sure. Happy to be here.

Laura Trujillo:

Well, for those too young to have seen the show, how would you describe it?

Melissa Gilbert:

I think I would say that it is a show about a family of pioneers in the 1800s making their way through all of the difficulties that families face today and doing it with love and community and faith and integrity and no money.

Laura Trujillo:

So you just celebrated the 50th reunion of the show in Simi Valley in California, not far from where the show was filmed. What was it like to meet so many fans and reconnect with your cast?

Melissa Gilbert:

It was such an emotional weekend. I mean, I think I cried at least four or five times a day, all three days I was there. At four days, counting the day that I went in by myself-ish, so that I could get my bearings before seeing all those people. The thing that moves me the most is when people tell me the stories of how Little House on the Prairie impacted their lives, what their childhoods were like, and why it was so important to them. A lot of people have said, and I'm sure will continue to say to me, look, you were my escape from a bad childhood. The Ingalls family, which was our family on the show, was the family I wish I had. Michael Landon was the father I wish I had, and that I find incredibly moving.We taught a lot of lessons and provided a lot of escapist entertainment at times with our goofier episodes. It's so amazing to me that it's lasted this many years in as strongly as it has. I think it's the only television series to go into syndication while filming and never be off the air. It never disappeared. It's always been available somewhere all over the world. And that speaks volumes for... That's why 20,000 people showed up last weekend.

Laura Trujillo:

When you were there, you met many younger fans, women in their 20s, and even children whose parents introduced them to the show. Can you tell me more about that?

Melissa Gilbert:

Well, what's amazing at this point now is I'm seeing on social media, and people are showing me pictures, and I am experiencing myself watching the show with our grandchildren, which is unbelievable. There are at least four generations of people who grew up with this show and there's a new generation that's watching it now. And that is another part of it that's just so mind-boggling to me. I was a little girl, I was nine years old. I was going to go have this adventure making a movie. I didn't know it would be a television series. I didn't know it would be a successful television series certainly, and I had no idea then that I'd still be here talking about it and reveling in it 50 years later. And seeing it through the eyes of this next generation makes it all the more special. Also, a little bit frustrating because the same things that we were writing about and talking about them, equal rights for women, equal rights for people of color, all that are still the same things we're fighting for today. I think we've inched forward, but certainly not enough for me anyway.

Laura Trujillo:

There were a really wide range of people there, politically and culturally, who came to celebrate Little House. And why do you think the show had such a big impact culturally and resonated so deeply with viewers to this day?

Melissa Gilbert:

Well, I think Little House on the Prairie crosses all borders. Everybody can take ownership of it. Whether you're politically right or left, the conservative movement in this country considers Little House on the Prairie their show. The liberal movement considers it their show because we were telling the stories of the 1970s. I think it resonates because it speaks to everyone on their level. And the stories we told, many of them were very, very, very rough. We didn't tell exploitively, we told honestly, and from a place of compassion and understanding, and I think that is impactful for people. We weren't jamming our perspectives down people's throats.

Laura Trujillo:

When you talk about covering dark topics, there were a lot. And you've said your favorite episode was The Lord is my Shepherd, and that was in the first season when the Ingalls family has a baby boy who dies, and Laura is very jealous. I will say every time I watch this episode, I cry. Tell us why this story connects with so many people.

Melissa Gilbert:

I think it's because it's really the ultimate lesson in loving and forgiveness. Laura goes to make this tremendous sacrifice. It's her way of trying to forgive herself for not praying for her brother. She refuses to pray, and the baby dies, and she takes it upon herself to climb a mountain and ask God to take her and give her father his son back. I mean, that's a tremendously loving sacrifice. But what she doesn't know, what she's not sure of, and what she's missing is how loved and needed she is and how running away solves nothing.

Laura Trujillo:

One thing I think about is it's hard to imagine a show that celebrates wholesomeness and kindheartedness being a breakout success today. And some viewers today might say a show like this is too corny for modern taste, but it's not like the 70s and 80s weren't void of cultural touch points that embodied cool. What do you think changed, like media fragmentation? So many choices?

Melissa Gilbert:

Well, I'm going to go out on a big fat limb here. During my recovery from my neck surgery a month ago, I binged the two seasons of Euphoria. So Euphoria is on the opposite end of spectrum. I mean, visually story-wise, it's a lot more raw. But what everyone on that show is looking for is the same things the Ingalls family and all of the people in the Little House on the Prairie are looking for, home, family, love, community, state, understanding, forgiveness, and I mean the driver is love. Everyone there is searching for love. And they get lost along the way, which we portray on Little House on the Prairie. The essence is the same, the storytelling is just different.

Laura Trujillo:

I've never heard those two compared to each other and I love it.

Melissa Gilbert:

I know. Well, it's a big limb I just went out on. But really, it's all that underlying stuff is the same.

Laura Trujillo:

One thing you talked about was you were fairly young when you married Almanzo on the show. You were 15 and he was 23. Talk a little bit about that and how things have changed or hopefully changed on sets.

Melissa Gilbert:

Blessedly, they hired Dean Butler for that role. I look back now, and I see what a blessing it was because he was so gentle and careful and cautious dealing with the 15-year-old me. Or as my friend Chris Czajka said, the child with the hairy legs because I didn't even shave my legs yet and he was shaving his whole face at this point. That's how different we were. I think that had it been another actor, it could have been a very scary situation. I mean, I was nervous a lot of the time because I'm playing this woman who, at this age, fell in love and got married, but I was nowhere near that. I remember the scene giving birth to baby Rose. And I mean, not only was I a virgin, I hadn't been on a date yet, and there I was delivering my first child.So I don't think any of that could happen today. I don't think that that kind of casting would exist today. I think they would have to cast a young man closer to 18, 19. I'm very grateful he was such a gentleman, and he was so trepidatious and so conscious of keeping me comfortable.

Laura Trujillo:

So I want to move ahead to what you're doing now. And you recently launched Modern Prairie, which is just a really cool lifestyle brand that in many ways pulls back to the Prairie but with a modern twist. So that's a clever name. Can you tell us a little bit about it and why you think there is so much appeal?

Melissa Gilbert:

Yes. I wish I could take credit for the name, but full credit goes to my brilliant partner, Nicole Haase. We are businesswomen. We are trying to launch a business. But there's a personal component to Modern Prairie, a community aspect to it that we'd hoped for in the beginning but had no idea how it would blossom. We created a safe space for women over 50 to share themselves and what they're going through, whether it's hormonal changes or life changes, and we are going through tremendous change at the same. Our parents are passing away, our kids are moving out, we're being replaced at work with a younger model. We're getting divorced, our spouses are dying, or significant others are passing away. There's major life changes happening. And at the same time, society's trying to dismiss us as these old useless women when we are forces to be reckoned with. We should not be ignored. We are the keepers of the path. And if you don't embrace us and listen to our stories, you're going to repeat them. And it is very important to acknowledge the strength and resiliency and wisdom of women our age.

Laura Trujillo:

A lot of the women I talked to felt like you were their best friend growing up. And now, again, they're connecting through your app, and they feel like this. They say you've inspired them to let their hair go natural and to just try to age as they are. Can you tell us how you came to that point?

Melissa Gilbert:

I lived in Los Angeles almost all of my life. I was born there, raised there. And I was raised within the company, the business, the industry. My whole family goes multiple generations back. So all of the extraneous stuff that goes with that was just a given. Nose job, boob job, fillers, Botox, staying young, staying thin. It was just a given. It was just part of the job. And as I started to age and my body started to change and my face started to change, I started to feel uncomfortable and doubt myself, and then it became harder to stay young and thin. It became an uphill battle. And I really wanted to find a place where I could just relax and enjoy my life. I was tired of feeling like I had to do something to be what everybody else wanted me to be. And so blessedly, I met this extraordinary man who is my husband, Tim Busfield, at exactly the right time, who backed my play 100% and said, "Baby, you are gorgeous no matter what. You are perfect no matter what."When I said, "I want to take my breast implants out." He said, "Let's go." I said, "I want to stop coloring my hair." He said, "I can't wait to see what it looks like." I said, "I'm not putting any more stuff in my face." He said, "Good. I can't tell what you're feeling anyway." And I feel so much better. Aside from the fact that I'm comfortable in my own skin and I wake up in the mornings just happy and not pressured and healthy and good, I exercise for my health and that's it. I have so much more free time now that I'm not spending two hours a day at the gym and every three weeks in the hair chair and every four weeks at the dermatologist, and that's expensive. So I mean, I feel better. I feel like I look better. I'm more myself. I'm comfortable in my own skin. I wake up happy and I'm saving money. I mean, can't get better than that.

Laura Trujillo:

No, it can't. So some of these women said you help them find their Laura again, that they used to be curious and adventurous and they lost that part of themselves and they're finding it again midlife after divorces, after big changes. Is that how you see yourself or what do you think with all of these things you're embracing?

Melissa Gilbert:

I think of all the qualities that we can have to maintain that youthful wonder, curiosity is the most important. Curiosity is what keeps us open and vibrant and learning and trying. And if there's one word to associate with an inner half-pint, it's curiosity. Laura was curious about the world, about everything, about people and what made them tick, and animals and nature, and was in a state of wonder about all of it all the time, and that's what keeps us younger. I always say I never want to be the smartest person in any room. I want to learn from everyone that I meet in some way, shape, or form. It's the people who get stuck thinking they know everything, who seem old and stodgy to me, and I don't ever want to be stodgy. I'll get older, it's inevitable. Stodgy is not something I'm ever going to. No one will ever describe me as stodgy.

Laura Trujillo:

I don't think they will. Thank you so much for being on The Excerpt, Melissa. We really enjoyed this.

Melissa Gilbert:

Good. Thanks for having me. This was really fun.

Laura Trujillo:

Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green and Bradley Glanzrock for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Laura Trujillo. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melissa Gilbert reflects on 'Little House' as it turns 50: The Excerpt