One of the most successful and beloved of all TV family drama series, the weekly, 60-minute
Little House on the Prairie was based on the autobiographical books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Michael Landon, the series' executive producer and occasional writer/director, headed the cast as Charles Ingalls, a Wisconsin farmer who moved himself and his family to the small town of Walnut Grove, MN, in the early 1870s.
Karen Grassle co-starred as Charles' wife, Caroline;
Melissa Sue Anderson was seen as eldest daughter Mary;
Melissa Gilbert played middle daughter Laura (aka "Half-Pint"); and twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush shared the role of youngest daughter Carrie. As the series progressed, there were several more additions to the Ingalls household: Caroline bore a fourth daughter named Grace (played by twins Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh); Charles and Caroline adopted an orphan named Albert (
Matthew Laborteaux), and later took in another brace of orphans named Cassandra and James Cooper (
Jason Bateman, Missy Francis); and during the series' final season, grown-up daughter Laura took charge of her niece Jenny (Shannon Doherty). Inasmuch as the series remained on NBC for nine seasons, it hardly needs saying that the two oldest Ingalls daughters literally grew up in full view of millions of fans. Mary eventually went blind due to a progressive disease, whereupon she relocated to a school for the blind in the Dakota Territory. There she met and fell in love with her teacher, likewise blind, named Adam Kendall (Linwood Boomer). They would later marry and have a child, who was killed in a fire. Ultimately, Adam regained his sight and relocated himself and his wife to New York, there to practice law. As for Laura, she became a schoolteacher in Walnut Grove, and in this capacity met another teacher, Almanzo Wilder (
Dean Butler); they too would marry and have a child, named Rose.
Others in the large supporting cast included
Victor French as the Ingalls' neighbor and friend Isaiah Edwards and
Bonnie Bartlett as Mrs. Grace Edwards; Katherine MacGregor as the ridiculously haughty town gossip Harriet Oleson;
Richard Bull as Harriet's good-natured storekeeper husband, Nels; Alison Arngrim as the Olesons' bratty daughter, Nellie (who, upon growing up and "reforming," wed a Jewish boy named Percival [
Steve Tracy]); and Allison Balson as Harriet and Nels' equally obnoxious adopted daughter Nancy. Other cast included Merlin Olsen as headstrong farmer Jonathan Garvey, and Hersha Parady and
Patrick Laborteaux as Garvey's wife, Alice, and son, Andy;
Karl Swenson as Lars Hanson, owner of Walnut Grove's mill; Charlotte Stewart as schoolteacher Miss Beadle;
Dabbs Greer as Reverend Alden; Jonathan Gilbert as Dr. Baker; Ketty Lester as Hester Sue Terhune, head instructor at the blind school established in Walnut Grove by Mary and Adam; and, in the final season,