Little House on the Prairie (1974) Cast: Then and Now [48 Years After] by HollywoodNuts
The Ingalls family lives on a farm on Plum Creek in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s to 1890s in the American Western historical drama television series Little House on the Prairie (Little House: A New Beginning in its ninth and final season). Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, Melissa Sue Anderson, and the Greenbush twins play Charles, Laura, Caroline, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls, respectively. The popular Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder were adapted for television.
Ed Friendly, a television producer and former NBC executive, bought the film and television rights to Wilder’s novels from Roger Lea MacBride in 1972 with the support of his wife and daughter. He also hired Blanche Hanalis to create the teleplay for a two-hour motion picture pilot.
Michael Landon agreed to direct the pilot when Friendly asked him to, but only if he could also play Charles Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s third Little House book, served as the inspiration for the pilot, which debuted on March 30, 1974. The remaining regular shows had their NBC network debut on September 11, 1974, and their final episode aired on May 10, 1982.
With the departure of Landon and Grassle during the 1982–1983 television season, a successor series—generally referred to as Season Nine for syndicated packages—was shown under the new moniker Little House: A New Beginning.
Melissa Gilbert has been in the most episodes (190 out of 204), which is a record for the show. All but four of the episodes from seasons one through eight starred Michael Landon, who left the cast after the show’s redesign as Little House: A New Beginning (season nine).