Little House on the Prairie: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: A Tenderhearted Family Drama

The Little House on the Prairie is a multimedia franchise that began with author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first children’s novel, Little House in the Big Woods, published in 1932. In her lifetime, she would write a total of eight, semi-autobiographical stories based on her growing up in a pioneer family set in the American Midwest during the latter half of the 19^th century. Initially concluding the series with These Happy Golden Years (1943), a first draft of The First Four Years was found among the estate of Laura’s daughter Rose and published in 1971.

On March 30, 1974, a pilot based on Wilder’s third Little House book, Little House on the Prairie, aired. Directed and starring Michael Landon as patriarch Charles Ingalls, who along with his wife Caroline (Karen Grassle) and their three young daughters, Mary, Laura, and Carrie (Melissa Sue Anderson, Melissa Gilbert, and Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush) move from the forests of Wisconsin to the prairies of Kansas.

The series then ran from September 11, 1974 to March 21, 1983. In the first episode, “A Harvest of Friends,” the family has moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. In need of a plow and wheat seeds but having no money, Charles makes a deal with a greedy merchant that requires work completed within a period of time or lose his oxen. An injury to Charles is of no interest to the merchant, but the work ethic of the Ingalls impresses their neighbors who pitch in to see that deal is completed on time.

That premise is a template for many episodes: hard-working, God-fearing people coming together to defeat selfish, petty individuals. Harriet (Katherine MacGregor) and Nellie (Alison Arngrim) Oleson, wife and daughter of Nels (Richard Bull), the local mercantile owner, are constant antagonists who look down upon the townsfolk and strangers unless the ladies think those people are a higher societal rank. Although understanding their presence makes for good TV, it’s hard to believe they didn’t experience some frontier justice, even from put-upon Nels.

Throughout the nine seasons, characters come and go in Walnut Grove. They experience romances, marriages, births, and deaths. A major change occurs in the fourth season when Mary goes blind due to nerve damage from scarlet fever, which leads to her meeting her future husband Adam Kendall (Linwood Boomer), who is also blind. In Season Five, Laura meets an orphan named Albert (Matthew Laborteaux), who would be adopted by the Ingalls the following season. Laborteaux previously played young Charles in a flashback in Season Four’s “I Remember, I Remember” as Caroline tells of the day she met Charles.

Season 9 is subtitled “A New Beginning” and sees Charles and Caroline move away to Iowa. This would be the last season, but before 1983 concluded, the first of three TV movies aired. All 200 episodes and the three movies are included in Little House on the Prairie: The Complete Series. Presented on 45 discs, the individual-season releases have been repackaged into cases that hold three seasons.

The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The earth tones of the burgeoning town and farms shine under the sunlight. Rich primaries like reds pop in strong hues. Blacks are inky and contribute to a good contrast. Fine texture details in the costumes, props, and building. The image is clean, free from dirt and defect. The audio is available in DTS-HD 2.0. Dialogue is clear but the occasional use of adding dialogue in post production has a noticeable flatness. The music and effects blend well in the mix.

The Special Features are:

• Season One
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part 1: A Place in Television History (14 min), the first in a six-part feature spread across the first six season releases.
  • Original Screen Test (2 min) featuring Landon and Gilbert
• Season Two
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part Two: “In the Beginning. . .” (16 min)
• Season Three
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part Three: Casting Walnut Grove (19 min)
• Season Four
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part Four: A Day in the Life of “Little House” (17 min)
• Season Five
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part Five: Stories to Remember (16 min)
• Season Six
  • The Little House Phenomenon Part Six: A Lasting Legacy (16 min)

The three TV-movies are:

• Season Eight
  • Look Back to Yesterday (95 min)
  • The Last Farewell (95 min)
• Season Nine
  • Bless All the Dear the Children (95 min)

Little House on the Prairie is a tenderhearted family drama that feels made in earnest. While the characters aren’t morally complex, the producers and writers instead are more interested in the promotion of the better angels of our nature. Fans of the series should appreciate having The Complete Series in their library. The high-definition video looks quite good.