Are you looking for a LHOTP? Trying to figure out what your premise is......

 

Books, Movies, Video Channels, & TV-Streaming section.

I watched a TV show that was survival/homesteader adjacent and I have an opinion on how bad it is.

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder books are much better than the TV series. There is much more detail about Pioneer life and homesteading. If you don't want read them, there may be audio books available.

 

So the books are better than the TV Show?

 

Well, I watched them all when our daughter was younger, and she read all the LHOTP when she was in 3rd grade.
It was a good time and the world was a different place then. Good memories.

 

This was mainstream evening programming when I was growing up. Although I suppose it was fairly wholesome but it bored me to tears as even back then I was waiting for something to happen. I hate to spoil it for you but nothing ever does happen other than Nellie Oleson keeps being mean to little Laura Ingalls.

 

Now that you mention it your dad is dead on for a description. I remember coming home from school and it was on and I would catch 3/4 of an episode. Always some minor drama or conflict that got resolved without any real hassle and a life lesson might be learned. Still the best thing on tv at the time with the 6 channels we got with the antenna as a kid.

The books where actually good.

 

Still the best thing on tv at the time with the 6 channels we got with the antenna as a kid.

Six channels! Man you were uptown. We got three depending on how good you could turn the antenna on the second floor by leaning out of the window twisting the pole while listening to everyone below when to stop or go back. If there was a storm all bets were off at that point. At least at that point the parents got another tv besides the 10" rabbit eared operation.

 

So I will go find the first book.

It is absolutely boring for anyone over the age of 10.

We will give it the first season.

 

I liked when Merlin Olsen joined the cast. He was baller! LOL!
I couldn't make it through the whole series. I think i gave up around season 5.

 

It was on when I was growing up and my family watched it. Since I was a little girl at the time and since Laura's name is the same as mine I liked it for that.

My boys watched as they grew up because it was at least something wholesome for them to watch.

 

And I did read the books when I was younger too. As for the show I still watched when I got older because after Almonzo came on it got more interesting to me...... I was a young lady after all...

 

I just watched that episode the other day, where she met him for the first time. I never knew she mispronounced his name as Manly instead of Manny...I laughed so hard it made me spit out my afternoon wine!

 

Wow. I watch LHOTP every night before dinner, started a few months ago. On season six. Such a wide variety of story lines, incredible writing, good morals, sometimes funny, sometimes said, but always a great watch.

whoever said every episode is the same isn't paying attention. I remember 1 out of every 5 episodes from when I was a kid, so re-watching them 40 years later is still a pleasant surprise. I totally forgot Mary was engaged once before she went blind. The guy that played her fiancé was in Red Dawn...

 

well after years of building homesteads and the life that it leads to am not surprised that it is "boring" to watch,,, with todays style of entertainment we are accustomed to seeing..

that is part of the homesteading process,,, being bored to death/the monotony of the every day routine,, lol think about it a few seconds,,, "going to town" to get a few basic supplies was the "high point" of the month,, just to see other people and talk/watch/gossip

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder books are much better than the TV series. There is much more detail about Pioneer life and homesteading. If you don't want read them, there may be audio books available.

I'm 70, a farmer in Nebraska, and have read all the Little House books several times. So I have some real affinity for Laura Ingalls Wilder's descriptions of life in the Midwest. Other than the title of the program, and the main characters, it had almost nothing to do with Wilder's original books.

I agree---the pilot was waited with expectation. But it turned-out to really bland, and could best be described as "feel-good" entertainment. The family seemed to be a contemporary suburban family, and the landscape was obviously California, and not the Midwest prairies. Jack the Dog in the books was a tough bulldog. (The kind of dog you would expect a pioneer family to have.) However in the series, he was a Benji-type mutt mostly distinguished for his cuteness.

The show completely ignored the realities described by Wilder, of being a lone pioneer family in 1870's Kansas.

I also doubt that the real "Pa" Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder ran around with blow-dried 70's-style hair.

I ended up hardly watching any of the series.

 

We watched little house, the Waltons and Grizzly Adam's when I was a kid. The Hulk and Dukes of Hazzard too. Tv had more wholesome family stuff back then. I wanted to be Grizzly Adam's when I was a. Of course I wanted to be a colonial viper pilot when Battlestar Galactica came out. I was supposed to be doing multiplication and I drew vipers and Cylon raiders all over the paper.

 

I love the Waltons! When I was a child, my parents took me to a Walton's reunion/convention and I met all of them. When John Boy had to leave, most of the fans left too!

I'm 70, a farmer in Nebraska, and have read all the Little House books several times. So I have some real affinity for Laura Ingalls Wilder's descriptions of life in the Midwest. Other than the title of the program, and the main characters, it had almost nothing to do with Wilder's original books.

I agree---the pilot was waited with expectation. But it turned-out to really bland, and could best be described as "feel-good" entertainment. The family seemed to be a contemporary suburban family, and the landscape was obviously California, and not the Midwest prairies. Jack the Dog in the books was a tough bulldog. (The kind of dog you would expect a pioneer family to have.) However in the series, he was a Benji-type mutt mostly distinguished for his cuteness.

The show completely ignored the realities described by Wilder, of being a lone pioneer family in 1870's Kansas.

My father is in his 70s too. This was his opinion.

 

We used to joke that Charles Ingalls cries at some point in every episode!

 

If you didnt grow up watching tv in that era then its gonna be horrible. TV AND life was much simpler then.

 

Don't even get me started on that horrible Mrs. Oleson!

 

Back in the day, LHOTP was decent tv.

As for today, its better than Teletubbies!

 

Decent show, worth a watch. IMO.

If society as we now know it fails, I would MUCH PREFER living as the Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. Some hardships, death & misery, with much Love & Living Life!

-vs, say-

Folks in the Yellowstone prequel tale "1883". MUCH HARDSHIPS, DEATH & MISERY. A bit of love & living life.

 

LHOTP is like watching paint dry. The dukes of hazard - now that was cool!

 

Farming in Kansas really is pretty monotonous. Hard to make compelling TV out of it.

Days and days of hard work. Not much but sun and sweat, interrupted by blizzards, floods, fire, and grasshoppers.

 

Kansas? And all this time I thought it was set in Wisconsin or Minnesota, I thought they actually moved from one state or area to another. But I never heard they lived in Kansas. I guess it's not that important. But since there's another dire Air quality alert, maybe I will come inside and find out!

 

The key difference between television programming before the 2000s was that the dad was the one the kids went to for advice. Sometimes the mother also, but the father was the rock with tons of wisdom. Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie & Harriet, Good Times, Little House, Cosby, etc. Since 2000, the dad is now the buffoon and the butt of all jokes. Mom or the kids are the smart ones.

Little House was designed as family entertainment. The books were designed for child/preteen entertainment. There are other books by Wilder for adults, but the books were really written for children. I read them in 4th -5th grade, I think. They would probably be interesting to many adults and an easy read, but they were written for a younger audience. They are great stories about western pioneer life. Buthering hogs, getting maple syrup from the trees, dealing with blizzards while feeding animals in a barn, death, Indians, wolves, the heartache and struggle that comes with farming (locust swarms, drying winds, and prairie fires, for example), and the joys of sitting around a fire, playing music, and dancing with neighbors. It's all great stuff, and I read them aloud to my kids, and recently gave my original books to my daughter to read to her children.

In the books, the family is not nearly as stable as in the TV series. They move A LOT. Pa is always looking for the next place to be successful. From an adult perspective, he is somewhat of a dreamer, and his family suffers as a result. Poor Caroline, she was a saint.

So I guess what I'm saying is, enjoy the books for what they are: a simple, innocent view of life during the pioneer era.

BTW, if you watch LHOTP Christmas Special and don't shed a tear, you aren't human, LOL.

 

I first read Almanzo Wilder's "Farmer Boy" (authored by his wife-to-be) at about ten or twelve years old; I've re-read it several times since and loved it more each time.

It was one of the things that started me thinking about how cool it was to live in a more self-sufficient environment and actually know how to 'do things'. His book changed my outlook, still reflected in my choice of a place to live, as well as my (former) political outlook.

Just as importantly, their daughter Rose Wilder Lane, was an excellent author as well as one of the earlier philosophical influences on the Libertarian Party, and much of her writing reflects this.

I grew up overseas and didn't have access to the Idiot Box until I moved to Guam in the early sixties, so I can't discuss the TV shows.

 

The books were designed for child/preteen entertainment. There are other books by Wilder for adults, but the books were really written for children. I read them in 4th -5th grade, I think. They would probably be interesting to many adults and an easy read, but they were written for a younger audience. They are great stories about western pioneer life. Buthering hogs, getting maple syrup from the trees, dealing with blizzards while feeding animals in a barn, death, Indians, wolves, the heartache and struggle that comes with farming (locust swarms, drying winds, and prairie fires, for example), and the joys of sitting around a fire, playing music, and dancing with neighbors. It's all great stuff, and I read them aloud to my kids, and recently gave my original books to my daughter to read to her children.

Which is why I was both saddened and dismayed, that the Little House books and their author, are apparently now on the "forbidden books" list:

"In 2018, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, removed Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a prestigious children's literature award. The award, previously known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, is now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award. This decision was made because some of Wilder's writings reflect outdated and stereotypical attitudes towards Indigenous people and people of color, which the ALSC found inconsistent with its values of inclusiveness, integrity, and respect."

I read the books as a child, and not once did I think there were "outdated...stereotypical attitudes" towards Native Americans, or that reading the books gave me such attitudes. After all, in the opening of "The Long Winter" (perhaps Wilder's best book), it is an Indian who warns a skeptical townspeople of an approaching severe winter.

I have a great-nephew who is in the 6th grade. On a recent visit to my farm, I advised him to read some of the Little House books. I was astonished to find out later from his mom, that his school library didn't carry any of the books.

Just as importantly, their daughter Rose Wilder Lane, was an excellent author as well as one of the earlier philosophical influences on the Libertarian Party, and much of her writing reflects this.

About the same time as the "ostracizing" of Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from list of acceptable children's books, there was an article in Rolling Stone Magazine about Ms. Lane. Mocking her political beliefs, and sneeringly referring to her as "the Little Libertarian on the Prairie".

 

Little House in the Big Woods(1932) -
1871 in Wisconsin

Farmer Boy(1933)-About Laura's future husband growing up in New York

Little House on the Prairie(1935)-
Ingalls family moves from Wisconsin to Kansas

On the Banks of Plum Creek(1937) -
Ingalls family moves from Kansas to Minnesota

By the Shores of Silver Lake(1939) -
Ingalls family moves from Minnesota to Dakota territory

The Long Winter(1940) -
1880-1881 in Dakota territory

Little Town on the Prairie(1941) -
1881 in Dakota, Laura is 15 years old and growing up.

These Happy Golden Years(1943) -
Laura and Almanzo's courtship

The First Four Years(1953) -
Laura and Almanzo marry and have baby Rose in South Dakota

 

I actually live near that area in MN. 150 years later, it's still pretty boring. Definitely bucolic.

 

I've been through areas in the midwest numerous times, there's nothing about there. Once you get passed the cities, it's the most boring landscape ever.

In my opinion, the real gem is finding the little roadside towns and talking to the people in them. You can meet many friendly people and hear many interesting stories.