If you grew up watching television in the 70s and 80s, you no doubt enjoyed some of the innocent shows that were on during that time. It was family-friendly entertainment at its finest and most of us miss the days in which we could sit in front of the TV to laugh and cry, all within the span of an hour. One of the shows that was extremely popular during that time was Little House on the Prairie, a story that was based on a book series by the same name. Most of us did more than watch the show, we actually grew up with the Ingalls children.
The youngest daughter on the show, Laura Ingalls, was undoubtedly one of the biggest stars. She was played by Melissa Gilbert, and many of us remember her pigtails and her infectious smile. As it turns out, she also has a lot to say about the show and the 56-year-old mother and grandmother is now living on a farm in upstate New York. She took the opportunity to talk about her time on the shelf and it was something that all of us wanted to hear. She described the farm where she lived as being very rustic, perhaps like the show that we remember so well.
“It was like a really great summer camp. But I also got to play the ultimate game of dress up and be in those fantastic clothes and the button up boots,” Melissa shares. “I don’t ever remember it not being fun.”
She also admits that it was a lot of hard work to remember the lines that she had for every episode. She also did a lot of running because they never had her walking anywhere! The show may have debuted decades ago, but it has been on the air continually since that time. Reruns are even seeing a spike in popularity in recent years.
Melissa talks about the possibility of why the show is seeing better numbers. “With everything that’s going on in the world right now, I think, from what I’m hearing from people, is that ‘Little House on the Prairie’ is a reminder of when things were simpler for us, in our lives, those 45 years ago,” she says. “‘Little House on the Prairie’ then provided people with a reminder of what we went through when we started this country and how difficult that was. And I think we’re at that place again. If we could have done what we did in the 1800s, in the 1970s, we can do this. The keys are going to be compassion, community, faith, whatever that faith looks like, and love. That’s it! That’s all that matters.”
We often look back on our life and remember some of the simpler times. It seems as if Melissa Gilbert is much the same. “I absorbed so much without even realizing what I was learning was really important life lessons about family, community, tolerance,” she shares. “Because I was saying all of these things and having to understand all of these things, they became a part of what I learned as well.”