TV Talk: PBS revisits ‘Little House’ author Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
To mark the 85th anniversary of the publication of “Little House on the Prairie,” PBS’s “American Masters” does a deep dive into the life and literary work of the book’s author in “Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page” (8 p.m. Tuesday, WQED-TV).
The program offers a clear-eyed portrait of the Midwestern farm woman, exploring Wilder’s writing collaboration with her daughter, Rose; racist scenes in her writing, her personal politics (she thought FDR was a communist) and how the books deviated from reality (Pa paid his debts in the books but not always in real life).
“Laura’s life is extraordinary, (given) the fact that she became a best selling author at 65 after everything she endured and went through,” said “Prairie to Page” director/producer Mary McDonagh-Murphy in a July teleconference with reporters. “She was a chicken farmer. She had to do two or three jobs her whole life to make (ends) meet with her beloved Almanzo. When I think about what any of us have been through in the test of our pioneer spirits lately (during the pandemic), what she endured was really remarkable.”
“Prairie to Page” devotes a small portion of its 90 minutes to NBC’s 1974-83 “Little House” primetime family drama, including interviews with several cast members.
In a July teleconference “Little House” star Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura on TV and later her mother, Caroline, on stage, said every time a new biography on Wilder is published, she reads it.
“I am constantly amazed how much more there is for me to learn because I have had the opportunity to come at the ‘Little House’ stories from so many different angles,” Gilbert said. “Its really extraordinary to see the whole arc of that family’s life and, from my perspective, to see how Caroline and her experience and her fears and her biases and her issues informed Laura and how different she was from her mother. And then consequently how Laura’s experience informed Rose, but how different Rose was from her mother.”
Streaming service Peacock recently added “Little House” to its premium tier, including all nine seasons and three two-hour specials. “Little House” reruns air on cable’s UpTV and digital subchannel Cozi TV.
Earlier this month, Entertainment Weekly reported Paramount TV Studios and Anonymous Content will team to reboot “Little House” with Trip Friendly, whose father produced the NBC series, executive producing this proposed new take on Wilder’s classic children’s novels.