Little House on the Prairie Reboot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anybody in Hollywood capable of an original idea?

It’s like all those 80s songs based on older songs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hollywood leaning into trad-wife culture for a buck or two?

Pretty much, I must have been the only girl who hated watching little house on the prairie back in the 70s. Pa was a jerk.

Were you from a lesbian household? Give the standard for fathers in the 1970s, I can’t imagine anyone thinking Pa was a jerk by comparison. He always had that twinkle on his eyes and the cute nickname for his daughter! I loved my dad a lot but he came home from work and was basically like “is dinner ready? Turn off the goddam lights in that room. Do you know what the electricity costs?” Then spent all weekend trying to fix the dishwasher or replace the carburetor so our car would work. Everyone in the 70s was basically stressed out and in a bad mood. When we saw kids running down a flowery hill with pa laughing, and no one worried about the electrical bill or eating canned peas, that all looked pretty good.

Nailed it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hollywood leaning into trad-wife culture for a buck or two?

Pretty much, I must have been the only girl who hated watching little house on the prairie back in the 70s. Pa was a jerk.

You could be right because me ➕ my school friends looked forward to Monday nights when this fabulous show was on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you recommend a good one, PP? I would love to read a biography!

Prarie Fires! Amazing reading, mainly about how Rose Wilder Lane was an early Libertarian and altered the books to inaccurately reflect her beliefs. Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

I HATED the Anne of Green Gables reboot and I'm sure the Little House one will also be an abomination. My prediction is that Laura will make friends with the Native Americans and the new storyline will involve her fighting social injustice on the prairie.

Yes, the original Pa is a drifter and kind of selfish, and Ma is racist, and Almanzo is also kind of selfish and not a good husband: the real Laura had a sad, hard life. But I think it is interesting and important to preserve all of those elements, to see the experience of someone from that era and what they believed to show where we started from. I'm not interested in Woke on the Prairie, which is what this will be, no doubt.

[Anonymous]

The book is good reading but it doesn't make for a good TV show. There are passages about Laura not being allowed to make noise on Sunday, about making butter, digging wells, mending fences, crops.

“On Sundays Mary and Laura must not run or shout or be noisy in their play...They might look quietly at their paper dolls, but they must not make anything new for them. They were not allowed to sew on doll clothes, not even with pins.
“They must sit quietly and listen while Ma read Bible stories to them.. But there was nothing else they could do.”

The whole community of Little House and the guest actors is the reason for the shows success along with Michael Landon who had so much charisma.

A limited series isn't going to be that interesting.

[Anonymous]

I loved that show and wanted to live in the time depicted. I was young and naive and had no idea what the reality of that would be like!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hollywood leaning into trad-wife culture for a buck or two?

Pretty much, I must have been the only girl who hated watching little house on the prairie back in the 70s. Pa was a jerk.

Were you from a lesbian household? Give the standard for fathers in the 1970s, I can’t imagine anyone thinking Pa was a jerk by comparison. He always had that twinkle on his eyes and the cute nickname for his daughter! I loved my dad a lot but he came home from work and was basically like “is dinner ready? Turn off the goddam lights in that room. Do you know what the electricity costs?” Then spent all weekend trying to fix the dishwasher or replace the carburetor so our car would work. Everyone in the 70s was basically stressed out and in a bad mood. When we saw kids running down a flowery hill with pa laughing, and no one worried about the electrical bill or eating canned peas, that all looked pretty good.

I had a different experience as a girl in the ‘70s. My dad was great. And I didn’t like Little House.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I HATED the Anne of Green Gables reboot and I'm sure the Little House one will also be an abomination. My prediction is that Laura will make friends with the Native Americans and the new storyline will involve her fighting social injustice on the prairie.

Yes, the original Pa is a drifter and kind of selfish, and Ma is racist, and Almanzo is also kind of selfish and not a good husband: the real Laura had a sad, hard life. But I think it is interesting and important to preserve all of those elements, to see the experience of someone from that era and what they believed to show where we started from. I'm not interested in Woke on the Prairie, which is what this will be, no doubt.

I loved the original books. One of the main reasons was because it was about one real girl and her very strong POV. She had a lot of adventures and experiences even while admitting her looks and behavior weren't perfect. Without reference to the show characters (which diverged from the books), it's still clear that Laura felt that Mary was the better-behaved sister.

As an adult, I came to learn that African-American parents didn't approve of the books and I looked up info about the racist elements of the books. Mainly there's a minstrel show that Pa participates in, the family is afraid of Native Americans, and there are points of conflict about Native American taking stuff from them. As a kid, I understood the Ingalls' family's fears and I didn't really absorb negative messages about races from this. After all, white people also steal from each other and have conflicts over land. I did learn as an adult that Pa was an illegal squatter on treaty territory...and that is less honestly covered in the books. However, history also teaches that white settlers moved into lands settled by Native Americans and took possession of them. What's more in focus in the books is just the daily life of a colonist/farming child. They are not supposed to be didactic sociological treatises.

Overall my dominant impression is of a story of one woman's life from toddler age to birth of her own children. The anecdotes I remember best are about old-fashioned objects and processes. Like pouring maple syrup on snow to make a taffy. Or having a doll made out of a corn cob. And the story of how Almanzo met her and singled her out for courting. That's the first romantic storyline I ever read. She plays up his bravery and solicitude at various points. I don't think she found him selfish.

So...Will I watch this new show? Probably not. Because I agree it looks woke. And Laura's family were not. I don't like when things are modernized to gloss over original stories or new characters are invented for plot purposes. These were real people and you can still visit many of their home sites. Most of the books were historically true (Laura did fictionalize some things...including omitting a baby brother who died). It seems wrong to make a new show with fake content. That pretty much is why I didn't like the 1970s show...it had a lot of fake content, episode plots, and characters. And those were usually the cringiest storylines.

[Anonymous]

The rape scene in the original show with a rapist wearing a clown mask terrified me as a child and I still remember that fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rape scene in the original show with a rapist wearing a clown mask terrified me as a child and I still remember that fear.

PP. That is not in the books. Perfect example of inventing b.s. to create plots. And scary, worthless plot garbage as well.

There is violence in the books. I loved Farmer Boy and tried to read it to my sons. My older boy was upset by parts I hadn't even remembered. Almanzo's schoolteacher uses a bullwhip to protect himself from surly teen students who beat the previous teacher up so bad that he died from his injuries. But there are no rapist clowns.

[Anonymous]

Can't take this show. It is always:

- one of the kids is deathly ill
- a terrible storm is coming or
- a really bad guy is holding them up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anybody in Hollywood capable of an original idea?

I actually think more original ideas are getting made thanks to the sheer number of streaming services. But executives want easy money- what’s new?? lol

[Anonymous]

I loved the books as a child and owned all of them.

I could never get into the TV show.

Looking back, there were definitely elements of its time, but a fascinating examination in how white settlers lived the frontier life despite their views then of gender and race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't take this show. It is always:

- one of the kids is deathly ill
- a terrible storm is coming or
- a really bad guy is holding them up

The real books do have a fair number of storm-related issues. Some of the homestead were in tornado country. And they were a farm family. So they had to worry about crop damage. Also getting snowed in.