Little House on the Prairie: Seasons One and Two (1974-76)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Various, based on the novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Starring Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Lindsay Sidney Greenbush

Features:

• Character Profiles
  
• The Ingalls Photo Album
  
• The Little House Episode Quiz
  

Released by: NBC Home Video
Rating: NR (suitable for all audiences)
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: If you were a fan of the show, you'll want to own them

Charles Ingalls (Landon) and his family have traveled all the way across the country from Wisconsin to settle their new home on the banks of Plum Creek in the tiny community of Walnut Grove. However, life for a pioneer farming family in this little community is not all peaches and cream. They have to deal with wild animals, harsh winters, droughts, not to mention the evil Mrs. Olsen (Katherine MacGregor).

This is one of those series which has gone down in history as one of the best loved shows ever. Despite Michael Landon's personal affairs, he was one of the best loved actors in television history. And, obviously, America got to watch Melissa Gilbert grow up right in front of our eyes. The show ran for nine years on NBC, and it was a hit for most of those. These DVD sets present the first two of those seasons in their entirety. And, when you factor in the fact that seasons ran longer and had more episodes in them than today's television seasons, there is quite a lot of primary material here. At least eighteen hours per set. Needless to say, if you are huge fan of the series, you will be in absolute Prairie heaven. They have been remastered, which is good, although I did notice some problems with some of the "commercial breaks". There are a few of them here that are very jumpy and not very evenly edited, but it's not a big deal. The episodes are intact and look and sound better than ever.

In terms of bonus material, these sets leave quite a bit to be desired. First up you get a list of characters and background for each set, but you could really get the same information by just watching the shows. There is one paragraph per character, which just doesn't quite cover it since their stories ran for all those years. Next up is the Ingalls Photo Album which looks like it could have taken pictures from pretty much any of the years that the show was on the air. There aren't any "behind-the-scenes" pictures; rather, these are just publicity photos that were taken of the various characters. They simply flow by like an automated slideshow, so you can't linger on a particular one if you happen to really like it. Not only that, but it's short and it repeats. The quiz is pretty good and the questions that are asked are quite difficult, but there's really no payoff when you get the answers correct...other than the knowledge that you are the king (or queen, as the case may be) of Little House trivia.

So, the only reason to buy this set would be if you fall into the category of die-hard fan of the show. If you've never seen the show, and can't seem to find it running in syndication on some cable channel somewhere (in other words, if you live under a rock), pick it up as a rental. Even if you don't like the show, it's worth seeing how far (or how little) television programming has come over the last thirty years.