Little House on the Prairie (1974)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Released by: Good Times
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Rent it, but fans of the show will want to own it

It seems that Julia Sanderson (Neal) has a problem. She is a widow with three children, but she, too, is dying. She wants to make sure the children are taken care of after her death, so she asks Charles Ingalls (Landon) to watch after them and, knowing that Charles can barely keep his own family fed, make sure they find a good home after her death. Charles promises to do all these things and more for her children, but things don't really go according to his plan. It seems that someone upstairs has a something a little different in mind for these children...and for him.

Well, it's really hard not to love this show. I mean, it does harkens back to a much simpler, yet more difficult time in American History, but Landon creates such a lovable husband and father that you really find it hard not to wish that you were living in his household. The rest of his family is equally perfectly cast. Who can ever forget Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls? America practically watched her grow up on television. The stories are very simple, and it's this fact that makes them work. Too often, writers and producers will set a series or movie during this time period and try to cram it with so many subplots that it just gets jumbled up and confused, but they avoided that with this series. They simply trusted that viewers appreciated the fact they could tune in and escape from their lives to this much simpler time.

The DVD doesn't have much to it, which is a bit disappointing. There are no special features, and the contents basically consist of two episodes of the show that comprise one story. Seems like there was a lot of space wasted here, as it would have been nice to get Gilbert and some of the other cast members to talk about their experiences working on this show and maybe even pay another little tribute to Michael Landon, who we lost twelve years ago. There are so many possibilities that were lost before when this DVD was released, but it would have been good to capitalize on what we have extant from the show. Even a biblography of Wilder's books would have been nice, but alas.

Regardless, true fans of the show will definitely want to add it to their collection. If you enjoyed the show when it was on, it would be nice to rent this one and see it again.