Three Little Houses
If you’ve watched the old NBC show or the new Netflix one, some of what you remember isn’t in the book at all.
Little House on the Prairie began as a novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, published in nineteen thirty-five. The NBC series ran from nineteen seventy-four to nineteen eighty-three. And Netflix released a new series on July ninth, twenty twenty-six.
I read the whole book, all twenty-six chapters, so I can tell you what is really on the page. Everything about the shows is reported, as of November twenty twenty-six, and I’ll label it. The first half of this video has no big spoilers.
What the Book Actually Is
The book is much smaller than the shows. It is one year. The Ingalls family leaves their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin in the first chapter, crosses Missouri and into Kansas, and builds a house near the Verdigris River. The nearest town, Independence, is forty miles away, and it takes Pa days to get there.
There are five Ingallses on the page: Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura and Baby Carrie, plus their bulldog, Jack. A neighbor, Mr. Edwards, shows up in chapter five, and a couple named Scott lives a few miles off.
It is not a book about a town. There is no school and no town life in these twenty-six chapters. It is a book about building a house with an ax, a fiddle at night, wolves, fever, a prairie fire, and Native families who live and travel all around them.
The NBC Series
Now the original TV series. It aired on NBC from September eleventh, nineteen seventy-four, to March twenty-first, nineteen eighty-three, after a pilot movie in March of nineteen seventy-four. It ran nine seasons, around two hundred regular episodes.
Michael Landon played Pa, Karen Grassle played Ma, Melissa Gilbert played Laura, and Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary. Victor French played Isaiah Edwards, and Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson.
Here is the first big difference. The show is set on a farm near Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The book you’re watching it for, Prairie, is set in Kansas, and the family only stays there a year. Reportedly the series is only loosely based on the books. Landon wrote many invented stories, because a weekly show needs far more plot than a children’s novel has.
The Netflix Series
Netflix’s version is a different animal. It is reported to have eight episodes, all released on July ninth, twenty twenty-six. Rebecca Sonnenshine is the developer and showrunner, and it was filmed in Winnipeg, in Canada.
Luke Bracey plays Charles Ingalls, Crosby Fitzgerald is Caroline, Alice Halsey is Laura, and Skywalker Hughes is Mary. Warren Christie plays John Edwards, and Jocko Sims plays Doctor George Tann.
Netflix renewed it for a second season in March of twenty twenty-six. Early reviews, as reported, are mixed to positive.
Now here’s something book readers will notice. Mr. Edwards and Doctor Tan are both in the book. Edwards is the lean Tennessee neighbor who brings the Christmas presents, and Doctor Tan is the doctor who treats the family’s fever. The book never gives Edwards a first name.
Where the Book Has Things the Shows May Not
I can’t tell you every scene the shows kept, so I’ll tell you what the book has, and you can check the screen against it.
In chapter eight Pa builds the doors without nails. In chapter eleven two Native men walk into the house while Pa is out hunting. In chapter twelve Mr. Scott collapses at the bottom of the well and Pa goes down after him. Chapter nineteen is the Christmas where Mr. Edwards swims a flooded creek. Chapter twenty has a panther. Chapter twenty-two is the prairie fire, and Pa saves the house by lighting a backfire.
And the book’s whole last act is about leaving. Keep that in mind, because a long-running TV series cannot end by packing the wagon.
The Native Characters
Here is the difference I’d watch most closely. In the book, Native people are everywhere. The words Indian and Indians appear about two hundred thirty-five times by my count. But apart from one Osage leader, Soldat du Chene, no Native person is named, and none gets a real conversation with the family.
The reported Netflix cast does list Native characters by name, such as White Sun, Good Eagle and William Mitchell. If you see them, that is the show adding what the book mostly leaves out.
Ma also says plainly, in chapter four, that she doesn’t like Indians. The book lets that stand next to Laura’s curiosity and Pa’s more careful view. I’ll talk about that more in the parents video.
Spoilers Start Here
This is your warning. From here on I’m spoiling how the book ends.
How the Book Ends
In chapter twenty-five, Mr. Scott and Mr. Edwards tell Pa that soldiers are coming to move the settlers out of Indian Territory. The family has planted a garden and a field. Pa refuses to wait to be taken out like an outlaw, and says they’re leaving in the morning.
They give the cow and calf to Mr. Scott. They eat the seed potatoes for dinner. In chapter twenty-six the wagon is packed, and the plow stays behind, because there’s no room. Pa leaves the latch-string out in case someone needs shelter.
The last scene is a camp fire and Pa’s fiddle. The book ends on the road.
The Osage and the War Cries
The biggest set piece is chapters twenty-one to twenty-four. The family hears nights of drums and war cries from the camps by the creek. Pa makes bullets and stays up at the window. Then Pa learns that an Osage leader, Soldat du Chene, argued with the other tribes until they gave up the idea of attacking the settlers.
Mr. Scott says the only good Indian is a dead Indian. Pa says he doesn’t believe that, and after this, he is surer. In chapter twenty-four the whole line of families rides away west past the house.
Historically, the family was on land that belonged to the Osage, and the real family, reportedly, left after learning they had no legal right to their homestead.
Which Should You Pick
So which version should you pick? If you want a cozy weekly drama, the old NBC series is its own thing. If you want to see how a modern streaming drama reads the same family, try Netflix. If you want the strangest and quietest version, the one where a family builds a house and then leaves it, the book is shorter than you think.
My rule is read the book first, because it is the only version where the ending is a wagon on a prairie.
If you want to read the rest of the series, my reading order video is next, and the full parents guide is linked below. Which version did you grow up with? Tell me in the comments, and I’ll see you next time.
