During the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco, the cast gave a major update on the reported ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reboot from 2020
The cast of Little House on the Prairie knows the show is one-of-a-kind.
Ahead of the beloved show’s milestone 50th anniversary in September, several of the show’s stars — including Karen Grassle, Alison Arngrim, Melissa Sue Anderson, Matthew Labyorteaux, Leslie Landon and Wendi Lou Lee — reunited at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco.
During the actors’ appearance at the Little House on the Prairie panel on Saturday, June 15, they reflected on their favorite memories from the set and discussed the possibility of a new Little House on the Prairie.
Though a reboot was reported back in 2020, the cast confirmed there is nothing in the works at the moment — and ultimately likely never will be.
“There have been lots of attempts to do a Little House on the Prairie again,” Grassle, 82, who played the show’s matriarch Caroline Ingalls, explained. “There have been shows, and there have been musicals, but I think we had a unique experience and it can’t be repeated.”
“Michael [Landon] was a genius at casting and writing,” she added of her onscreen husband, who also served as an executive producer and writer for the show. “He understood things about how to translate that material into television for the public that was beyond what most writers understand. And he had his thumb on the pulse of what people were longing for, and you don’t find that every day.”
“And then the fact that we were all so perfectly cast was a kind of genius,” she added about her co-stars.
She noted that getting the part of Caroline was one of her favorite moments shared with the late Landon.
“They were getting ready to shoot and Michael was sitting on the floor in the office reading with me very close,” she recalled. “And we finished reading and he jumped off the floor and said, ‘Send her to wardrobe!’ It was a stunning moment.” “I don’t think you get to repeat this,” she added about a potential reboot. “This is it. And fortunately, it was television so they can just keep running it.”
Recalling her own special bond with Landon, Anderson, 61, chimed in that she doesn’t think a reboot would ever work today simply because Landon wouldn’t be a part of it.
“Little House works on television because of him,” she noted.
That being said, Arngrim, 62, already knows who she would want to play if there ever was a reboot. “I always joke that if they do redo the entire thing, I am ready to play Mrs. Oleson. Absolutely, I’m down for that,” she quipped.
