If you’ve watched television in the seventies, chances are you’ll definitely know the name of “Laura Ingalls”. It’s the little girl from the hit television show “Little House on the Prairie”, with actors Michael Langdon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, and Melissa Sue Anderson. Their characters were a family together as the show explored their life on a farm in Plum Creek, Minnesota.

The television show made its debut back in 1974 and was definitely quite popular for its time.

Little House on the Prairie is a series of books set in the 1870s, 1880s as well as the 1890s in a later stadium, and the series covered a whole lot of (sensitive) topics. Whether it’s adoption, children, faith, or social issues – there were a whole lot of elements that made the story and the setting interesting and compelling.

The television adaption was a little bit different. Although it mainly focused on the more dramatic aspects of the story as well, the tv show was also known for its lightheartedness and sometimes, it even resembled comedy a bit.

Melissa Gilbert, the child superstar of the vintage tv series, recently gave an interview and it’s really interesting to see how she’s doing all those years later.

She played the “Laura Ingalls” character between 1974 and 1982 and it was a major part of her life, which she fondly looks back to.

“It was like a really great summer camp but I also got to play the ultimate game of dress up and be in those fantastic clothes and button up boots and I don’t remember it ever not being fun,” she said to CBS Sunday Morning.

In fact, her early experiences on a “farm” might have inspired her, because Melissa now resides in her own farm in Sullivan County, New York.

The actress likes to call her place the “Little House on the Catskills”, a clear nod to the title of the tv series. Farm work definitely holds no secrets for Melissa.

Even though the tv show was filmed all those years ago, it’s actually still on reruns – and is gaining popularity as well.

Melissa believes that the current circumstances of the world might be one of the reasons, as it gives people an escape to much simpler times. Even though 2020 has been an absolutely crazy year so far, the people in the seventies had their fair share of drama too. Recession, Watergate, and an oil crisis – Little House on the Prairie gave them some entertainment in troubling times.

According to Melissa, there are four major things we need to get out of this crisis: compassion, community, faith, and love. Well said!

Some of the episodes are actually eerily similar to the current situation, as there’s one with a plague that requires people to go into quarantine. A weird foreshadowing of 2020!

Little House on the Prairie was a show that often dealt with controversial subjects, some of which are even still controversial to this day.

Michael Landon was the co-star of the show and had already built up a resume in Hollywood. He played Melissa’s dad on-screen, but he was also considered the father or “Pa” of the show – Landon often directed and wrote episodes himself, and served as an executive producer.

At the time when they were looking for actors, Melissa actually got the role after casting at just nine years old. Even though remembering all those lines must’ve been difficult at nine years old, she actually only missed them once! In fact, she was embarrassed about the whole thing that she burst out into tears on set.

Landon then asked everyone to leave the set and went through the lines with Melissa after calming her down. It’s such a sweet gesture that Melissa still remembers to this day.

In the interview, Melissa also reveals a couple of things about her personal life.

For example, she went through a rough period at age 45 when she discovered that her father committed suicide. She was always told her father had a stroke, but it was a family secret that wasn’t revealed until then.

The little child star from back in the day is now 56 years old and is actually a grandmother now.

She says that the values of her co-star Michael Landon influenced her most in life. The television show definitely helped shape her into the person she is now.

Tragically, Michael Landon passed away in 1991 at the age of 54. Melissa says that he always believed in the goodness of people, and she also says that he would’ve been proud and thrilled to do this interview together.

If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane, be sure to check out Melissa’s full interview in the video below.

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Source: CBS Sunday Morning, Wikipedia