New Little House Series

 

Publicity shot from the new “Little House” series, released this week.
We have watched the first episode.

 In the 1970s, our family read aloud the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, beginning with Little House in the Big Woods, set at the time when the narrator, Laura, was four to five years old. As we read through the series, we were captivated by the characters and by the way Laura experiences the frontier as her family moves onward. It’s impressive how the books reflect the history of the American West as it was is being settled. We were quite aware of the author’s negative views of non-white people, especially the original Native Americans who were being displaced by settlers of European descent. 

The first episode of the new TV series starts at the time of the third book in the Little House series. The TV script has depicted Laura as around 11 years old, which gives the entire story a different point of view. The new script depicts more clearly the author’s views about race, downplaying the mother’s hostility to Native Americans. Historically, the Black doctor who plays a large role in this episode was a real person, though I don’t think he was depicted in similar detail in the books. From Wikipedia: 

“Dr. George A. Tann: An African American physician and veteran of the Union Army, Dr. Tann ran a homeopathic medicine practice in Kansas and the Osage Diminished Indian Reserve. He became well known as a pioneer physician in the region and treated both Black and white families on the frontier, including acting as a neighbor to the Ingalls family.”

It seemed to me that the focus of this episode was emphatically turned to “Pa” — the father and head of the household. As in the book, Pa was a restless and ambitious man who wanted to move west and settle the frontier, while “Ma” was loyal but not happy to leave her settled life in “the big woods.” The TV family seems to have been forced to leave for the frontier, though in the books this was not the case. 

In sum, I see many differences between the characters and situations in the script and in the original books as I remember them. More importantly, I’m not sure the TV show captures the spirit of the original — and maybe isn’t trying to do so. There are a whole lot more episodes, which I may or may not watch.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander