Photo by Deb Gau
Cast members of “Little House on the Prairie,” including Alison Arngrim, Dean Butler, Charlotte Stewart, Wendi Lou Lee, and Pamela Roylance, shared memories of the show and took questions from the audience before Saturday’s Wilder Pageant in Walnut Grove. This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Little House” first airing.

WALNUT GROVE — When the “Little House on the Prairie” TV series first aired in 1974, cast members had no idea of the impact it would have. Fifty years later, cast members were speaking to a crowd of more than 1,200 people gathered outside the real-life Walnut Grove.

“‘Little House’ has been an enormously important part of all of our lives,” said Dean Butler, who played Almanzo Wilder in the series.

The impact that “Little House on the Prairie” had on viewers was just as important to the show’s legacy, cast members said.

“Well, this is it. It’s right in front of us,” Michael Landon, Jr., said to the audience. “I have no words. I mean, in terms of impact, the show made a huge impact on the vision of my career and what I wanted to do — touching hearts, which is obviously what our dad did,” he said.

Each summer, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant draws a crowd of visitors to Walnut Grove. Last weekend there was added excitement, as fans and cast members marked the 50th anniversary of the “Little House” TV series. A panel of 11 “Little House” cast members shared memories before performances of the pageant on Friday and Saturday, as well as attending autograph sessions and other events over the course of the weekend.

Pageant organizers said a total of more than 2,200 people attended performances on July 19-20.

During Saturday’s panel discussion, cast members reflected on “Little House’s” staying power.

Charlotte Stewart, who played schoolteacher Miss Beadle, said it meant a lot to see the impact a family show had on audiences.

“When we first started ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ we got some very odd reactions in Hollywood,” Stewart said. “They were kind of scoffing at us. Well, excuse me, but we’ve been on the air for 50 years.”

Michael Landon, Jr. and Leslie Landon were visiting the pageant for the first time this year. Both of the siblings had appeared on “Little House,” and they also shared memories of their father Michael Landon. Landon not only played the role of Charles Ingalls, but was a producer, writer and director for the series.

“‘Little House,’ for me, probably started with the books when I was about age nine,” Leslie Landon said. “I remember my dad asking me how I liked the ‘Little House’ books, and I remember telling him how much I loved them … When I heard that he was going to be doing the series, I mean, I was beyond excited because of how much I loved Laura Ingalls.”

“For Michael and myself, and for our family, ‘Little House’ probably represented the best part of our childhood,” Landon said. She said there was a lot of heartache in her father’s life when he was growing up. “And I think for him to create a story of a loving family, a family that worked through tough scenarios together, and forgiveness and faith and kindness and community — I think that was probably the best show that he had ever done throughout his entire career.”

Butler was 23 when he joined the series as Almanzo Wilder in 1979.

“I had never watched the program before in a substantial way before being hired to be on it. I had never read the Little House books, and I didn’t know anything. I knew who Michael (Landon) was, because the whole world knew who Michael was,” he said. “That started the journey for me.”

“There’s no getting around that ‘Little House’ has really changed my life,” said Alison Arngrim. Arngrim said she was a shy 12-year-old when she auditioned for the part of the snobby Nellie Oleson. The day after the show first aired, she said, was “the day I knew my whole life had been turned upside down.”

“I got this character where I scared the absolute bejesus out of everybody, and things really improved,” Arngrim said of her life.

Several panelists were children when they acted on “Little House.” The relationships they had with their co-stars, and fans’ connection to the show, became some of the most important parts of their experiences.

“The year that we filmed the pilot, my sister and I had just turned three,” said Sidney Greenbush, who played the role of Carrie Ingalls together with her sister Lindsay. “When you start that young, it’s really hard to realize the scope and the magnitude of it, and you think everybody does this.”

But as Sidney and her sister got older, they looked up to the “older kids” in the cast.

“It kind of set a precedent, of what we wanted to aspire to, and what we wanted to achieve,” she said.

Patrick Labyorteaux, who played Andrew Garvey on “Little House,” said getting to work with adult cast members like Michael Landon made an impression on him.

“I saw Michael Landon acting. I saw Michael Landon directing. I saw Michael Landon in a chair on the set, dressed as Pa, with a yellow pad writing the next episode of ‘Little House on the Prairie,’” Labyorteaux said. “I saw this man produce, direct, act, star and cry with his nose running every week. And it made a huge difference in my life, to let me know that that was something that was possible. It was just an amazing example of showing by doing, and not showing by telling.”

Wendi Lou Lee, who played Grace Ingalls, and Jennifer Donati, who played baby Rose Wilder, said they didn’t have a lot of memories of being in the show. But being part of the “Little House” family still meant a lot to them, they said.

“People say, ‘What’s the best part about being on ‘Little House on the Prairie?’ and I say, it’s now. For me, it’s now, because I couldn’t have a relationship with all of these people when I was on the show,” Lee said. “But now they’re like my dearest friends, and we really are a family.”

The Wilder Pageant and “Little House” reunion brought together people from across the country. Visitors gathered in Walnut Grove on Saturday said the “Little House” books and TV show were something they shared with their families.

“My mom, when she was younger, she would always watch ‘Little House,’” said Abby Rakotz. Rakotz, an Upsala resident, said they read the books by Wilder as well. That knowledge came in handy for Abby on Saturday, as she competed in the Laura lookalike contest.

Rakotz said she liked the character of Laura Ingalls.

“I like that we kind of have the same personality,” she said.

Susanna Thompson, of Prairieville, Louisiana, said she liked Laura too. However, Thompson was competing in the Nellie Oleson lookalike contest.

“I had the right color hair for her,” she said.

Thompson said her family was visiting the festival on the way to their own family reunion in Wisconsin. They listened to some of the “Little House” audiobooks on the way, she said.

Some festival visitors, including Janalee Sanders and members of her family, came dressed in pioneer costume.

“My sister is a really big fan, and so am I,” Sanders said of “Little House.”

Sanders, a traveling radiologist from Louisiana who has been working in southwest Minnesota for the past year, said she was excited to learn she was staying in the real-life Walnut Grove.

“I didn’t realize it at first,” Sanders said. After walking around town, she said, “I thought, ‘This is the coolest thing.’”

Sanders and her sister Jenelle Baker, of Cedar Springs, Mich., said they could identify with Laura Ingalls.

“We grew up pretty simple, and we could appreciate hard work,” Baker said.