It’s been fifty years since Little House on the Prairie premiered on CBS in 1974.
The cast of the show – which appeared on GMA earlier this year – reunited at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in Monaco earlier this month.
Karen Grassle, Alison Arngrim, Melissa Sue Anderson, Matthew Labyorteaux and Wendi Lou Lee sat on a panel and reflected on their favorite memories of the show.
They also answered fan questions about a reboot or reunion of the beloved series.
“There have been a lot of attempts to do a Little House on the Prairie again,” Grassle, 82, who played the show’s matriarch Caroline Ingalls, explained to People.
It’s been fifty years since Little House on the Prairie premiered on CBS in 1974
The show’s cast reunited earlier this month at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in Monaco
“There have been shows, there has been a musical and I think we have had a unique experience that cannot be repeated.”
‘Michel [Landon] was a genius at casting and writing,” she added of her on-screen husband, who played Charles Ingalls.
“He understood things about how to translate that material for audiences to television that were beyond what most writers understand.
“And he had his finger on the pulse of the audience and understood what people were craving, and that’s something you don’t find every day,” she said of the late actor who was also an executive producer and writer for the show.
“And the fact that we were all so perfectly cast was kind of genius,” she added, looking at her co-stars.
But what Grassle, the late Landon and the rest of the cast ultimately had was lightning in a bottle with Little House on the Prairie.
Based on the beloved series of children’s novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder – played by Melissa Gilbert on the series – the show premiered in September 1974 and ran for nine seasons.
Anderson, who played eldest sister Mary Ingalls, had her own reason for thinking a reboot wouldn’t work, and that’s because Landon wouldn’t be a part of it.
Karen Grassle, Alison Arngrim, Melissa Sue Anderson, Matthew Labyorteaux and Wendi Lou Lee sat on a panel and reflected on their favorite memories of the show
They also answered fan questions about a reboot or reunion of the beloved series.
“There have been a lot of attempts to do a Little House on the Prairie again,” Grassle, 82, who played the show’s matriarch, Caroline Ingalls, explained to People
“There have been shows, there has been a musical and I think we have had a unique experience that cannot be repeated.”
“It’s because of him that Little House works on television,” she said. Landon died in 1991.
Arngrim, 62, who played Nellie Oleson in the series, is ready to take on a new role if there is ever a reboot of Little House – her mother.
“I always joke that if they do the whole thing again, I’ll be ready to play Mrs. Oleson. Absolutely, that’s what I’m looking forward to,” she snapped.
Little House on the Prairie followed the adventures of the Ingalls family as they built a homestead and life in the 1800s Midwest.
