‘Little House on The Prairie’ The reason Walnut Grove was blown up.

During the sheltering in place because of the coronavirus, many Americans have been watching a lot of TV. This has brought about a trend towards viewing old favorite television series from the 1960s, 1970s. and the1980s. One that is pretty popular is Little House on the Prarie which starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. Longtime fans of the program about pioneer life in Walnut Grove Minnesota have enjoyed the trip down memory lane and new viewers have been added who were not originally familiar with the show.

At this current time, episodes of Little House can be seen on The Inspirational Network, (INSP) as well as The Hallmark Channel. Some days each network runs multiple shows back to back in marathon style. I have spoken with so many people, who love this program and have read Facebook posts that express the same attitude. There is a growing sentiment that many television viewers are turned off by the sex, profanity, and violence in today's programming. This has many longing for family friendly TV programming that can be enjoyed by the entire household.

Little House on the Prarie was loosely based on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but most of the storylines came from the creative genius of Michael Landon and were not true to what actually happened to the real Ingalls family. One example is the addition of Albert Ingalls as an adopted son. The real Laura Ingalls Wilder did not have a brother. The Little House television series began with a 2 hour made for TV movie titled Little House on the Prarie, which aired in March of 1974. It ended the same way with a 2 hour special in March of 1984 titled The Last Farewell.

A third movie titled Bless the Dear Children aired after 9 months after the series finale, as a Christmas movie in December 1984. The first episode of the television series premiered on the NBC network on September 11, 1974, and ran for 9 seasons. It last aired on May 10, 1982. Michael Landon and Karen Grassle, who portrayed Charles and Caroline Ingalls left the series during the 1982-1983 season. New episodes were then broadcast with a different title Little House: A New Beginning. It all came to an end in March of 1984 with a 2 hour episode titled The Last Farewell. It ended when the residents blew up their homes then left town by marching and singing Onward Christian Soldiers.

The Last Farewell has aired at least twice since the pandemic and has some viewers wondering why such a drastic measure was taken. A popular theory that still is being voiced is that series creator Michael Landon did not want anyone else using the buildings and items from Walnut Grove once the show went off the air. Melissa Gilbert shares this sentiment in the above video. There are also those who say Landon was angry because ratings for the hit show had dropped and NBC canceled it. This may be true but there is another more practical reason for the way the town. was destroyed. Producer Kent McCrary explained it all and you can read what he said word for word at this link.

The truth of the matter is that McCrary was leasing the land from Newhall Land and Development. The agreement was that when the series was over, the land must be returned to its original state. It would have taken a lot of time and money to dismantle every single home and business in the roughly 2-mile area that was Walnut Grove. Michael Landon pitched the idea that they should blow up everything except the church and the little house. This way all that would be needed was for someone to clear out the debris. In the final moments of the show, Reverend Alden goes to the church and rings the bell, and as the townspeople leave they drive by the little house, where rabbits are running through the yard. Sadly the remaining structures were destroyed by wildfires in 2003 and 2018.