This week marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of Little House on the Prairie, the cherished show that captured hearts around the globe, including in Israel, during the 1980s. First aired on September 11 (just a coincidence, obviously), 1974, the series was based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved books, which recounted her childhood memories.
It followed the lives of the Ingalls family, who lived in the American Midwest at the end of the 19th century, centering on father Charles, mother Caroline, the protagonist Laura, and her sisters Mary and Carrie.
When the series concluded in 1983 after nine seasons, it left millions heartbroken. In honor of the jubilee celebrations, we've taken a look at what the stars of the series are up to today.
Melissa Gilbert - Laura
Melissa Gilbert, now 60, began acting in the series at the tender age of nine, continuing for a decade. She was even nominated for a Golden Globe for her role.
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Melissa Gilbert, then and now
(Photo: Getty Images IL/ Pascal Le Segretain, NBC Television-Handout)
"Acting in the series was undoubtedly one of the greatest gifts I've ever received," she said in a 2022 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. "I got to grow up on set alongside amazing actors and crew. Everyone there was like a second family to me."
In 1985, at just 21, Gilbert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the youngest actress to earn the honor. She continues to act, mostly in TV movies and smaller film roles. From 2001 to 2005, she served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She has published four books and founded a fashion company called Modern Prairie, which has a line for older women.
Gilbert has been married three times and has two sons. She remains married to her third husband, whom she wed in 2013 – the actor Timothy Busfield, best known from the '80s series Thirtysomething as the redheaded Elliot.
Karen Grassle - Caroline
Karen Grassle, now 82, was a theater actress when she was cast in the series. In a 2021 interview with People magazine, she discussed her complex relationship with co-star Michael Landon, who played the family patriarch and was also the series' producer, director and writer at times; he died in 1991 from pancreatic cancer.
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Karen Grassle, then and now
(Photo: Getty Images IL/ Pascal Le Segretain, United Archives)
According to Grassle, when she asked for a raise, Landon did everything to dissuade her, including telling her that NBC's surveys found her character was not particularly liked. Additionally, she claimed Landon would tell her dirty jokes during scenes where they were shown lying and talking in bed. Grassle left the series in the eighth season, but she said that a few years before Landon's death they talked and reconciled.
After leaving the series, her acting career mainly included TV movies and guest appearances in series including The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. She later returned to focus on theater, and in 2019, she played Daisy in a production of Driving Miss Daisy. In her personal life, Grassle married and divorced three times and has a son and a daughter. In 2021, she published an autobiography revealing her struggle with alcoholism.
Melissa Sue Anderson - Mary
Melissa Sue Anderson, now 61, was cast in the series at age 11 and starred until the end of the seventh season (viewers of the '80s are still recovering from the fire scene during which she went blind).
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Melissa Sue Anderson, then and now
(Photo: Getty Images IL/ Pascal Le Segretain, Michael Ochs Archives-Stringer)
She continues to act in TV movies and take on small roles in films, such as in the 2018 movie The Con Is On starring Uma Thurman. In 1990, she married screenwriter and producer Michael Sloan, and they have two children. In 2002, they emigrated to Canada and became official Canadian citizens in 2007.
Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush - Carrie
The younger sister Carrie was played by the Greenbush sisters, identical twins who began acting in the series before they were four years old. After the series ended, the two, now 54, continued to appear in TV movies and commercials, but by high school, they decided to quit acting. As adults, Lindsay studied accounting in college and became an accountant, while Sidney was a professional rodeo rider.
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Twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush played the role of Carrie
(Photo: Getty Images IL/David Livingston, United Archives)
In 2014, Lindsay married Daniel Sanchez, and they have one child. During a special about the series aired on the Hallmark Channel a decade ago, she shared that she and her husband first met 30 years earlier on the set of the series when she was a little girl and he was a teenager. "He lived on a farm near the set, and Michael Landon let him come in and hang out with the actors and crew," she said. "We decided to hold our wedding right under the tree where we first met."
Sidney has had less romantic fortune: She was married for nine years to William Foster, a veterinarian and horse breeder, who shot himself two days after Sidney told him she wanted to end their marriage.
Alison Arngrim - Nellie
Arngrim, now 62, initially auditioned for the roles of Laura and Mary but was ultimately cast as Nellie – the spoiled, bullying child that audiences loved to hate, considered Laura's biggest rival. In a March interview with People magazine, she said that, contrary to their on-screen rivalry, she and Melissa Gilbert were "like sisters" behind the scenes.
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Alison Arngrim, then and now
(Photo: Getty Images IL/ Pascal Le Segretain, NBC Television-Handout)
After the series ended, Arngrim continued acting in films and theater and was also a stand-up comedian and cooking show host. In 2002, she premiered a successful one-woman show called Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. In 2010, she published a memoir with the same name, subtitled "How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated," which also achieved great success.
Arngrim divorced her first husband, screenwriter Thomas Spencer, in 1993, and married her second husband, musician Bob Schooner, the same year, to whom she is still married. She has never had children. In a 2004 interview with Larry King, she revealed that her older brother, Stephen, sexually abused her from the time she was six and he was 13, for three years.
Many might not remember, but the series also featured a child who grew up to become a movie and TV star: Jason Bateman, now 55. He was cast in the series at age 12, playing James Cooper Ingalls, the child adopted by Caroline and Charles during the seventh season.
Shannen Doherty, forever Brenda Walsh (who died last July after battling breast cancer), also began her career in the series when she was cast at age 11 during the eighth season, playing Jenny Wilder, the niece of Almanzo Wilder – who later became Laura's husband.