The tradition of boycotting the Super Bowl when I have no rooting interest and instead participating in activities which are as far removed from football as possible. For my own records, here's the run-down of the previous 30 years...
Pre-2011 - Puppy Bowl I, Muppet Treasure Island, Follow That Bird.
2011 - Bob Ross Marathon
2012 - Family Ties Marathon
2013 - Steel Magnolias
2014 - The Bridges of Madison County
2015 - Various, Poetry
2016 - Best of the Worst, Da BullS
2017 - Cooking, Super Mario Bros. Super Show
2018 - Super Bowl
2019 - I don't know, did I forget?
2020 - How Green Was My Valley?
2021 - Facts of Life Marathon
2022 - Jem Marathon and Film
2023 - Super Bowl (boooo!)
And it's worth re-stating that I claimed this segment jumped the shark way back in 2021.
I grew up just slightly after the peak of the "Little House on the Prairie" mania. And yet, I don't remember ever watching even a single episode. I remember reading the book in school and really getting into it, and the standard at that time being that you always watched the movie/TV show after learning something, even THEN I don't think we watched the "Little House on the Prairie." Having heard about it all my life and having never, as far as I know, seen a minute of it, I was curious and decided to check it out.
According to tradition, my task now is to dress down the series in an overlong whirlwind of gaffes and bad puns. As fond as I am of tradition, I really enjoy this series. I love the Western genre, I enjoy the cinematic feel, I appreciate that it's told from the perspective of a child, I'm fascinated by the aspect of frontier life, I'm even willing to pretend that the small girl's echoing voice over is sweet and not at all reminiscent of some "Children of the Corn" horror movie.
The first episode - the 0th episode - the pilot - is an hour-and-a-half TV movie and it's by far the greatest of the 3 I watched. A family travels in a wagon west to the frontier and builds a house, a barn; digs a well, plants a field, encounters Indians and so forth. It completely works as a standalone movie and, for a TV movie from the 70s, it's a masterpiece - sweeping, pastoral, familial, harrowing, touching.
Not that there aren't flaws. There are some weak performances - the actress playing the mother seems to think she's in a 1950s stage play. There are some weak or confusing moments. At one point they caulk the wagon and ford the river. Halfway through Michael Landon's character gets out and slowly sinks below the water like he's easing into a hot tub. Then everyone freaks out. The scene is supposed to convey that he's in danger of drowning - drowning in 2 feet of water - but there's no telling that from looking at him. And the "Indians" are clearly white guys in makeup. I guess I don't know they're white but they're definitely not real Indians.
On to the second episode and there's a clear step into TV Series mode. The father has to work long jobs for a few weeks in order to make ends meet and it wears on him and the family. We're also introduced to the town and townspeople as he meets them. A giant step down but still an excellent show.
In the third episode, we focus more on the daughters - it's the first day of school and they don't know anyone. They are mocked for being unlearned and poor. Still emotional and sweet but definitely another step into the television series formula and another step away from the Western feel. Still, a well-told story with an emotional punch in the end.
So, as I said, I really loved this series, at least according to the 3 episodes I've seen. I highly recommend it, especially if you're looking for family entertainment. I may continue watching it, though I have to finish my current series first. You'll hear about that soon. I have heard that "Little House in the Prairie" jumps the shark most spectacularly somewhere in its 9 seasons and, furthermore, this leads to one of the most bonkers last episodes of any TV series ever made. These are exactly the type of things I should be writing about, but both require an honest watch through all 9 seasons, which I can't do in one day. Future posts, perhaps.
I once watched a documentary that told in great detail all the natural conditions that combined over thousands of years to create the ideal farming soil in the plains of the Mid-West. One thing I never learned was why the greatest soil in the world didn't turn into a forest. Why are do grasslands exist without the trees encroaching? According to my search, the plains are too arid - rainfall is low and erratic - so trees generally can't grow there. That's news to me, I thought trees would grow almost anywhere.
It occurred to me that this show is not so far removed from the Super Bowl as I would like it to be. What was the Super Bowl? The 49ers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. For the second team, the Ingalls settle in Kansas and encounter an actual Indian chief. The first team refers to the 1849ers, the prospectors of the gold rush, and though the show doesn't take place in 1849, it's not far off. And anyway, "1849ers" and the show are both about westward expansion.
Have you ever noticed that every period drama fails to be authentic to the period and they all fail in exactly the same way? It's the hair. Take this series. They have the period clothing, the period props, the period everything, they're plowing a field with oxen and protecting themselves with muskets but you look at the hairstyles and you can tell it was made in the 70s. It's always the hair.
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