Little House: On The Prairie - Season 1

Little House on the Prairie was not a show about log cabins and bonnets. It was a show about grace under pressure. Season 1 planted the flag: No matter how loud the modern world gets, there will always be a place for the gentle, stubborn love of the Ingalls family.

Season 1’s most enduring episode, "The Lord is My Shepherd," dares to let the Ingalls lose their infant son, Charles Jr. It is a half-hour of network television that moves like a Greek tragedy. Laura, believing God has abandoned her family, runs away to a cave. When Charles finds her, he does not scold. He holds her and admits his own doubt. That scene alone redefined what family drama could be. Little House on the Prairie - Season 1

The genius of Season 1 is the casting of Melissa Gilbert as Laura. She is not a perfect, sweet angel. She is a scrawny, impulsive, jealous tornado of pigtails and stubbornness. When she sneaks a bite of the Christmas candy, when she fights a boy for calling her "half-pint," or when she lies about the missing slate, she is utterly, relatably real. She is the id to her older sister Mary’s (Melissa Sue Anderson) superego. Little House on the Prairie was not a