Michael Landon Made His Kids Watch ‘Little House’ To Teach Valuable Lesson

Michael Landon was an inextricable part of Little House on the Prairie, serving as a star actor, director, and producer. According to his castmates, Landon exercised strict control over the set from top to bottom. When the cameras stopped rolling, Landon acted similarly, insisting on his children watching the program for one specific, personal reason.

The cultural landscape that surrounded Landon as he was working on Little House greatly influenced the way he approached the show. “Families just don’t talk to each other enough anymore,” noted Landon. He was going to provide America with a strong counterexample.

Michael Landon wanted to keep ‘Little House’ as wholesome as possible

Landon wanted to cultivate healthy bonds between American family members once again. The family dinner has long been enshrined in the American psyche as something important to cultivating relationships and building well-rounded people. But in the 1970s, according to a report shared on The Scramble, families were spending as much as 26% of their budget on eating out instead of at the dinner table at home.

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By 2010, that number rose to some 41%. But, though it may be a diminishing feature of American life, the importance of the family dinner is cemented in history and remembered to this day.

Trying to counter this alarming trend was Landon. He took it to such an extent that he monitored what his children watched on television. “Unless there’s something very worthwhile, I won’t let them watch during the week,” admitted Landon. “But they do have to watch Little House.”

Landon put forward good content for his children and all other viewers

The family dinner has, since its advent in the United States from Europe, been the heartbeat of interpersonal enrichment. Sociologist James H.S. Bossard said in 1943, “it is at the dining table, and particularly at dinner time, that the family is apt to be at its greatest ease.” It was a center of communication and education. That same year, The Saturday Evening Post published Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell, calling the dinner table a symbol of American strength.

Togetherness and friendliness defined the values laid out at the dinner table beside the roasted chicken and boiled green beans, mashed potatoes and chopped carrots. It was also unity and warmth that Landon wanted to bring back to American viewers through the Ingalls family.

At one point in the show’s production history, NBC executives wanted more action in the show but Landon put his foot down, saying it did not align with the characters.

“It was obvious I wasn’t going to do that kind of show,” he said in ’82. “Our characters are warm, feeling, and non-violent towards each other.”

After all, his kids would be watching every single episode.