Last week, we reported that Netflix had announced it would reboot Little House On The Prairie over forty years after the beloved original show went off the air.
Sadly, a star of the original series has just made an announcement about the reboot that will likely come as a bad news to fans.
Original Little House Cast Ignored By Netflix
Alison Arngrim played the villainous Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie from 1974 until 1982. If fans were hoping that she’d be reprising her role, however, they’re in for a disappointment. Indeed, Arngrim confirmed in a new interview that none of the original cast-members will be coming back for this reboot.
“None of us, as far as I know, our gang, are in at this point,” Arngrim, 63, told ReMIND when asked if any members of the original cast would be coming back.
If she were asked, it seems that Arngrim would be interested in taking part.
“I have been joking for years that I’m finally old enough to play Mrs. Oleson, so call me!” she added.
Arngrim went on to push back on this being an actual reboot of the original Little House on the Prairie.
“It’s not really like a reboot, they’re not going back to Walnut Grove,” she explained. “They’re not going to have Doc Baker and Miss Beadle, and they’re certainly not going to have Al Burton, and all the people who were made up for the show. It is going back to the books.”
Full Story: ‘Little House On The Prairie’ Scores Netflix Reboot Over 40 Years After Original Show Ended
Another Original Cast-Member Weighs In
Dean Butler, who played Almanzo Wilder in the original show from 1979 through 1983, also spoke out to give his thoughts on this reboot.
“There have been so many different announcements about reboots or re-imaginings, but this had a different feel to it,” said Butler, 68. “This felt like this was really real.”
“One of the first feelings, in all honesty, is probably, well, ‘If this works, are they going to forget about what we did all those years ago?'” he continued. “And then the next thought is, ‘It’s going to be very difficult to create something that touches people’s hearts in the way that the original did.’”
Butler then said that the original Little House on the Prairie, which starred Melissa Gilbert and the late Michael Landon, had a “certain specific kind of touching, personal, intimate storytelling about the human condition” that resonated with audiences in the 1970s and 1980s. Now that it’s a new generation of viewers, however, Butler isn’t sure if the success of the original show can be replicated.
“The audience has changed,” he said. “What is the television audience and what do they want? … There’s a very different expectation. And if this adaptation of Little House can meet the expectation of this more current audience and bring along a few of those who have loved it, it’s going to be very successful.”
Related: ‘Little House On The Prairie’ Star Melissa Gilbert Doesn’t Miss Hollywood
Butler Praises Michael Landon
Butler believes that Landon, who died in 1991 at the age of 54, was the main secret behind the success of the original Little House on the Prairie.
“Michael was Michael,” he recalled. “He was a unique creative presence with this magical touch with an audience. And look, the creative team on the new show may also have a magical touch with an audience, but it’s a different touch and it will be different.”
“There was enormous aspiration in what Michael was doing,” he later added. “Michael said years ago, ‘People will be watching this long after we’re all gone.’ Well, at 25, when he said that, it felt a little hyperbole to me. It’s like, ‘come on now.’ Now, at 68, I’m looking at this, and I’m saying, ‘yeah, absolutely people are going to be watching this.”
Netflix has yet to announce a release date for Little House on the Prairie. It will certainly be interesting to see if this apparent reboot can live up to the original!
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