Netflix Hitches Its Wagon to a Little House on the Prairie Reboot

Well tie my bonnet and buckle my shoes, Little House on the Prairie is getting a Netflix reboot. This “fresh” adaptation of the original Laura Ingalls Wilder books is “part hopeful family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West,” according to Netflix, which also says the series will offer a “kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of those who shaped the frontier.”

If you think a “kaleidoscopic” adaptation of the very wholesome Little House sounds trippy, it will delight you to learn that the series will be executive produced by a guy named Trip Friendly (!!), the son of Ed Friendly, EP of the original Little House on the Prairie TV show, which ran for over 200 episodes on NBC, from 1974 to 1983. Trip’s production company is called “Friendly Family Productions,” so expect this reimagining to be less American Primeval, more American Girl.

On the other hand, the series will be helmed by showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine, whose credits include The Boys and Vampire Diaries, so maybe this spin on Little House will have more edge than expected. There might be all kinds of tradwife nostalgia tied to the original TV show, but it was full of dark and disturbing plotlines, ranging from a typhus outbreak to a rabid raccoon attack.

News of the reboot comes days after Nielsen’s streaming report for 2024, which revealed that the original Little House is one of the most popular “legacy titles” on streaming, logging over 13 billion viewing minutes on Peacock. For Netflix, a Little House reboot will be like striking gold. Ballerina Farm must be shaking in her egg apron.