Beloved TV show Little House on the Prairie recently celebrated its 50 year reunion. Several cast members from the show joined together to celebrate the legacy and impact of the beloved show. Melissa Gilbert, who was quite young when the show initially aired, talked about some instances of her late co-star Michael Landon’s generosity and good attitude.
Melissa Gilbert on Michael Landon’s generosity
A good environment on a film or television set is quite important to make the cast and crew feel at home. This is a fact that was embodied quite well by the Little House on The Prairie actor Michael Landon. At a recent reunion of the beloved classic show, Landon’s former co-star Melissa Gilbert opened up to PEOPLE about her bond with the late star as well as the way that Landon generously treated everyone on the set and took care of their well-being.
“Every year for NBC, he would announce the Rose Parade and instead of taking a payment for that, he would use that money to buy the cast and crew Christmas presents,” Gilbert told PEOPLE about her late co-star, adding, “So he sacrificed his New Year's Eves, basically, to be at the Rose Parade at 3 a.m. so that he could give us all really amazing Christmas presents”
Melissa Gilbert on her profound experience of making Little House
Michael Landon was a driving force behind Little House on the Prairie. He wrote, directed, acted and produced the show which ran for 9 seasons. He also served as a guiding force for many of the cast members, and even had a paternal bond with Melissa Gilbert, who started the show when she was 9 years old.
“My own father passed away when I was 11,” Gilbert told PEOPLE. “And I had been working with Michael for two years at that point, and he really sort of stepped in and kind of watched over me in a much more paternal way.”
With such a profound experience on the show, coming back for a reunion was an overwhelming and wonderful experience for Gilbert, as she told Good Morning America. The iconic show was based on Laura Ingliss Wilder’s Little House book series. Melissa Gilbert played the role of Laura Inglis throughout the show’s 200 episode run.
