<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Website </Td> </Tr> <P> Little House on the Prairie (known as Little House: A New Beginning in its final season) is an American western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Sue Anderson, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s . The show is an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best - selling series of Little House books . Television producer and NBC executive Ed Friendly became aware of the story in the early 1970s . He asked Michael Landon to direct the pilot movie . Landon agreed on the condition that he could also play Charles Ingalls . </P> <P> The regular series was preceded by the two - hour pilot movie, which first aired on March 30, 1974 . The series premiered on the NBC network on September 11, 1974, and last aired on May 10, 1982 . During the 1982--83 television season, with the departure of Landon and Grassle, the series was broadcast with the new title Little House: A New Beginning . </P> <P> In 1997, TV Guide ranked the two - part episode "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away" at 97 on its 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list . </P>

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