The show's central characters are Charles Ingalls (farmer and mill worker), his wife Caroline, and their three daughters, Mary, Laura, and Carrie, though the family expands with the birth of daughter Grace and adoption of son Albert in season five, as well as the adoption of birth siblings Cassandra and James at the end of season seven (a son, Charles "Freddy" Jr., was also born, but died as an infant).

Other essential characters include the Oleson family: Nels, proprietor of the town's general store, Oleson's Mercantile as well as Nellie's Restaurant and Hotel; his malicious, gossiping wife, Harriet, who runs the mercantile and restaurant with him and serves as the show's principal antagonist; and their three children, biologically Nellie and Willie, and adopted Nancy; Isaiah Edwards, Grace Snider Edwards and their three adopted children; the Garvey family, Jonathan, Alice, and Andy; Rev.

[2] Little House had many guest stars and incorporated a number of well-known actors, including Academy Award winners such as Ernest Borgnine ("The Lord is My Shepherd"), Red Buttons ("The Circus Man"), and Patricia Neal ("Remember Me").

Other established performers included Forrest Tucker ("Founder's Day"), Richard Basehart ("Troublemaker"), Theodore Bikel ("Centennial"), Johnny Cash ("The Collection"), Burl Ives ("The Hunters"), John Ireland ("Little Girl Lost"), Ray Bolger ("As Long as We're Together" and "Come Dance with Me"), Arthur Hill ("Journey in the Spring") and Barry Sullivan ("Author, Author").

[3] Former television executive and producer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Ed Friendly, had noticed that his daughter had a habit of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's series of books every year and was convinced they had enormous licensing potential.

[5] Friendly purchased the television rights to Little House on the Prairie to develop a family-oriented series, while he and Blanche Hanalis wrote the initial screenplay; but the result was not received well by the networks.

[7] But NBC ultimately trusted Landon's intuition and committed to a two-hour pilot movie and a series to follow if ratings warranted.

[11] Hollywood's work rules for small children required the use of twins for the character of Carrie, who was played by Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush.

[27] From the beginning of the pilot, cinematotography was handled by Ted Voigtlander, giving a picture of what faced prairie homesteaders more than a century ago.

[29] During the series, exterior shots for the Ingalls home at Plum Creek and the village of Walnut Grove were filmed at the nearby Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley.

As ratings declined in the final season, Landon felt that the series had run its course, noting, "[W]hen we started this show, we never imagined it would last this long".

Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present suggest that the series is "not a Western in the usual sense.

[40] The series hit several themes that place it within the Western genre, including "cowboys and Indians" (pilot and "Freedom Flight"), its west of the Mississippi setting, as well as gunplay and violence.

[41] With total creative control, Michael Landon presented a vision of "the strong, honest pioneer family whose spirit of love and devotion overcomes all physical harshness and obstacles of the heart, and always taught a moral".

[43] Using the September 24, 1975, season two episode "Ebenezer Sprague" as an example, Lawrence and Jewett delve into the Pa Ingalls character as embodying the hero's journey of the monomyth.

[16] Episodes contained a type of sermonizing that was not a "fire-and-brimstone kind of preachiness, but always the moral lesson learned through tolerance of those different from us, compassion for those less fortunate, patience with those less able".

[16] Little House explored themes involving many social issues including adoption, alcoholism, faith, poverty, blindness, prejudice, bigotry, and racism.

Some plots also include subjects of contemporary social issues such as drug addiction, leukemia, child abuse, premarital sex, menopause, and rape.

[65][66][67] In January 2025, Nielsen Media Research recognized the show with an ARTEY award as a top streaming Legacy program with 13.25 billion minutes viewed on Peacock in 2024.

Landon biographer Marsha Daly said, "It was as if they resented its simple, sweet characters, and preferred the trash-with-flash type shows then making in-roads on television.

"[71] Daly specifically notes a review by Richard Schidel of Time in which he said that Landon looked "as if he just stepped out of a unisex beauty salon on the Strip rather than 430 episodes of Bonanza" and that the show seemed "to be striving for a simple, straightforward style, minimizing both molodramatic and sentimental excesses".

[27] By the end of the first season, Amory noted that TV Guide's most disagreeing mail was his critique of Little House, and that most viewers considered it to be a good family show.

[27] Perhaps one of the most glowing reviews came from The Christian Science Monitor when it wrote that "to watch Little House on the Prairie is to fall in love with a time, a place, a way of life, a particular family", further noting that it was "an astounding, skillful production".

"[15] Even as recently as 2020, outlets such as The New York Times have described it as "perfectly balanced between sweet and sour", while highlighting its simplicity, self-sufficiency, and sentimentality.

Realizing that it takes time to build an audience for a quality show, NBC was not about to cancel a program that was receiving high praise from parents and teacher groups.

[3] Following the production of the pilot movie and his objections to how Little House was adapted for the screen, Ed Friendly remained involved in name only, although he retained billing in the show's credits and received royalty payments.

[97] In December 2020, Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content announced they were developing a reboot as a one-hour dramatic series adaptation.

[98] Meeting together at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2020, cast members of the original series expressed their doubts on the likelihood of success with such a project, suggesting that it would not work without the genius of Michael Landon.

In March, 2024, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Alison Angrim met for an interview ahead of a planned "Prairie Palooza" event at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California.

[105][106] The three-day event included panel interviews with cast members, exhibits of Little House artifacts such as scripts, merchandise, and other items, as well as recreated miniatures of some of the sets.