One of the foremost images of American exceptionalism is that of the strong frontier woman taming the elements alongside her husband while also keeping the hearth burning and the bellies full. While the legendary series Little House on the Prairie did do some work toward making the story of westward expansion a little more realistic, there were some red lines they would not cross. One of them concerned the Ingalls matriarch having an understandable nervous breakdown.
Karen Grassle, the actress who played “Ma” Ingalls (that would be Caroline to those other than her children), recently took some questions from fans on the official Little House on the Prairie TikTok account. (Go far enough down that hole and you’ll find yourself contemplating the purchase of a tote bag with Dean Butler’s face on it that says MANLY.)
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
When asked, “If you could create one storyline for your character that never happened, what would it be?” the 83-year-old actress replied, “I did create a storyline that I wanted us to do.”
She elaborated that her idea focused on “when tremendous amounts of pressure came to bear on Caroline. Let’s say a dust storm or the crops were all eaten by the bugs or whatever, and that she had a nervous breakdown. This was not uncommon.”
She continued, “The pressures on the pioneer women were so intense that sometimes they did have nervous breakdowns. But, of course, the producers didn’t want Caroline to have a nervous breakdown.”
When you think about the pressure that befell the Ingalls family — weather catastrophes, fires, blindness, morphine addiction — and the fact that the matriarch couldn’t regularly take a spa day, one begins to see that Grassle’s concept made a lot of sense.
Grassle appeared in the first eight of nine seasons of Little House on the Prairie, as well as one of the post-finale TV movies, Little House: The Last Farewell. (This was not, in fact, the last farewell, as Little House: Bless All the Dear Children aired 11 months later, but let’s not quibble.) Prior to getting cast on Little House, Grassle’s most prominent work was on stage, including a Shakespeare in the Park production of Cymbeline opposite Christopher Walken and Sam Waterston.
Arnold Jerocki/WireImage
Audiences eager to return to Walnut Grove will soon get an opportunity. Netflix has revived the series, which debuts in 2026. Crosby Fitzgerald, who was Sylvia on Palm Royale, and has appeared on Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens and Abbott Elementary, has been cast as ‘Ma’ Ingalls in the new one.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
If you can do with a shot of wholesome nostalgia but only have 26 seconds to spare, you are in luck. That’s just how long this clip of Caroline Ingalls being kind lasts.
