2020 has been a hell-year, but it’s not like any of the preceding years were much better. Computers are controlling our lives, monitoring everything we and trying to manipulate us into doing other things, all while Twitter trolls use the anonymity of the internet to get away with being terrible people. Why, it’s almost enough to make us long for a simpler time, when there were no computers or internet trolls or… electricity. Anonymous Content, Paramount Television Studios, and Friendly Family Productions seem to be thinking the same thing, because Yahoo! says they’re developing a new hourlong drama reboot of Little House On The Prairie.
That’s really all the information that Yahoo! has, but it’s pretty much a no-brainer as a concept. The original ran for nine seasons before continuing on as a pseudo-spin-off, and the “life on the prairie” premise is loose enough that you don’t really have to adhere to the exact plots of the original show or the book. Plus, once you get a house and the costumes, it’s gotta be pretty cheap, meaning the studios could theoretically get some famous people—but now we’re just doing their work for them, so we’ll throw in a bad idea just for fun: post-apocalyptic future. It’s not the 1800s, it’s the 2800s. Most of humanity has been wiped out by nuclear war, any advanced technology has been lost and forgotten, and the survivors have gone back to an old-fashioned life on the irradiated prairies of Future America. Better yet, as long as nothing in the actual reboot actively contradicts this, we can pretend it’s what’s really happening anyway!