Little House on the Prairie: building the best possible collection (2 Viewers)

[Randy Korstick]

Also keep in mind that in the 70's the standard number of episodes per season was 24-26 were now its 20-22 and for more expensive shows 10-13. So networks many times look at the total budget for a season more than the cost per episode.

Like many other people, I'm sometimes interested in the economics of show biz. How does a TV show like this one, for instance, effectively combine entertainment "art" with commerce? Before Michael Landon and his team created this show, he had had a dozen years of training on the huge hit show Bonanza. In the early 1960s he started writing teleplays for that show, and in the last years he wrote and directed several episodes of Bonanza. After Bonanza was cancelled, it was producer Ed Friendly who brought the Little House project to Michael Landon. The TV-movie that became the pilot was one of the highest rated shows on NBC that year, and so 24 additional episodes were made for the first season. And so, in a sense, this is a bonus season, because it has the pilot movie plus the 24 episodes, which really makes it more like 26 episodes. That pilot movie seems pretty nicely made to me. Hard to see how it could have been made for much less than about $700,000 back in 1973-74, which would be about $4 million today. And it might have been more than that. By 1972, the average production budget for Bonanza had risen to about $250k an episode, since inflation was pretty high in those days, by 1974 Little House might have been at least 300k. It actually seems to have significantly more outdoor location photography than Bonanza, plus a lot of outdoor and indoor sets, and a rather large ensemble cast. Anyway, if it was something like $300k an episode, adjusted for inflation that would be about $1.5 million today. Most hour-long shows today cost c. $3-4 million, but Little House doesn't have the fx or other things that those have, plus salaries for most of the players except for Landon were probably pretty reasonable, and so half of what a TV show today costs seems possible. Anyway, in my silly time-wasting exercise (yes, I'm avoiding some work I need to do), my guess it that the first season with the pilot movie all added together would be something like $40 million in production costs.

And through the miracle of blu-ray you can own the whole thing for $20, and see it the way it looked in the Paramount theater to Michael Landon and the others who I think screened the show once in a while...

 

[benbess]

Also keep in mind that in the 70's the standard number of episodes per season was 24-26 were now its 20-22 and for more expensive shows 10-13. So networks many times look at the total budget for a season more than the cost per episode.

I think you're right that the network and/or studio making a show have to look at the cost of a whole season. And, as you say, the number of episodes per season has changed dramatically since the dawn of filmed prime time shows.

In the 1950s, many shows produced well over 35 shows in a season. The first several seasons of Gunsmoke, for instance, were all 39 episodes! Wagon Train made 37-39 episodes for each of its first six seasons. Since Wagon Train had an average production budget of about $100k an episode, that adds up to c. $3.9 million for 39 episodes back in 1957-58. But back then that was a huge investment. As a comparison, the big budget epic Western The Searchers, starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, and filmed in VistaVision and Technicolor had an estimated cost of about $3.7 million. And so a whole season of Wagon Train seems to have been a bit more than a big budget movie in the same genre at the same time. And putting $3.9 1957 dollars into an inflation calculator comes up with a figure of about $32 million in today's dollars, which sounds about right:

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

And since The Virginian had 30 episodes in its first few seasons, and had an average production budget of about $300k, that adds up to $9 million for the whole season, which would be a pretty huge $70 million today.

Fast forward to 1987, when the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation had a total of 26 episodes with an average costs of a bit more than a million each, for a total season cost of about $30 million, which would be about $60 million in today's money.

And that's actually about the same as a season of The Game Of Thrones. GoT has the highest cost per episode of maybe any TV show ever made. But since they only make ten episodes in a season, at about $6 million for each one, the total cost is about the same as the cost of a season of Next Gen, or a season of The Virginian back in the early 60s....

 

[bluelaughaminute]

Don't forget that as seasons got shorter so did episodes.
60's shows like The Outer Limits were usually 50-51 minutes . US shows are around 10 minutes less per episode now .
If they get any shorter it will start to get a bit ridiculous

 

[Radioman970]

My season 2 showed up today. It's getting harder and harder to continue with Season 4 on the old DVDs. But I'll forge ahead and it will be even more amazing. Watched the one about the Brides. Fun episode... love the cowpoke sort of music for Nelly's boyfriend, who looks a bit like a young Gomer. The little pond near the Ingal's place is used for another scene. talk about weird! I expected Charles to show up and ask them why they are using his land for a Lover's Lane.

 

[Ockeghem]

Radioman,

If I have the correct episode (the Brides), then my favorite quote was "Them's is some swell eats, m'am."

 

[Radioman970]

Scott, that's it! I think Mrs. Olson's reactions are some of her best in that one. I actually quote her "Nells.... for heaven saaaaaakes!" all the time!

 

[Ockeghem]

James,I too love it, and you're right about that 'cowpoke' sort of music we hear throughout. When watching the episode, I keep telling myself how (at least in Nelly's case) love certainly is blind.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I wonder when season 3 will be up for pre-order...

 

[moviebuff75]

The cast was in New York last week. In addition to their TODAY show appearance, they also filmed the documentary for one of the future sets. Good sign that the series is continuing on blu-ray.

 

[LeoA]

I hope that the retrospective episode 'The Little House Years' is done this time around when they reach season 6 so that I can retire my recording of it.

 

[Radioman970]

James,I too love it, and you're right about that 'cowpoke' sort of music we hear throughout. When watching the episode, I keep telling myself how (at least in Nelly's case) love certainly is blind.

Yeah, Nelly was head over heels. Good to see them take the character there. Constant nasty can come off as 2D.

One thing that came to my mind was the pretty lady and pig farmer from the Irish flick Waking Ned Devine. "...but I used the fruity soaps!"

 

[Ockeghem]

James,My children recently commented on how Nelly seems to have done an about face after she met (and married) Percival. But similar to the boy who cried wolf, I still wonder if she's being sincere sometimes when she is acting pleasant and friendly!

 

[Radioman970]

^^ she's earned that distrust!

 

[Bob_S.]

Has anyone done the digital copies yet? I'm trying to do season 2 and the title is not showing up on VUDU so I can pick it and redeem my code. I could for season 1 but not season 2. Anyone having any trouble with this?

EDIT: Never mind, just looked in VUDU's forums and others are having similar issues. Evidently the UV versions are a little delayed.

 

[Cinescott]

My season 2 is on the way. Bring on season 3; I'll happily preorder.

 

[LeoA]

Anyone notice the daylight "night" scene that the DVD Talk reviews for both season sets claim weren't corrected to appear as occurring at night?

The second 2 review though is a copy/paste job for much of it so he might've only intended it for season 1. I'm curious if it's a mistaken reviewer like all those claims from another DVD Talk reviewer about Adam-12 and Emergency having the endings of each episode removed, or if it's actually true.

Wouldn't such a thing be present in the master negatives? Why would the masters not reflect the finalized product? Plus, I always kind of assumed such an effect was accomplished during filming with a camera filter rather than happening in the editing room?

 

[Ethan Riley]

It could be either/either. Sometimes they do day-for-night with filters, other times it's a photochemical process. Not sure what Little House would have used.

 

[moviebuff75]

Which episode did this day for night shot occur in?

 

[benbess]

Watched The Racoon tonight with my 12-year old daughter. As you folks probably all remember, this one starts out light, and then slowly but surely seems to go off of a cliff! I was thinking to myself: "I don't remember Little House being this way. Yowza!" And then suddenly the ending took a turn, and I thought, "That's more what I thought it would be." My daughter and I were holding hands at the scary part, which was nice.

Strong PQ. Very good show.

 

[LeoA]

There's a few episodes in this series that are even worse and don't really have happy endings. The rape episode and the one with the mother that dies during childbirth are two that I'll skip over that leap to mind.