Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 18, 2017

Consumer (and/or viewer) interest can make a difference. I’m old enough to remember begging my father, who had taken me out to dinner that evening, to get me home in time to watch a spring 1968 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2, since it had been revealed that an “important announcement” would be broadcast at the episode’s close, and (being the geek I was and having followed the news about one of my favorite shows so closely) which I suspected was a renewal announcement for a third season. That turned out to be the case, though as long time Star Trek fans know, it was only a temporary reprieve, and the Starship Enterprise’s supposed five year journey into worlds unknown came to a premature close at the end of the 1968-69 television season. NBC’s response to a somewhat limited but still very vocal campaign to save the series, one which evidently buried the corporate headquarters in Rockefeller Center under a mountain of fan mail, turned the tide and allowed Gene Roddenberry’s iconic series to live for at least a little while longer. Something at least a little similar has happened with another vaunted NBC property, the beloved Michael Landon adaptation of the equally beloved books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie. Lionsgate started releasing the series in 2014, and brought out new volumes of subsequent seasons every few months thereafter, until suddenly with the advent of the sixth season, no further announcements of upcoming Blu-ray product were made (initial press releases mentioned only DVDs). Once again, a rather rabid (in a good way) fan base kicked into gear, and while the technology had changed (emails instead of snail mail), the result was the laudable decision to release the subsequent seasons as Amazon Exclusives. Interestingly (at least for those of us who work in the reviewing game), Lionsgate didn’t seem to be overly concerned about publicizing these final seasons, and in fact never sent screeners for official review purposes. While fans of this series will no doubt be thrilled that they can complete their collections, sticklers may have at least a quibble or two with some decisions that were made with regard to the final three years of the series.

Our reviews of the previous seasons of the series can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Little House on the Prairie: Season One Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Two Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Three Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Four Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Five Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Six Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Seven Blu-ray review

Little House on the Prairie: Season Eight Blu-ray review

There’s a certain undeniable elegiac quality to the ninth and final season of Little House on the Prairie, this despite the fact that the series attempted to rebrand itself Little House: A New Beginning in what was probably a bit of wishful thinking. The handwriting had already been on the wall for this beloved series for several years, with a sense of repetitiveness and outright lethargy at times that still couldn’t completely enervate the show’s stalwart emphasis on morality and the inherent goodness of people, despite the occasional grifter wandering into view. But the series’ understandable decision to reinvent itself really only tended to point out that the best days were in the past for tales of the Ingalls and Wilder clans.

With Caroline (Karen Grassle) and Charles (Michael Landon) out of the picture, one might assume that the show would simply focus on Laura (Melissa Gilbert) and Almanzo (Dean Butler), and while that is certainly the case, the characters are perhaps less prevalent than some might expect. Instead, a new family named the Carters is introduced, and when they move into the old Ingalls homestead, it seems like the show’s writers want to up the “new Darren” approach that Bewitched took when Dick York left the show, apparently hoping that no one would notice, or if they did, wouldn’t care all that much. There is a positive glut of "new kids on the block" this year, in what seems like a kind of desperate attempt to keep the cute quotient going as strongly as possible.

There are a number of touching episodes scattered throughout this final season, though the series tends to have a few too many visitors with various traumas dropping by to seem completely credible. Other episodes, like a kind of weird Old West take on Every Which Way But Loose just seem to reinforce the feeling that the writers had reached the end of their creative tethers and were grasping at whatever whimsical plotlines they could.

Diminishing ratings finally caught up with Little House on the Prairie during this season, leading to its cancellation, though even diehard fans would be hard pressed to aver it was a premature exit. That said, a number of story elements were left unfinished at the series' close, leading to a number of made for television films made over the ensuing months that sought to tie up loose ends. Two of those (including, somewhat weirdly, the one intended as a wrap up) are included on Little House on the Prairie: Season Eight, while the third is included on this set as a supplement.

This season’s episodes are:

• 1. Times Are Changing - Part One
• 2. Times Are Changing - Part Two
• 3. Welcome to Olesonville
• 4. Rage
• 5. Little Lou
• 6. The Wild Boy - Part One
• 7. The Wild Boy - Part Two
• 8. The Return of Nellie
• 9. The Empire Builders
• 10. Love
• 11. Alden’s Dilemma
• 12. Marvin’s Garden
• 13. Sins of the Fathers
• 14. The Older Brothers
• 15. Once Upon a Time
• 16. Home Again - Parts One & Two
• 17. A Child With No Name
• 18. The Last Summer
• 19. For the Love of Blanche
• 20. May I Have This Dance?
• 21. Hello and Goodbye

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. This season continues the generally better if not completely excellent quality I mentioned in our Little House on the Prairie: Season Eight Blu-ray review, though there are some intermittent quality variances, including hints of the same purplish wine color at selected moments that were reminiscent of some of the palette issues I discussed in our Little House on the Prairie: Season Seven Blu-ray review. Detail levels are often quite good, especially in close-ups, and when the series ventures out of doors, which it does quite often, the palette warms up noticeably, with an attendant uptick in detail levels. As with the two previous seasons, while restoration efforts have delivered transfers devoid of any major damage, there's still fairly regular signs of minimal age related wear and tear. Grain once again resolves well throughout the series, with (as with previous seasons) occasional moments of clumpiness, especially in some darker moments.

Note: I recommend reading the very useful User Review published by Member chrislong2 available on the tab above on this release which documents some missing footage in one episode of this release.

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the two previous seasons, this ninth season of Little House offers only a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, one which does the job relatively well but which deprives the track of much force, especially in the mid and lower ranges. Dialogue still comes through perfectly well, but there's a certain lack of energy in at least some of the more action oriented moments, even if those only entail a horse drawn carriage crossing the frame.

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bless All the Dear the Children (1080p; 1:35:09) presents a holiday themed story that actually takes placed prior to The Last Farewell, but for whatever reason NBC aired this last of the three movie specials made after the series proper had come to an end.

Little House on the Prairie: The Ninth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Completists will no doubt want to have this season in their Little House collections, but I doubt even many diehard fans would count this final year as among the series' best. There are still heart tugging moments, but a lot of them seem even more overly contrived than was this show's tradition virtually from the get go. Technical merits are on a par with the eighth season, and the inclusion of the final made for television movie will no doubt be appreciated by fans.