“Little House on the Prairie” is back with a new Netflix series – and while that fits into the category of, “random reboots that nobody asked for,” there’s a bigger reason why it’s back in 2026. “A sugarcoated view of rural life” is always “appealing to someone who wakes up with their phone on the pillow — and spends the entire day looking at the screen, wishing for a simpler time,” media scholar and Syracuse University professor Robert. J Thompson exclusively told Page Six. It’s no accident that “Little House on the Prairie” is back at a time when “trad wives” are in the zeitgeist. Influencers like Hannah Neeleman, aka “Ballerina Farm” — who has nine children, famous fans like Jennifer Garner, and posts videos of her domestic farm life — have become minor celebrities. The novel “Yesteryear” — which follows a “trad wife” influencer who is seemingly sent back in time to the 1800s — is the current trendy bestseller. A movie adaptation is already in the works, with Anne Hathaway set to star. Meanwhile, there’s widespread anxiety about the rise of AI. Dating apps are reportedly on a decline. “Luddite boyfriends” are sought after, as women increasingly seek “offline men.” Today’s young people are turning to “old-school grandma hobbies” such as needlepoint and birdwatching. These cultural winds are all blowing in the same direction. Everyone in 2026 is romanticizing the idea of a life away from the mess and stress of the modern world. It’s become a popular phrase to tell someone to “go touch grass” — meaning, get offline, and go take a walk in nature — if their brains seem poisoned by social media. No story embraces the “go touch grass” mentality more than “Little House on the Prairie.” Based on the popular semi-autobiographical children’s book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (published in the 1930s), the original show was a classic of the era, airing for nine seasons on NBC from 1974 to 1983. Set in the 1800s, the story follows the pioneer Ingalls family, and their rural frontier life in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The ‘70s show starred Michael Landon as Charles “Pa” Ingalls, Karen Grassle as Caroline “Ma” Ingalls, Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls and Melissa Sue Anderson as Laura’s sister, Mary. The new Netflix series stars Luke Bracey and Crosby Fitzgerald as the Ingalls parents, and Skywalker Hughes and Alice Halsey as daughters Mary and Laura. Both shows romanticize the beginnings of the American West, and family life on the frontier as the family supports each other and seeks out a better life, living off the land. On a YouTube clip of the original show, one fan commented that it “reminds [me] of the good old days … carefree and unburdened.” Another fan wrote, “I grew up with this show … no computers, no iPhone, it was just simple.” Thompson told Page Six that when the original “Little House on the Prairie” aired in the ‘70s, the culture also had anxieties about “life getting more complicated.” “We were in the middle of an energy crisis, the automobile industry was collapsing, Watergate was going on,” he said. Notably, they weren’t talking about the rise of AI in the ’70s, but they had their own tech concerns. The shift from typewriters to computers was just around the corner. The author and professor explained those issues made the original show’s viewers think, “wouldn’t it be nice t
AI-Powered News Curation