After nine seasons on NBC, Michael Landon ensured Little House on the Prairie ended with a bang.
Upset over the cancellation of the long-running series, Landon, who also served as Little House's writer and executive producer, came up with a storyline that leveled the set so no other productions could use it. And, in a clear message to network executives, he would be the one to blow it up.
The titular scene didn't take place at the close of the series. Instead, the explosive finale aired during a television movie titled Little House: The Last Farewell.
"That whole experience from reading the script until the last day was the longest funeral I'd ever attended."
Melissa Gilbert to 'Entertainment Weekly' about learning of 'Little House on the Prairie's cancellation.
The shocking storyline moment came after Walnut Grove's residents decided to blow up their town rather than leave their homes to a greedy land developer. It was a bold, symbolic ending that mirrored Michael Landon’s frustration with the show’s cancellation.
Melissa Gilbert says Michael Landon was 'angry' over 'Little House's' end
In a February 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Gilbert shared details of those fateful, final days of filming Little House on the Prairie. She revealed that Michael Landon was "angry" over the show's cancellation and reportedly wanted to send NBC a clear message.
NBCU Photo Bank"I knew that he wanted to demolish everything because he was so angry that NBC never called him to tell him the show was officially canceled. We just weren't on the fall schedule after not just 10 years of Little House, but years of Bonanza," Gilbert began.
"It was just such a disrespectful thing to do to him," the actress added. "For me personally, that whole experience from reading the script until the last day was the longest funeral I'd ever attended."
She concluded, "It was so heartbreaking. Every day it was somebody else's last day. Every day, we had to say goodbye to someone else. And then when they blew it all up and we gathered that final, final day, it was just devastating and horribly, horribly sad."
"To see these buildings — they were not just façades, they were buildings — where we'd gone to school, where we'd communed, where we gathered and spent such an intense 10 years of all of our lives just flattened."
In 1984, Michael Landon told The New York Times that he believed blowing up the town of Walnut Grove provided the series a "good strong pioneer ending." He added the cast and crew shed "lots of tears when we finally blew up the town. The actors had all become very attached to their own buildings, so it was very emotional.''
Additionally, Landon tearfully told TODAY the experience was like living in a house for years. 'You can liken it to people living in a house for ten years and then, blown up."
Do any buildings from the 'Little House' set remain?
To Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Gilbert revealed that one building from the set of Little House on the Prairie was not touched during the demolition. Instead, it was dismantled and put into storage.
The town's church was not part of the final explosive scene of Little House: The Last Farewell. Gilbert said it was a "conscious decision" to not demolish that particular structure, as it would symbolize "hatred."
Little House on the Prairie was filmed in the hills of Simi Valley, California, as reported by Collider. The series' exterior shots were filmed at Big Sky Movie Ranch.
Sadly, the last piece of the set left standing, the Ingalls home, was destroyed in a fire, reported The Sacramento Bee. “It’s one of the last props, if not the last props from the set,” Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Scott Dettorre told the outlet in 2019.
By destroying Walnut Grove, Michael Landon made sure the show ended exactly as he intended, on its own terms. In doing so, he left fans with a finale as unforgettable as the series itself.
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