Big drama surrounding the Little House on the Prairie event in South Dakota

When Little house on the prairie It premiered on NBC-TV 50 years ago last month (September 11, 1974). It immediately became a cultural phenomenon and aired for nine seasons with 204 episodes.

This year, in honor of the golden anniversary, some of the show’s surviving stars are introduced: Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls Wilder), Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson Dalton), Karen Grassle (Caroline Quiner Ingalls), Dean Butler (Almanzo Wilder), Charlotte Stewart (Eva Beadle Simms) and Matthew Labyorteaux (Andrew “Andy” Garvey) were scheduled to make a series of appearances across the country, including a stop in South Dakota.

But that never happened and now a major controversy is brewing.

People reported that the show’s former actors were concerned about this in early September “poorly organized and executed events”, prompt them to do so Send a letter to organizer Jack Bishop and his company Gravel Road Markets LLC informing them that they would no longer be appearing as scheduled:

“This letter informs you that, effective immediately, the undersigned original cast members of Little House on the Prairie will no longer endorse, promote, or perform at Gravel Road Markets, LLC events.”

The letter also requests that Bishop and Gravel Road Markets “Remove our names and likenesses from sales and marketing resources supporting any upcoming Little House on the Prairie 50th Anniversary events produced or promoted by Gravel Road Markets, LLC.”

One of those events took place September 27-29 at Keystone for the Black Hills.

The cast claims Bishop never officially canceled the events, only changing the status to “sold out.” They claim that some fans arrived at Keystone and were never informed that the event was not taking place.

Gilbert said it too People that Gravel Road Markets LLC promoted the actress as a co-producer of these events, which she said was not the case.

Little house on the prairie focused on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family and was loosely based on her bestselling series Small house Books.

While most of the television series was devoted to the family’s time in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, the Wilder family moved to South Dakota in 1879 and settled in DeSmet.

Laura’s sister Carrie later lived in Keystone for several years.