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Dean Butler, who played Almanzo Wilder on the television classic, is currently binging the new series.
Key Points
- Actor Dean Butler has offered his take on the new Little House on the Prairie series.
- Butler portrayed Almanzo Wilder, the eventual husband of Laura Ingalls, beginning in 1979.
- “The family singing” stands out in the 2026 version, Butler said in a brief review he shared on social media.
Dean Butler is cheering on — and maybe singing along — to the new Netflix adaptation of Little House on the Prairie.
The actor portrayed main character Laura Ingalls’ eventual husband, Almanzo Wilder, on the NBC series over its last four seasons, from 1979 to 1983.
“Something that I love about the program that I think would have been really fun in the original, which we did not do, other than in church. But something that I think is really wonderful about this is the family singing that is going on,” Butler said this week in an Instagram video. “Writers have rolled in songs that Pa played on his fiddle and the family is singing along, and they really are doing it beautifully.”
He noted that the music was in “the spirit of Laura’s books. She wrote it that way. There was a lot of that in the books.”
The reboot follows author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s popular children’s books, which recounted her childhood and were first published in the 1930s, more closely than the TV series. Starring an ensemble cast that included Melissa Gilbert (Laura), Michael Landon (Pa), Karen Grassle (Ma), Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary), and many others, it featured several fictionalized adventures.
Dean is one of the original show’s cast members who have continued to promote the show all these years later, even hosting the official Little House on the Prairie 50th Anniversary Podcast, alongside former costar Alison Arngrim, who played bratty Nellie Oleson.
“This was a very appealing cast,” he said in his review. “The show was beautifully produced. The pictures are gorgeous. There is a lot of good stuff going on here, but check out the music. Love the music. And I hope we’re gonna hear a lot more of it. Now, I’m only through episode 4, I think just getting ready to start episode 5, but that’s really been a highlight for me.”
The new series, which debuted July 9 on Netflix, also has the endorsement of Arngrim, who made an unexpected cameo in the second episode, portraying a creepy woman that Laura (Alice Halsey) and her big sister Mary (Skywalker Hughes) encounter.
“They’re fabulous,” she told Tudum this month.
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The actress has also delighted in the casting of Willa Dunn as Nellie in the show’s second season.
“Today, another has been chosen,” she commented in a social media post. “All hail she, whom they call ‘Willa’!! Like the one before her, she has risen from deep in the city of Gotham, to stand and take the ringlet crown. Bow down and tremble before her new majesty the new Nellie, Miss Willa Dunn!!”
Arngrim added, “Who I hear is a perfectly nice little girl and will do a great job!”
The new Little House on the Prairie is streaming on Netflix.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
