Main Cast: Meredith Monroe, Tess Harper, Walton Goggins, Lindsay Crouse
Release Year: 2000
Plot
Four of the autobiographical novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder served as the basic source material for this made-for-TV movie. Covering some of the same ground as the Wilder-inspired TV series Little House on the Prairie, the film stars Meredith Monroe as 19th-century teenager Laura Ingalls, who at the beginning of the story is still living on her South Dakota family farm with her father (Richard Thomas), mother (Lindsay Crouse), and three siblings. Acknowledging her dad's insistence that she has "the wandering strain," Laura yearns for life beyond the prairie, but is obliged to accept a nearby schoolteaching position to help support her loved ones. After her marriage to homesteader Almanzo Wilder (Walt Goggins), Laura endures the usual trials and tribulations of life as a farmer's wife, further complicated by the loss of her first child and a raging diphtheria epidemic. Yet, somehow, Laura and Almanzo survive their many ordeals with renewed hope for the future. Tess Harper, cast as the "older" Laura, narrates the story. Originally broadcast by CBS on January 2, 2000, Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder was followed by a TV-movie sequel over two years later, on the same network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Barbara Jane Reams - Mary Ingalls; Courtnie Bull - Grace Ingalls; Haley McCormick - Carrie Ingalls; Alandra Bingham - Laura Ingalls (age 3); Lyndee Probst - Grace Ingalls (age 9); Terra Allen - Rose Wilder; J. Scott Bronson - Mr. Robbins; Jan Jensen - Mrs. Robbins; Cory Dangerfield - Cory; Virginia Dare Paulin - Patsy Robbins; Jeremy Hoop - Cap Garland; Mary Parker Williams - Miss Walter; Tracy Pfau - Mrs. Bouchie; Luke Stoddanf - Clarence; Kurt Woodruff - Royal Wilder
Credit
Marcus Cole - Director, Jim Oliver - Editor, Ernest Troost - Composer (Music Score), Bryan Ryman - Production Designer, Barry M. Wilson - Cinematographer, Stephen Harrigan - Screenwriter, Laura Ingalls Wilder - Book Author
