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Filmmakers shoot “Little House” DVD bonus material here

Three California-based filmmakers were in De Smet last week shooting bonus material for a “Little House on the Prairie” DVD boxed set. The “Little House” series aired on NBC from 1974-84.

Dean Butler, who portrayed Almanzo Wilder on the “Little House” television series, was here as executive producer and camaeraman and he was accompanied by Producer John Moraville and Writer Rick Okie. They shot film and interviewed those associated with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society here and in Walnut Grove, Minn. The shot some footage of 25 local school children at the Ingalls Homestesad and they interviewed others in the area, including Marion Cramer and Lynn Kruse of the Loftus Store.

The filmmakers said some of this footage will make its way into the bonus material. The material will include a virtual tour of the sites each town has to offer and how tourists can find them.

Okie said this bonus material will appear in segments 8 and 9 of the DVD series. The one is about “Laura’s Long Winter” and they came to South Dakota in an effort to show how the winter is.

“We’re out here to show how things really were,” he said.

But the countryside doesn’t look much like it did during the long winter because weather her has been extremely mild. Okie said the did find a little snow in Sioux Falls when they landed last Wednesday.

The other segment this bonus material will be added to is called “Laura’s Legacy”. Okie says that looks at what Laura Ingalls Wilder means to everyone and explores why she continues to be popular while other authors fade.

He said he thinks Wilder’s lasting quality is because of a combination of truth being stronger than fiction and because of the strong values her stories reflect.

“It’s about values that we all respect and are nostalgic for,” Okie said.

Moraville and Okie both said the societies here and in Walnut Grove and everyone they’ve approached have been extremely cooperative. They had supper Friday with members of the DeSmet Area Chamber of Commerce Tourism and Marketing Committee and listened to their plans to market the area.

“Everyone’s been wonderful,” Moraville said.

Dean Butler, who starred as Almanzo Wilder in the “Little House” TV show signs autographs at the Ingalls Homstead. (News Photo)

Also a photo of John Moraville and Rick Okie were included in the article.