Karen Grassle Thought ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Would Only Run For a Few Years

Karen Grassle, best known for playing Caroline “Ma” Ingalls, has admitted she never stepped onto the set of Little House on the Prairie expecting it to become the kind of series audiences would still be discovering and embracing decades later.

In an interview with The Jim Masters Show, Grassle said she thought the show would be successful but did not know it would become such a phenomenon. She explained that she loved theater and worried about being tied up in television for too long. When she got the job, she needed the work, but she also remembered thinking, “Oh dear, this thing, this is going to run probably for three years.” She hoped to make some money and get back to the theater. Of course, things worked out very differently.