Little House on the Prairie Showrunner’s Creative Approach to Fever Dream Flashbacks
Rebecca Sonnenshine, the showrunner of Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie, has previously worked on projects that feature genre elements such as dreams and flashbacks.
In the fourth episode of the show, a fever outbreak occurs in Independence, Kansas, which is based on the Fever ‘N’ Ague chapter from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novel. The show’s writer and executive producer, Sonnenshine, wanted to portray the scary and intense experience of being sick in bed, but knew that this alone wouldn’t make for a compelling story.
Thus, the team wove in hallucinations disguised as flashbacks to Ma and Pa’s past before they took their daughters west in a daring and risky venture in the eyes of their family members. Pa sees his younger brother George, who ran away to fight in the Civil War, and Ma sees her sister Eliza, who didn’t agree with her leaving with Charles.
‘I have worked on lots of shows that have done flashbacks and wanted to be able to do something different, but have the same concept,’ Sonnenshine explained. ‘So I thought fever dreams would be really fun, because now there’s stakes. Now we’re getting the story of the reasons they left Wisconsin under those circumstances, and why no one came with them.’
The fever dreams allowed the show to explore the backstory of the Ingalls family, dropping ‘little bread crumbs’ throughout the season that eventually came together to form a compelling narrative. The show’s use of fever dreams also served as a commentary on the community’s response to the outbreak, highlighting the contrast between those who hoarded supplies and those who helped others in need.
‘We just went through this in a pandemic where people are hoarding supplies and saying ‘I have to protect my family,’ Sonnenshine said. ‘And, let’s just face it, there’s a guy out there who’s basically said the same thing, ‘You got to protect your family first,’ and don’t worry about your community.’
The showrunner also drew parallels between the early stages of the COVID pandemic and the chapter in the book, emphasizing that the way the illness spread wasn’t known at the time. The show’s use of fever dreams and hallucinations served as a creative way to explore the story and provide a compelling narrative for the audience.
