The Young Pioneers is a three-episode
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
westernThe Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
television series starring
Linda PurlLinda Purl is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for portraying Ben Matlock's daughter Charlene Matlock in season one of Matlock.-Early life and education abroad:...
(born 1955) and Roger Kern (born 1948) in the role of young newlyweds Molly and David Beaton, who settle in the
Dakota TerritoryThe Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
during the
1870sThe 1870s continued the trends of the previous decade, as new empires, imperialism and militarism rose in Europe and Asia. America was recovering from the Civil War. Germany declared independence in 1871 and began its Second Reich. Labor unions and strikes occurred worldwide in the later part of...
. The program was based on novels of
Rose Wilder LaneRose Wilder Lane was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist...
, daughter of
Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
, whose work inspired
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's
Little House on the PrairieLittle House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
starring
Michael LandonMichael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
.
The Young Pioneers aired at 7 p.m. Eastern on Sundays on April 2, 9, and 16, 1978.
The recurring cast included
Robert HaysRobert Hays is an American actor and is arguably most well known for his role in the movie Airplane!-Life and career:...
(born 1947) as Dan Gray,
Robert DonnerRobert Donner was an American actor who made many appearances in television series and films in a career spanning more than 40 years.-Early life and career:...
(1931–2006) as Mr. Peters,
Mare WinninghamMare Winningham , born Mary Megan Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Drama Desk, 7 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won an Independent Spirit Award and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.She is...
(born 1959) as Nettie Peters, Michelle Stacy as Flora Peters, and Jeff Cotler (born 1967) as Charlie Peters.
A MartinezAdolfo Larrue Martinez, III , better known as A Martinez, is an American actor and singer with roles in the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara and the primetime dramas L.A. Law and Profiler.-Early life:...
(born 1948) portrayed the Indian Circling Hawk. Geno Silva (born 1948) played another Indian, Fool's Crow.
The episodes are entitled "Sky in the Window", "A Kite for Charlie", and "The Promise of Spring".