What is it? Little House on the Prairie, Season 1, 23 episodes on six discs from Lionsgate Home Entertainment

When? Now

How much? $29.98

Sounds familiar. Surely everyone’s heard of this one. Little House, which ran from 1974-1983 and was loosely based on the series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, follows the adventures of the Ingalls family in 19th-century Minnesota. The family is led by Charles (Michael Landon), a hard-working, honest man with an unshakable sense of right and wrong and a playful sense of humor, and Caroline (Karen Grassle), his patient and loving wife. They have three daughters: model child Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson), little Carrie (Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush) and spunky middle child Laura (Melissa Gilbert), who serves as the series’ narrator.

Season 1 starts with the family’s arrival in Walnut Grove, where they meet new friends like the amiable Doc Baker (Kevin Hagen) and the kindly shop owner Nels Oleson (Richard Bull), who is saddled with snooty wife Harriet (Scottie MacGregor) and monstrously bratty children Nellie (Alison Arngrim) and Willie (Jonathan Gilbert). Eventually, the Ingalls’ old friend, Mr. Edwards (Victor French), arrives and decides to settle down himself.

Together, they face little traumas like the first day of school and bigger ones like the death of a child.

Isn’t it sappy and preachy? Sometimes, yes, it can tilt that way. But the first season was before the show started getting too heavy on social issues and doing things like inventing more and more orphan children for the cash-strapped Ingalls family to adopt.

There’s a surprising amount of humor in these early episodes, so aside from the occasional blizzard or plague, there’s a nice light touch over all.

The term “family-friendly” can get a bad rap. There’s a pretty big divide out there on TV these days, with most shows way too “adult” for kids while most kids’ shows are excruciating to sit through for anyone in the double digits. Little House bridges the gap quite nicely.

Wait. Hasn’t this been released already? Yes, it has. The whole series is already available on DVD. However, the previous releases were rather slap-dash affairs, with grainy video and inferior sound. Worse, the episodes were the syndicated versions, meaning they were missing lines and sometimes full scenes that had been cut out to fit in more commercials. These are the complete, original broadcast versions and the picture is sharp enough that you can see blades of grass and the pattern on those blue dresses Ma made for the girls.

This set also includes the pre-series pilot movie, which recounts the family’s journey from Wisconsin and their brief time living on the Kansas prairie.

Are there extras? Melissa Gilbert’s screentest with Landon is included. The main extra is Little House Phenomenon Part One, the first installment of the 40th anniversary documentary (the second part will be on Season 2, scheduled for May 6). It’s about 15 minutes long and includes interviews with two of Landon’s children, Gilbert, actor Dean Butler (who played Almanzo Wilder in later seasons) and behind-the-scenes people and network executives. It’s not terribly enlightening and talks more about big themes and the show’s place in TV history than it does any production or creation details.

New this week: Newhart, Season 3; The Spectacular Spider-Man, Complete Series (Blu-ray).

Next week: Dynasty, Season 8; Hill Street Blues, Complete Series; Mr. Selfridge, Season 2.

Style, Pages 48 on 04/20/2014