How ‘Little House on the Prairie’ eerily predicted the coronavirus

Burning fevers? Check! Quarantining? Check! An alarming death toll from a mysterious illness amid widespread fear and confusion? Check and check! Two haunting episodes of the classic show “Little House on the Prairie,” which ran between 1974 and 1983, chillingly foreshadow the current coronavirus crisis in the form of a typhus epidemic, a common occurrence …

Burning fevers? Check! Quarantining? Check! An alarming death toll from a mysterious illness amid widespread fear and confusion? Check and check!

Two haunting episodes of the classic show “Little House on the Prairie,” which ran between 1974 and 1983, chillingly foreshadow the current coronavirus crisis in the form of a typhus epidemic, a common occurrence in the mid- to late-19th century.

Fans of the series are freaking out over similarities between the storylines of episodes titled “Plague” and “Quarantine” and the grim reality of today’s coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 60,000 lives in America.

“Thought I would take some time away from the news and constant coronavirus coverage,” one fan tweeted. “Turned on an old rerun of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and it is about a FLU EPIDEMIC — really?” Another chimed in on Twitter: “I’ve been preparing for the #Coronavirus since watching the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ episode ‘Quarantine’ as a kid.”

The social media reaction has been so prevalent that New York-based actress Melissa Gilbert, who played lovable Laura Ingalls Wilder on the show, tells The Post she’s been thinking a lot about how the series tackled life in isolation while she herself is on lockdown in her Catskills hunting cabin.

“I realized how prescient it was,” says the 55-year-old. “We can all learn something from what happens in that episode.”

Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls in Season 2 of “Little House on the Prairie” (left) and at an event in New York in JanuaryEverett Collection

In the tear-jerker “Plague,” which premiered January 29, 1975, Laura’s father, Charles Ingalls, struggles with Walnut Grove’s pastor, Rev. Alden, and physician Doc Baker — perhaps the Dr. Anthony Fauci of the late 1800s — to contain the outbreak of typhus among the frightened settlers.

The three men — the equivalent of today’s front-line workers during COVID-19 — turn the local church into a makeshift hospital and morgue while searching for the origins of the disease.

“Even on that tiny scale, so much of what they were doing is now applicable,” Gilbert says. “The town mitigated the situation by getting everyone to quarantine at home, putting the sick in one place and trying to find the source.”

The episode starts with an ominous soundtrack playing over images of a cornmeal warehouse. Rats scurry around sacks of flour unseen by the warehouse’s owner, Mr. Peterson, as he undercuts the price of other suppliers such as Mr. Hansen, the employer of Laura’s dad.

While viewers are immediately aware this is a potentially disastrous situation, it takes dozens of heartbreaking deaths before the Ingalls family and others catch on to the notion that the polluted cornmeal is behind the outbreak.

Take the poverty-stricken Boulton family. The trio is first shown thanking God for the cheap cornmeal that allows their matriarch to make not just one but two loaves of bread for a change. Within 24 hours, their young boy has developed a scalding fever and needs to be packed like a carp in ice by Doc Baker.

In two desperately sad scenes — which live up to “Little House’s” reputation as one of the most morbid series on TV — we see Mrs. Boulton perish from typhus before the illness claims her son.

Michael Landon (standing in back) and Kevin Hagen (front, right) in a scene from “Plague”Courtesy Everett Collection

Later, Mr. Boulton is depicted cradling the lad’s body under a tree. He is in complete denial the child is dead. “It’s too nice a day to spend inside a school house,” the distraught father tells Charles in apparent delirium. “I don’t have the heart to send this little pumpkin to school on a day like this.”

Other hankie-saturating scenes include Charles confiding in his wife, Caroline, that he didn’t know the name of a “little old man” he’d buried in an unmarked grave — reminiscent of the COVID-19 bodies temporarily being interred by New York City on Hart Island.

Meanwhile, Gilbert’s character, Laura, is heard in a voiceover talking about how exhausted her dad appears all the time. She can only communicate with him from a distance due to the risk of infection, since he’s tending to the sick and dying.

“Pa came to see us every few days,” narrates the 10-year-old girl with braids nicknamed Half-Pint. “He looked tired, and we knew Mom was worried. But she always smiled and pretended that she wasn’t.”

Admirers of the show might be surprised to learn that Leslie Landon, the daughter of actor Michael Landon, who plays patriarch Charles and died in 1991, guest stars in “Plague” as sick Etta Plum.

Gilbert reveals she got goose bumps watching father and daughter Landon as Etta lies feverishly in the church and tells Charles she is not afraid to die. “I know I will go to heaven, especially when you die in church,” says Etta.

“It was beautiful and extraordinary that they got to film that together,” Gilbert says.

Die-hard fans call out the similarities

Like most people, superfan Christine Chan, of Irvington, NY, didn’t make the connection between the actors playing Etta and Charles, but says “Plague” is the favorite episode of her third-grader daughter, Lizzie, age 9.

“It really struck a chord with her because of what’s going on in our lives right now,” says the 43-year-old businesswoman, adding, “All the elements are there, such as quarantining and social distancing.”

She and Lizzie have been watching the first season of “Little House,” free on Amazon Prime, over the past two or three weeks with the rest of their family. They ration themselves to one episode per day after dinner.

“It’s so nostalgic,” says Chan, who was raised on “Little House” as a child in Elmhurst, Queens. “I grew up with all concrete, so it was absolutely different than my childhood, but there is something universal about the messages [the show] gave about family.”

Indeed, says Gilbert. She maintains the series is about “love and community” and that the episode “Plague” centers on “self-sacrifice for the greater good.”

For example, the relatively wealthy store owner Mr. Olsen donates goods such as blankets and pans from his shop — functioning as a kind of Amazon by dropping them off on the doorsteps of the church — and Rev. Alden disregards any concerns about his own safety to help others.

In the Season 3 episode “Quarantine,” Mr. Olsen is seen yelling down to Charles from his window — in an early instance of social distancing. And when the beneficent Mr. Olsen is forced to close his shop, he leaves sundry goods outside front doors, just like NYC’s food-delivery workers.

Matthew Laborteaux, Melissa Gilbert, Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Dean Butler, Lindsay Greenbush, Melissa Sue Anderson and Linwood Boomer in “Little House on the Prairie”Courtesy Everett Collection

We will survive the pandemic by pulling together

“Just like now, the residents of Walnut Grove were all in it together,” Gilbert says. “They didn’t have the scientific advances we have or any kind of real treatment, but they bonded as a community to get through the crisis.”

At the conclusion of “Plague,” Charles and Doc Baker are shown burning down Peterson’s rat-ridden storeroom after they identify it as the source of the typhus.

“I wish we could find a warehouse full of rats and just light it on fire and [COVID-19] would be over,” laments Gilbert.

Still, she hopes viewers will draw inspiration from “Plague” and its key takeaway of aiding those less fortunate than ourselves.

“It is incumbent on us to help,” says the actress. “Even if that is reading a book to someone who is shut in, running errands or even sending a letter to a person who is home and not expecting it.

“We have to find a way out of this together.”