The film begins with the Sergeant family in an Indiana town. They are: papa John, mama Maggie, and half grown children Sarah and Jeremy. John, who spent his youth on a farm, is itching to change his life from a drug store clerk living in a rented house, to a farmer, who owns his own land, and builds his own house. But, he figures Indiana land will always be too expensive for him. Thus, he has decided to fulfill his dream of heading west where land was cheap or free. He took the liberty of buying some railroad land in Nebraska, without consulting his wife or children, who weren't enthusiastic about such a move. They sold everything they could, to buy supplies for their trip and train tickets for Lincoln, NE. From Lincoln, they traveled by prairie schooner, pulled by 2 oxen, with a milk cow in the rear. When they arrived at their land, they discovered they are regarded as claim jumpers by a group of men and women, who claim they have worked the land for 7 years, thus qualify for a claim to the land. A fight erupts, and John nearly drowns, before giving up. Instead of returning to Indiana, they agree to head west for Wyoming. They stop by a small crossroads , and the proprietor of a store welcomes them to settle on a peace of land next to his wheat farm. John miraculously breaks the sod for a large wheat field, builds a sod house, using the sod he plowed up, and plants his field in wheat, all within a few weeks, this being spring. They are lucky there are a few small trees around to provide roof support. The first rain storm is welcomed, but reveals a major leak or two in the roof. A much more serious consequence is the death of John, who drowned in a flash flood. Now, Maggie is in a quandary what to do: head back home, look for a job elsewhere, or find a new husband. Neighbor Douglas keeps hinting that he would be agreeable to a marriage. They decide to stay until the wheat is harvested to hopefully obtain enough money for a trip back to Indiana. They almost lose all their wheat, as well as their house, when a large prairie fire nearly engulfs these. They only lost a small percentage of their wheat in making a firebreak... I will stop my summary here.I'm impressed that oxen, rather than the more commonly portrayed horses, pulled their prairie schooner. Oxen were cheaper to buy, could pull more weight, and could better live off the prairie grasses. Thus, most pioneers used oxen, or mules, rather than horses to pull their wagon.Several criticisms: That was an awfully big wheat field for John to plant, using primitive seeding methods. Also, how were they going to market their wheat, being far from any population center or railroad. Also, they arrived in very early spring, when there might still be snow on the prairie and they should be wearing cold weather clothes.As others have mentioned, this film appears to have been regarded as a pilot for a TV series, hence the rather unsatisfying ending. A few years later, another film on the same subject: "Young Pioneers" was released, being 25 min. longer than the present 70 min. film. It too was a pilot for a TV series, which fizzled after 3 episodes: perhaps an indication of what would have happened if the present film had been followed by additional episodes. I would choose this later film over the present one, partly because it's long enough to dramatize more challenges. However, the stories are sufficiently different that, if you like this sort of subject, I would recommend seeing both. Both are presently available on You Tube, or DVDs.

This was an entertaining made for TV movie-something to catch in the middle of the night when insomnia hits. I won't provide a synopsis as there are several written but I would like to suggest that anyone with an interest in movies about Pioneer Women seek out "Heartland" with Rip Torn and Conchata Farrell. Ms Farrell's portrays a widowed mother in 1910 who sets across the country in answer to an Ad to become a housekeeper with the eventual dream of owning her own homestead. The movie is much more realistic than "Pioneer Woman" and is based on the letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart collected in Letters of a Woman Homesteader. The movie truly shows the harsh reality these women faced and Ms. Farrell, with her larger stature is better suited to this role than the delicate, pretty Ms Pettet.

This is not normally the sort of film I would want to see--after all, the subject matter isn't the most exciting I've ever seen. The film is a lot like "Little House on the Prairie" but without all the schmaltz. However, in recent months I have taken great delight in watching the films of William Shatner--which range from decent (such as INCUBUS) to the amazingly bad (IMPULSE)--so bad that they really should be seen as cult classics for bad film addicts like myself. Here, though, there are two major problems. First, Shatner is pretty good in the film and seldom over-acts. Second, as the film is about the pioneer WOMEN, you know that sooner or later Shatner had to start "pushin' up the daisies" (a nice Old West euphemism)--plus the plot summary on IMDb says this, so there isn't a lot of suspense in this regard.The film plays like a pioneer woman's diary that is being dramatized. You hear the long-suffering wife narrate at times and her life is recreated in little vignettes. Most of this might seem a bit dull, but it's also a good history lesson--something most people take for granted. If you can get your kids to actually sit still during the film, they might learn a lot about just how hard it was for homesteaders in the 19th century. They might appreciate what they have just a bit more.As far as the quality of the production goes, it's pretty good and obvious that the folks who made this really cared. I was also impressed that Joanna Pettet was willing to play a less than glamorous role as the mother and the film stands up pretty well 36 years later.By the way, the young daughter is a very young Helen Hunt and it's sure hard to recognize that it's her.

I saw this film on Encore Westerns at 7:10 a.m. yesterday morning, and its plot was: Maggie Sergeant (Joanna Pettet) is chronicling in her diary the hardships that she, her husband John (William Shatner) and their 2 children (Helen Hunt and Russell Baer) faced, starting with their move to Nebraska in March of 1867 (March 10, in fact) to settle on land that John had bought there, only to find on arriving there in late April that the area had been settled 7 years ago. In the argument between John and the people already settled there, Maggie suffers a miscarriage, which forces John to relinquish the property rights and ask Maggie if she wants to go to Wyoming and settle there instead. They arrive at a parcel of land next to a ranch owned by Robert Douglas (David Janssen), just outside the town of Big Pines, and settle there, planting wheat and vegetables. One day, John is returned to Maggie and the children by Mr. Douglas, who found him dead after he drowned in a flash flood while returning home from filing their settlement claim. Maggie takes on caring for her family, even banding together with her neighbors to save all that everyone owned from a prairie fire. While in town the following day, Maggie runs into Mr. Douglas, who asks her if she's heading back east with her kids. She says no, that that they're staying, and the story ends with her August 21, 1867 diary entry in which she says that she's sending for a teacher to establish a school for the children of the Pines Ridge community, and a minister to attend to the religious needs of all the families there, adding that she doesn't feel like an outsider anymore. I found this to be one of Ms. Pettet's best roles in her acting career since she was portraying a character determined to overcome the challenges presented to her. I even wept several times over the film's course. I'd really like to find this film on DVD, so I can view it again and again. Spoiler Alert: This wasn't Ms. Pettet's only appearance alongside David Janssen. She appeared in an episode of The Fugitive 7 years prior to this film, and in 3 episodes of Harry-O after this film aired on CBS.