TOS: We're happy to have Kevin Hagen join us for this issue.  Welcome, Kevin, to The Old Schoolhouse! What was it like to play Doc Baker in Little House on the Prairie?

Doc Baker: It was like putting on an old shoe. I immediately felt right at home; it must have been in the genes. On my mother's side of the family my ancestors went way back to the early Dakotas. My grandfather Wadsworth died at an early age. He left a family of four children. My uncle Harold was the oldest, in his teens. My mother, Lucile, was the youngest at five or six years old. She had two older sisters. They were living in Doland, South Dakota, when their father suddenly died. Later in life they moved to Chicago, Illinois, where my Uncle Harold studied medicine and became an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist. I have one of his old medical bags, and as a child I used to go with him when he made house calls driving his '37 Ford. As I grew up, I remember my family talking about Doland and looking at the pictures of the house they lived in. I had always wanted to travel to Doland someday and find the grave of my grandfather, a man I had never known, and I drove back there after I had appeared in the real Walnut Grove, Minnesota, during its annual Little House Festival. I found the graveyard and I found the headstone, no more than a foot and a half tall, with the simple inscription: BENJAMIN WADSWORTH. That was all. So I suppose there was in Doctor Hiram Baker a bit of my pioneer grandfather Wadsworth and a lot of my uncle, Doc Wadsworth, who was still making house calls prior to World War II. 

Most important in making my days on the set as Doc Baker so comfortable was the set itself and all the people who were a part of the show. Michael Landon had worked on Bonanza with the crew, many of the writers, the story editor, the directors, production executives, cameramen, the wranglers, stand-ins, stunt men, and many of the actors. I had done several Bonanza episodes over the years. It was Michael who did the casting and ran the show. He ran it with a loose rein and a remarkable sense of humor. The stories were prepared well in advance of the shooting date. This was unlike many of the shows I did as a free-lancer prior to the start of Little House, where the script changes were many and the pervading climate on the set was frantic disorder. In addition, the regular cast of Little House were not only seasoned professionals. They were friends-part of the Little House family who built bonds of trust and respect for each other that only grew stronger over the nine-year life of the show.

TOS: How important is it for children today to be educated about Laura Ingalls Wilder's time period? What can be gleaned from reading Ingalls Wilder; how would these books build character in children today? 

Doc Baker: Learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the time period in which she lived is very important for the children in our century. Laura's descriptions of how they farmed, cooked, sewed, canned, washed clothes, cleaned the house, and doctored themselves were accurate, detailed, and described in a way that fascinates readers of all ages. Her books are read mostly by third- to sixth-graders who live with modern conveniences, even in the poorest of homes. To read and "see" through their imaginations how it was done before the invention of all the time savers of today is vital to their understanding and appreciation for all those things we take for granted. It also puts them in touch with early American history, makes them aware of how the families of that earlier time depended on each other and the community for survival. The values that sustained Laura's family are still important today; their problems and dilemmas are common to all children of all ages and time periods. Moral principles are timeless and Laura's Little House books communicate that so beautifully.

TOS: What are you up to these days? Do you have a website? 

Doc Baker: I was glad to have left the world of "Hollywood" acting behind some twelve years ago. I live in the small town of Grants Pass, Oregon, and I find it relatively quiet and peaceful. When I want to see a good play with a thoroughly professional cast, I have only a 30-minute drive to Ashland, renowned for its Shakespeare plays and other classic contemporary productions. Singing has replaced acting as the staple of my life. I have a CD entitled Kid on the Hood of a '29 Chevy. I have performed, in dinner theaters and on stage, my one-man show A Playful Dose of Prairie Wisdom. It's an "amusing and informative narrative of the life and times of a prairie doctor by the name of Hiram Baker" who practiced medicine in the little town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota, around 1875. It's set in the days "when a man traveled only as far and as fast as his legs or his horse could take him and when anyone over the age of 40 was thought to be living on borrowed time; not long after it was said that an Indian brave could dance from one horizon to another on the backs of the buffalo herds; not long before that infernal combustion engine was hitched up to the horseless carriage and the world began to choke on the foul fumes of that unfortunate union." I wrote it from all the research I did for the role of Doc.

My website is: www.docbaker.com.

Gena and her husband Paul reside in Dandridge, Tennessee, where they homeschool their four children: Paul (15), Luke (13), Levi (11), and Julia Rachel (8).  They enjoy long country drives while listenting to books on CD, hanging out with good friends and staying up late.  Gena and Paul are publishers of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com  Visit Gena's blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/TOSPublisher.