Plumfield School, a private boarding school for children located in rural Massachusetts in 1871, was the setting for this squeaky-clean period drama.
Headmistress Jo Bhaer (Michelle Rene Thomas) was having difficulty keeping the school open following the unexpected death of her husband, Fritz.
Jo’s older sister, Meg (Jennifer Wigmore), herself a widow, visited often to help out, and Jo’s nephew, Franz (Robin Dunne), was the school’s young teacher.
There were only two girls attending Plumfield: younger sister Amy’s snooty, pampered daughter Bess (Rachel Skarsten), and tomboyish Nan (Britt Irvin). Most of the students were male – Dan (Corey Sevier), Nat (Trevor Blumas), Jack, Tommy, Emil, and Isaac among them.
Needing a male role model for them, Jo hired Nick Riley (Spencer Rochfort), an ex-merchant marine, as a caretaker/handyman and to help her maintain discipline. An adventurous free spirit, Nick didn’t always agree with Jo’s methods, but they usually managed to work things out.
During the second season, Jo expressed some romantic interest in Nick; her sister Amy (Amy Price-Francis) and her husband Laurie (Dan Chameroy) were having marital problems; and Meg was dating an attorney at a Boston law firm.
Franz started dating Isabelle (Heidi Lenhart), who worked in the general store in town, and when she moved to Arizona to help her brother run the cattle ranch he was developing, Jo convinced Franz, who loved her, to follow after her.
In his absence, Jo took over teaching the children.
Although Little Men took place in the 19th century, it dealt with timeless issues – including peer pressure, maturation, friendship, loyalty, the stress of studying, and bigotry.
Adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s lesser-known sequel to Little Women, the series took several creative liberties with Alcott’s original work to transform it from a collection of episodic stories into a long-form television drama
In the original novel, Professor Fritz Bhaer is alive and co-runs the school with Jo, and the character of Nick Riley does not exist.
An entire town was constructed on 500 acres of land north of Toronto (Canada) for the series.
Josephine ‘Jo’ Bhaer
Michelle Rene Thomas Nick Riley
Spencer Rochfort Dan ‘Looking Forward’ Maddison
Corey Sevier Nathaniel (Nat) Blake
Trevor Blumas Anthea “Nan” Harding
Britt Irvin Thomas Bangs
Matt Robinson Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Laurence
Rachel Skarsten Emil Hoffman
Alex Campbell Asia Franklin
Sandra Renee Caldwell Rob Bhaer
Munro Chambers (1)
Thomas Chambers (2) Margaret “Meg” Brooke
Jennifer Wigmore Amy Laurence
Amy Price-Francis Theodore “Laurie” Laurence
Dan Chameroy Franz Bhaer
Robin Dunne Isabelle McGregor
Heidi Lenhart
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Jo’s older sister, Meg (Jennifer Wigmore), herself a widow, visited often to help out, and Jo’s nephew, Franz (Robin Dunne), was the school’s young teacher.
Franz started dating Isabelle (Heidi Lenhart), who worked in the general store in town, and when she moved to Arizona to help her brother run the cattle ranch he was developing, Jo convinced Franz, who loved her, to follow after her.
