About
Kevin September 15th, 2007
Amy Roloff: We’re little people.
Matthew Roloff: When you’re only four feet tall you feel like you’re living in a world that wasn’t meant for you. I can remember as a child spending my life in the hospital wanting to see the outside world. Now I get to make those dreams come true for our kids on this 40 acre farm in Oregon. My parents live just down the street. They’re of average height. It might surprise you to know that Amy’s parent’s are of average height too. We have four kids.
Amy Roloff: Three of them are of average height and only one of them is little like us.
Matthew Roloff: One thing I wish people would understand about little people is …
Amy Roloff: We can do pretty much anything average height people can do. We just do it in a different way.
Matthew Roloff: And this is our story.
• Matt — 45-year-old (as of Season 2) husband and father; Matt’s most recent career was in computer software sales. As the series began, Matt was no longer employed by a company, but was engaged in establishing the business he co-founded, Direct Access Solutions. The company markets accessibility kits for little people to the hospitality industry. As the first season ended, Matt started another job as a software salesman with Amdocs in order to provide the family with additional income. Matt’s type of dwarfism, diastrophic dysplasia, resulted in numerous childhood surgeries. He walks with the aid of crutches and uses a motorized cart when needed.
• Amy — 43-year-old (as of Season 2) wife and mother; Amy is a stay-at-home mother, although she recently took part-time jobs as a soccer coach and preschool teacher to provide the family with additional income. Amy’s type of dwarfism is achondroplasia, and she has experienced very few (if any) complications.
• Zach and Jeremy — 17-year-old twin brothers (b. May 10, 1990); Jeremy is average height, while Zach has achondroplasia like his mother. Unlike his mother, however, Zach has had numerous medical complications. As a child, Zach had a skull shunt implanted to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid. The shunt failed and had to be replaced surgically (as depicted in the season one episode “Zach’s Emergency”). Zach used to play soccer competitvely, but no longer can do so due to his size compared to the other soccer players. This however is not the case with Season 3 as he has tried out and made his high school’s soccer team.
• Molly — 13-year-old (as of Season 2) daughter; Molly, who shares a birthday with Amy, is average height. She plays volleyball and is a skilled student.
• Jacob — 9-year-old (as of Season 2) son; Jacob is average height. He plays on a youth soccer team coached by his mother.
The show follows the daily lives of the Roloff family — parents Matt and Amy, and their four children, Zach, Jeremy, Molly and Jacob. Matt, Amy and Zach are little people, while Jeremy, Molly and Jacob are average height. Teenaged Zach and Jeremy are twins, despite the fact that they are not both little people.
The family lives on the 34-acre Roloff Farms, located in Helvetia, Oregon (A suburb of Portland, Oregon). Although crops such as peaches and pumpkins are grown and sold by the family, much of the farm has been converted into a series of playground set pieces for the Roloff children. They were designed by Matt, who spent most of his childhood in the hospital. He has tried to make his children’s lives the best possible.
Episodes of the show typically showcase one or more members of the Roloff family engaging in everyday activities such as shopping, athletics and dealing with household finances. The drama of the show arises from the fact that many of these activities are made more challenging due to the height of the little people in the family — Matt and Amy are 4′1″ (124 cm), Zach is just under 4′ (122 cm).
As with any reality show, the segments that are aired are ones that are expected to generate viewer interest. However, Little People, Big World avoids portraying the Roloffs in a stereotypical or sensational light. The situations encountered in the show are ones that most families deal with, although the ways in which the Roloffs deal with them are unique to them and are from the perspective of little people.
The Roloffs have several close friends who appear regularly on the show.