Melissa Gilbert Says Working with Michael Landon Jr. on When Calls the Heart Is ‘Like Going Home’ (Exclusive)

Melissa Gilbert is enjoying a special opportunity to reconnect with an old friend.

Gilbert, who is currently starring in the Off-Broadway play Still, also has a guest-starring role as Georgie McGill on Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart. McGill appears in Hope Valley and residents quickly discover she has history with one of its residents, Bill Avery (Jack Wagner).

Working on the show reunites the Little House on the Prairie alumna with Michael Landon Jr., whose father Michael Landon costarred with Gilbert on the beloved TV series, which ran from 1974 to 1983. The elder Landon played Ingalls family patriarch Charles, while Gilbert starred as daughter and protagonist, Laura.

“It’s like going home. Working with Mike Jr. is like going home,” Gilbert, 60, tells PEOPLE.

“I know that whatever he has me doing and saying I can trust is going to be wonderful and exciting and interesting. We’ve been friends for 50-some-odd years, and I adore him, I adore his family. I think his wife is just the greatest,” she raves. “It’s just so nice to be back in an environment where I feel completely protected, appreciated, and loved.”

Another environment where Gilbert feels safe, respected and appreciated is with Modern Prairie, the brand she co-founded that’s also developed it’s own online community.

“We’re growing in leaps and bounds and growing in ways that we both anticipated and didn’t anticipate, which is all great … The app itself keeps growing and the community keeps growing, and the thing that really moves me is the way the women on this app communicate with one another,” the actress says.

“It’s so different from any other social media platform because there’s no backbiting, there’s no anger, there’s no politics, there’s no bitterness, there’s nothing but love and understanding and support for one another no matter what we’re going through,” Gilbert continues.

“And I wish there was more of that out there. I am so incredibly proud of this community that is now building itself. The fact that my partner Nicole and I gave them this platform is great, but what they’ve done with it is truly remarkable. I have so much respect for the Prairians. They’re a wonderful group of friends to have.”

Still in now playing a limited engagement at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture’s Loreto Theater in New York City, through March 23. Tickets are available online, by phone, and at The Sheen Center box office.