One of my first fandoms was Little House on The Prairie. It should have been a sign of things to come over the years. To this day, I can watch the opening credits or scenes and know which show it is by seeing the guest star list. My college roommates used to threaten to tape my mouth shut if I gave away the plot or quoted the dialogue directly. As a child, I had all the accessories. I was usually Laura or Mary for Halloween, and I had the lunchbox. Man, if I still had that what it would go for on ebay….
I learned a lot from that show, although over the years they started repeating themselves. There were two different bullies that the kids had to gang up together and kick ass on. A couple of different children had crazy, abusive parents. Albert, who incidentally was written into the show but wasn’t in the books, taught us about drug addiction and rape. If I ever need to cry on demand, I just have to remember the episode when Mary lost her sight and I can’t stop crying. (Try it, “Help me Pa! I can’t see!” ….there it goes.) If you need to learn about compassion, forgiveness, and accepting the things that you can’t change, then watch Little House. I even found it dubbed in Spanish in Ecuador and Spain, man did my host families think I was crazy. Well, they thought that anyway.
So, I was reading People Magazine when I actually went to get my haircut without the kids hanging on me, and there is Melissa Gilbert talking about her new memoir, Prairie Tale. I didn’t go straight home to the sitter, I went to the bookstore on the Town Green and bought it in hardback, and started reading it immediately. One hair appointment and one hardback all on the same day, is there a mother alive more selfish than I am?
I have only read one other memoir, and that was Tatum O’Neal’s at my sister’s insistence. Tatum’s was more of a confessional; you already knew we were crazy, over the top out of control kind of book. Melissa’s is more of a catching up with an old friend read. Her life was not psycho crazy, more of an every day, it could happen to anyone kind of crazy life, and that makes it easier to identify with her.
She starts off with her childhood and looking for work in commercials and parts on shows. Her mother was very supportive of her and she comes from a family in the business. Her mom didn’t impress me as obsessing with her child’s career. She was a consistent manager, but kept a distance somewhat. I liked reading about her friendship with Jodi Foster, it was nice to know that Jodi’s friends were cool with her and she wasn’t fooling anybody over the years.
She talks a lot about the Little House years, those take up a big chunk of the book and are probably the reason, myself included, why most people are going to run out and buy it. Again, she is informative without being “confessional.” Melissa Sue “Mary” was introverted; Alison Arngrim “Nelly” was her best friend. Michael was a phenomenal leader. She was scared to death when they hired Dean Butler to play her love interest on the show and she had to play his pregnant wife while still a virgin. My favorite part was the story of the shows cancellation. I remember watching them blow up the town when I was ten years old. I had no idea Michael Landon did that as a “Screw you” to NBC. He didn’t want them to recycle his sets for another show.
I also liked reading about her love interests and failures. Other women can identify with the relationships, mistakes, your first intimate moments, and letting go of that first serious boyfriend. Unfortunately, not all of us get to claim it as Rob Lowe. I can’t see her with Billy Idol no matter how hard I try, but good for you Melissa, I guess sometimes we need some strange. It was also identifiable when she talked about how her crowd of friends took off in the movie industry but she remained “Half-Pint.” I mean when your friends succeed or move along and things don’t always happen for you in the same way or form. My favorite scene during that time of her life was when she was having dinner with Rob and OLIVER STONE and two girls come up to the table and ask for HER autograph. That so would have been me, not knowing I was stepping over the creator of Platoon to ask what it was like to wear pigtails every day until you turn fifteen.
I commend her for writing honestly about her marriages. I always wondered why she made all of those television movies back to back without a break. It was because her first husband ran her into a debt she really wanted to get out of on her own. She and Bruce Boxleitner are happily married, but it isn’t always easy and there are bumps in any marriage, including their son being a preemie in the NICU and a crazy neighbor recording their phone calls.
She became president of the SAG, something I don’t think you can approach lightly or without common sense. I can only compare it to what I know about teacher unions, so I won’t comment more than that.
It is definitely her story, and it really is the normal story of an actress with an extraordinary television career. Don’t go looking for Michael Landon, except how his divorce affected her friendships with the rest of the family. Don’t go looking for Rob Lowe, except how he would sneak in her window every night for a not-so- Edward Cullen night of snuggling. And don’t go looking for a wild and crazy expose, because while Melissa does throw in some little snippets for us, (like the BIG surprise that Shannen Doherty isn’t nice), Melissa is just a mom, wife, and girl who grew up in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, with problems like the rest of us.
Thanks for sharing Half-Pint. By the way- I love your hair color.
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