By james art Melissa Gilbert, now 60, still feels lucky that she didn’t fall into the trap of being a child star. She gives all the credit to Little House on the Prairiethe family drama, which she starred in for nine seasons, starting when she was 10.
“Again, it’s an integral part of Little House on the Prairieshe said on Wednesday The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I grew up with Michal Landon. My sister is also a child actor, and we’re like, “What’s the difference?” I grew up with Michael Landon, she grew up with Roseanne.
Check out the moment at 3:18 in the video below:
Gilbert played the precocious young Laura Ingalls, who would grow up to be the real-life author Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the NBC hit. Her parents were Charles Ingalls, played by series executive producer and frequent writer-director Michael Landon.
Gilbert has long spoken of her love for her “larger-than-life surrogate father, Michael Landon,” as she wrote of him in her 2010 book. A Prairie Tale: A Memoir.
Costar Karen Grassle, who played her mother, Caroline Ingalls, had a different perspective, as she said in November 2021.
“Mike was saying f— and making disgusting jokes about how a woman smells after sex,” she told New York Post. “She was almost frozen. But as a woman in the film industry of the 1970s, I was so used to these humiliations that it never occurred to me to reprimand him sharply. I kept my professionalism. I was going to be the good girl, play the part and hope.”
Ron Galella Collection/Ron Galella via Getty; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
Gilbert’s younger sister, Sarah, has been on the series since the 1990s Rosanna from the time she debuted in 1988 when she was 13, playing Barr’s wisecracking middle child Darlene for nine seasons.
Barr memorably faced controversy during the show when he performed a raunchy version of the national anthem that included spitting and crotch grabbing before a professional baseball game. After the controversial comedian’s series of the same name was revived in 2018, it was quickly canceled after she sent a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to then-President Barack Obama. The Connors family then he was born.
Barr blamed her colleague Sarah Gilbert for the death of the modern Rosannaas she told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM show in May 2023. Actor Darlene called her TV mom’s words “disgusting” and said they weren’t representative of the show.
“It was her tweet that canceled the show,” Barr said. “And then she tweeted, ‘It’s sad when a cast member,’ something about racism, blah, blah. I was shocked too. I was just shocked. And you know, but she ended up owning my work, and Tom Werner became her partner in owning my work.”
Both Gilberts continue to play.
At least Melissa still fondly remembers her early days in the business. She said she was watching now The little house with her granddaughters.
When Clarkson asked why she thought the show still aired in reruns — it just celebrated its 50th anniversary — Gilbert had a theory.
“You know, a lot of people will say it’s because the stories are about community and family and love and acceptance and all the good things in life that we all crave,” she said. “But we were also telling the stories of America in 1974 through the lens of 1874. We were telling stories about veterans coming home from Vietnam, but it was the Civil War. We told stories about them coming home drug addicts. We told the stories of racism, anti-Semitism, chauvinism and all the things we fought against.”
“Well,” Clarkson said sarcastically, “it’s good to know nothing changes.”
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