Alison Arngrim's book

I loved her book the best out of the 3..she was honest and funny and sometimes humor is the best way to get through trials. l didn't like all of it, but she was more descriptive about events.
I loved her scenes with Percival and wished they could have been shown more..and was saddened to hear of his death.

I don't think that you should defame someone just to get more interest in your book though, although that might come from the publisher also. I don't understand the pot shots at MSA either...so she didn't like certain things that went on, maybe it was her parents, maybe her religious beliefs, maybe an overly mature conscience, but she did her job, Michael never complained and that is the bottom line. It was more people her age, not the adults.
It would have been nice to have everyone happy with each other all the time but even real families can't do that well.

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

Same here,that's the only thing i hated too with how she poked fun of MSA!I don't think it was a very nice thing to do.She made her sound like she was a snob or something.

Yes...An I don't think she was a snob. I've read some interviews about her, and she was very much like myself when I ws about her age...I was not a very "modern" girl. ..And I liked much more to read a book than to climb a tree ..but I was not a snob for that!

Vanesa.

Vanesa wrote:

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

Same here,that's the only thing i hated too with how she poked fun of MSA!I don't think it was a very nice thing to do.She made her sound like she was a snob or something.

Yes...An I don't think she was a snob. I've read some interviews about her, and she was very much like myself when I ws about her age...I was not a very "modern" girl. ..And I liked much more to read a book than to climb a tree ..but I was not a snob for that!

Vanesa.

I don't either! I think instead of saying rude mean things of her.She could have said. MSA was a nice girl who i wished i could have gotten to know better.something like that.I was a shy kid too.Still to a little.People judge shy has snob which is not cool.

This was a nice article years ago on Little House on the Praire MSA...it mentions how they got along (or didn't at times)

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20071697,00.html

All of you are intelligent people on this forum. This thing between Allsion, Melissa Anderson and Melissa Gilbert is very simple.

Melissa Anderson was raised in the Mormon Church. Melissa Gilbert and Allison and Katherine Mac Gregor used to tell off color jokes all the time time. Those three were anything but religious. Melissa Anderson did not participate. She did NOT have a lot in common with them.

Therefore Allsion likes to say she was stuck up or snobby. That's it, plain and simple.
Not hard to understand. Melissa Sue Anderson is not a snob. Like it or not, and most people in Hollywood don't, she had principles. And still does to this day.

Snobby or not, she's has had ONE marriage with two beautiful kids. Thats more than I can say for Gilbert and Arngram. Allison likes to shovel dirt. She even said in stage show of hers that one of the most asked questions was about Matt Labyorteaux's sexuality. I would like for somebody to tell me what that has to do with Little House on The Prairie, other than shock value to futher her own financial gains.

She could write 10 books as far as I'm concerned. I would never buy one.

I thought MSA was a Catholic?

I thought MSA was a Catholic?

This is an excerpt from Mike Lookinland's (biography) of the Brady Bunch.

Lookinland's brother, Todd, appeared in a Brady Bunch episode that served as the pilot for a spin-off series called Kelly's Kids about a husband and wife that adopt three boys, one white, one black, and one Asian. The pilot was not bought, however. In another episode during the show's final season, Bobby kisses a girl named Milicent (Melissa Sue Anderson) and he sees “sky rockets.” She then informs him that she may have the mumps and he "shouldn't have done that." Bobby and his family nervously await her telephone call with the doctor's results. Years later, the two reunited on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, on which Anderson played Mary Ingalls, and Lookinland guest starred. Melissa Sue Anderson was also raised in the LDS (Mormon) church.
source: Wikipedia

Well, Catholic or Mormon, she didn't like the raunchy stuff on the set (Michael could be pretty bad too)
I thought she was a mature child, maybe odd to some, but not mean. My daughter was a "old soul" to many, conscience formed early, nothing wrong with that.
The adults appreciated her and Mr. Landon gave her credit for really growing in her part.
This is a pic of her and her children and husband:
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Davetucson wrote:

I thought MSA was a Catholic?

This is an excerpt from Mike Lookinland's (biography) of the Brady Bunch.

Lookinland's brother, Todd, appeared in a Brady Bunch episode that served as the pilot for a spin-off series called Kelly's Kids about a husband and wife that adopt three boys, one white, one black, and one Asian. The pilot was not bought, however. In another episode during the show's final season, Bobby kisses a girl named Milicent (Melissa Sue Anderson) and he sees “sky rockets.” She then informs him that she may have the mumps and he "shouldn't have done that." Bobby and his family nervously await her telephone call with the doctor's results. Years later, the two reunited on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, on which Anderson played Mary Ingalls, and Lookinland guest starred. Melissa Sue Anderson was also raised in the LDS (Mormon) church.
source: Wikipedia

Well, I don't know...I have a photo of her with a rosary hanging from one of the walls of her bedroom...As far as I know, Mormons don't use Rosary to preach...

Vanesa

Well, we've got two choices. Wikipedia is wrong or she may have converted.
One of the two......

Melissa is or was Catholic. I'm not sure if she is still a practicing Catholic. Vanesa is correct that there are several pictures of her room with a rosary on the wall. Also, from the December 22, 1979 issue of iHOLA, here is a quote:

"-¿Qué religión profesas?
-Soy católica y practicante."

The full interview is on my website, http://www.melissasueandersonfan.com/iholaarticle.htm

Just goes to show, you can't believe everything you read on the net or Wikipedia. Thanks fo the info....

I totally Respect MSAFor not joing in with the ranchy things.She stuck to what she belives in.

You are right Krissy!

Krissy, if this were Facebook, I would "like" your reply. I totally agree. Especially in today's world, but even back then, it's often hard to stand by your principles when there are so many around you following different principles (or in some cases, none at all apparently).

This is an excerpt from an interview with Radames Pera concerning Melissa Anderson.

During my time on the show, I think I was the oldest teenager of the bunch, an odd age where I felt urges to be both included in the fun and shenanigans of the younger actors, and yet also identified with the older actors and crew at the same time. I guess you might say I never felt like I totally fit in because of that. I remember really enjoying Melissa Gilbert's company, I wish we could have played more scenes together. As the series went on during my tenure, I admit having felt a little "stuck" with Melissa Sue Anderson, who was not a happy camper at that point in her life. Among other things, I think she, too, felt "out of place" in some way.

At the time I was incapable of understanding it, and just thought she was an unpleasant person, but over the years I came to realize a few things about her (...and these are all unconfirmed conjecture on my part. I'll add my own disclaimer here, partly for fun: "The opinions expressed here are those Mr. Pera alone and do not reflect those of the other individuals involved, either living or dead.")

First, she was clearly and deeply unhappy about something in her life at the time. Second, her religious upbringing was in direct conflict with her professional life and experiences at the time, and third (and perhaps not least) was her knowledge that she would never be the real focus of the show, she was always going to be the satellite of the Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert's) character. This combination couldn't have felt very good for a budding young woman. I was so caught up in my own head myself then, it just looked to me that she was being unprofessional. I am referring specifically to the way she treated me and her sense of responsibility toward her character essentially.

We had a scene depicting our first kiss, and she refused to let our lips touch. Repeatedly she tried putting her hand up to her lips where she thought the camera couldn't see as our heads met, but that didn't work. She tried every which-a way to NOT to kiss me. And here we were, 75 people standing around in the hot afternoon sun while she was making a fuss. ("Was I limburger cheese?" I wondered, "Was it something I said?") I guess, in retrospect, it might have clashed with her interpretation of her religion, or... maybe she just didn't like me. Either way, if you're going to be an actor, your job is to suspend you own beliefs, if only for a few moments, in order to portray the truth of the character.

Well, anyway, the Director of this episode, Bill Claxton, had to pretend to yell at ME for not doing the scene right in order to communicate to her. He was in a tough position, Missy Anderson was one of The Stars of the show, and she had a reputation, early on, of being occasionally "difficult" around that fact. So he couldn't call her down for it, that would have been neither politically correct, nor, as he astutely deduced, very effective with her either. Suffice it to say that it was one of the most awkward moments of my career. I was just wondering why the heck she couldn't just do the scene!? But now, I can only imagine the discomfort and pain she must have been in to have felt compelled to behave like that in the situation. Poor thing. Once I got wind of the fact that Michael had decided to develop a romance between the two characters on the show, I did my professional best to befriend her, get to know her, anything a pro would do to create some comfort and trust between us so we might serve the production better, but to no avail. Perhaps I seemed like a "big bad boy" to her in her world at the time, and she just couldn't get past that. I'm sure I don't really understand the half of it, though.

I think people forget also how young they were and how much experience can you have at that age? She did the best she could. No one says much about how Melissa Gilbert didn't want Dean Butler and didn't want to kiss him either!
I like how tactful she is. Alison put more in her book about "behind the scenes" but MSA was more mature and reserved, not as good for selling books I'm afraid for many but respectful. You knew, she like the rest, weren't enthused about Micheal's new love, but she just stated it and went on with other attributes.
This is another interview with MSA:
http://www.zunshine.com/littlehouse/anderson.html

Exactly!