Why didn't Melissa Gilbert's career takeoff in the 80s?

Because she can’t act he way out of a wet paper bag?

Wasn't/Isn't she a dyke?

she was the queen of TV movies

She was too plain.

She’s no Molly Ringwald

She had a limited career as a television star.

raging b'tch that had entitlement syndrome... her half sister is the same.

and she's a large part of why the guild was so fk'd. rip rhoda.

She was lucky to have the career she had after LHOTP. How many child actors continue to have a successful career after their show ends?

As an adult, she had a face for radio. Even as a youth, she was no looker.

The shitbra, of course.

Because she was mean to Rhoda

r11 i should have stated it happened later but it showcases everything about her attitude.

She was neither much of an actor nor a looker. (Missy Sue, at least, was pretty.)

The reason she had the career she did after the show was done because her personal production company (Half-Pint Productions) was weirdly successful, and because people had so much nostalgia for the show.

Maybe it was her speaking voice. Sounded too childish.

She had a career after LHOTP, R8?

What was that? Catering?

#7, Melissa and Sara are not half-sisters. Melissa was adopted as a baby by her mother and first husband. Sara is the actual offspring of the mother- and her 2nd husband (though Sara took on the surname of her mother's first husband).

She had pretty boy Rob Lowe in his prime when she’s at best ordinary looking. She should be thankful

Whatever her background and parentage, how fucked up is it that her adoptive parents put her to work at such a young age, and her semi-sister as well? Mamaleh and papaleh must have really needed those $$$

No matter what, she sounds like an entitled bitch, and the work she's had looks pretty terrible.

Half pint. No talent.

R16, I’m now intrigued. Is it possible that Melissa was the unwanted baby of a family member of the adoptive mother? There really seems to be a physical resemblance.

It would be funny if this middling talented shrew ever traced and contacted her birth mother, and the woman said, “This is Melissa WHO??”

Rob Lowe told a story about how Warren Beatty tried to seduce her and claimed she reminded him (Beatty) of Natalie Wood. Other than both of them being child stars, I don’t think Gilbert was ever like Wood.

She says she told Rob she was pregnant while preparing for their wedding. And he freaked out and backed out of the wedding. Then the puff went poof- she had a miscarriage.

I wonder if she was really pregnant? Obviously she wanted to own his fine ass.

Her teeth were yellow.

She apparently dated Rob Lowe, Billy Idol and Tom Cruise. A lot of hot guys wanted to bang her.

Anne Frank did not have buck teeth!

Michael Schoeffling (Jake from Sixteen Candles) played her love interest in the horse movie Sylvester.

I don't know about the 80s, but that bitch was a cunt to me on our TV show in 1994. In fact, we used to call her "Little Cunt on the Prairie." (Slight chuckle) I'm still amused by that nickname up here in heaven, chile.

She became a “Little House from Eating Too Much Dairie”

R27. Did Sarah Jessica Parker play Sylvester?

It didn’t take off because she enabled the careers of both Jason Bateman and Shannon Doherty, who had her career for her.

"A lot of hot guys wanted to bang her."

But they wanted me to put my hair in pigtails, wear a gingham dress and shout "Pa!" while they did me anally.

[quote] She apparently dated Rob Lowe, Billy Idol and Tom Cruise. A lot of hot guys wanted to bang her.

Or just braid her hair.

Re: R31

"My my David, what a lovely shitbra you have. Ya know it reminds me of the one Mother gave me when I was 15. "

"Thanks Mrs. Poole."

Great Moments in DL History: Melissa Gilbert's SHITBRA!

She should have used that shitbra on the studio execs.

Is it telling that she dated/married lots of hot guys throughout her life but is now married to uber-dork Timothy Busfield?

[quote] She should have used that shitbra on the studio execs.

NBC produced [italic]Little House[/italic] themselves.

Back then there was a definitive line between TV actors and movie actors, and it was difficult to cross.

I read her autobiography and she alluded that her father was actually her biological father and her mom was willing to take in the product of an affair and adopt her.

I don’t remember the part about planning a wedding with Rob Lowe or a miscarriage but I do know she was barely mentioned at all in his autobiography.

Part of this is because they had different acting unions for movies and TV.

They're simply no way she's not a blood relative of Sara gilbert. They look way too much alike. Particularly before their nose jobs. I think she got those hot guys because she was a party girl who knew where to get good coke.

Jonathan Gilbert was very pretty. He disappeared though and cut off ties with his family. He was also adopted.

I think this is the only recent photo of Jonathan. The actual him. Not the other search results that show an older man that looks absolutely nothing like him. Though he probably did pay Google to mix up some image search results to help stay anonymous.

Melissa is kind of homely if you look at her close enough. Bad nose job too.

Brad Garrett accused her of absconding SAG dues to augment her breasts.

She’s a “Nana” now, imagine. And her unlikely (to me, anyway) marriage to Timothy Busfield seems to be holding up.

[quote] I think this is the only recent photo of Jonathan.

If by recent you mean a headshot from the 90s then sure

R47 It's the only picture we have of him as a grown adult. And also this other headshot. So technically these are the most "recent". The Google image results which show him as some type of stock broker or business person are clearly not him.

I hear you, r43/48. I also appreciate you recognizing that the banker/stockbroker guy is clearly not the same Jonathan Gilbert. I’m shocked how many people just assume it’s the actor because they have the same name and Melissa said he worked on Wall Street. They look nothing alike.

Ancestry has a California birth index. It shows Melissa E Gilbert, born in 1964, mother's maiden name Crane. It shows a Jonathan J Gilbert, born in 1967, also with a mother's maiden name Crane.

The headshot guy did say Jonathan J. Gilbert, but I don't think it looks like him at all.

Melisha Gilbert is no Misshy Shue Andershon!

[quote] The headshot guy did say Jonathan J. Gilbert, but I don't think it looks like him at all.

R43/R48 definitely looks like Jonathan

The headshot looks like he’s had a nose job or is at least heavily airbrushed to make it narrower. He looks a lot like Brian Austin Green in the headshots

I don't think he got a nose job. His face is turned at an angle.

To answer OP's original question- I mean, there's just no delicate way to say it:

It looks like someone had at Melissa with the ugly stick... And they showed NO MERCY, honey chile! Mmmm mmm!