Rug Rats Blog-A-Thon

Here is my entry - Part one.

The rest of the entries will be posted at 00:01 hours on the 28th! Thank you all for writing!

when it comes to child performances, people are very divisive. Some people HATE them, some people LOVE them. I am in the middle. There are some great child performances out there. But for every realistic and believable one there 5 Katrillion wooden or completely over the top ones.
Which is why, when one stands out it is cause to sit up and notice.

For my first entry I am going with an actress from a TV show, because I have been re-watching it on DVD and forgot how brilliant it really was.

"Roseanne" was a TV show I always loved, even the silly last season. Mainly because Roseanne Barr was such a fantastic actress, something no one ever remembers, due to her crazy private life. With her on screen family she got some terrific actors, but the one who sparred with her wise cracks the best and stole the show was always Sara Gilbert as Darlene Connor. The mother daughter relationship between the two actresses was completely organic and believable. This is due to Gilbert not playing a copy of Roseanne, but a hybrid of her mothers wit and humor and a sports loving tom boy.

The episode that totally sold me was "Brain-Dead Poets Society". Darlene has to write a poem for school, but doesn't want to. Roseanne is ecstatic because she get to re-live her lost dreams of being a writer through her daughter. When Darlene refuses to do it, it set up one of the cleverest jokes on the season.

Darlene Conner: (shouting) I don't want to be expressive! I couldn't care less about poetry! I just want to graduate high-school, so I can get on with my life, so I can get a job, and get out of this hell-hole town!
Roseanne Conner: But if you could be expressive, what would you say?

Darlene ends up writing the poem and it ends up being selected to be read aloud at an All Culture Night event, but opts out.
Roseanne, really wants to hear Darlene's poem and lays the pressure on. Much to Darlene's dismay, she winds up on stage at the Culture Night, to read her poem, a poem that would render Roseanne in painful emotions.


The acting from Roseanne in the last scene is impeccable, but it is Gilbert who stands out. Wise cracking and foul mouthed Darlene stands on the podium and stares out at nothing. She reads the poem in complete monotone, the way all kids do when public speaking. That dull emotionless voice that is only wishing for this moment to end.
If this wasn't impressive enough, the way her voice slightly changes during the heart breaking finale of her poem is. Getting ever softer and sadder she deals with the embarrassment of standing in front of peers and parents in an ugly dress pouring out her thirteen year old heart, by withdrawing into her head and her voice. Darlene as we know it has disappeared and the real one, with all her insecurities is left.

To Whom It Concerns: Darlene's work will be late, it fell on her pancakes and stuck to her plate.

To Whom It Concerns: I lost my assignment, maybe I'll get lucky, solitary confinement.

To Whom It Concerns: My mom made me WRITE this, but I'm just a kid, so how could I fight this?

To Whom It Concerns: Darlene's great with the ball, but guys don't watch tomboys when they're cruising the hall.

To Whom It Concerns: I just turned thirteen, too short to be quarterback, too plain to be queen.

To Whom It Concerns: I am not made of steel, when I get blindsided, my pain is quite real.

I don't mean to squak, but it really burns. I just thought I'd mention it:
To Whom It Concerns.

I dare you to watch it and not get just a little misty eyed.

It is no wonder she was nominated for a prime time Emmy. The acting praise was always heaped on Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman, but with episodes like this Sara Gilbert proven she was one of the best.