Hollywood Days - Leave it to Beaver

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If you are new to my blog, on Wednesdays I post about my experience in Hollywood as a former child/teen actress. If you want to start at the beginning of these posts go here.

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This is a rerun.

Some shows have the same director every week. This was not the case on The New Lassie. We had many different directors, which was fun. Some were better than others. Some worked better with the actors, some were better with kids, some were friendlier, but only one of them was Wally from Leave it to Beaver.

Tony Dow directed an episode. And I just learned from a quick search that it was his directorial debut. I remember being a bit distracted because of his distinct Wally voice. Man, that's sounds just like Wally, I would think as he gave me direction.

He was a very nice man and I also remember his wife fondly.

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Hollywood Days - Stand-Ins

Pin It Now! When you are a regular on a television series you have a "stand-in." This is the person who fills in for you while the crew is prepping the shot. This person doesn't necessarily need to look like the actor, but they try and get someone who is similar in size.

So if you are doing a scene sitting on the couch, the stand-in poses as you so the Director of Photography can light the shot, the cameraman can prepare his stuff, etc. This is the time where the actors can get their makeup done, work on their lines or go back to their trailer and do Sudoku. Depending how complicated it is to set up the shot (and how long it will take), this is also a time where childhood actors can get in some school time. I'll do a post about school later.
Here is Lassie's stand-in. For real.

P.S. We got a total of $150 toward building that well! Nice work.

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Hollywood Days - Moving to Hollywood

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I got the part. I was to play "Megan" on "The New Lassie." I was thrilled. Shannon and Kerry (my cohorts in auditioning in L.A.) were disappointed, but I know they were also happy for me. We are still good friends to this day.

I would be moving down to Hollywood to begin filming within weeks. We had some friends of the family that had volunteered to go down to L.A. with me should this moment ever come. But would they be available to just drop everything and move to Los Angeles with this 14 year-old? We called them. The answer was "Woof. Woof." They left Vegas and moved to Los Angeles. With 2 weeks notice. They were a young couple (early thirties - so young, so young) with no children.

But first my Mom and I flew down for a photo shoot, met all the Lassie people, got fitted for wardrobe, etc. I think this happened about a week after I was cast. What an exciting time. We were on the backlot at Universal Studios. On the same street where "The Burbs" was filmed and now "Desperate Housewives". I have some pictures of this first photo shoot, but I am not sure where they are right now. Hopefully I will find them and post them next Wednesday.

Notice on this Lassie memo that I was the only one whose character's first name was not their real name. The reason? Wen-dy. Lass-ie. They didn't want my name to upstage the dog. Couldn't have a name with the same ending sound. For real. It's that deep.



Here is an article that came out in our local newspaper shortly after I was cast in the show. The date was April 15, 1989. Click on it to enlarge and read. And note I even talked about Kirk Cameron.


Are you people still enjoying these Childhood Actress posts? At first I thought I wouldn't have that much to write about, but as I keep going I realize I probably have a book's worth of stories, photos, articles, etc.

And just for kicks, here is the advertisement in the adjacent page. Club Sport. Awesome outfit lady. One that I wore myself back... two days ago.

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Confessions of a Childhood Actress - Got the Part!

Pin It Now! If you have not read Parts 1-6 of my True Hollywood Story you can start here. Then scroll down to the bottom of the post where it says Labels. Click on Confessions of a Childhood Actress and it will pull up all the posts. For the rest of you...

My Mom said that I got home about 1 in the morning as we did drive home just after the final call back. In the morning she got a call from my agent who told her that the producers were considering two girls and I was one of them. Thus, Mary (my agent) was in negotiation talks with them about me. I was at school at the time (8th grade).

As I recall, I was home alone when the call came in that I had gotten the part. I must have come home via carpool and gotten the news that I was a frontrunner. Then either my Mom or Mary called to tell me that I got the part! I remember being in my parents' bedroom jumping up and down on the bed in total excitement with no one to share it with. I think my Mom and Dad came home from work shortly thereafter. I can't remember much else that day. Don't know who we called first. There was no internet. No cell phones. We were just glad to have running water and electricity back in 1989.



It was a dream come true. I was going to be starring in a television show that had already been picked up for 24 episodes! We were to begin filming on the Hollywood Universal Studios lot within weeks. The only thing we would have to figure out was where I was going to live, who I was going to live with, what my family was going to do, where I would go to school, etc. No big deal. Just some minor details to hash out... ASAP. Pin It Now!

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