The reality of the ’70s good girls…

On the television screen, they looked so well-scrubbed and all-American. Many tween and teen girls (like me) looked up and admired Valerie Bertinelli, Barbara on One Day at a Time, and Melissa Gilbert, Laura on Little House on the Prairie. Both shows were typical 70s fare of family and lessons. The families were a little different, but the lessons were always there in a half hour or an hour…and these two actresses were often the ones learning the lessons. They were good girls on their respective shows.

Both actresses have now written books. Since I admired Valerie Bertinelli from the show and, of course, her weight struggle, I bought her book, “Losing It,” and read it last year. I haven’t read Melissa Gilbert’s “A Prairie Tale” yet, but I have seen a promotional interview about it and read an excerpt.

I identified with these two actresses in the 70s. They played good girls struggling with boys, peer pressure, and of course, life lessons. They were playing written parts, but I was learning from their acting. I was still learning that half hour/hour tv shows fix everything by the end of the show (I should have figured that out being the Brady Bunch devotee that I was…) and that doesn’t happen in real life. I was at an age (the dreaded puberty) where I needed as much as help as I could get and I turned to these actresses portraying girls I admired. I hate to say it, but I think I sometimes got more out of these shows than I did with my own parents. I was breaking out, I was too fat, I had a crushes on boys in school (every grade, there seemed to be a new one…and it never did me any good.) I wanted to be Barbara Cooper, thinner than me, pretty with long brown hair and tight jeans, with boys crushing on her. I wanted Laura Ingalls’ feistiness. So I kept watching the shows. Unfortunately, I never got those qualities, but I still enjoyed the shows.

So it’s interesting to read/hear from the actresses who were playing these roles and their real life struggles (karma - Jamie’s Crying from Van Halen has just streamed on Kcdx.com…) Valerie met and dealt with alcoholic Eddie and Melissa got pregnant by Rob Lowe (I think after the show) and lost her baby, plus had her own bout of alcoholism. From her writing, Valerie seemed to be somewhat like Barbara Cooper, a good girl, but she had her adventures pre-Eddie, met Eddie Van Halen, and then really started having them! I was listening to Van Halen in the 70s, so hearing about her take on the band was another fun/sobering read.

I’m guessing the two women wanted to set the record straight. I think Valerie has succeeded (and I admire her now more a 49-year-old given what she’s been through than as a 15-year-old fairly new actress.) I’ll probably read Melissa’s book, but growing up in front of America on a family show must have had plenty of pressures.

I think I’m blogging about these two books because the shows were so intertwined with my life and once again, have caused me to pause to revisit my childhood from an adult perspective…my reoccurring theme. The reality, though, is I’m still that 70s good girl.