Every cartoon should have two equally pretty, equally important, equally nice female characters. That way, my twin girls wouldn't fight over who gets to be Madeleine or Cinderella.
As the theme song to Clifford began the other day, one of the twins declared "I'm Emily Elizabeth!" in a sing-song, victorious kind of way. Of course, the other twin began to pout and stomp her foot declaring, "You ALWAYS get to be her!"
What's the big deal? I thought to myself. So I said, "You can both be Emily Elizabeth." Wrong solution, Mommy. More drama. Much complaining. Ridiculous, thought I.
And then, it all came back to me.
It's a school ni
ght in the mid-80's. ABC's Tuesday night lineup is only a few hours from airing: Who's the Boss, Growing Pains and Moonlighting. All of a sudden, my sister blurts out the all-coveted phrase: "I'm Alyssa! I'm Maddie! I'm Carol!" And just like the rules of shot-gun, whoever called it, got it. I'm not sure why we called Alyssa Milano by her real name and the other two by their character names. Still, the phrase was important. The winner watched in victory, the loser destined to imagine herself as Mona or Maggie or worse, Miss DiPesto.
So maybe my girls aren't so unreasonable after all. This memory helped me to empathize with their cause, their need to project themselves into the make-believe world of another. And their need to stand in the shoes of the heroine alone, without a measly sister sharing the spotlight.
I'm not saying it's healthy. I'm just saying it's true. So. Who did you want to be?
Monday, September 22, 2008
to be or not to be
Todays topic:
a mother
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42 comments:
In no particular order, I wanted to be:
- Dina from Salute Your Shorts
- Sam from Who's the Boss? (you covered her well)
- Kelly Kapowski from Saved by the Bell (oh, Zack Morris!)
- Any girl who got to share screen time with Kirk Cameron or Michael J. Fox
Oh, and also:
- Winnie from The Wonder Years
I know I enjoyed this post more than anyone. Thank you for writing it for me.
I'm Chuck, I'm Pam, I'm Eva!
Ha ha!! My sister and I used to fight over who would be "Marie" from the Donny and Marie show. And who could forget the most favorite Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie!!??
Thanks for making me smile today! :)
OH MY GOSH! My sister Cathy already posted EXACTLY what I was going to post...that stinker. But since she didn't say it... I'm Marie, I'm Laura!
Story. There was a TV show on back in the day (don't remember the name) and the main character was this girl my age - cool tomboy, blond curly hair, and she rode trains with vagrants and beat up boys her age. I wanted to be her. Another show I watched, the Mickey Mouse Club, did this thing where you could write in and ask to meet with whoever you wanted, and I picked this girl. Little did I realize that the show was made like twenty years earlier and my idol was a 32-year-old woman who had given up acting and now lived in Iowa raising cattle or something. WOW. That shook my world.
From Jem and the Holograms...I was always Jericca and my friend was always Jem.
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/142-jem-and-the-holograms/
Totally Jem. Punky. Blair from Facts of Life. Kelly from Saved by the Bell. and later on Kelly from 90210 - just b/c Dylan was so hot.
Too funny...i have no idea who I want to be, but I always try the "you can both be....with my girls." You're right, it doesn't always work.
don't remember her name, but the pretty girl from the Goonies!
and now that I think about it...why was I watching the Goonies?!
Found you through the Nester (who I found through Southern Sassyness). Love your blog! I didn't have a sister to fight with, just 3 older brothers. Call me crazy but I remember watching Full House on Friday nights and wishing my hair looked like DJ's (Candace Cameron). I would try for hours after the show to style my hair like hers. How funny to think about that now! :)
Blossom (Blossom)
Rudy (The Cosby Show)
Kelly (Saved By the Bell)
I didn't have anyone to fight with at home but when I was with friends, I wanted to be Princess Leia or Smurfette. WOW! That's embarrassing!
I'm giving away my age, BUT I wanted to be Pinky Tuscadero (Happy Days), Laura Ingalls, and the Bionic Woman.
But, this story reminds me more of my sisters. We were young when "The Partridge Family" was cool, and my two sisters are only a year apart. They both wanted to be Lori Partridge. So, to solve it, the "loser" got to be "Susan Day" instead (the girl who played Lori Partridge).
I also remember playing house with my older sisters. We all had to pick husbands. My sister, Sue, usually "married" David Cassidy. Valerie "married" Bobby Sherman. And I would marry TOM JONES! He was old then!
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!
Oh, I WAS Laura Ingalls. And Cindy Brady. And Wonder Woman's little sister, whatever her name was. Seeing as how my sister is 4 1/2 years older than I am she and I really never fought over who was going to be who. I just "chose" who she was going to be, like Mary Ingalls and Marsha Brady. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!
DJ Tanner from Full House. No one wants to get stuck being Kimmy Gibbler...
fun post!
Yea, Jacquie! Another Partridge Fam fan! My cousin and I used to play "Laurie Day" and "Susan Partridge"....ha! I also remember getting hysterical if I got in trouble on Friday nights and had to miss the back-to-back episodes of Partridge Family and Brady Bunch!
Emily, you crack me up! Last night Bethany was playing "babies" with my toes (!?)and guess what their names were. But of course, Eva Grace and Stella! I tried to do them proud as we "visited" church, Chuck E. Cheese, your house, my house, back to big church and then to "little" church......fun!
Oh, I forgot to mention, I always liked Julie McCoy from Loveboat. Come to think of it, my life DOES feel like a cruise director! Go figure! Four kids tend to do that, hu!? :)
I'm Laura and Mary Ingalls
If I can't be them, then I'll be Caroline, but don't call me "Ma"
its good to be me....but i wouldn't mind being pam from the office for a day :)
I was Marcia Brady and my sis was Jan.
Melanie
Well, I wanted to be Kirk Cameron's girlfriend and Neil Diamond( I am not that old). However, my grandma use to have a poster with his picture and I would kiss it! I was crazy!
-Sandy Toes
I had a brother so it was pretty easy to be who I wanted. But when my friends came over, I totally grabbed my hairbrush and declared I was Madonna..."Starlight...Starbright!"
Hey Emily! It's been a LONG time since I've been able to check...I've got lots of catching up to do!
It is so good to get into our kid's heads and remember why they are acting the way they are. Too often, I'm like "Stop it!" without really empathizing.
Good reminders! I always loved full house, brady bunch, and oh yes saved by the bell but not sure who exactly I wanted to be! :)
Mary from Little House. Never Laura.
My twin and I used to fight over being the Wonder Twin - our older sister was of course Wonder Woman. We are identical, but some body to be the boy - but not just the boy, the "bucket of water", while the other got to be the girl and "the eagle".
LOL! I love that line up! I still miss Moonlighting! I wonder if they have reruns somewhere?
See, Emily, I tell my oldest daughter all the time how fortunate she is to have a little sister. I didn't have to call it - first, I had three older brothers. And second, by the time I was enjoying these shows, the boys were grown and gone. So, there you go. I called shotgun all the live long day. And I played lead actress, supporting role, and stand-in all by myself. It was a grueling job. (But someone had to do it...)
This one's for you, Pumpkin Spice Latte fan:
http://crashandaddi.blogspot.com/2008/09/pumpkin-spice-and-everything-nice.html
Blessings!
I wanted to be the girl from my 2 dads. And Kelly from 90210 :)
Me and my friend Beth used to take turns being Maggie (the pretty glamourous one) and Kate (the sensible one) from an Australian show called 5-Mile Creek about bushrangers and the Cobb and Co stagecoaches. Our brothers were Con (the good-looking American) and Jack(the sensible one).
I wanted to be on Facts of Life and live in that shop!
It's nice to know my kids aren't the only ones discussing who they want to be! Right now, it's characters from Star Wars-which they haven't even seen, but know them all! Me? I wanted to be Barbie, yes, I was still playing with her and pals until the seventh grade, until my mom lovingly packed them away...oh, the memories...glad I have them-my boys think my old dolls are to decapitate!
Hahaha. I totally was Annika from Pippi Longstocking, Joanie from Joanie loves Chachi, and my brothers "let" me be Princess Leia.
Now, I would love to be Sydney from Alias.
OH! Or Felicity! Or Lorelai.
... oh, this is not a good game for me. I better stop.
and yes, there should be a twin princess movie (besides princess and the pauper) with two nice, blonde twin girls in which the twin princesses do their chores cheerfully.
I'm a little older than you....our big show that we acted out was the Brady Bunch. My older sister ALWAYS got to be Marsha...that just bugged me to death. My best friend and I would try to be the first one to "call" being Cindy...because nobody wanted to be Jan.
Sometimes we'd even recruit my bro & his friends to be Greg, Peter & Bobby....they never lasted long though...too boring for them I guess!
My best friend and I would play "Dallas". I always wanted to be Pam and she always gave in and was Sue Ellen! Thanks for taking me back :)
This is sooooo going to age me, but I wanted to be a Charlie's Angel. Yeah, like Farrah.
Julie (LoveBoat)
Ma Ingalls
Mrs. Olsen (and only because that is who my sister wanted to be)
Cat Woman
We used to fight over water. See, to get from one side of town to the other we had to cross a river with a really long bridge. The first one to see water would yell "water water water water" thus become the "water queen" I guess. I wonder why our Mom never pulled over and threw us in the river!
I was an only child so I got to be the grand star of everything. I'm not so sure that's necessarily healthy either. I'm queen of the universe. LOL!
This post & the comments are a trip down memory lane! I loved Alyssa Milano too, and DJ from Full House. Now my kids are obsessed with watching Full House!
Well, I was on Growing Pains....just for a few seconds, but the video is on my blog...
Alyssa Milano and Blaire from Facts of Life.
Okay, can I just say that I think only you and me remember Tuesday night line up!! I would finish all my homework at school just so I would be ready for "my shows"!! haha
I think it's kinda funny that Miss DiPesto has a myspace ;) I didn't have any sisters until I was 10 and she was...obviously... a baby, so I just dreamed about Doogie Howser and Leonardo DiCaprio (when he was on Growing Pains) and wrote fan letters and swooned. I never really wanted to be a character on the show, I wanted to meet those boys in reality!... sadly though I must have no gay-dar because I was totally in love with Doogie Howser, thought Lance Bass was the cutest NSYNC'er and still can't get enough of George on Grey's Anatomy
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