.. that I don't find her or her antics nearly so interesting as I do the Disney and Nickelodeon star-making machines. The process for finding the children who will star in the shows that will bring Nickelodeon $800 million a year just in advertising dollars is rigorous.
Read "Tween on the Screen" (NYT, Apr 8, 07) for an idea of what being a child actor is like (Dan Schneider, a former child actor who is now Nickelodeon's J.J. Abrams, Josh Schwartz and Dick Wolf all rolled into one, recalls being treated "as a living prop"), and what makes for a successful kid show.
Then surf over to Entertainment Weekly. There were two good articles in the Jul 20, 07, issue: "The Making of a Kid Star" and "Where Are These Tween Stars Now?" The underlying message in both seems to be that unless the kid's got a strong support system at home -- and the natural brains and maturity to understand that they're engaged in a professional marathon, not a sprint -- they're not likely to make an easy transition from the tightly-controlled tween factories at Disney and Nickelodeon.
Unexpected wisdom from Hart: "You wait your whole career for that role that speaks to people, then spend the rest of your career trying to escape." That's true not just for child stars, but for a lot of television actors.
Posted by: drunken monkey | 2007.10.02 at 11:30
Interesting that the "tween stars" only go back as far as Melissa Joan Hart. (Which, I feel so old if she's the elder stateswoman of tween TV. I wanted to be Clarissa when I grew up.)
There are about 25 million children in America between the ages of 9 and 14, and 77 percent of them, according to Nickelodeon, have television sets in their bedrooms.
Sweet Jesus. My parents would have laughed in my face if I'd asked for a TV.
Posted by: Nomie | 2007.10.04 at 06:04
Nomie, that blew me away too. If you have a TV in your kids' bedroom, how do you supervise what they're watching? V-chip? I guess if it's for DVDs only, you could plot Little Torgo down for a while with Spongebob and do your thing.
Then again, I am pretty much opposed to TVs in bedrooms, period.
Posted by: Lisa S. | 2007.10.04 at 13:27