Portrait of the artist as a former child star

Part 3 - `Would you like to live your life as Spanky?'

by Ellen Barry

For children who grew up with the Bradys, the identification goes deeper; watching former child stars, we experience their stomach-turning drop in expectations, their ambivalence about reaching adulthood, and their grim sense of social dislocation. Ryan's film -- which features a former-child-star support group, and a range of infantile sociopaths -- is intentionally cartoony, but it draws on one of Hollywood's stranger real-life demimondes.

"The reason it's a cliché is because it's real," says former child star Paul Petersen, who founded a former-child-star advocacy group five years ago. Petersen -- who played Jeff on The Donna Reed Show and was an original Mousketeer -- points to a moment known in the business as "the Wall," when the adolescent star must face the reality that her opportunities are contracting, rather than expanding. Petersen can tell a thousand bitter parables about life after the Wall.

"Would you have liked to live your life as Spanky from Our Gang, who came back from the war to Hollywood and found out Hollywood wasn't buying what Spanky was selling, and lived out the rest of his life as an appliance salesman at Sears? Did the fame go away? No, it increased. Did several entities grow wealthy? You bet they did. Did they share? Nope," says Petersen. "People walking up to you and telling you they have a child named Spanky or Bud or Chip is meaningful. But let me tell you, in your mid 20s, that's very little comfort."

Many sitcom alumni insist that the vast majority emerge from the experience unscathed, but Petersen, for one, will assure you that the dark side is absolutely real. Petersen founded his group, A Minor Consideration, after three former child star friends (including Butch on Nanny and the Professor and Rusty on The Danny Thomas Show) committed suicide in rapid succession. Petersen sees relatively little humor in Ryan's project. But he admits the attention is useful, as he lobbies for the inclusion of children in the Fair Labor Standards Act, and fights for the soul of Macaulay Culkin.

"Look, we're not thin-skinned," he says, in a tone that has become slightly brittle. "We've been the object of ridicule and calumny for decades. A little film's not going to hurt."

"Do you see how sick this is?" he asks.

Part 4 - The endless rerun

Ellen Barry can be reached at ebarry[a]phx.com.