The Best Part I Never Had

My acting career got off to a slow start. I was absent the day they cast our first grade play, Peter Rabbit, and upon my return was given a non-speaking part. I held a pink cardboard bunny in front of me as my costume, and got to nod my head and point. At least I wasn't in the chorus.

The following year, I was discovered at the grocery store by an agent. I had professional head-shots done and started going on auditions. I got a lot of auditions, primarily because I looked younger than I was and had all my teeth.

I landed a few commercials, including one for the original Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I shot one spot for Gwaltney sausages that I never saw because it didn't air on the West Coast. I was also in a TV commercial and print ad for Allstate Insurance. I'll never forget walking into a Sears department store and seeing a huge poster of me and my on-screen dad.

Of course, there were many more parts that I didn't get. My biggest rejection was for a part on Mork and Mindy, where I would have played Mindy as a little girl in a flashback episode. I learned the scene, and brought my own teddy bear to the audition. The bear was called "Mr. One Eye," but I didn't want to tear an eye off my teddy bear, so my dad put a band-aid over one of his eyes. I found the scene on You Tube, and the lines that have been dormant in my mind for so many years, came right back to me.

It was down to me and just one other girl. Apparently, she looked more like Mindy than I did, or had the right color eyes. At least that's what I was told.

A young Melissa Francis did get that part. Missy, who also appeared in Little House on the Prairie, is now an anchor on CNBC, and frequent contributor to the Today Show. In an interview, she said "There was the time I appeared on Mork & Mindy and Robin Williams gave me a doll version of himself, and a teddy bear for my 8th birthday!" She is also considered to be the inspiration for the character Avery Jessup on 30 Rock.

I knew I should have worn colored contacts to the audition.

Most auditions didn't require me to learn a lot of lines, but I did have to learn a jingle for one:

I am stuck on Band Aid, 'cause Band Aid's stuck on me.
I am stuck on Band Aid, 'cause Band Aid's stuck on me.
'Cause they hold on tight in the bathtub and they cling in soapy suds.
I am stuck on Band Aid, 'cause Band Aid's stuck on me.

I've never been a great singer and I didn't get the part.

I was finally offered a part in a movie. Unfortunately, this would have required my mom and I to travel to be on location for a few weeks, and she wasn't willing to leave my three year old brother behind.

And thus, my brief time in the Screen Actor's Guild came to an end.