Child Actors

Paper Summary:

Used, abused, and confused by the grinding, unforgiving machinery of celebrity, the aging TV child actor, from Ricky Nelson to Brandon Cruz, from Patty Duke to Dana Plato, has always been more susceptible to the "crash-and-burn" than your average, not-so-cute-and-cuddly-anymore youngster. But what about Gary Coleman? What is he supposed to do? Disappear? And there it is: The Gary Coleman Paradox, the Former Child Star Dilemma. When their time is up, when their shows are canceled, we want them to go away. But they can't. Reruns assure otherwise; our TV-burned memories assure otherwise. We don't need to see another second of another "Diff'rent Strokes" to know that Gary Coleman is pint-size Arnold Jackson Drummond from Harlem. Now and forever. He can't go away. They can't go away. And, for that, we make them pay. If it was impossible for the TV kids of the 1950s and '60s to know the traps that lay ahead, it was impossible for the TV kids who followed them not to know.

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• Comparison Essay # 99538 : "Nursing Implications"

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