Eldergays, tell me about Kristy McNichol?

Sorry, there shouldn't be a question mark in the title. :(

Come, child, and sit upon my knee as I tell you the story of Buddy in the olden days.

She was an enormous star, at least for television, and a darling of critics.

I think a lot of people thought she was straight simply because, in the olden days, an alternative was not considered. Certainly it was not discussed out loud among proper people. We did not exist.

When Kristy's illness became pronounced and more obvious, like Erin Moran, she simply disappeared from the tv and magazine articles. There were cruel rumors calling her a mean girl, but really she was just ill and suffering. Good meds were not available in those days.

Run along now and play outside, supper's at seven.

Granted, everyone who appeared in The Pirate Movie embarrassed his or her self, but she did it the least offensively. She had a leg up on Christopher Atkins in the categories of comedic delivery and actually singing.

Kristy McNichol winning her second Emmy BEATING Nancy Marchand

[quote]Did anyone really think she was straight? She comes off so butch in the few things I've seen her in.

I don't think people, in general, thought about whether a young female TV star was gay or not in those days.

She was considered a "tomboy"

R4, the outfit she's wearing screams "WNBA season ticket holder."

Her nervous breakdown and subsequent departing of Empty Nest were all over the tabloids in 1992. I don’t think mainstream America had any idea she was a lesbian though. Of course if you read DL it was common knowledge here.

Ha Ha good question for me , as she was a wholesome tv star and into movies as well in the late 70;s , maybe early 80's...My friend managed a well known gay bar in WeHo at that time , my first night in WeHo while standing on the sidewalk with my manager friend in walks Kristy with her dyke squad of about ten dykes in tow dressed in all leather , very butch .. Such a shock for me in my late teens :(

Kristy was a very big deal in the late '70s and early '80s. She was a talented actress and strikingly natural. No phony child-actor BS, just a very real person who seemed incredibly likable. Her acting skills might not have been seen on quite the same level as Jodie Foster (and her projects were never as prestigious), but she was right up there with her, and started (and stopped) winning awards long before Jodie.

Kristy's breakdowns were covered extensively in the tabloids, and in (at the time) more respectable mags like People and US, which actually did some journalism in those days. Initially the problem was stated to be child-star ego gone wild, with booze and drugs added on top. But when she had to drop out of that ski movie, which delayed production for months, she was said to have a "chemical imbalance" which, in those days, just rendered her unhireable because of insurance issues. Mental illness wasn't discussed as much then, and she barely worked for a while.

She bounced back five or so years later with Empty Nest, but the pace of the show proved to be too much, and her mental health problems surfaced again. I remember watching the Arsenio Hall show with her as a guest. When it came time to introduce her, Arsenio told the audience that she wouldn't come out. They had her on a phone line from back stage, broadcast so the studio audience could hear. They played it for laughs, but everyone knew this was very strange. Eventually she agreed that she would come out if the audience left, so they actually filed the audience out as they went to commercial break! This aired! When they came back from commercial, she was onstage with Arsenio and they talked for a while. She left Empty Nest not long after that.

I......LOVE HER!!!!!! 😍😍😍😍

Kristy in a pink tuxedo with Matt Dillon.

Watch the movie “Little Darlings” OP.

I'll always love Kristy McNichol because she introduced me to two of the movie stars who made me gay.

Even though The Pirate Movie is shit, Christopher Atkins did a number on the budding gayling inside me. So did the Pirate King in the scene where Kristy muscle worshipped him.. This was long before puberty or sex. My body knew the men were hot!

And Kristy McNichol has to be straight because she was pumping and blowing:

[quote]She was considered a "tomboy"

Yes, and it's important to know that in her era (late 70s, very early 80s) the whole 'tomboy' thing was hip among teen girls. My older sister and her friends, all straight and who were 14/15/16 around that time, thought Kristy in Little Darlings and Jodie Foster in Foxes were the two coolest chicks ever. They were viewed as having attitude and being tough, and were in all the teen magazines that girls read back then. Now, of course, we can see that both were butch baby dykes to infinity. But your average person never even considered that at the time.

I had a huge crush on her when I was 8 years old. I thought my babysitter Liz looked like her.

She seemed to fade away in the '80s after The Pirate Movie, but came back for a bit on Empty Nest.

Kristy used to go to gay bar Peanuts around 1980. She wasn’t hiding.

Here's Burt being super creepy with 16 year old Kristy.

DIVA!!!

Kristy's name pops up on DL with some regular frequency. From what I recall from the most recent thread, Kristy is now living in the LA area and is involved with a non-profit organization that raises money for music education in public schools. she's doing this (or was) after she joined a choir at a community college.

As others have stated, Kristy was a hard worker as a child star, managed a rocky transition to adult roles, had a breakdown or two (was she diagnosed as bi-polar?), left the biz and did so with many co-workers and co-stars singing her praises. Now that's a rare feat!

I hope she's happy out of the spotlight and knows that there are those of us (now in our 50s) who fondly remember her work on TV and film.

One more thing... her brother Jimmy was one of her biggest protectors - I always like that about him.

When I lived in Honolulu in the 80s she got busted for climbing over fence between Dirty Mary's and the original Hulas. She got tossed out of Hulas and never heard about her in Waikiki again.

R20 stated it beautifully. Kristy McNichol was a terrific actress. But, she could not actively work any longer as an actress because of being bipolar. So, she had to leave. This was in the mid-1990s. I wish she didn’t have such a problem. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And I miss her. But, she had to look after herself when she made the decision.

I was a budding (no pun intended) Gayling in elementary school. I had a huge crush on Buddy (maybe because she was a tomBOY).

She was HUGE. On tv, and in teen magazines. She was not "butch", but what we euphemistically referred to as a "tomboy". Boys loved her, girls loved her. But we kids pretty much knew what team she played for. I found her to be fairly likable, but I didn't watch her in a regular TV role until Empty Nest. I did partake of her Afterschool Specials, though, and of course "Little Darlings" (in which Matt Dillon punched her v-card).

Yep, she was considered a tomboy but not in the Lesbian kind of way. So no most of America didn't even think she was gay. Of course there were rumors but mostly among other gay people, like you see here all the time on the DL. Mainstream America was clueless.

Little Darlings was a really good example of how she came across. Its a very cute movie, sort of rival of two girls one from the other side of the tracks and one from a better neighborhood. Guess which one she played? Which one will lose her virginity first.

Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol and some geeky teen named Matt Dillion.

[quote] Eldergays

[quote] Or was it all hush, hush?

hush, hush? Who do you think you're fooling trying to sound like anyone under 65?

If she's happy in her life I'm happy for her.

I don't know how recent this is but this is Kristi obviously long after her show business career ended.

Omg, I squealed like a pig watching The Pirate Movie in the theatre as a young gayling. Loved it and her. Miss her sooooooooooo much.

Damn - haven’t thought of her in years. She was so natural and had a glow about her in the 80s. I was a lonely gay kid in WI. She made me feel a lot less alone. I hope she’s happy.

Kristy does a lot of autograph shows. Very nice woman. She did one with Dinah Manoff. It was great seeing them together. Met her brother Jimmy as well and he couldn't have been nicer.

My mom always thought the character Mary from Eight is Enough was a lez.

Jimmy, on the other hand, has seen better days. Is he ill?

Her role in Family was ground breaking in respect for actually showing a teenager who had a voice. I loved both Meredith Baxter Bernie and Kristy. I think we give the same amount of melancholy for Nancy McKeon from Facts of Life. Kristy and her brother Jimmy tried for a musical career. They slightly charted with He's So Fine in 1978. I did not buy the album. I did buy both Cheryl Ladd's albums, lol.

[quote]Damn - haven’t thought of her in years. She was so natural and had a glow about her in the 80s.

She brought a sort of soulfulness to her roles.

Didn't she have a sort of croak in her voice? That was part of it.

There were some very talented kids (child actors) around in those days - and being pretty wasn't as important. People liked kids who seemed smart - and real.

That's odd - the picture I posted, changes. Sort of flicks through.

NEATO!

(remember neato? - that very Kristy's era)

All elderlezzes knew Kristy , like Jodie, was one of us.Same with Joan Jett.

i had the two Cheryl Ladd albums too when I was a little boy. Loved 'em.

No, R32, their genetics failed them.

Great actress, and so cute!!

She does the lez lez

My big crushes in 1977-78 when I was about 8 years old were Kristy and Jodie Foster. And I'm not talking somewhat girlish late '80s Jodie Foster, I'm talking live-action Disney, blocky, may-as-well-be-a-boy Jodie!

No one was looking out for her. She was a kid, and constantly working. TV, movies, music- she never got a break from work. I remember her constantly being on Mike Douglas.

And she also had terrible representation. The projects they picked for her after 1979 were mostly dogs.

She was just too fragile a personality to live the life she was living.

The first Cheryl Ladd record was horrendous.

Empty Nest was a huge show at that time (it aired right after Golden Girls) and Kristy got a lot of "Comeback" buzz from being on that show.

She left several episodes into the fifth season with little notice, leaving the producers to scramble to come up with storylines to fill out the season.

Kristy was an incredibly talented dramatic actress and it's not to difficult picturing an alternative universe where she had Jodie Foster's adult career (or even better, since Jodie presents so cold and asexual), but I found her pretty bland on Empty Nest, she was definitely overshadowed by Dinah Manoff. I don't comedy came naturally to her the way drama is.

Kristy was worthy of an Oscar nomination for Only When I Laugh. I don't think she was robbed (and surely there wasn't room enough for two supporting actresses from that movie) but she outshone Marsha Mason's performance and held her own with James Coco and Joan Hackett, both of whom received well deserved nominations (unlike Mason who, as usual, played Marsha Mason). Had she gotten that nod, I think she'd have been steered in a different career direction. of course, mental illness is mental illness and it doesn't stay at bay with an Oscar nomination, but I think there would have been better opportunities for her.

I try to pretend she never did Empty Nest because it was such a horrible show and she was terrible in it. I look at it as a training bicycle for her. I wish she was compelled to work again, though. I'd love to see what she could do today.

Nobody was openly gay back in Hollywood in the early '80s and most of the public was clueless about even the Liberaces and Paul Lyndes.

To say "everybody knew what team Kristy played for" is bullshit. Lesbians might have clocked her, but most people just assumed everyone was straight because you had to be.

I loved her in "The Night The Lights Went Off In Georgia". Starring opposite a sexy young Dennis Quaid. In every thread on DL, I never see it mentioned. Was this not considered a good movie at the time? I probably saw it two or three years after its release in 1981.

Amazing actress. Loved her in White Dog & Little Darlings - where is the long-overdue Blu Ray release for that?

R34 doesn’t mention her by name, but that’s Quinn Cummings in the photos. You should be following her on Twitter. She’s pretty hilarious and astute in her observations. No, really.

I loved Kristy in Empty Nest. It was surprisingly refreshing to me to see how natural she seemed in rolling with sitcom comedy. I'm glad she has her off-screen life and is able to pursue who and what she wants to be and do these days.

Virtually all of these 70s teen queens were molested or even raped. Erin Moran, Tatum O' Neal, Dana Plato, the Eight is Enough girls.

Those that aren't dead are accused of being mentally ill for simply trying to exist.

[quote][R34] doesn’t mention her by name, but that’s Quinn Cummings in the photos.

I'm sorry, I thought everyone knew.

[quote][R34] doesn’t mention her by name, but that’s Quinn Cummings in the photos. You should be following her on Twitter. She’s pretty hilarious and astute in her observations. No, really.

She's one of those annoying people who tweet all day long. I'll pass.

why in the fuck would anyone want to follow Quinn Cummings on Twitter?!!!

I remember when her movie Just the Way You Are came out in 1984. I was only 8 but saw it in the theater and it was such a snooze. And wound up bombing. Big screen stardom wasn’t to be for Kris-ty.