Why Did Pamelyn Ferdin’s Career Go Straight Down the Shitter?

She was a cunt.

The Toolbox Murders

Because her mushrooms just weren’t quite up to snuff.

She always knew where to find the boys and the booze

^ That was the little cunt's only redeeming quality, Joan

"Ferdin was poised to become her generation’s Meryl Streep."

In what universe?

Is life there carbon based?

Saw this thread title scrolling along and the photo of Pamelyn. My first thought was, "Space Academy!" I loved Space Academy when a kid, watching it on Saturday mornings.

"Could I be right after 40 years" According toFerdin's Wiki page, I am - "and in the 1977 series Space Academy as Laura Gentry."

BTW - Space Academy is terrible, but she did co-star with the actor who played Dr. Smith on Lost in Space.

Given she was one of the worst ever child actresses, how did she have a career in the first place?

Last I heard of her she was living somewhere around Princeton NJ and involved in animal rights protests.

^^ for or against? ^^

She retired from acting and went to nursing school. One of her last roles was in CHiPs.

I saw her one-woman show about her adult life called “Edna Unger, Away From the Laugh Track”. She explored the dark side of broken homes. Pamelyn had profound things to say about Edna’s control and rejecting it in favor of living within the messy chaos of the real world. She referred to it as, “embracing her inner Oscar,” Later when she leaves her first husband, Jerry Vlasak, she sings a haunting song called “Gloria At Last.”

Sadly the only other person in the audience was Al Molinaro.

^ I have no idea what you just said

Wasn’t SJP her Eve Harrington?

^Annie, get your gun

She got involved in the extreme Animal Liberation Front movement. I mean, that’s mentally illl territory

She's very active on Facebook.

She was on an early episode of The Brady Bunch. One of Jan's friends.

She was so cute.

R18, not just one of Jan's friends, but Lucy, the insensitive friend who tells Jan that her afro wig was a 'terrific joke', which caused Jan to flee in tears.

For years I thought Happy Days' Cathy Silvers was her, all grown up. They looked quite similar and both had 'bubbles' in their voices, iirc.

Since February 2020, Ferdin has been a co-host on the local, Santa Barbara show called Ken Boxer Live -- says Wikipedia

It seemed like she was on every TV show back then, and you remembered her because of her annoying voice. But I head she went nutzo.

Cute little kid. Good type. It slips away as they age. Just ask Shirley Temple.

Never heard of her. Must be an old people's actress...

Maybe she hangs out with Lisa Gerristsen somewhere in TV land.

[quote]Why Did Pamelyn Ferdin’s Career Go Straight Down the Shitter?

I blame that blockhead, Charlie Brown.

Nobody knows her name R25, but her face is recognizable.

She was a regularly working child actress who was in a lot of things but was never in anything specific that made her a superstar or even a household name.

Wasn't she the voice of Lucy in the Charlie Brown tv specials?

She grew-up and there was less demand for the less likeable best friend.

Is it a surprised with her thinly veiled, terrific joke, racist comment about my wig? Cunt.

Surprise

Since none of you have Youtube installed on your computers...

Fuck her. I was the REAL Edna Unger.

[quote]R34 Since none of you have Youtube installed on your computers...

What is that?

Is it safe to click on??

I do remember her...she was ubiquitous in the 70's. What Saturday morning shows was she on? Sigmond and the Sea Monster? HR Puffn Stuff?

Her voice is awful and annoying.

[quote]R37 What Saturday morning shows was she on? Sigmond and the Sea Monsters?

The only star that comes out of a Sigmund and the Sea Monsters show is Sigmund the Sea Monster, and that’s ME, baby, REMEMBER?

r34 thanks for posting.

Who the heck is Ken Boxer and was that filmed in someones basement?

She's fallen victim to fillers and botox. Another "Madame" clone.

Does she live in Santa Barbara, where that is taped... or does she commute from a cardboard box in downtown L.A.?

The second she laughed at Jan, her career was doomed.

At least she didn't have to play a tween with a crush on a pop singer played by her own REAL LIFE BROTHER!

"The second she laughed at Jan, her career was doomed. "

Never, EVER laugh at the star or you'll be shining shoes on Sunset

"At least she didn't have to play a tween with a crush on a pop singer played by her own REAL LIFE BROTHER! "

She did have to say that she thought Greg Brady was the cutest boy in school

[quote]Never heard of her. Must be an old people's actress...

That's it, r25; if you've never heard of her, then you weren't there...there was no escaping her.

To answer op's question: most child stars are only appealing because they're children (see: "O'Neal, Tatum")

Oh Daddy, I hate being dead!

I always wanted to just slap her.

I always thought Sigmund was supposed to be a head of lettuce?

She was also on a Saturday morning show called Curiousity Shop.

[quote] I always thought Sigmund was supposed to be a head of lettuce?

Hedda Lettuce

Her shocking performance in “The Beguiled” should have won her an Oscar, yet Tatum would steal her thunder.

Happy Birthday, Wanda June, The Mephisto Waltz, The Christine Jorgenson Story, What's the Matter with Helen, Charlotte's Web.

'Pamelyn Ferdin has a few funny moments as Wanda June' Pauline Kael

She had such a great voice for a child actress. Very enjoyably nasal and memorable.

R54: Now, it's merely irritating.

She will always be Fern in "Charlotte's Web" to me

Because she was a terrible actress? She's wasn't pretty?

There are so many answers as to why she's merely a blip on the showbiz radar.

R47 I remember that TV movie. Didn't she stick her dead hand in a fishbowl and they could see it?

If she could act, she could have been the Mary Jane Croft of her time.

Why should she change her voice? We all envy it.

Thanks R34. Her new nose job makes her almost unrecognizable, but then she started to talk... and that annoying voice is just the same!

But I have the same question as R40 - who is that talk show guy? Is his show only a YouTube show or is that just a copy form a local Santa Barbara show?

It must be some cable access kind of wreck.

He’s no Skip E. Lowe.

Googling the host just points to this interview, so I'm assuming it was a pilot for local cable that never went anywhere.

I followed her on facebook. She's very active posting pictures and discussing her old roles.

Belongs in the "70s actresses who bugged me" club, along with Sian Barbara Allen and Laurie Prange

Paul Lynde never laid a hand on her despite the behind the scenes rumors.

She was on an episode of Shazam and she really looked chunky. It must have been in her awkward phase.

"Paul Lynde never laid a hand on her despite the behind the scenes rumors. "

Oh, but what he did to little Bobby, Peter and Greg...

She was on the DVD commentary of Family Affair with Kathy "Cissy" Garver.

She said she did not like acting as a child and she had "THE" stereotypical stage mother who pushed and pushed her into acting. She said her schoolmates would tease her relentlessly for being the voice of Lucy.

She said when she turned 18, she told her mother she had enough and she was quitting acting, taking her money and going to college.

She said her mother screamed and yelled at her but she went to college to become a nurse. Then she laughed and said, "I'm probably the only one in the world who had a mother who was mad because I WANTED to go to college."

Daughter of the Mind scared the hell out of me

[quote]She's very active posting pictures and discussing her old roles.

With her old nose.

Shocking footage. Perhaps this scarred her.

I met Barry Livingston once, he was in a small part in a Broadway bound show. Seemed like a very nice guy.

She was no Erin Moran.

She was the best voice of Lucy ever. It was annoying and distinctive - perfect for Lucy.

Yes, R30, she was the original "Lucy" character's voice in the first few 'Charlie Brown" animated specials aired beginning in the mid-1960s. Pamelyn Ferdin was seemingly everywhere as a kid guest character or extra in so many TV sitcom episodes and things from that time into the early 1970s, including the Saturday morning kids' TV show. Like another poster upthread summed up, she wasn't these programs' star or featured performer, but she showed up in lots of iconic and different things that you realize when you think back on favorite retro TV shows and episodes through that time period.

She was not the original Lucy. But she did do Lucy's voice in the first feature film and two later, lesser known TV specials.

[quote]R46 To answer op's question: most child stars are only appealing because they're children (see: "O'Neal, Tatum")

Pamelyn was always the little schoolgirl who fought her way to the top, made a great success. But she wasn’t a little schoolgirl any more. Now that was the truth, to face and deal with, if she wanted to survive. The truth is she was getting old.

You can only guest star as the annoying girl down the street so many times.

She should play one of those parts in a film version! People always want to see you in an iconic part on film!

[quote]She had such a great voice for a child actress.

It was a grate voice

Whatever happened to Moosie Drier?

[quote] But I head she went nutzo.

Hmmm...

“I hope she went nutzo”?

“I heard she went nutzo”?

“I’m hideous; she went nutzo”?

“I helped her go nutzo”?

In that interveiew she seemed to have a brittle sort of anxity, as though she was one panic attack away froma straight jacket and you could tell that she happily woul have talked about her "yet to be published" book for hours on end.

Her face lift or whatever is awful

She turned down the role of Vicky in Small Wonder because the producers couldn’t answer her existential questions about the role.

Pamelyn was one of the most talented promising young females ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs. Then she got old. And it doubled.

Pamelyn didn’t need to do a show called “Small Wonder” - she WAS the small wonder.

It’s like Tina Turner saying she didn’t need to do “The Color Purple” because she’d already lived it.

Here she is on a high class talk show.

She was like me only not good enough

I follow her on Facebook. Lots of great little stories about working as a child actress in 60s/70s Hollywood but after awhile she just repeats herself with lots of "they'll be more in the book" which can't seem to find a publisher.

She's very humorless and terse. She doesn't joke around with the fans or express any sense of joy about anything other than animals.

In between posts about her Hollywood days, she posts a lot about animal rights. She's a bit of a bore about it.

Annoyingly, she never lets rip on her mom though there is definitely an undercurrent of it when she posts stuff that Mom was the driving force and she wasn't really into being an actress.

Her stories are modestly entertaining but since she was just a kid, she doesn't have anything too juicy to reveal other than Paul Lynde was miserable to work with and everyone on The Paul Lynde Show was mostly relieved when they got cancelled. And, she loved working with Brian Keith, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.

Oh, and to answer the OP's question, her career really didn't go down the shitter...she was still getting job offers when she chose to quit show business and go to college to study nursing.

She didn't enjoy the business and she really didn't want to play the types of roles she was getting offered which were mainly young street hookers in distress or girls being victimized by chain saws and pimps.

Her primary talent was singing lullabies to cartoon pigs.

[quote]"Ferdin was poised to become her generation’s Meryl Streep."

I would've made it too...

If that WHORE Maureen McCormack hadn't fucked her way into my role as "Marcia Brady"

Pamela Franklin has her blacklisted.

R69 Did he double team them with daddy Robert Reed?

in the early 70s, there was a trend of having child actors who seemed like tiny adults: Pamelyn Ferdin was the most classic example, but Mason Reese, Brandon Cruz, Danny Bonaduce, Moosie Dreier, and Eve Plumb all fit this stereotype. They all seemed prematurely wise and neurotic and adult.

(Note that not all child actors fit it: there were also child actors who were cast mostly just for being cute and blonde, like Susan Olsen, Melissa Sue Anderson, Kim Richards, and all of Kim's child co-stars on "Nanny and the Professor"--also the boys on "The Doris Day Show" and the kids on "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".)

She gave Greg Brady the crabs

OP’s pic makes me think of that horror film “Orphan”.

R98 I think it goes back to before the 70s. Dinah Lord in The Philadelphia Story (Virginia Weidler) (1940) - that kid in A Thousand Clowns, Barry Gordon - Patty McCormack in The Bad Seed - Natalie Wood in Miracle On 34th Street - Ricky Nelson on Ozzie And Harriet - etc.

What’s the matter with Pamelyn?