(I posted this in the wrong thread earlier...)

OP here. After all this I had to download Alison's book, and just spent two hours squinting at it on my phone, laughing at nearly every page. She's really quite a good writer.

While Melissa Gilbert's book was about her Life Journey, Alison's attitude is "You wanna know what it was like? HERE'S what it was like," and she has a great sense of humor and no self-pity whatsoever.

Yeah, she lets MSA have it, but not in a getting-even way, but just sort of letting it all hang out. A few things that made me laugh:

- On her first day on the set, Melissa Gilbert told her, "And whatever you do, look out for that Melissa Sue Anderson. She's very dangerous. She's evil, and I hate her." When Alison's aunt (her guardian) said "Honey, you don't mean that!", Melissa said, "She tried to kill me. And she'll kill you too, if she gets the chance."

- "Eventually, being nice to Melissa Sue Anderson became a Zen meditation exercise. Waiting for her to respond was like waiting to hear the sound of one hand clapping."

- When Alison saw MSA playing backgammon between takes, she thought she'd found a way into making friends. She approached and asked if MSA could teach her how to play, to which MSA said, "No, it figures you wouldn't know how. You've always been a tad backwards." Alison tried to make a joke of it, but MSA cranked it up: "I'd say you're a LOT backwards. In fact, you're quite stupid."

- The one time Nellie and Mary were supposed to have a catight, MSA looked her straight in the eye at the makeup table and said "You know I'm really going to hit you." Alison, who was no longer intimidated by her, replied, "And I'm going to rip your hair out by the roots." By the time they got to the location, the scene had been rewritten because "the people with walkie-talkies" had overheard.

- "I was the first to get my period. Melissa got hers much later. I have no idea when Melissa Sue got hers. (As far as I know, Melissa Sue Anderson does not even go to the toilet.)"