"I'm just trying to keep the events in the order that they happened." (says Harvey to Carlie in The Pinballs while he is making another one of his lists.)
I would like to thank Bart Jospies for lots of information. I would also like to thank Jim Mix for additional information and all the promos. Also thanks to Bill Boyko.
Last update December 2007.
|
| 1962 |
| September 11 |
Kristy McNichol is born in (greater) Los Angeles.
The precise place is probably Burbank in northern L.A. Her birth name is Christine Ann or Christina Ann, that remains uncertain.
Her brother James Vincent McNichol III, better known as Jimmy
(nowadays as James) was born July 2, 1961. In 1964 their younger brother
Thomas (Tommy) is born.
When Kristy is three years old, her parents Jim and Carolyn (or Carollyne, again uncertain) divorce and
she and Jimmy live with their mum, Tommy with his grandparents. |
| 1969 |
|
|
Taken to the set by their mother, who does some
minor acting roles, Jimmy and Kristy get to know showbiz. At age 7 Kristy
makes her first commercial, for Kraft Cheese. Several would follow, for
Hostess and McDonalds for instance. |
| 1973 |
|
| November 19 |
Kristy has a guest role in the comedy-show Love:
American Style. The episode is called "Love and the unsteady steady".
|
| 1974 |
|
| May 19 |
Kristy (credited as Kristie) has a guest role as Rachel in the CBS series Apple's
Way. The episode is called "The Lamb". The series is about the Apple family (mom, dad, 4 kids)
that moves from the big city to small Appleton, Iowa. |
| September 15 |
Kristy joins the main cast of Apple's Way. She takes over the role of one of the daughters, Patricia Apple, formerly played by Franny Michel (credited as Frannie Michel). |
| October 19 |
Run, Joe, Run is a saturday morning adventure series about a dog. Kristy stars in a guest role. |
| 1975 |
|
| January 12 |
The last episode of Apple's Way is shown. Kristy
played in 16 episodes. |
| October 22 |
Kristy plays in an ABC After School Special,
episode "The Fawn Story". She stars as Jenna, a young girl who
discovers an injured deer, and with the aid of her younger brother nurses
it back to health, only to learn that her well-meaning efforts are in conflict
with the law. |
| 1976 |
|
| January 7 |
Makes her first appearance on Starsky and Hutch.
It's the 15th episode "The Hostages" and she plays Meg. |
| February 18 |
Her second After School Special, "Me and
Dad's New Wife" in the series The Teenage Years. It is based on the
book "A smart kid like you", by Stella Pevsner. She plays Nina Beckwith.
Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mom. On the first day of
junior high her dad's new wife turns out to be her math teacher. Peace
between the two is finally reached after a series of events in which her class
tries to force the resignation of the teacher. (date
also reported as January 7; published by Time-Life Video) |
| March 9 |
Kristy co-stars in the six-part mini-series Family,
which is on ABC. She plays Buddy (Letitia) Lawrence. She has a sister Nancy,
a brother Willie, mother Kate and father Doug, living in Pasadena. It is a huge success. Promos
|
| April 13 |
The last episode of the mini-series Family is
shown. |
| May 7 |
A guest role in the TV-series Sara, starring Brenda Vaccaro. |
| May 26 |
Guest role in The Bionic Woman, playing Amanda
Corey in "The Ghost Hunter", the 13th episode. |
| September 28 |
ABC picks up Family as a full-time series. It
will run 4 years. |
| December 25 |
She plays Molly "Pete" Edwards in Starsky
and Hutch's 33rd episode "Little Girl Lost". It's about a difficult
Christmas for a skid-row child whose father is shot dead. |
| 1977 |
|
| January 21 |
Kristy plays in The Love Boat II. This was a
made for TV movie, the first with the later famous cast. She plays Linda
Morley who has a crush on Gopher. |
| February 28 |
Defending the ABC team in ABC's Battle of the
Network Stars. Highlight is beating Robert Conrad in a kayak race. |
| April 17 |
She competes in CBS' Celebrity Challenge of the
Sexes. |
| May 18 |
The Pinballs is
Kristy's third ABC After School Special. She plays Carlie, staying
in a foster home with two boys. They feel like pinballs because of the
way they get bounced around and they can't do anything about it. It is
based on a novel by Betsy Byars. See my special page. |
| September 7 |
ABC presents their new schedule in "The
magic of ABC starring David Copperfield". Many ABC star takes part
in Copperfield's acts, including Kristy in a comedy-magic skit "the
Maltese canary". |
| September 9 |
Kristy takes the challenge in another network
sporting event: Us Against the World (NBC). |
| September 11 |
Kristy wins an Outstanding Continuing Performance
By A Supporting Actress In A Drama Series Emmy Award for her role in
Family. Her colleague Gary Frank (Willie) wins the Emmy for supporting
actor. Kristy was also nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for her performance
in The Pinballs, but unfortunately she did not win it. |
| Fall |
Kristy is a guest on Sha Na Na, a themed variety
show with skits and music around a 50's style band. |
| October |
Kristy is on the Love Boat again, in the third episode of the first series. The segment is called "Graham and Kelly" and her love interest Graham is played by Scott Baio. |
| October 28 |
Kristy is a guest on The Donny & Marie Show. |
| November 4 |
The Battle of the Network Stars features both
Kristy and Jimmy McNichol. Kristy is on the ABC team, Jimmy is on the CBS
team. |
| November 20 |
She competes in another Celebrity Challenge of
the Sexes. |
| December 5 |
Kristy and Jimmy join the circus in the 2nd edition
of Circus of the Stars on CBS. |
| December 9 |
She is a guest on The Carpenters at Christmas
special on ABC. Karen and Kristy sing the Christmas Alphabet. |
| ? |
Kristy was supposed to make her debut on the
big screen in Black Sunday about terrorists upsetting Super Bowl, but the
small role she had was eventually edited out. |
| 1978 |
|
| January 31 |
It's ABC's Silver Anniversary Celebration and
Kristy takes part. |
| February 1 |
Her third appearance in Starsky and Hutch. In
the 60th episode called "The Trap" she plays Joey Carston who gets trapped
with Starsky and Hutch in a barn to be set ablaze by an ex-con. Promo |
| February 14 |
NBC has a Valentine Special in which celebrities
give opinions on love. Kristy and Jimmy are two of them. |
| March 8 |
Kristy is guest host on the Mike Douglas Show.
Guests include Patti Smith. |
| April |
Kristy makes her debut on the big screen in Burt
Reynolds' black comedy The End. She plays Julie, daughter of Sonny Lawson
(Reynolds) who is terminally ill. Promo |
| June |
RCA Records issues the Kristy & Jimmy McNichol
album and
throws a record release party at New York's famous club 'Studio 54'. The single "He's so fine" enters the Billboard Hot 100 on July 22 and stays
there 8 weeks. The highest position is no. 70.
In the Cash Box top 100 singles chart it enters on July 29 and stays there four weeks. The highest position is no. 83, reached on August 12. The B-side is "He's a dancer".
Later
the second single "Page by Page" is released (B-side "Girl you
really got me goin'") |
| September 1 |
Kristy and Jimmy host the one hour ABC All-Star
Saturday Preview Special. Guests include Donny Osmond singing "Love
Will Find a Way"; Donny Most, singing "Here's Some Love";
Haywood Nelson, Danielle Spencer, Adam Rich, Joey Travolta, Maurice Gibb.
Kristy sings "He's So Fine", Jimmy sings "Girl You Really
Got Me Goin'." Both McNichols duet on "Boogie Oogie Oogie"
and Donna Summer's "Last Dance". Promo |
| September 9 |
It's time for another Us Against the World and
sporty Kristy is in the team again. |
| October 22 |
She plays in two TV-movies in a short time.
In Like Mom, Like Me (CBS) she is Jenny. Her father has left the family.
She and her mother are trying to pick up their lives. They also attract
male interest. Promo |
| October |
The second TV-movie this month is Summer of My
German Soldier (NBC). It is about Jewish girl Patty Bergen in Georgia during
WWII who falls in love with an escaped German prisoner. Promo |
| Fall |
The televised version of People Magazine on CBS
puts the spot on Kristy.
With Jimmy she makes an appearance on Dick Clark's Live Wednesday (NBC). |
| December 8 |
Kristy and Jimmy present Young and Foolish, a
one hour special at CBS with guest Danny Thomas. Kristy shows her skateboarding
skills. |
| December |
Kristy and Jimmy are guests in the Carpenters,
A Christmas Portrait. Gene Kelly is one of the other guests. |
| 1979 |
|
| April 27 |
The last episode of Family, during its initial
network run, is aired. |
| August |
Susan Katz releases an unofficial biography of
Kristy and Jimmy McNichol: TV's Talented McNichols (139 pages). An abridged
version (92 pages) contains some different photo's. The book contains errors,
most notably Kristy's date of birth.
Also around that time an unofficial
Kristy biography by Sylvia Resnick is published. It includes a look at her horoscope. |
| September 9 |
Kristy wins her second Emmy for Family. It's
for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series. |
| November 2 |
Kristy makes her final appearance in a Battle
of the Network Stars. |
| December 7 |
My Old Man is a CBS TV-Movie in which Kristy
plays horse-loving Jo Butler. Her mother has died and she wants to live
with her father (Warren Oates) at the race-track. The movie is filmed in
Saratoga Springs, NY. Promo |
| December 24 |
Family returns to the ABC Network. |
| 1980 |
|
| March 21 |
The release of Little Darlings by Paramount Pictures.
The movie also starred Tatum O'Neal, but Kristy outplays her as Angel Bright
who competes with O'Neal who will lose her virginity first. A successful coming-of-age
film. Promos |
| April 30 |
Kristy helps her brother in his The Jimmy McNichol
Special (CBS). Among the guests are Magic Johnson and Ricky Schroder. Taped
at KTTV Studios Feb. 21. |
| June 25 |
The last episode of Family is shown. |
| Fall |
Blinded By The Light is a CBS movie in which
Kristy and Jimmy play sister and brother. Jimmy is in a cult, his parents
try to get him out. His sister wants him home too, but also wants him to
do what he wants. Still shots Promo |
| 1981 |
|
| January 31 |
Kristy's mother Carolyn marries Siegfried
Lucas. Ten months before adopted daughter Jennifer was born, Kristy's half-sister.
Picture |
June
 |
Another big movie: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.
She plays Amanda Child, sister and manager of musician Travis (Dennis Quaid, left) who lacks
her ambition. Also her dog Lulu plays in the movie (see picture left). It used to be a black
dog. Promo |
| September |
Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh has Kristy playing
Polly, the daughter of an alcoholic mother (Marsha Mason). It was loosely
based on Simon's play The Gingerbread Lady and earned Kristy a nomination
for a Golden Globe Award for Best motion picture actress in a supporting
role. Promo Academy
Card (large file) |
| September 20 |
Kristy takes part in NBC's Get High on Yourself
week, along with many other celebrities. "NBC is presenting a positive
alternate lifestyle for the kids of America", initiated by Paul Newman
in honor of his son. |
| 1982 |
|
| March 21 |
Kristy is one of the guests on the ABC Special
I Love Liberty. "A star-studded entertainment salute to the freedoms
that make our country great". |
| July 7 |
Kristy plays Julie Sawyer in White Dog. In this
movie by Samuel Fuller (1911-1997) after a book by Romain Gary, Kristy
runs over a dog with her car. It turns out that the dog is trained to attack blacks. She finds an animal trainer who tries to deprogram the dog.
Unjustifiably
the NAACP sees this movie as an incitement to racism, and its release is deferred
then dropped by the studio (Paramount) that had commissioned it. It was
released in Europe to rave reviews, but ended up on pay television in North
America. The date is for first release in Paris. It was produced in 1981.TV
Promo with Burl Ives |
| August |
The Pirate Movie, the most expensive movie made
in Australia, is crushed by criticism at that time. Blond haired Kristy
is Mabel Stanley who falls in love with pirate (Chris Atkins). In her dream
there is pirate action, romance, songs by all of the actors and humor. Turns out to be a cult hit until this day. |
| December |
Kristy leaves the set of Just the Way You Are
(working title: I Won't Dance) due to "chemical imbalance". Later this is diagnosed as bipolar disorder or manic depression. After taking a long hiatus to recover, she
will finish the movie in 1984. |
| date unknown |
The animated film Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
has Kristy doing voiceovers, together with Christopher Atkins as Aladdin,
John Carradine and June Lockhart. It was produced by Toei Animation Company
Ltd., distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Still
shots |
| 1983 |
|
| April |
Kristy is a host on Oscar Night (she also was
in 1980 and 1982). The one problem she has is pronouncing the name of the
winner in the category Best Short Animated Film Zbigniew Rybczynski... |
| April |
Little Darlings is showed on TV in a bizarre version. The movie is "edited for content": scenes with sexual references are badly cut or dubbed, making it an incomprehensible story about "becoming a winner". In an attempt to make up for this censorship, they added a couple of scenes that were not shown at the theatres. This version is showed a few times. Since then the theatrical version is back on. |
| 1984 |
|
| November |
Just the Way You Are is finally released. Kristy
plays Susan Berlanger, a crippled musician who discovers a new life in
a ski resort in France where no-one knows of her disease. A beautiful and
funny movie. |
| 1985 |
|
| October 8 |
In the CBS TV-movie Love, Mary Kristy plays the true
story of Dr. Mary Groda-Lewis. Mary Groda endured sixteen
years of illiteracy because of unrecognized dyslexia, was committed to
a reformatory on two different occasions, and almost died of a stroke while
bearing a child. But she was committed to going to college and becoming
a good doctor. |
| 1986 |
|
| February 21 |
Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) directs
Kristy in Dream Lover, about Kathy Gardner who gets attacked in her apartment
and suffers from nightmares since. A scientist has an experimental solution. One of her best movies. |
| November |
Kristy plays T.J. Nolan in the TV-movie Women
of Valor. She assists army nurses in their fight against the Japanese on
the Philippines during WWII. |
| 1987 |
|
| February 17 |
CBS airs Candid Camera! The First 40 Years.
Kristy participates. |
| 1988 |
|
| January |
In the movie You Can't Hurry Love, a singles
comedy, Kristy has a small part as Rhonda. |
| April 10 |
She has a guest role in the CBS series Murder She
Wrote as Jill Morton, Jessica's niece. The episode is called "Showdown
in Saskatchewan" |
| April 29 |
Kristy has a lively role as Patti-Jean in the
sensual movie Two Moon Junction. |
| October 8 |
The NBC comedy series Empty
Nest premieres. It's about a pediatrician Harry
Weston (Richard Mulligan) and his two daughters: Kristy is Barbara, Dinah
Manoff is Carol. A successful Witt, Thomas and Harris production. |
| 1989 |
|
| April 3 |
In People magazine Kristy describes her difficult
time during Just the Way You Are, "to hell and back". |
| date unknown |
Kristy's last feature film is The Forgotten One,
a horror-like thriller-drama. She plays Barbara Stupple, the neighbor of
a settling writer (played by Terry O'Quinn) who discovers a ghost in his
house. (it was made in 1989, but probably released in 1990) |
| 1990 |
|
| January 20 |
Kristy is one of the presenters at the 47th annual
Golden Globe Awards show. |
| October 5 |
She stars in the TV-movie Children of the Bride
as Mary, a nun who wants to leave the monastery because she is pregnant
but does not know the father. Her mother wants to marry a 14 year younger
man, but is afraid of the reactions of her children. In 1991 and 1993 sequels
to this movie are made. |
| 1991 |
|
| March 9 |
In her role as Barbara Weston she appears as
a guest in The Golden Girls (The two households are neighbors of each
other). It's the episode "Witness" in which Rose's former friend
is a protected witness and her new date turns out to be the wanted Karl
the Cheeseman. |
| December 22 |
The first sequel for Children of the Bride is
Baby of the Bride. Mary's not the only one who is pregnant... |
| 1992 |
|
| February 29 |
Her second "neighbor role" (very short)
in The Golden Girls is in the double episode "A Midwinter Night's
Dream" |
| October 24 |
The last episode of Empty Nest with Kristy is shown. It turns out that a month before she has left the series because her manic depressive illness is getting worse again. This marks the end of the acting career of Kristy. Giving interviews almost competely comes to an end also. |
| 1993 |
|
| February 27 |
The last in the sequel: Mother of the Bride.
Mary meets biker Ken, while her sister Anne is getting married. Kristy
and Rue McClanahan were co-executive producer of this movie. |
| 1995 |
|
| April 29 |
The final episode of Empty Nest, Kristy returns
for the occasion. |
| 1997
|
| September 22 |
Kristy makes a guest appearance (voice) on Extreme
Ghostbusters, a animated spin-off of The Real Ghostbusters, in the episode
"Dry Spell". Her role is credited as 'Girl (in Sub)'. |
| 1998 |
|
| June 8 |
Kristy does the voice of Angie Romar in the prime-time
animation series Invasion America, which is broadcast by WB. It consists
of 6 episodes, the last broadcast July 5. |
| 1999 |
|
| January |
Wizard King, the band with brother James, release
their CD Eco Warrior. Kristy sings along on a few songs.
Kristy and James also participate in a ecological project called PlanetView. On their web site Kristy presents the pilot episode, but nothing is ever heard again of this project. |
| March 22 |
E! Entertainment Television puts the spot on
Kristy in their show True Hollywood Stories. She does not contribute. Her
brother does, along with people Kristy has worked with. |
| 2001 |
|
| June |
Kristy has a message for her fans on a website presented by eMediastar. Unfortunately the website is never updated and finally dissolves. Also the celebrity tennis tournament for charity that Kristy had organised in the years before folds. One of the charities Kristy has supported most is The H.E.L.P. Group, which provides education and counseling for needly families. |
| 2002-2006 |
|
|
No news whatsoever on Kristy McNichol. |
| 2007 |
|
| January 13 |
Kristy McNichol attends a Celebrity meet and greet in Buena Park, CA. |
Note: dates are for release in the US.
