People Goes Into Melissa Gilbert And Maks Chmerkovskiy’s DWTS Rehearsals

Melissa explains why she decided to Dancing With The Stars to People. The timing was perfect and she was ready for the challenge even though she didn’t realize how challenging it was going to be. Maks hasn’t made her cry yet except for the nice things he’s said to her. Maks says he can’t win since he makes women cry no matter what he says. Melissa talks of her Little House On The Prairie co-star Michael Landon (LOVED HIM!) and how he would be watching her if he was still alive. She even say Maks is like him. Lots more at People.

They look so good (in my opinion)!! What do you think? I’m liking this relationship and pairing a lot!!

UPDATE: Maks has written his first blog of the season. He catches us up on all of his projects since last season. He dishes on the cast and Melissa. From TV Guide, below is a take. Be sure to read the full blog at the link.

I’m having such a fantastic time with Melissa. She’s a great person with such a great personality. It’s always tough for me every season to try to describe my relationships with my partners. How many synonyms can you come up to describe how great someone is without offending someone from the past and without sounding like you’re not being genuine? Melissa’s amazing, but it doesn’t mean she’s any less amazing than Kirstie or Hope or Erin or Mel B. or Tia or Denise. They’re all amazing in their own way. Yet again, I think I lucked out with someone I love spending time with. Melissa’s very cool and very intelligent. She has an amazing sense of humor. She can dish it out and she can take it, which I love. We’re on the same page in our banter in how we speak and how we communicate and she does not get offended. She understands everything I say and how I say it. It’s gotten to the point that sometimes I’m cautious. I’m thinking like, “Is she that strong of a person that she kinds of holds it in? Am I gonna get slapped in a second?” But she’s that strong. She is very respectful to me and I have the utmost respect for her.

Rehearsals are going really well. We have the cha-cha for the first week and then the quickstep. Melissa said she danced ballet back in the day. She showed me videos of her dad dancing. He was amazing. We’re talking Gene Kelly- and Fred Astaire-kind of amazing. So she has that type of thing in her veins. Obviously, the cha-cha is freakin’ strange to anybody. There are certainly elements to ballroom that make it hard. But to be honest, we’re way past looking and going, “This one has dance experience.” As we see every season, having dance experience or ability doesn’t mean you win. Look at Kristin Cavallari last season, she was great and got eliminated early. I just hope everybody is going to be entertained.

Right now, Melissa and I are just kind of brushing things up. We’ve already got the routines done and there’s nothing more that we can do before Monday. Melissa has to experience Monday night and the nature of the beast. And then we go from there. She understands that too. We’re very cool together. I don’t need to say a lot for her to get it. I try to find ways to motivate. I tell her, “I want you to compete with these young girls.” She understands that it’s not a derogatory statement. She knows that I want her to be amazing just in general.