For most people, "joining the family business" means taking over the farm or the hardware store. For Sara Gilbert, it was the television industry. It's not to say that Gilbert didn't pay her dues or work hard, but her family has deep roots in the small-screen biz that go back decades, basically to the beginning of the medium itself.

Gilbert's grandfather was Harry Crane, a TV writer who got his big break working for Jackie Gleason's variety show Cavalcade of Stars (via The New York Times). In 1951, Gleason asked Crane and co-worker Joe Bigelow to come up with a sketch about a working-class Brooklyn guy and his long-suffering wife. Crane and Bigelow created the characters of Ralph and Alice Kramden, aka "The Honeymooners," which became the most popular segment of Cavalcade of Stars and then its own standalone series, one of the biggest hits in TV history. 

Crane, who died in 1999, was also the grandfather of another big TV star: Melissa Gilbert, who for nine years portrayed Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. Ah, Half-Pint and Darlene are sisters!

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