Ok so I started a legacy and was playing them and when I saved some error came up and the game crashed to desk top.  I restared the game and when I tried to load my saved game - it was greyed out and nothing would happen when I clicked on the play button.

This is how you fix that.

1)Go you your MyDocuments\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves folder. 

2)You will see your saved game files there.  If you saved your game as "Sunset Velley", the file will be Sunset Valley.sims3.

***For this instruction we will assume the name of the saved game is Sunset Valley. Yours may be different!***

There will also be a file called Sunset Valley.sims3.backup.  And a file called Sunset Valley.sims3.Bad as well.

Here is how you restore your saved game to it's previous saved state. (The save before the one that crashed the game)

3) Delete the file that has the word BAD at the end.(Sunset Valley.sims3.BAD)
4) Delete the file that is called Sunset Valley.sims3
5) Rename the file that is called Sunset Valley.sims3.backup to Sunset Valley.sims3 (just right click on the file, choose rename and delete the .backup from the file name.)
If you do this correctly, the file type will change from a backup file to a sims3 file.

6) Relaunch your game and your family will be playable again!  You will loose the info from the time of your last save to the time the game crashed, but you will not loose the whole family! 

I hope this helps someone.