Regarding Female-Centric Shows and Behind-the-Scenes Dramas

[Khan]

Since the Sarah Jessica Parker/Kim Cattrall "Sex and the City" feud has officially spilled out into the streets...

 

Can you name a TV series, comedy or drama, with an all- or mostly female cast, that wasn't hit with behind-the-scenes drama at some point in its run? I mean, MOST series experience SOME kind of offscreen drama.  (What do you expect from actors, lol?)  But I'm talking about the kind of backstage shenanigans that made the news and/or made the rest of the cast and crew's lives miserable.

 

The only two examples of female-centric shows with reputedly trouble-free sets that I can come up with are "Kate & Allie" (and there's been rumors in the past about Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin) and the Tyne Daly/Sharon Gless seasons of "Cagney & Lacey."

[Faulkner]

Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander (Rizzoli and Isles) seem to be friendly.

 

LOL. That’s all I got...

 

Wait, I suppose if we include foreign series, the AbFab set always appeared to be largely drama-free.

[All My Shadows]

Are you referring specifically to drama between the cast members or just drama in general?

I think the ladies from The Facts of Life all got along well, outside from any typical teenager drama that you'd expect.

I'm pretty sure all of the women from the various seasons of Charlie's Angels were mature and supportive of one another, even as FFM became the breakout star.

Were there ever any backstage squabbles at Knots Landing?

[Soapsuds]

Alice

 

Linda Lavin vs Polly Holiday(Supposedly warned Diane to watch her back with Linda...LOL)

Linda Lavin vs Diane Ladd

 

Diane's character Belle wasn't even mentioned on the finale...no clips.... nothing of her.

 

 

 

Again 227...if you don't count Lester...LOL

 

Marla Gibbs vs Jackee

[victoria foxton]

 

[Dr Neil Curtis]

The Golden Girls... I kid, I kid! 

[Soapsuds]

Actually there were rumors they didn't get along and Bea vs Betty was true....I think the rumors were that Bea found Betty annoying....ditzy .....

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I know, I was kidding. 

[Soaplovers]

 

In regards to Charlie's Angels.. didn't Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd have issues?

 

 

[Khan]

 

Either/or.

 

RE: KNOTS LANDING -- AFAIK, there weren't any backstage squabbles, per se, although I THINK I read once how the older ladies (Michele Lee, Joan Van Ark, Donna Mills, maybe Constance McCashin) somewhat resented Nicollette Sheridan's status as the show's hot, young ingenue.

 

Actually, that isn't true.  Kate Jackson resented the HELL out of Cheryl Ladd coming aboard as Farrah's replacement.  According to Cheryl herself, Jaclyn Smith made her feel welcome on the CA set, but Kate felt loyal to Farrah and believed the show should have been put down after Farrah walked away.

 

That ain't what I've heard.

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[Faulkner]

Oh do tell...

[Khan]

 

That, she did; and according to writer/producer Arnold Kane's self-published memoir, the enmity between Holliday and Linda Lavin began in the very first season.  Lavin felt upstaged by Holliday, so she would try and steal moments for herself during rehearsals that wound up distracting from everything else.  On several occasions, either Kane or the director had to call her down about that.

[Vee]

Speaking of beef: Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan had no love lost during the filming of Star Trek: Voyager.

 

Ryan has talked about it at length in interviews since the show, as have most of the other cast and crew. Mulgrew, who as the first female lead of a Trek show was very forthright about the program not demeaning women or being focused on T&A, was incensed when Ryan was hired and replaced Jennifer Lien, who played the empathic alien Kes and who was dismissed to make room in the ensemble. The fact that UPN and the production emphasized Ryan's sexuality with promos and her character (the ex-Borg cyborg woman, "Seven of Nine") by putting her in a skintight catsuit also infuriated Mulgrew, as did Ryan's later beginning to date executive producer Brannon Braga.

 

Ironically, Jeri Ryan was very easily the strongest actor in the ensemble next to Mulgrew and Robert Picardo - the show quickly became all about her character's very deep and emotional relationship with Mulgrew's Captain Janeway, and her friendship with Picardo's "Doctor" character. Mulgrew and Ryan's relationship onscreen was electric, ranging the gamut from mother-daughter to sapphic. But for the length of the show's run, Mulgrew was incredibly cold and semi-unprofessional to Ryan BTS because of the circumstances behind her hiring and use by the studio and production. Ryan was and is an excellent actress, but she was marketed as a sex bomb. Mulgrew made things very difficult for her.

 

Fortunately, Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan have since patched things up - they were thick as thieves at the recent Star Trek anniversary celebration, hugging it out and having a ball.

[Khan]

 

Nothing specific.  In fact, it might have been one of those online blind-item thingies -- about "tensions BTS between the two, temperamental female leads on a cable crime show," or something like that -- that people guessed correctly was Angie & Sasha.

 

But, if you think about it, is it really that much of a surprise?  According to a few people who worked at "Law & Order," Angie was a bit of a c*nt when she worked on the show and left on bad terms with Dick Wolf in particular; and before Sasha landed "Rizzoli & Isles," she had this...interesting habit of leaving TV series shortly after joining them.

[Vee]

Didn't Sasha Alexander get her head blown off on NCIS and then shade the show on her way out the door?