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

[Khan]

 

Nothing that I know of, but I was just saying (jokingly) Phyllicia must not be too happy with Keshia about some of her life choices.   (*cough*babymama*cough*)

[Cat]

 

As I said in the other thread about SJP-Cattrall, SJP is being completely tone deaf and keeps pushing the 'poor me' narrative in this week's gossip mags (People and US Weekly specifically). Even after getting bitch-slapped on Instagram last weekend, she won't stop, and nor will "sources close to Sarah Jessica Parker." She appears obsessed with restoring her sweetheart image -- just as Cattrall said on IG.

 

SJP needs to stop with her friends speaking on her behalf, too (while she pretends she is not briefing the press about Cattrall). And a friend like Andy Cohen reflects even more badly on her (as he has done on Anderson Cooper already). Andy is becoming increasingly unprofessional onscreen, mirroring some of his off-screen shenanigans, and I have to wonder if this is not going to blow up spectacularly in his face one day.

 

4 months ago when the negative press around Cattrall started picking up, I noticed that much of that press focused on Cattrall's "unreasonable" demands of pay parity with SJP and the studio greenlighting a few other Cattrall projects as part of the deal. It surprised me because this press would never be negative if this were a male star demanding a rise and a deal on some other projects. Asking for more is a standard negotiating technique in Hollywood. Isn't that what SJP herself did when she agreed to appear on the show and claim a producing credit? Clearly Cattrall felt she needed to be compensated in order to make it worth her while to come to a toxic set for 3-5 months.

 

Re: Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter, I always figured that Loni was a bright spark whose dumb blonde image worked in her favor (kind of like Goldie Hawn). According to Larry Brody, a writer on the set of Partners in Crime, though, the atmosphere was tense on the set, mainly because of NBC's interference and demands for massive rewrites of the project. 

 

PARTNERS IN CRIME was a short-lived show that lasted half a season back in 1984. I was brought in as part of a whole new staff that replaced the legendary creator of that show, Leonard Stern, and the writers he had amassed. It wasn’t an easy gig for many reasons, not least of which was that Stern, who also produced GET SMART and McMILLAN & WIFE, was one of my writing and producing idols.

 

For reasons of the kind known only to network execs, the NBC brass hated the light-hearted tone of the show they had ordered based on the excellent pilot I’d seen. All I did know was that the new staff that I was part of was charged with making the show “more realistic and believable.”

Believable, really? How the hell do you make a show about the adventures of the two ex-wives of a dead private detective – one a concert cello player  (Loni) and the other a “starving ex-socialite” (Lynda) – realistic and believable.

 

As writers and producers we did our best to slip as much of Stern’s visiion past the execs as we could. But getting the network’s ideas past Lynda and Loni proved just as difficult. They were big, highly paid stars who’d signed onto the show because they loved the laughs. That didn’t want it to be more serious, they wanted it to be funnier.

 

All things considered, the ladies were relatively easy to work with. Lynda had an air of graciousness about her and treated people with respect, even those of us caged up in the L.A. office. (The show was shot entirely on location in San Francisco.) Loni was more of a complainer. She was married to the biggest star in Hollywood at the time, Burt Reynolds, and was happy to let us know Burt’s opinion of each script – which was always that it wasn’t very good.

 

The relationship between the two stars was more complex. Loni was always trying to prove that she was the bigger star and kept demanding more perks, but anything she got Lynda’s agent made sure she got too. So the stakes kept rising.

 

I spent most of my short time on the show sitting at my keyboard and groaning about how impossible it was to please any of our masters, and was a very happy camper when my agent called and said he was ready to get me out of this gig because he’d gotten me another one.

 

The new job was running CBS’s new MIKE HAMMER series starring Stacy Keach, who has been a friend ever since. No complaining with Stacy. No rivalries either. He was calm and secure – because he had his very own personal writer-producer ensconced in his trailer, revising anything in the day’s pages that didn’t pass muster. (That writer-producer, the great Ed Scharlach, is still my buddy…and still working his butt off in TV.)

 

Yep, boys and girls, all was well on the set of MIKE HAMMER – but one little off-set situation did kinda derail things. During a hiatus, Stacy was arrested coming into England from France and ended up serving six months in Reading Gaol for supposed drug trafficking. Which ended up making the hiatus about a year and a half longer.

 

And you thought being a showrunner was a honeymoon, right?

 

 https://tvwriter.net/lb-what-was-it-like-to-work-with-lynda-carter-loni-anderson/

[Soapsuds]

I had forgotten about the Lynda and Loni show.  It was obvious Loni was a beyotch/diva. I never cared for her or her acting. Now Lynda is no push over either. I am not surprised she got everything Loni requested too. She pretty much got what she wanted on WW too but unfortunately it was too late and the show got canned.

[amybrickwallace]

I think the original One Day at a Time three female leads were pretty tight. The major problem they had was Mackenzie Phillips' drug (and father) issues. Plus, Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie are still good friends today.

 

On the other hand, I've read in several sources that Bonnie Franklin and Mary Louise Wilson did not get along offscreen at all. Thus, the character of Ginny the neighbor was quietly written out with no explanation before the end of the 1976-77 season, never to be seen, heard or mentioned again.

[Soaplovers]

 

My mom loved that show... the one thing she always remembered was that Loni's character would always lug around her Cello no matter where they were going.  And both actresses were big names, so it made sense they both would demand perks, etc.  If it were two men trying to one up each other.. everyone would joke about it... but with two women.. its a cat fight.

[Khan]

 

In my mind, Ginny Wrobliki moved to be closer to her daughter.  Either that, or she was murdered by some trucker passing through the bar where she worked.

[Khan]

Another series that might not have been mentioned: "Cybill."  I have no idea whether Cybill Shepherd got along with her on-screen daughters, Deedee Pfeiffer and Alicia Witt, but her backstage conflicts with Christine Baranski, who played her character's BFF, Maryann, are almost legendary.

 

(Know what's even MORE legendary?  Cybill's conflicts with Bruce Willis, Glenn Gordon Caron and just about the whole world in general during the run of "Moonlighting."  Seriously, after THAT mess, who would WANT to be in the TV business again with the likes of her and Bruce?)

[Soaplovers]

 

In regards to Moonlighting... I think Glenn Gordon Caron was the main trouble maker.. and I think he pitted Cybill and Bruce against one another.  That was my impression anyway.

 

Oddly, I think she didn't have any issues on the Jennifer Love Hewitt show... it was JLH vs the network because of her wanting to have her baby daddy play a bigger part..imho.

[Soapsuds]

Nah...Julie ran over Ginny with her car during one of her drinking/drug period.

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[All My Shadows]

Ginny was a truly pointless character, and as I think we all know, that says a lot when the show you're referring to is One Day at a Time.

[amybrickwallace]

That's very true. *coughAlexcough*

[sivad40]

By the time Gossip Girl ended, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester didn't get along. 

[Soaplovers]

 

Do tell... I'm curious as to why.

[DaytimeFan]

 

"We had creative differences. She thought she was creative and I thought differently." - Chuck Lorre on Cybill Shepherd.

[DRW50]

 

I remember reading somewhere that as a token of gratitude to Christine, the show gave her her character's wardrobe. I think they pointedly did not do the same for Cybill.