"... who inspires me more than she'll ever know."

[Franko]

I don't remember the exact line, but it's what Charmaine Hollingsworth signed Blanche's copy of her novel with. That leads to my question. What are some performances, story arcs or episodes that might have been created with elements outside of the soundstage and writer's room?

 

I've always heard Michael Patrick King based some of Valerie Cherish on Shelley Long, whom he worked with during the ill-fated Good Advice. But what I've always wondered is whether or not Lisa Kudrow was calling Matt LeBlanc to get some information on how things were going down at Joey.

[Paul Raven]

The only show I can think of off hand is the 1978 flop 'WEB' starring Pamela Bellwood as a female network exec.

It was riding on the coat tails of the hit movie 'Network' that had Faye Dunaway in a similar role.

Story was that Faye's character was inspired by Lin Bolen, daytime exec at NBC in the 70's.

Creator of 'WEB' - Lin Bolen

[Khan]

Darren Star based "Grosse Pointe" on his experiences working on "90210," with several of the show's characters "inspired" by "90210"'s actors.

[SFK]

And he based 90210 on his own experiences growing up in posh Potomac, MD 20854.

[DRW50]

I don't know if this is what you mean, but supposedly Catherine O'Hara's incredibly annoying and narcissistic actress character on Six Feet Under was based on Cybill Shepherd (Alan Ball of course worked with her on Cybill).

 

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[Franko]

Yup, this was the kind of thing I meant. Supposedly Annette Bening's role in American Beauty was also partially based on Cybill.

[Faulkner]

Ha. Cybill traumatized that man.