Mary Fran is my favorite actress

I love her, too.

Cunt

If you mean the actress from Newhart, you can't be much of a fan since it's spelled Frann.

Fran Ryan is my favorite actress.

Better than Betty Buckley.

Better than Sandy Faison.

Mary Frann and Fran Ryan were on DOOL in 1976-77 but probably never sgared any scenes.

Fran Ryan was the poor man's Mary Wicks.

Mary Wicks was the poor man's Eve Arden.

When she died, she had a tombstone with room for two names but a few years later, it was changed so it shows only her name.

"Mary Wicks was the poor man's Eve Arden."

Eve Arden was the poor man's Joan Crawford.

Joan Crawford was the poor man's Bette Davis.

OP, I certainly hope you're not Jewish.

She was very bitchy about Suzanne Pleshette appearing in the final episode. She felt it was demeaning to her and her character to have them all wiped away as just being a dream, and Pleshette was his "real" wife.

It's one of the most brilliant final episodes ever.

[quote]It's one of the most brilliant final episodes ever.

It really was. And it came in time that people could still understand the reference of who Suzanne Pleshette was. If that series had lasted any longer or started later, audiences would have missed the reference.

The line about 'you should wear more sweaters' though was a kind of tribute to Mary Frann.

Newhart was a lot better than The Bob Newhart show. The quirky humor worked well in Vermont.

The stand out ep for Frann was the 2nd season one where Dick has a play written 20 years earlier about Joanna going to New York. Natch she feels she is the only one who can play Joanna, but Dick casts the more age appropriate Stephanie and casts Joanna as her mother, then bends to Joanna and makes her the older sister, which necessitates line changes instead of Mom, it's SIs. Joanna finally realizes the play is bombing so she makes the reveal she is actually the girls' mother to everyone, who have no reaction, other to start calling her Mom. Oh well, you had to see it.

There is a rumor that Mary Fran is from Hillsboro, Illinois.

Both Newhart shows were good when they were in their prime. Newhart started weak, but was a show that actually did improve a lot with the casting changes made the first few season (so many times when they tweak a mediocre show they make it worse). The Chicago show had some great episodes, but was probably stale at the end, and Howard needed to be scaled back in the later seasons. Frann was good, but Pleshette really was the perfect foil for him. Plus they had great chemistry. Look differential aside, you felt were a couple who enjoyed each other's company in and outside the bedroom.

I can see how Frann was thrown off. I saw an interview of Pleshette where it was kept completely under wraps even from the cast. I don't think Frann new of the final ending until she saw it play out on the sound stage. I think Pleshette sensed some of Frann's discomfort with ending, because she said she left and felt it was not her place to be at the wrap party since it was not her show.

The mediocre second show was indebted to the first show, and probably wouldn't have existed without it. Mary Bland should've gotten over it. She made her fortune on it and was free to do Lifetime movies and drift into bland obscurity. I'm sure she's enjoying her retirement blended in with some wallpaper somewhere.

[quote]I'm sure she's enjoying her retirement blended in with some wallpaper somewhere.

She's dead, Jim.

Or, you know, she died.

she died? when? omg!

55! younger than most dl posters!

she died in 1998 when she was 55.

And imagine all the great Hallmark movies she could've starred in if she'd lived longer.

"A Very Special Christmas With Has-Been TV Blond" costarring Tom Wopat.

Newhart actually didn't hold up well and it went downhill fast with Peter Scolari. Those of you who think otherwise have not seen it in full in a long time.

I have all the episodes and rewatched them. The first season is good, it got better when they added Julia Duffy, but when they lost Kirk it began going downhill.

By the 4th season when Michael and Stephanie were a couple, it was annoying and grating. I recently watched the whole series and I couldn't stand the two off them after years of not seeing it. Stephanie went from being an actual person who was rich, spoiled BUT realistic, to just a caricature of a wealthy brat. And it was clear that CBS was trying to push for a spin-off but didn't know how.

And Larry, Darryl and Darryl are definitely NOT funny after all these years. I used to love the show but just rewatching the whole thing recently, I wouldn't bother again. The last year was on par with Roseanne for not being funny as they took so much liberty with it and lost all reality. Like having Baby Stephanie run the TV station.

R.I.P. Mary. You glimmered and shone.

Did she ever write Mary out that check?

I started watching Newhart on one of those I'm going to die soon stations. It's such a gentle show. It's caught right at the time right before technology would take a big leap. A few years after it was over you'd have cellphones, the internet, and just a lot shittier world in general.

As a gayling in the 1980s, whlle my dad and younger brother were glued to Monday Night Football in our den, my mother and I watched the CBS lineup, starting, in some variation, with Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Newhart, Kate & Allie, Designing Women, and Cagney and Lacey, eating the toll house cookies mom and I had baked after dinner. You can imagine how proud my dad was.

Wasn't Frann fucking one of her fellow GOOL actors? I'm thinking Josh Taylor. He was THE STUD in his prime, and they would've made a gorgeous couple. Sort of the poor man's Lee Majors/Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

Didn't she play the forerunner to DL fave Barbara Thorndyke on some sitcom in the 70s, it might have been MTM but I'm not sure.

Fat. Very fat.

Yes, r33, there are references to it above. She played Joanna Forbes on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Joanna and Mary Richards become friends after Joanna hits Mary's car. When Mary wants Rhoda to join them at Joanna's country club to play tennis, Joanna keeps making excuses why Rhoda can't play with them and finally admits that the club is restricted.

Did you like her better than me?

Um...I'm reminding you now.

Why did they not paint those dingy walls in that inn?!

I once worked for an agent who dated her. Ken Lindner. I'm positive he was a 'mo because he once invited me to go see Pageant of the Master in OC with him.

I caught her in that MTM episode last night. Christ, she was awful and stiff, with annoyingly stilted line readings.

Poor Mary… R.I.P.

Midway through the "Newhart" series Mary Frann gave a notoriously high-handed, actressy interview that included this:

[quote]One complication Frann has suggested to the show's producers is to have more interplay between Joanna and Stephanie, the flaky hireling played by Julia Duffy. "I'd like to see us become the next Lucy and Ethel," she said.

Apparently Bob Newhart wasn't amused.

Dick and Joanna had the chemistry of an Easy Bake Oven.

Dead in the bed.

Bump. Been enjoying the Suzanne Pleshette discussion over in "The Birds" thread, thought of Mary. Her death was so strange and sad.

To me, she was every bit as good a Newhart wife in her way as Suzy. That's why the "Newhart" season finale was so delightful; it managed to include both women.

I actually liked "Newhart" even better than "The Bob Newhart Show." Bob is a treasure.

Mary had a very good episode as a villain on WKRP. The producer of a music television show who hired rock and roll DJ Johnny Fever but forces him to instead play soul-killing disco.

R42 What was so bad about that interview?

I’ve been watching those interviews from the archive of television. I searched by shows and watched the various people (some I’d heard of, some writers/producers I hadn’t) discussing my favorite shows. One thing I have noticed is that the first Bob Newhart Show “TBNS” was a happier set and more pleasant working experience than Newhart. Nobody had anything bad to say about “TBNS” and they praised all the actors for being cooperative, talented and easy to work with. When it comes to Newhart you get the impression there was more friction and the set wasn’t as happy and cohesive. This time around Bob was surrounded by actors who weren’t content supporting him and they wanted more airtime and more focus on their characters. The creatives weren’t too thrilled with Bob either who was phoning it in and at this point writing his lines on cuecards. The “TBNS” cast ate lunch together and went out to eat after every taping, the Newhart cast did not.

I think “TBNS” was just a unique situation and Newhart is what most shows are like. I will say while you have to accept that taking a role on a show called Newhart means you have to stay “in your place”, it must be incredibly frustrating to be talented, hungry and have to be in the shadow of a leading actor who is sleep walking through his show and not putting in any effort.

Pleshette calls Bob out for his poor work ethic actually and mentions that he really did t know how good he had it on “TBNS” Years later he admitted as much to her. She also said he was lazy and wouldn’t learn lines or rehearse.

So all that to say I can see both sides and I think Mary Fran and the rest of the cast were in a very creatively unfulfilling job.

Face it, Mary - Phyllis and Rhoda are limited.

"Wasn't Frann fucking one of her fellow GOOL actors? I'm thinking Josh Taylor"

WTF? I thought Mary Frann was gay!

I always thought Mary Frann was a poor man's Betty Buckley (let your mind wrap itself around that for a moment--what a sad fate), which was pretty much confirmed when Buckley refused to do at least one "Eight is Enough" reunion movie and Mary Frann replaced her as Abby.

Mary did have more comic ability than she was sometimes credited with having. There's a great episode where she re-does George's room and he hates it, and she completely freaks out and trashes it.

She was a former America's Junior Miss.

Co-hosting “Attitudes” with Linda Dano!

Spellcheck:

Mary Frann, with two n's

Mary Wickes, with an e

I genuinely loved Mary Frann. She was just - I dunno, glamorous with her big hair and sweaters. She was delightful as Joanna.

Mary Frances is my favorite.

I would like to teach her a lesson and kick her in the cunt bone. She is just too cute.

"Newhart" must have been a tenser show since they did a lot of recasting. It was a few seasons before they settled on Julia Duffy and Peter Scolari as the main supporting players.

Mary Frann was a waste of space on Newhart.

She was brilliant on King's Crossing, however! I wonder if she let cute Bradford Dillman poke her poon.

Peter Scolari was just annoying on that show. As someone else noted, his character changed Stephanie from realistic to a caricature.

I used to eat Mary Frann’s cunt out three times a week while the original bob newhart show was on.

I loved Peter Scolari on Newhart.

I also loved him with Tom Hanks on Bosom Buddies.

Peter and Julia were great for their first season, then they turned into over-the-top parody. Similarly, Larry, Darryl and Daryl were funny at first and then it turned into (like Fonzie) them getting rapturous applause whenever they came onstage. I loved Joanna, and I loved the maintenance guy, Tom Poston.

[Quote] scarring of the heart tissue

I wonder would that only show up in an autopsy?

I can't believe Bridget Nylund was on King's Crossing

Was she a squirter, R60?