Bitter TV Stars

At one time, both Nimoy and Shatner were bitter about Star Trek.

Both got over it gradually and made fortunes off reprising the roles and embracing the fandom

How can Gary Coleman be bitter? He died in 2010.

Yes, it's been seven years but I still hope Shannon Price doesn't completely get away with it.

Anyway, bitter tv stars- Tina Louise.

Why are they so damned ungrateful? At least they had a taste of fame. Most actors go through their entire careers without being recognized as famous. Eve Plumb could never be movie star, nor Gary Coleman a leading man.

The chip on Danny Bonaduce's shoulder is big enough to put Frito-Lay out of business.

Why not? Danny De Vito had a few lead roles. Maybe some of these stars could've had careers after their initial hit series if they'd have seriously worked at and studied to develop their acting skills. (Although I think Coleman was mostly angry that his parents stole and spent all of the money he earned before he could access it.)

George Reeves

Wasn't some of Gary Coleman's [italic]Diff'rent Strokes[/italic] money spent on the production of his TV movies?

I had started to dismiss "the curse" as just another silly superstition, but then the deaths of theme song co-composer Alan Thicke and executive producer Howard Leeds, along with Charlotte Rae's bone cancer diagnosis, so soon after one another made me rethink that.

The most bitter of the Brady girls is Susan Olsen, not about the show per se but about life in general.

Jonathan Frid

[quote] (Although I think Coleman was mostly angry that his parents stole and spent all of the money he earned before he could access it.)

Is that even legal? I thought now a certain amount of money from a child's salary had to go into a trust fund for that child.

Jackie Coogan

Paul Petersen

Prisciila Barnes owns this thread.

R11: The Coogan Laws in CA were supposed to protect his earnings. They failed. I'm pretty sure there was also some kind of abuse somewhere down the line. There certainly was in Todd Bridges' case.

Doesn't Scott Baio own this thread?

I don't think eve plumb is bitter. She was one of the few kid stars whose parents did right by her and didn't blow her earnings and invested it very well making her a very wealthy woman.

I don't think she has the sentimental feelings about the Brady bunch that some of the others do.

She also has her paintings to fall back on.

Vivian Vance

Eve isn't bitter, she just doesn't like Maureen for going on CNN the summer before her book came out, and hinting that her and Eve had a lesbian affair.

[quote]The Coogan Laws in CA were supposed to protect his earnings. They failed.

How did they fail? Shouldn't a percentage of the money go into an account that only the actor can touch when they reach 18 or 21?

Scott Baio is just bitter in general. I'm not sure if it's about Happy Days

Although it's popular to hate on Coleman, I'm not one of that camp. He never struck me as being bitter. He was understandably angry about his parents and handlers stealing much of his earnings. He never had any pretense about being a leading man and was quite aware of his limitations in the business due to his ethnicity, physical stature, and looks. When he became a security guard, it was the media and public that made a big deal about that - he wasn't embarrassed and saw it as a necessity. If anything, regardless of all of his challenges (including the debilitating medical condition to which he ultimately succumbed), he repeatedly impressed me as being a man who attempted to remain positive, regularly doing his best to make lemonade from lemons.

Gary Burghoff.

Bill O'Reilly's penis.

Jay North

Baio got fired from Diagnosis Murder and then they made fun of him on a later episode.

Why was he fired?

Joyce DeWitt

Cindy Williams

[quote]Why was he fired?

Because he made a joke about grabbing Julie Andrews by the pussy.

The first Aunt Vivian from Fresh Prince...Whoa!

David Boreanaz doesn't like to talk about Buffy and Angel, because he believes the showrunners screwed him over with royalties from these shows. Same goes for Kevin Sorbo and his Hercules (and Xena) show.

Maybe not what this thread is looking for but Jennette McCurdy hates Nickelodeon creep Dan Schneider with a passion because of the shows she worked for him. Sam and Cat had like 40 episodes in its one and only season and then Dan canceled it.

Who doesn't hate Dan Schneider?

*Walks in thread with someone in mind - sees post R31 - walks out of thread (for now)*

Lisa Bonet: the woman has been conspicuously absent from various "Cosby Show" reunions.

R22 - good post. I've thought for a long time that Gary got kind-of an undeserved bad rap. And I remember at least one instance in which someone tried to shame him on national TV for that security guard job (it may have been a fellow former TV star). Why shame someone for facing reality and pursuing honest, gainful employment?

I seem to recall that "Eddie Haskell" later became a cop. Maybe more of these child stars should humble themselves and join the real world.

John Amos - bitter over the (perceived) minstrelization of "Good Times", and over his pay. Also - Ester Rolle had similar issues.

Billy Gray

Charlie Sheen Mr. Brady was supposedly very bitter about working on the Brady Bunch

Nicholette Sheridan is super bitter about getting canned a million years ago from Desperate Housewives

Richard Dawon

He thought he was Richard Burton and would rage at anyone who would dare mention Hogan's Heroes

Jamiee Foxworth: actually, she hasn't come across as bitter as she could be - given what happened to her with "Family Matters". It must be difficult - to say the least - for a child to process showbusiness brutalities like that. It's hard enough for adults to deal with stuff like that.

(Remember - her character was simply erased from existence without so much as a nod.)

Max Baer

Hated that he was known for nothing more than playing Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies.

Though locally, he was also known for having kick-ass Halloween parties.

[quote]How can Gary Coleman be bitter? He died in 2010.

He was, I recall him on talk shows and he was very resentful. However, I worked at a hotel and we hosted a huge convention with all the TV stars from the past and by far the two nicest there were Dana Plato and Todd Bridges. They were so charming and loved to talk about their show and were so accommodating to their fans, unlike a lot of the washed up stars. The two worst were Jay North and Barry Livingston, I just wanted to say, "If you hate it so much, why are you here milking it for a few bucks"?

Both Joyce DeWitt and Norman Fell were not bitter about their roles, but rather their treatment by the producers of the show. Fell was always mad because he was pushed to do "The Ropers" and didn't want to lose a sure thing. He agreed to do it, if he could come back and the producers said, he could if the show didn't last so many episodes and it went like two or three episodes over the amount.

DeWitt liked her role but felt the producers didn't value her contribution to the show at all.

[Quote] David Boreanaz doesn't like to talk about Buffy and Angel, because he believes the showrunners screwed him over with royalties from these shows.

I don't think it helped that Angel was cancelled because of Joss.

Constance McCashin of Knots Landing, for about thirty years and until fairly recently. I don't blame her, given the situation. Fuck the Lechowicks.

Donna Pescow.

R47 They get rid of Constance and then bring a whole new family on, what sense did that make? All of their salaries combined probably equaled Constance, and her character was more interesting than the Williams family.

Jane Curtain didn't speak well of SNL for years. The women were treated so horribly back when it first started

Connie got replaced by the coloreds. LOL

[quote]Max Baer

He must have gotten over it because when I lived in Reno in the 90s he had a couple of failed schemes to develop a Beverly Hillbillies themed casino in town

r17 Holy shit, I just laughed so hard at that! r35 Meh, she got to fuck hot Lennie Kravitz for years, I'd rather do him than just about anything, including a shitty reunion show.

r37 jesus, with a mug like that she was fucking lucky she ever got hired not to mention her over dramatizing everything. Howard Stern once said that Amos should have won Oscars for acting like he thought Florida was fuckable at all.

Jim Backus got nothing in residuals from Gilligan's Island, and was notoriously bitter about it.

Geri Jewell is so bitter about her treatment on The Facts of Life she became a lesbian

Shirley Hempbill (late).

I go with Jay North too. Bitter bitter bitter.

Joseph Kearns is bitter he only lived to just past his 55th birthday. He looked like he was in his 70's.

Milton Berle, bitter to his dying day for agreeing to the clause in his NBC contract that prevented him from ever having a future show on a competing network.

Bitterness made me a star.

Roz Kelly (Pinky Tuscadero).

Susan Seaforth Fucking Hayes. Even back in the day, any time she did a talk show or an interview for a magazine, she always managed to sound incredibly bitter, even while on the show.

[quote]Jane Curtain didn't speak well of SNL for years. The women were treated so horribly back when it first started

I didn't know that. What happened to them?

R44 I always feel a bit sorry about Dana Plato especially after reading her son committed suicide

When the state of Oklahoma finally legalizes weed, they can call it the "Dana Plato Memorial Decriminalization Act," since the drugs in her system when she died were Lortab and Valium, which were and are legal but deadly when combined.

Another vote for Tina Louise, so far the clear owner of this thread.

Meg Ryan should sublease it since she never even mentions ATWT and will probably cut a bitch who does.

On the other side of the spectrum from Tina Louise (a bitter actress who despised being associated with her breakaway character) is our very own Brendad Ickson, a bitter actress who loved her character beyond healthy reason, forever wanting to exercise full control over said character, yanked from her decades ago.

Patty Duke!

As much as she eventually embraced Neely O'Hara, she never came around for her TV show persona.

Elizabeth Montgomery would stare down anyone who asked her to wiggle her nose.

Whereas Barbara Eden was always happy to cross arms and shut her eyes.

Kate Jackson still angry about Charlie's Angels.

David Caruso

Jack Paar, walked away from The Tonight Show after just five years and spent the rest of his life regretting it.

Susan Dey and David Cassidy

Barbara Eden was/is just desperate--like telling the same anecdotes of her bit part on an I Love Lucy over & over again; Montgomery had a second career as the queen of movies of the week and was able to show her range as an actress.

Backus came from money--I'm sure he had nothing to be bitter about.

Jim Backus also had a pretty long list of credits before [italic]Gilligan's Island[/italic]. Although it is funny to think that just a couple years after that went off the air, he had a small part in [italic]Myra Breckinridge[/italic] (coincidentally, his future [italic]Pete's Dragon[/italic] co-star Mickey Rooney turned down the role that eventually went to John Huston).

True, R77, Jim Backus also played Frank, Jim's father in Rebel Without A Cause.

Pamela Sue Martin. She bailed on Nancy Drew and Dynasty.

[quote]How did they fail? Shouldn't a percentage of the money go into an account that only the actor can touch when they reach 18 or 21?

I have heard and read parents of former child actors found ways of not putting money into accounts. Angela Watson who was on that 90s sitcom Step by Step was another person whose parents squandered her earnings. She was one of those "Where Are They Now?" type shows years back and she talked meeting Gary Coleman and others had been screwed over by their parents. In some cases, the parents pretended that financial advisors and accountants were taking care of money, but they weren't.

OH God yes. Kate Jackson

R70 that's not true. Patty eventually came around to liking The Patty Duke Show. It's one of the main reasons why she did the reunion movie. The reunion movie script could have been a lot better 😀 And I don't know if you saw it but she did many commercials for Social Security as The Patty / Cathy Lane character.

Susan Dey ,bitter she was Laurie Partridge. That's why she has disappeared from the public.

Introducing Miss Kay Lenz.

David Soul

r83

Wrong, you don't see her because when she shows up the public runs away

Pierce Brosnan and Kate Jackson. Both were trapped in their respective TV contracts when Hollywood came knocking. Brosnan eventually made out all right; but Jackson lost out on a potentially Oscar winning role. (Jackson's ex-husband, Andrew Stevens, also backed up his pickup truck to her bank account around that time as well.)

Pamela Sue Martin supposedly had bad drug problems.

Alexandra Cabot from "Josie and the Pussycats." All her plans to get that dreamy Alan away from that minx Josie never came to anything, usually because of her own poor planning or her snickering cat's antics. (Later she had him put to sleep.) Fortunately she was an heiress, so she was able to afford to drown her problems in coke and muscular European escorts. But apparently she still refuses to make an appearance on "Riverdale."

Chyler Leigh and others throw shade at the writers of Supergirl on the comic con circuit.

Arlene Francis - a true pioneer in early television, i. e. "Home", yet she's mainly remembered as a game show panelist.

Donna Reed - Dallas incident

Judy Norton Taylor from The Waltons. She thought she would have as good a career as Richard Thomas.

Patti LuPone - her tv notoriety came from being the mother of a Downs kid. They had to appease her by letting her sing on the show.

And I just realized in the clip below that the Del Rubio Triplets are standing in the background.

I have sympathy for Eve Plumb. I grew up loving the Brady Bunch but the endless revivals and reunions got tiresome. And after the big screen versions portrayed Jan Brady as a neurotic spazz, I’m sure Plumb had to endure an entirely new generation of fans shouting lines at her, calling her Jan and asking about Marcia. Endlessly reminiscing about a 50 year old sitcom must get tiresome.

On the other hand, if you’re going to trade on your fame to sell paintings you have to be ready to talk about what people know you for. It’s painful watching her do interviews because as soon as the Brady Bunch stuff inevitably comes up you can see her bristle and look like she’s ready to stalk out.

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen

Eve Plumb can simply not do interviews if she is so put out about talking about a show that is beloved and has brought joy to many people. Stars who have embraced their signature roles look more at peace and happier than the bitter Betties who are carrying a chip on their shoulder.

Phellatia Rashad

Susan Dey

"Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen."

They always seem like they don't care one bit about their most famous role coming when they were very young. They did something right with their money. They seem to enjoy just being old-lady dressing socialites who occasionally work.