One Day At A Time, original pilot found. Hold me David!

Poor Marcia Rodd!

Fired from the pilots of TWO shows - this and Maude!

Julie is upset she has a date with a smelly jock and sis helpfully suggest Julie tell the jock that she has a date with dad.

Wow this was so bad

I didn't think it could get worse after those lame credits.

I was wrong.

Marcia Rodd was the best part of the show!

I have a thing for dorky guys with glasses, but the doctor was far too much of a nebbish.

I have a good husband who provides for me and our child so of course I have to leave him to "find myself". If I were a man I would be criticized but because I am a woman I am a brave feminist.

They don't quite have this right. Mary Louise Wilson wasn't on until season 2.

I kinda liked the kitschy theme song.

That was so bad, I want my 25 minutes back.

Can you imagine having Ann Romano as your NURSE?

OMG. I love you, OP, for posting this...

I'm scared.

Tom Aldredge: creepy then, creepy always. Can someone explain his career to me? Was there a highlight, ever? (I hated, hated him in INTO THE WOODS, so don't even.)

Could Mackenzie Phillips be more annoying? Yes, apparently, she could!

And fucking Marcia Rodd: the only note of gravity, genuine wit, spontaneity, humanity on the show.... so of course, they wrote her character off.

I love you back!

Nurse Romano needs a new funny bone.

So, Ann is sexually harassed into a date with her superior at work in the very first scene.

Welcome to the 70s!

I loved it.

But then I loved One Day at a Time.

What a load of old shit.

I have never understood why Mackenzie Phillips had any kind of career. Yes, she had a famous father (who had sex with her), but she can't act, can't sing, and she was never pretty, even when very young.

Wow, just under the wire, the greatest DL gift of the year! I would run to the door braless for you if I could, OP.

She used her pay from that pilot to buy THAT sweater . . .

Earth 2 Ann Romano sucks!

Marcia Rodd starred in the film "Little Murders" - and Mack Phillips can indeed act - she's very good in a little seen film with Sally Kellerman "Rafferty & the Gold Dust Twins" and she was one of the most realistic teens ever in ODAT!

the late singer Valerie Carter sings on "This Is It" the snappy gospel pop theme song

Lewis J. Stradlen is really cute here! He's supposed to be younger than "Annie Romano"?

I AM big!

It's the pilots that got small.

I really forgot how much I despised this show, and Bonnie Franklin

Mackenzie Phillips is much more tolerable here than on ODAAT! Julie is more interesting and well-rounded here and not just a shrieking harpy.

Sarah is a dyke, right?

LOVE Julie's striped jacket!

Marcia Rodd!!!!!!!! Okay, I already prefer this to "Hold me, David!" and "Dammit, Julie!" and Elton Barbara!

Readjusting the timeline NOW!

R18, You are quite welcome.

Mack actually posted this on her twitter page and a good friend of mine sent me the link.

This pilot shows a more tolerable Ann Romano but I still don't see what her husband got abandoned for. He seemed like a good guy to me. Weird.

At least she had a job in the pilot. In the show she had no skills whatsoever and somehow became an advertising exec within a year. So unrealistic.

I found the character of Ed here rather controlling. This pilot to me had the vibes of a britcom with American accents. Loved the avocado color scheme for the kitchen!

Who's Sarah? I barely watched the show as I couldn't stand it, but assumed Schneider was supposed to be single in the series itself?

The theme song was just begging for Dusty Springfield to sing it!

I thought the theme song had a bit of Sergio Mendes & Brasil.

I found Ed to be a wimp, personally. The way he let Julie mouth off to him. Grow a set, Dad!

“Three To Get Ready” - who is #3 since Barbara doesn’t exist in this universe?

Marcia Rodd. Did you watch the theme song at the beginning?

Ann's missing bra?

Why would the upstairs neighbor be #3? Were Bonnie and Marsha secretly playing a lesbian couple?

They are the first three actors in the credits, they are the three main characters. Those are the THREE.

Not Schneider, not Sarah, not Ed nor the doctor.

Not that hard to figure out.

Calm down, Marcia.

All I can say is Lewis J. Stadlen has never been better.

It wasn't a hit until I arrived!

It wasn't HOT until I arrived!

[quote]r29 The theme song was just begging for Dusty Springfield to sing it!

That is [italic]sacriledge. [italic] The song was calling out for one singer, and one singer only - -

WOMP WOMP your feet! There's music playin'!

Is there another Michael Lembeck fan here? If so, please post more!

Schneider was breaking in thinking Ann was alone.

Bonnie's voice sounds a bit like Patty Duke in this version.

More DC Comics/ODAAT humor, please.

Michael Lembeck and Mark Shera were the two hottest guys to me when I was young.

And then Erik Estrada...

I didn't think anything could be worse than ODAAT...

Clearly I was wrong.

Michael Lembeck is a dreamboat.

Marry me, Max!

Inside me, Max!

R47 - here’s your crossover episode with Earth X Schneider!

....

I just won a Mary Richards lookalike contest, Ann!

Mackenzie is the best thing on this. Before the drugs I guess.

I love him but what kind of name is Michael Eyredown Lembeck?

R56 here! I meant Gail!

Rue apparently stayed friends with Marcia post-Maude.

Thanks for the nightmares, r19.

[quote]In the show she had no skills whatsoever and somehow became an advertising exec within a year. So unrealistic.

Maybe that was possible in Indianapolis in the 70s.

Did Earth-2 Ann Romano lose her immortality when she left her island?

I don't want this Mama and Papa!

Especially if you are on a TV show, R62! They just hire execs with no experience whatsoever.

Rue trashed VB in her book.

R49, isn't it somehow cosmically perfect that the only thing that could be worse than "One Day at a Time" is... "One Day at a Time"?

Anything is possible if you set your mind to it!

Elliott Pepperdine is the most!

Smelt.

Ha Ha!

R66 She said she didn't want to be on a sitcom with VB playing VB.

I thought Whitney Blake created ODAAT? She was the mom on HAZEL and real life mom of Meredith Baxter. Her name isn't on this, but it is on ODAAT.

R32 has trouble counting

r72 Whitney Blake was Mrs. Allan Manings. They co-created it.

If Anne is Hippolyta and Julie is Diana, who is Barbara?

Nubia? Druscilla? Donna Troy?

R66, the way she said it was so unnecessarily condescending like VB was so very beneath her.

37 year old Ed Benton.

Um, okay!

Why is Billy's sister making cookies without a bra?

R76 Betty White had no problem working with Valerie.

I won every Tony award a man can win for acting

*I* was the hottest ODAAT love interest.

Never liked him. Never got why Julie would risk Ann's classic, "Then go" for him.

Does V.B. still have her shit cooking show?

I had an English Professor at Texas A&M University who looked exactly like Michael Lembeck. I could barely concentrate in class!

Ten years later, I ran into him at a party that we were both at - with our husbands! We flirted a bit and he said he was definitely interested in me back then. I almost passed out when he said that.

ONLY time I was tempted to cheat...

toolbelt.

Claire Huxtable would eat Julie for dinner.

White TV parents. Sigh.

R84, he has a husband but was into you back then? I am confused.

The professor had a husband and I had a husband in 1996 at the party. In 1986, we were both single at Texas A&M but neither approached the other. Neither of us thought it was inappropriate to have a faculty/student relationship, we just didn't know the other was gay. But we were both attracted to each other in 1986, but did not say it to each other until that 1996 party.

He found me on Facebook in 2010 but nothing further than that.

Thank you OP ! I love this stuff. It's fascinating seeing how they make adjustments to a show to turn it into a hit. The original All in the Family pilots are quite interesting too. I wish more unaired pilots were available, especially unsold ones with well known actors. Would be fun to see them.

[quote] Never liked him. Never got why Julie would risk Ann's classic, "Then go" for him.

Cliff Randall never fucked Julie.

r83 Yes, but I quite like her cooking show. She's a sweetheart, and her recipes always look good.

I can't believe there's not more of an unsold pilot resource on the Internets.

In 1998 or 1999, my partner and I were part of a focus group in Dallas to watch two pilots, neither of which eventually made it to the air.

One starred Valerie Harper and the other was more of an ensemble but Patrick Warburton was clearly the focus. I remember this was post-Seinfeld, so it was most likely 1998 or 1999. You could tell that pilot was trying to cash in on his still-fresh Puddy fame.

My partner and I both gave Valerie's pilot perfect scores on everything for it because it was Valerie!

Neither ever got bought and I can't find out anything about them online.

Kaptain Kool! Do me!

That opening theme song was too cheezy even for 1975. And it's easy to see why this one never made it to air.

DL - please now locate the final episode of ODAAT which appears to have been an attempt at a Schneider spinoff. I don’t remember it at all and it never airs on MeTv reruns...

TIA!

Jesus GOD, was that excruciating.

Was Mackenzie Phillips channeling Mink Stole as Taffy Davenport?

On Earth Z, Barbara and Mark adopt a boy who grows up to be Rita Moreno’s husband!

r95 I saw it a while back on one of the mesothelioma channels. It was pretty bad-- I think he moved to Florida and opened a bar or something.

R88, I initially thought you were a woman. Thanks for clearing up my confusion. I had a crush on my teacher once but unfortunately he looked nothing like Michael "Lem" Lembeck. That is what his friends call him apparently.

My pleasure, R89. This pilot gets better with repeated viewings. Marcia Rodd was excellent in her part. I wonder if Bonnie had her excised along with Ed so she could be the focus.

ODAAT always reminds me of 1976 which was a weird year for me. My dad was cheating on my mother but my Mom was afraid to get a divorce, so she refused to watch divorced Ann Romano, so I had to watch ODAAT on a tiny TV in the mostly-unused den by myself.

My Mom briefly left my dad in 1976 which ties in "Afternoon Delight" into the memories. That song played over and over then. We moved back in with Dad after being gone a month but they finally divorced in 1981.

The woman my Dad cheated with (and eventually married) looked a lot like Cher, Melissa Manchester, Diahann Carroll, so I could also never watch Sonny & Cher with her and even Dynasty after the divorce.

As a gayling, I LOVED the cute guy in the vest in Starland Vocal Band!

Excerpt from "Another Man's Shoes".

Love ya tons, r102!!!

"Skyrockets in flight!"

So Bonnie out-me'd me?

I'm impressed.

Back atcha R103!

[quote] one of the mesothelioma channels

LOL!

Whatever.

Lembeck looks hot with gray hair, but his nose seems to have doubled in size as he aged. He now looks a bit like the late Donnelly Rhodes, who played Dutch on Soap.

It's either the mesothelioma channel

or the TRANSVAGINAL MESH channel.

I maintain, as always, that TRANSVAGINAL MESH would slay as a drag name.

Ha! So would ‘Mesothelioma’ !

Please welcome to the stage.....

Miss Mess O'Thelioma!

Also the Freezing Dogs Channel.

The Sarah McLachlan Sang My Shivering Dog to Death Channel.

The Snow Leopard Channel.

If you haven't seen Marcia Rodd in Jonathan Demme's 1977 CB movie Citizens Band, check her out. She plays Portland Angel and is great: in every way the antithesis of Bonnie Franklin and her instinctive bad acting habits.

On the left, with Alix "Hot Coffee" Elias & Ann "Dallas Angel" Wedgeworth.

R109/r115 Val’s nose looks like it tripled in size too - what happened? It was always so tiny.

I know often the opposite happens (your nose looks bigger if you lose weight) but sometimes I think a nose puts on fat when people gain weight.

Robert De Niro's nose also looks way bigger than it used to: cartilage in the nose and ears continues to grow until death.

R118 mine looks thinner than it used to (and it actually looks it’s thinnest when I’m at my thinnest and gets a tad chubbier if I put on a little weight).

I honestly think everyone is just different.

One to get fired.

Didn't realize an earlier Sally Field programme featured Pat Harrington.

YouTube has quite a few alternate pilots for shows that ended up going to air and lasting a while. YouTube doesn't have as many unsold pilots, though (pilots that were made but never went to series). I'll start a thread!

Did the character of Julie have sex with her dad on the show, like Mackenzie Phillips had sex with her own dad in real life?

I don't know if I'd like that - -

Dammit Julie! Stop fucking your father!

DL favorite Faith Ford has a treasure trove for you!

But Mom! He gets hard for MEEEEEE!

R125 and incidentally one of Val’s best gfs!!

Thought I'd throw this in the mix!

Bobby Sherman is a dreamboat.

Valerie is the 'me" of Van Halen

I agree with the others who say Marcia Rodd was the best part of this mess. She's the only one that resembles a genuine person.

That theme! Even in 1975 that was hopelessly bad and would have alone doomed the show.

[quote]Marcia Rodd was excellent in her part.

[quote]Marcia Rodd was the best part of this mess.

Stop trying to make her happen. If she was any good, she would've stayed on.

Damn that was TERRIBLE and I loved every minute of it! Marcia Rodd was the best thing about it. She was brilliant. Why isn't this icon working more?

That People magazine cover story/link posted up thread from 1980 about the BTS drama with Mac was so good and juicy to read and Bonnie comes across like a total cunt in the piece!

Somebody who did the retooling decided that a father in the girls lives wasn't all that crucial. Ed was brought out occasionally which was kind of unfortunate. He seemed like a good and well meaning guy who was abandoned by his wife so she could build a new life in a rundown apartment. She gave Dwayne more time and influence with their daughters than their own father.

Sad if you really think about it.

I like how Marcia Rodd busted Ann's chops a little in this one. She was much better for the show than Ginny who abandoned her own daughter with Ann's consent. She said she wasn't cut out to be a mother and Ann basically said that was okay and gave her permission to let her daughter's father take over the reigns. Ridiculous. A girl needs her mother just like Ann's kids needed their father. Ann was such a cunt and I never use this word but it fits with her. Danny Bonaduce's father wrote that script.

Ann was a self centered mess and in the pilot she let Julie disrespect her and her father and act like a psychopath. Allan Mannings was a funny writer but he needed to rethink the Ann character. If Whitney Blake was like that in any way, poor Meredith Baxter. In real life she had to call her mother "Whitney". Fucked up people in real and reel life.

Sorry for the profanity.

Annie Romano and daughter Julie from Earth-L

Julie became a late-in-life-insta-lesbian?

Mother was a cunt.

Golden age Cliff Randall

Max was only hot with the beard.

Oh, Max looks just fine there without the beard. Just fine.

Marcia Rodd should have gotten her own show. She could have done the TV version of The Goodbye Girl.

R136 I mentioned this in some other thread but I’m still trying to figure out why when I was a kid I though MBB was so pretty and kind of perfect looking.

Mary Louise Wilson’s autobiography briefly alluded to her ODAT tensure. She hated the show...she was a seasoned Broadway actress and it must have been galling to hear Bonnie Franklin hold forth....MLW said that Bonnie was always going on about her “acting beats”. She also was forced to emulate the SHOUTING acting style of the rest of the cast. She had some low key line like “Hi girls,” and she wasn’t delivering it to the directors satisfaction....she was made to stay after the main filming concluded so she could be recorded in “HI GIRLS” mode... it was her choice to leave the series...she hated it....

[quote] I have a good husband who provides for me and our child so of course I have to leave him to "find myself". If I were a man I would be criticized

Uh, no you would not be.

Here’the link to MLW’s ODAT recollections. I misremembered the instruction to “react” as shouting.......

R145, a man abandoning his family to "find himself" would indeed be considered selfish.

She didn't exactly "abandon her family" as she took the girls with her.

She didn't exactly "abandon the family" as she took the kids with her.

She left Ed, yes, but took the kids with her.

That Mary Louise Wilson is salty! I like it, but I'm sure she would be intimidating to be around. Bonnie had airs about being a Broadway star but then a real actor came in and she was threatened.

MLW is pretty ruthless about Bonnie's appearance! And just a page or two later, she calls Nancy Walker (who she loves) horse-faced! And then she opines about why no one wants to hang out with her, except Olympia Dukakis, who, she tells us, eats and entire loaf of bread in a bar (after both of them get fired from a show) and then goes directly to the bathroom and throws it up. She also mentions that, after seeing Judy Holiday in the show Hot Spot, Bea Arthur rated the show, "A faggot's fart in a windstorm."

Great gossip, but little wonder she's disliked.

[quote]Mary Louise Wilson’s autobiography briefly alluded to her ODAT tensure. She hated the show...she was a seasoned Broadway actress and it must have been galling to hear Bonnie Franklin hold forth....MLW said that Bonnie was always going on about her “acting beats”.

I had drinks with mutual friends once and he brought along MLW. Didn't get much of a chance to talk with her, but she was very nice. I did ask her about ODAAT (after clearing it with the mutual friend first) and she didn't mind talking about it at all — she hated the experience, hated Bonnie Franklin, hated the scripts and didn't like living in L.A. That sounds strong, but she wasn't bitter about it.

From Mary Louise Wilson's book at R146 !

[quote]I can still see in my mind those interminable closeups of Bonnie Franklin's face; the Dutch-boy bob, the dimpled chin thrust up, and those tiny, slightly crossed eyes registering mild disgust.

Oh my.

I love Mary Louise Wilson.

LOVE!

HER!

Who can argue?

If you are a Mary Louise Wilson fan, this is a must!

Ed was abandoned by his wife who took the kids with her. From Logansport to Indianapolis which was quite a commute. We never heard about him having visitation just occasional drop ins so Ann could emasculate him.

He was so lonely he had a rebound marriage to a woman who his little brats despised. She was a good and attractive actress so of course they didn't bring her back.

" Gosh, when can I join the women's lib?! "

[quote]I can still see in my mind those interminable closeups of Bonnie Franklin's face; the Dutch-boy bob, the dimpled chin thrust up, and those tiny, slightly crossed eyes registering mild disgust.

Gosh. That line is brilliant. Describes her perfectly.

R134 is right. The show has a very dated men-bad, women-good '70s mindset.

Ann was totally self-centered. It's implied she simply woke up one day and decided she wanted a change so divorced her husband and decided to move her two teenagers from their home in NYC to a crummy apartment in Indianapolis. She doesn't even have a job when she arrives, but somehow manages to get hired as an advertising exec.

All so she can 'find herself'.

It was selfish and a man would be criticized for doing it.

Oh, yeah, and remember about Ann being 'harassed' in that pilot, Ann herself actually harassed her male assistant not far into the series.

[quote]We never heard about him having visitation just occasional drop ins so Ann could emasculate him.

[quote]Ed was brought out occasionally which was kind of unfortunate.

There was a lot of him on the show, just in the dialog. They would often talk about the girl's visiting their father or something like that. In real life, Logansport to Indianapolis is only 80 miles.

I will say the visitation talk ended when the girl's graduated high school.

I loved the episode where the girl's lied to their mother about Vickie and Ann took their side until she realized they were plotting against Vickie and she called them on it. And Ann on many occasions said what a good father he was to the girls.

Mary Louise Wilson was pretty much like Vincent Gardenia, Vincent hated being on "All In The Family," but he loved the show and cast, he didn't like working on a sitcom.

So Gardenia asked to be written out, which Norman Lear did, but he kept Irene. Garrett herself asked to leave once Mike and Gloria moved next door as she said, she had very little to do and her lines as the "neighbor" were going to Gloria.

I don't know how true this is, but I read the rape of Edith was originally going to be a plot for Ann Romano.

R159 I laughed so hard because I swear that passage came straight out of these boards.

Are we sure the bitch doesn’t post on here?

Ann was a lot better here than on the show, acting wise, Mack was just the opposite.

But R79, some of the QVC ladies think Betty wants Valerie BANNED from her WAKE.

[quote] r165 some of the QVC ladies think Betty wants Valerie BANNED from her WAKE

maybe she's afraid bertinelli will eat her unguarded body?

How did such a shrill, annoying, redheaded harpie who had absolutely no comedic talent get the lead role in a sitcom? It's not like she was even a "name" actress at that time, either.

Meredith Baxter-Lesbian said she was upset that her mother didn't want her to play the part of Julie. Evidently, MBL's step daddy had been shopping the concept around for a long time, and by the time Norman Lear bought it, Whitney and Meredith were too old.

Yet MBL pulled a Stockard Channing or thought she could.

[quote] Marcia Rodd was excellent in her part.

Except that Mary Tyler Moore was already doing it.

[quote]I thought Whitney Blake created ODAAT?

I don't think she ever did. I think she pulled a Madonna and just stuck her name on everything.

If you look at her marriages

Tom Baxter (1944-1955) (divorced) (3 children)

Jack Fields (1957–1967) (divorced)

Allan Manings (1968–2002) (her death)

She wasn't really single much of the time. Allan Manings was the writer and Whitney, I bet, just stuck her name on it.

So is Calorie Bertinelli a blob again?

It's the eternal mystery, R167.

Of course I'm sure everyone knows Michael Lembeck is the son of Eric Von Zipper himself - Harvey Lembeck.......which may explain what he looks like today.

That's Harvey in the pic - BTW.

R160, I am so glad we are on the same page about things.

For me the premise would have worked better if the Ed character actually gave the Ann character a legitimate reason to leave him. Like maybe he was chronically unfaithful or emotionally or physically abusive or neglectful to the children. But nope! His big crime was the was bored with him and her life and that there was no "magic" anymore in the marriage.

To uproot the kids away from a loving father just to satisfy her own emotional needs is the height of selfishness. She could have stayed closer to where he lived at the very least so he could maintain a bigger role in their lives rather than have the creepy (if weirdly charming) maintenance man step in to fill that role.

(that she was bored) I meant to write.

[quote]How did such a shrill, annoying, redheaded harpie who had absolutely no comedic talent get the lead role in a sitcom? It's not like she was even a "name" actress at that time, either.

I think she was part of the crew that Norman Lear (or his staff) recruited from '60s/early '70s Broadway. Bea Arthur ("Mame"), Sherman Hemsley ("Purlie"), Jean Stapleton ("Funny Girl"), et. al. LOTS of other examples.

More ODAAT gold from director Alan Rafkin: “Bonnie took overreacting to the next level...she was from what I call the ‘slapping school of acting’....”

Re: the letter story at R178 — Bonnie sounds like a cunt.

R179 So what?

R177 but he enjoyed working with Scott Baio... Interesting...

This is probably a good read I’ll see if it’s on kindle.

Maybe Bonnie was having one of her "ladies" days.

This is cringe worthy.

R170 you mean pulled a Beyonce?

EVERY person Madonna has ever worked with , even people who said negative things about her otherwise, have claimed by that she's 100 percent involved in the creation of her songs and she writes all the lyrics herself, her co producer writes the music

Read David Foster's autobiography, he was very impressed with her and her songwriting and her ability to write lyrics fairly easily, even if he wasn't a fan of her liberal politics.

Tom Shales weighs in.

[quote] I don't know how true this is, but I read the rape of Edith was originally going to be a plot for Ann Romano.

David Dukes who played the rapist guest starred on ODAAT as a love interest for Ann.

Bonnie Franklin had delusions of being a Great Lady Of Broadway, then Mary Louise Wilson showed up and made Bonnie insecure. Wilson was truly talented and had a stellar theatre resume.

Better looking a she aged.

r184

No, she has had legal trouble from "Papa Don't Peach" to "Justify My Love," with adding a word or two and claiming credit for it

Mary Louise knows from working with crazy bitches!

So what? is the response I gave whenever somebody shares with me a letter their child wrote. What are you supposed to say when somebody reaches out to you on a personal level? It is too much work to pretend to be moved by what is meaningful to other people. Move on, toots! I need to concentrate on my damn self!

Why the fuck does Madonna have to take over every thread on this site?

[quote]For me the premise would have worked better if the Ed character actually gave the Ann character a legitimate reason to leave him. Like maybe he was chronically unfaithful or emotionally or physically abusive or neglectful to the children. But nope! His big crime was the was bored with him and her life and that there was no "magic" anymore in the marriage.

That was the point, especially in the 70s, a woman was more than just a mother. She needed to find herself, and that was the big message of the 70s. Ann got married right out of school and had kids right away and was simply a mother.

Messages were this is not a good thing. Remember when Gloria wants to have a baby and Mike says "So what are you a baby machine? Saying that if a woman doesn't have kids she's not worth anything." And Gloria starts to go over to his side.

That cunt and her bundt cake mold hairdo

Yep! That episode was specifically written to spread the message of population control.

Edie also left Lou because the spark was gone but I think the kids were adults at that point.

But I love kids! See me at the six minute mark....

Fried egg titties bouncing braless in a kelly green turtleneck as she runs to answer the door.

I love kids! I love kids!

R189 yes but she credited herself under "additional lyrics" NOT as the sole songwriter, she was credited accordingly

JML was supposed to be a Lenny Kravitz sing , Madonna agreed to record but changed some lyrics to suit her, there are some songs that she didn't write from scratch, hence the "additional lyrics" credit, quite different from the "written by" credit

Alan Rafkin loved everybody but Bonnie who he tried to connect with but was rebuffed. Wonder why she didn't get along with him. He seemed like a nice enough guy. What about Ron Rifkin? They killed him off real good. But did he get on with M.S. Romano in real life?

R197 so I think we can all concur Ms. Franklin wasn’t what you would call “good for the Jews?”

I’d love to see some of those Bunny on the Rainbow quotes but google books and iPhones are not a good team.

He seriously trashed David Groh in this interview.

Rafkin's comments from the article (which took them from the book):

On Arthur Godfrey: "Bigoted . . . one of the meanest men I have ever met."

Redd Foxx of "Sanford and Son": "Overall, I would have to say I adored Redd," but between his open and prolific cocaine use, slack rehearsal habits and paranoia, "working with Redd meant learning to work with conflict."

Demond Wilson, Foxx's costar: "One of the most evil actors I have ever worked with."

Tony Randall of "The Odd Couple": "A pain in the (posterior)," but a pro. "To get marvelous, you can put up with a lot."

Suzanne Pleshette of "The Bob Newhart Show": "Had a mouth like a sailor," but also a great pro.

Bonnie Franklin of "One Day at a Time": "From what I call the 'slapping' school of acting. Whenever she wanted to get a point across, she would slap her forehead with her palm . . . took overacting to a new level."

Garry Shandling of "It's Garry Shandling's Show": "One of the most self-centered human beings I have ever worked with, but . . . also a very nice person."

Craig T. Nelson of "Coach": "Undirectable . . . inconsiderate . . . unpleasant . . . patronizing."

He is even frank, in conversation, about his current shows (Suddenly Susan and Veronica's Closet) acknowledging that they have unachieved potential. But he adores Brooke Shields as a person and says she has improved greatly as an actor.

The show he likes best right now, though, he said, is one he has not worked on, CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond," the sharp-witted but gentle-spirited sitcom about a New York sportswriter and his family.

"If I had to pick out a word," Rafkin said, "I would tell Phil Rosenthal, who runs it, that it is 'old fashioned.' I hope he would accept it as the highest compliment."

So much shade...even his compliments are back-handed. I love this guy!

R204 He said that Bonnie Franklin was from the forehead school of overrreacting

That shit was hilarious!

[quote] Alan Rafkin loved everybody but Bonnie who he tried to connect with but was rebuffed.

Was this before or after his biting comments in the book? And was Bonnie alive when MLW’s book came out?

He made those comments whilst working with her on the show and she was still alive when the book came out as I recall.

What I meant to write is that she rebuffed him on the set whilst doing the show.

Graduates of The Bonnie Franklin School Of Acting

THANKS r205!!!

I liked when Bonnie was on the Munsters and Grandpa turned into a bat

Not to hujack the thread but why is Desmond Wilson “evil?” Does he sacrifice children or something? Leave women hogtied in the desert?

One reason why ODAAT time was so popular was because straight guys were beating their meat to Valerie Bertinelli. It had nothing to do with Bonnie.

I know a few guys who got pleasure from watching Bonnie too.

Wilson did not like acting he wanted to be a preacher, which he eventually did. He was messed up on drugs and alcohol and was a notorious womanizer and would criticize Foxx for doing the same things he did.

He said, his relationship with Foxx was like a marriage he loved him and hated him.

R217 so kind of a hypocrite like Bill Cosby?

r216 hopefully they were institutionalized.

Desmond was a crap actor.

Demond.

In that Rafkin book, he says Bonnie turned down a 10th season of ODAAT "saying she was going to return to Broadway where she belonged. Of course, since then she has made one tap dance cassette and I'm probably one of the few who bought a copy."

Me-YOW!

Bonnie was attractive.

Talk about blowing chances Glenn Gayrpelli left ODAT because he thought the show ran its course to go on Ann Jillian's show "Jennifer Slept Here," which last half a season, then they wouldn't take him back

Howard Hesseman never said a word and cashed his checks.

Bonnie was right to end it. The last season was garbage and it only went because, Bonnie insisted her character be married off.

The show ended because neither Bonnie nor Valerie wanted to do it anymore. Pat Harrington wanted to do it, so the last show was a backdoor pilot for a spin-off that never happened.

R224 Glenn used to hang out with The Facts of Life girls on set. Facts taped at the same building as ODAAT and all the other Norman Lear shows

And this comment from Rafkin's book:

"No matter how pretty Valerie was on the outside, though, I always had the suspicion that trapped inside Valerie was a fat Italian lady."

Damn!

r225

He thought he was better than he was, on anything he did.

For those of you who were wondering if Bonnie Franklin and Linda Laving ever worked together, yes they did. On Hal Linden's variety special. Yes, you read that right. Hal Linden's Variety Special. Unfortunately, it is not online anywhere as far as I know.

A couple of insufferable cunts

Despite my tap dance cassette, I was upstaged by Beth Howland, Georgette Engel, Nanette Fabray, Marge Champion AND Christopher Walken at this star filled gala.....

Here's an ABC promo for Hal Linden's special. They called it "The Hal Linden Special."

R228 that's hilarious

He has to be a Datalounger , right?

So bitter and catty

Rafkin died some years ago.

He was briefly married to the guy who played Nick.

Linden

[quote] For those of you who were wondering if Bonnie Franklin and Linda Lavin ever worked together, yes they did.

So much cunt in one room.

Have there ever been two more annoying actresses in the history of the universe?

Don't forget me!

Me eiither!

Imagine a reboot where a paroled Betty Broderick moves into a rundown apartment with daughters Kim and Lee.

With Meredith B as Schneider.

Funny that the new ODAAT actually has the Ann Romano role as a nurse.

(It's also way funnier, to be honest.)

Well, this is shit

(This is shit)

It’s all very confusing between this Rafkin man and Ron Rifkin and Bonnie’s nemesis Linda Lavin who I thought had been married to Ron Rifkin but no, that was Ron Liebman. Anyway these three men are not the same person though I could have swore they were. At least Deborah Raffin and Ron Silver never appeared on ODAAT and they’re both dead now anyway.

^^ Thank you for that.

OT: If Bonnie Franklin played Toni Tenille in a Lifetime movie called [italic]Muskrat Love Can't Keep Us Together,[/italic] who would have played the Captain?

R240 no matter what is said about her on here at least she has talent.

Gavin MacLeod reporting for duty R246

Fire up the VCR!

Unsurprisingly, this sounds insufferable.

Was she the poorest man's Shirley MacLaine?

Did either Bonnie Franklin or Linda Lavin ever appear on "Battle of the Network Stars"? I would love to have seen Linda making her way through the obstacle course, or Bonnie in the dunk tank.

I never liked the show, but I'm now totally obsessed with Bonnie Franklin.

She was the Jane Fonda of the lucrative tap exercise video market of the 80s.

I know we collectively loathed her but it's wild to see so many professionals validate our impression.

She was very natural on The Young and the Restless as a nun. The cast and crew loved her, even Herr Braeden. Soon after she got her diagnosis.

I didn't like her guest character on Hot In Cleveland. She was wasted there. But John Schneider who played her son loved working with her too.

Perhaps as she got older she became less exacting in the workplace.

[quote] Perhaps as she got older she became less exacting in the workplace.

She must have. There was no way 1985 Bonnie would have deigned to do TYATR. She was, after all, a respected Broadway veteran (at least in her own mind).

Did Bonnie ever show off her "singing" and "dancing" talents on ODAAT, like Linda Lavin insisted on doing in every third episode of Alice?

We MUST do an episode to showcase Linda's singing and dancing talents! The public is DEMANDING it!

....

IMDb says they were planning on renew it through to season eleven!

How did that abominable show manage to stay on the air for so long?

I read on here that CBS was at one point so impressed with the show's success they gave the cast Mercedes'.

(Did Mack hock her hers?)

[quote]She was very natural on The Young and the Restless as a nun.

Would a convent take a Jewish girl?

She played it straight with no tics or mugging.

Caption this photo!

This was the best I could find, r258. It was one of the Happy New Year episodes where the cast entertains at a retirement home.

On the good ship lollipop 🍭

Did MLW comment on this episode in her book?

Sweet Fucking Jesus r266/67. I never saw that one. I think I would've killed myself if I had.

Here’s the recap

[QUOTE] Sweet Fucking Jesus [R266]/67. I never saw that one. I think I would've killed myself if I had.

Bonnie as Shirley Temple!!!

Even the makeup and lighting couldn't hide Mackenzie's drug-ravaged skin. She looked awful.

Bonnie could really sing, why do that wannabe Cindy Brady bit?

Bonnie did Y&R because she was ill and needed acting credits to keep up her insirance with the union.

Insurance

Poor Bonnie.

Life has a way of kicking you in the pancreas.

I remember some other time when Bonnie, Val and Nanette did some song about triplets.

Or was it twins?

If we're going to talk about musical performances on any Lear show, let's be clear......

Bea OWNS it, lock, stock and fucking barrel.

Triplets.

Thank you R279.

Bea killed it in that clip! She was such a wonderful talent.

[quote]I remember some other time when Bonnie, Val and Nanette did some song about triplets.

That was an homage to Nanette's number in "The Band Wagon."

Bea Arthur was beyond fabulous!

My pleasure, R277.

R279 amazing how Lear had an eye for such great talent and some of our worst “talents”

This show had practically no diversity whatsoever which is weird considering the Norman Lear factor. Why couldn't any of them have had a Black friend or romantic love interest? Dwayne dated a girl who was almost Barbara's age but Heaven forbid he should date outside of his race.

R278 you must if missed the Facts of Life season 6 Christmas episode with at the men's prison!

Boys, boys, boys!!!

Must HAVE missed.

Nancy McKeon singing “We need a Little Christmas” in that FOL episode was cringeworthy.

r285

Listen to Danielle's "Arrive All Over You," and "Portable Life" CDs, they will blow you away at how good she is

[quote]r277 I remember some other time when Bonnie, Val and Nanette did some song about triplets. Or was it twins?

It was triplets.

And a rip off from the number Fabray did in THE BAND WAGON (1953)

So original.

^^ Sorry.

r282 got there first.

Earth M version of ODAAT - Julie is still a delinquent and Barbara is black.

Marry me, R293!

The show was originally called "One Time At A Day" because Kris Kristofferson threatened to sue them.

That was until Whitney Blake let him fuck her and Meredith. That's how she got co-credit, because she didn't do anything really.

Ann was a hot braless mess.

Kris Kristofferson ate my snatch.

I hate to say it, but her number in Applause is kind of a show-stopper.

Why no Broadway comeback for her I wonder. She was talented.

I was curious to see what Danielle Brisebois was up to. A bad nose job, apparently.

Wop on the blooper!

I'll never understand what Norman Lear ever saw in Bonnie Franklin, because he usually had such a great eye for talent. Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Bea Arthur etc. were all brilliant, and then there's this shrill, irritating redheaded troll. WTF?

R302 he also discovered Gary Coleman and "rediscovered" Charlotte Rae

But Lear is responsible also for foisting Geri Jewell aka Cousin Geri upon the American public

Ugh

Geri Jewell was excellent in Deadwood.

I guess I'm the only one left alive who saw Bonnie in Applause and as Carrie in the Jones Beach Carousel with John Cullum and Constance Towers. she was terrific in both. I then came to loathe her on TV. I couldn't believe it was the same person

Does anybody watch the reboot?

r303

He may have made Coleman a household name but he hardly discovered him. Coleman was a huge Chicago celebrity in commercials, the same way Shelley Long was every straight boy's dream with her local Chicago TV show and Homemaker's commercials.

R278, Let's not forget Carol Burnett's classic version on 'The Lucy Show'!

R290, Danielle's INCREDIBLE "Ain't Gonna Cry No More" is on the August 1995 Gap In-Store Playlist!

Mack was great. I thought she really worked as an awkward teen. Much better than Bonnie.

I still think she and Lavin could've switched roles. Bonnie plays a perky waitress cum aspiring performer; Lavin plays a less freshfaced divorcee trying to find herself.

Lavin always seemed slightly too... old and unhappy which made the show more sad than funny.

r290

Arrive All Over You

LOL

I wonder how many people missed the meaning

I am an ARTISTE!

Danielle Brisebois wrote with the hot dude from the New Radicals, the "Get What You Give" band.

Danielle's cover of "Gimme Little Sign" is on the March 1995 Gap In-Store Playlist!

WTF with this Gap playlist shit?

So, its up on The Gap! Somewhere there's music playing!

R316, Read all about it here!

Did Sally write about Bonnie in her recent autobiography?

The Internet says this is the actor who played Julie’s bf, Chuck.

R311 maybe Lavin would have been better as Ms Romano but I don’t think Bonnie would have been better in anything.

I’ve said this before but I think Lavin was actually good when she kept to being the straight woman/reactor. It’s only when she insisted on singing, or dressing up as the Jewish landlady and shit like that that she became unbearable. And at least she’s WORKED post Alice (although I did see I’m in the Sisters Rosensweig and she was awful - I’m sure Madeline Kahn was so much better).

Bonnie aged well though, surprisingly - at 60-65, she looks basically the same, Just a few more wrinkles.

[quote] WTF with this Gap playlist shit?

Some autistic queen here is obsessed with the Gap in-store playlists.

I'm sure Bonnie's rotting corpse STILL looks better than that Lavin cunt.

She was spoiled, supported, and connected by her Beverly Hills parents. That's how she devoted her time to the "craft" and got "breaks."

R324 are you trying to say she was just one big spoiled JAP??!?

Hahaha - you don’t think of her that way, but it’s kind of true isn’t it?

Atta girl!

I can't find the name of the poor guy who played opposite her in that stage version of The Owl & The Pussycat....the internet is silent on the subject.....

In a few of the plays she did in LA and directed by Shapiro, John Rubenstein was in the casts.....but I would hate to think he had to suffer through it....

The ODAAT reboot did a WONDERFUL thing when they announced season two. This is so fucking fun.

I wonder why Valerie Bertinelli didn't have any participation in the boxed set. Was there bad blood because Mack was asked to do the reboot and she wasn't? Or did she want a cut of the profits? It seems she has distanced herself from the show. She didn't appear at the Kennedy Centers Honors for Norman Lear who handed her the role because she looked like one of his daughters.

R328

I remember that! It was very cute.

I loved how they did Ann, Barbara and Julie but I SCREAMED with laughter when they showed Rita as Ginny. Truly inspired.

Ginny lives on in Miss Rita Moreno's body.

I'm watching a Laverne & Shirley marathon on LOGO and THE tea spiller Alan Rafkin is the director of all these episodes

Rita Moreno is what, 92? She looks pretty much the same as Mary Louise Wilson in the original season 2 credits.

from r326's article:

[quote] It was the end of the marriage (and a psychosomatic sinus condition)

Bonnie Franklin IS Miss Adelaide!

VB has had a career outside of ODAAT, so unlike some of the others she probably doesn't feel a need to revisit it anymore than TBAA or HIC.

R332 I remember in some other book or article I read way back when he bitched a ton about them too - he called them the biggest spoiled brats he ever worked with or something like that.

Seriously he sounds like the bitchiest straight man of all time.

Rafkin had nothing good to say about Mary Tyler Moore.

Maybe the problem was really with him?

Yeah, he’s gone one too far with our Mary.

Bonnie Franklin was a success on Broadway, so I guess Norman Lear thought she had the talent to star in a sitcom. But her acting was not suited to a sitcom at all; she acted as thought she was still on a Broadway stage, "projecting" with her voice and mannerisms for all she was worth. No wonder so many people were put off by her.

Danielle Brisebois was the same way. As a theater performer she was seemingly in her element, but as a character on a sitcom she was a complete flop. When her "LIttle Steffie" character became a regular on "All In The Family" that really signaled the demise of that show. I hate Little Steffie!

Her parents...

[quote]Ginny lives on in Miss Rita Moreno's body.

I'm not dead yet, motherfucker!

You are to the people in 402!

Seems like he might have had a problem with powerful women but he loathed Craig T. Nelson too. He had no "you know what's to give".

R225, TBAA?

I meant R335.

Touched By An Angel

I've tried to watch a few ODAAT episodes on Youtube, and can't make it through any of them. That show was just such a piece of shit, and Bonnie Franklin was so shrill and annoying, you wished Mackenzie Phillips had burned her with her crack pipe.

I think the early years of the show are great. Very realistic. Well acted. I never got the hate for Bonnie or the show.

I caught some of the later episodes on Antenna TV a couple of years ago. Ann actually seemed to have mellowed a bit. Maybe because she was not constantly at war with the now departed Julie and Barbara was grown up and out of the house. It was nice to see Shelly Fabrea play a character with a bit of a bite as Ann's work nemesis after seeing her play the overly nice wallpaper Christine on Coach (and she did not have the bad perm she had on Coach).

R338 I’m starting the think so.

And Coach aside, his main problem did seem to be with women (he LOVED working with Scott Baio, Tony Randall was “difficult but worth the trouble” - why were none of the women “worth” the trouble)? He was also married several times so he really may just have had a problem in his attitude with women - like if they ever voiced an opinion they were a “bitch.”

Bonnie really did seem like a bona fife bitch though. But maybe not everyone.

I totally forgot about Touched By An Angel! She did tweet support to Roma Downey about Della Reese's demise.

Bonnie was a cunt, y’all.

R351, he did seem to have a soft spot in heart for Mack despite her drug fueled un professionalism. But yeah, he gave passes to the asses that were men for the most part.

R352 yeah that’s around the time she got really really fat. Though she seems to be that way again.

Just like Rafkin predicted!

As a wee gayling I first learned of the term 'overacting' when my mother would talk about Bonnie Franklin. She would always say, 'Ugh, she's such an overactress, she's awful'. She would also use the term when referring to Patty Duke and now as an adult I can see that she was pretty spot on with both estimations.

[quote] I'm not dead yet, motherfucker!

You were to Miss Franklin, and that's all that matters.

Bonnie felt threatened by Mary Louise, who was truly talented and a real Broadway actress with impressive credits.

Yeah, Alan Rafkin isn't exactly the most airtight alibi sort of source.

This is a man who was married four times and described someone as being a giant pair of breasts that walked up to him. He got fired from Murphy Brown for being a cranky old misogynistic pig. I'd say the chances of him being the problem because he was having issues with women are approximately 100 percent.

Did Candy have him fired?

R360 who were the breasts?? Tell us :)

Didn’t know that about MB but why am I not surprised.

So yeah.

Looks like the guy that wrote this is about as fun as Rafkin, but nuggets of gossip abound....

R361 and R362

He seems to think Candice had him fired, and the breasts belonged to one of his wives, I think? One that he was married to for about three months, if I recall.

I read all of that in the book he wrote which is linked at R178 - it's Google Books and some of it isn't available in the preview but I was still able to see all that with what I could actually read.

I finally read that March 1980 People Mag article on Mack and the one thing that jumped out at me was it said Bonnie was 38 - but she always claimed to be born in 1944. I doubt they got it wrong - no one ever makes the mistake of saying people are older than they are.

Thing is, even if I lied about my aged all my life, once it was time to die I would want the truth out, because I wouldn’t want people to think I made it to a lesser age than I actually did.

I did laugh ONCE at an episode of ODAAT. Julie was trying to get on a pair of pantyhose. She had them pulled up to about her knees when Schneider walked in. He took one look at her and asked: "Did the elevator stop too fast?"

R357 sorry but your mom was completely wrong about Patty Duke

[quote] your mom was completely wrong about Patty Duke

MARY!

or should I say

NEELY O'HARA!!!

Hold me, Datalounge, I'm scared.

Here is the video from R328 side by side with the original opening.

I think the little boy as Barbara and Alex combined was inspired. Love his VB smirks!

He must be family.

Never seen it though.

I always wondered is Pat Harrington Jr, who was the most famous member of the cast at the opening, and commanded the "and / as credit" was made when he got demoted to second place and later further on back.

R373 I don’t understand what you’re saying - are you asking why he got demoted?

Eventually they gave Val the “and”....

She got the special credit "with" first. That should have been enough for someone starting out as an unknown.

I win bitches.

Mack got totally demoted in season 9!

The Schneider character is such a creepy perv by today's standards. A character like that on tv today would have SJW apoplectic all over Twitter.

Val got the best vanity credit of the show.

Dr. Fever!

I know this is off topic but I always wondered how Estelle Getty was able to nab the “and” credit before a single episode aired? I could understand season 2 once she was a breakout star but season 1 she was a total unknown.

Was she even a breakout star? I wouldn't call her that...

R381 yeah she really was...much more than Val actually, who just had her role get bigger as she got older, prettier, etc. But Sophia was kind of a phenomenon.

Lewis J Stadlen was indeed 28 when this filmed, but Bonnie Franklin was actually only 31. And it isn’t an “unsold pilot.” It did sell, it’s just that the network asked for major changes, as often happens with pilots.

Marcia Rodd looks pretty good for 78.

I didn't think the "and" in every situation meant any kind of star billing. For Estelle it just seemed like it was "and" because she was fourth.

But clearly in some cases, it does. I'd be interested to know from someone who knows.

R377 To be honest, Schneider was icky even then. He was really icky in the first few years, and I wouldn't have let two teenage girls around him for a second.

I think the new ODAAT does a GREAT job with Schneider and captures the balance of lovable and annoying much better. Also, Todd Grinnell is fucking HOT as hell.

Amateurs.

Marcia Rodd was the best thing about that mess!

One aspect they sure did keep from the pilot, the incessant screaming at each other.

The two men, the doctor and ex-husband pinged to high heaven!

Lewis Stadlen did look like a disco Mary just missing her tambourine!

But he's straight, shockingly.

AND he's been on combat duty for months now: playing Horace in the road show of Dolly opposite Betty Lynn Buckley.

Annie isn't the only one guilty of overacting....

SLAP HER WILLONA

Bitch! Slapping the gayboi!

Like mother, like daughter

R393 lol.

On that YouTube clip the first comment is "What was there slapping all the time on this show?"

"This is the most slappiest sit com of all time. It's all they know how to do is slap one another."

"The good ol days when it was okay to slap slap slap!"

R377 in the first few episodes that was true. After that he became a father figure, and was quite tame.

Sexy daddy otter with a naughty mind and a tool-belt.

Even if Ann bugged me, I thought that Bonnie's acting was always believable. She always seemed like a real character.

The Julie character teetered back and forth between Julie and Mackenzie as the cocaine ebbed and flowed. Has they made Julie a drug addict, the character would have been more believable.

I never liked Barbara. I liked Ann more than Barbara. I've never thought Valerie was good in anything except the first couple seasons of HIC.

Even if you hated her, Ann seemed like a real person, flawed to the max.

Valerie was just too cute.

I loved Boyd Gaines and thought he was hot.....though he always seemed too hot for Val/Barbara

Van Halen concert 1990's? Tequila in a skin and nitrus-something? pills for people having heart attacks? free...took one...

Oh! He pulled her out. The crowd went wild. Staged, I'm sure but effective.

In r391's clip, I thought Alex was going to go full Dawn Davenport on Christmas morning.

R398 I generally agree except I’d say it was a peettt clear dividing line : first two seasons or so she was a very believeable (i think ) rebellious daughter of that time; after that it was pretty much Mack the drug addict and there was no attempt to be the character anymore - and even worse the story lines had to cater to whether she was on the show, off the show or somewhere in between. Any Episodes that tried to capitalize on her “singing” were especially cringeworthy.

Bonnie's Ann could make me feel uncomfortable because her acting made me believe in the situation.

I'm not going to ramble on about Bonnie anymore but I wanted to voice that not everyone hated Bonnie and thought she was a terrible actress. I thought she was very, very good. And her Ann was VERY 1975 to 1979 for me.

Has anyone commented on the overuse of the words "Ah" and "Uh" coming incessantly out of Ann's mouth especially in the first few seasons?

"Ah, Barbara!"

One of the comments on this video is absolutely perfect:

She literally slapped her into next week!!!! 😄😄😄

Nobody ever slapped me!

Ann's dramatic 36th birthday soliloquy begins at 12:25 at the link. Prepare yourself!

The first couple of seasons, Julie was probably one of the more realistic teens out there. Usually if a teen got into trouble on a sitcom, it was because they were ten minutes late for their 10:30 sitcom or put a dent in the car. Her fights with Ann were probably more true to life than Carol Brady disappointed in Cindy because she was being a tattle tale. Ann may have shouted a lot, but not that differently than a lot of mothers would have of Julie at that time.

Bonnie actually does do some decent acting in one of those scenes with Alex.

One things sitcoms used to do was marry the kids off when they were not even done with college. My 3 Sons, ODAAT (both Barbara and Julie), even Sam on Who's the Boss, which really seemed out of nowhere and not where they were heading with the character. I give Father Knows Best credit for giving Betty an active dating life, but still primarily focused on college, esp. since that show was on when where it would have been more common for a girl to stay in school until she met a man and got married.

On a non-sitcom note, Little House on the Prairie, while women did get married earlier at the time, did Michael Landon really need to marry them off or get involved with their future husbands when the actresses were 16, esp. Mary, since it was not in the books and they could have spent more time on her adjusting to going blind instead of figuring it out in an episode. It did not help that he had Melissa Gilbert act like she was still a 12 year old tom boy with braids when she started pursuing Dean Butler. I think Michael Landon had a few issues that came out during that show that got creepier with each season.

Annie, Annie with a great big fanny!

There really should be a YouTube video with all the various slaps.

I haven't seen the reboot, but it would be brilliant to write in heroin/opiate use for Julies character given Mackenzies problems with the original and the current problem.

I actually enjoyed the thorough camp in this show but Bonnie was way too comfortable with the slaps, crossed eyes and overly exaggerated physical reactions.

There is no Julie character in the reboot. There’s a son and daughter, daughter is older and a lesbian.

R413 but of course she is.

Elena is great.

Bonnie defined ODAAT.

If Lavin, Michele Lee, Nancy Dusualt, Mary Tyler Moore, or anyone else had played Ann if would've just been another forgettable '70s sitcom.

But with Bonnie it was distinct.

And not necessarily in a good way.

When we joke about ODAAT and Ann we're really joking about Bonnie. Her impact on the show was like Landon's on LHOTP (though not as extensive). All of the show's oddities stemmed from the Bonster: Ann's inexplicable self-confidence, the men who fawned over her, the lack of style, the lack of humor, the sigh-eye-close-wide-smile and all the other mannerisms, the bizarre monologue and tap dance episodes, the merger of comedy and drama and issues, the gleeful slapping, the overblown line readings -- all of it was because of that woman.

That's why HOW she was cast is one of the most asked and discussed questions that comes on every single thread and why once it has been asked (and inevitably cannot satisfactorily be answered) the thread peters out.

None of us can see the appeal. But, presumably, someone at sometime did.

It's a mystery.

[quote]I think Michael Landon had a few issues that came out during that show that got creepier with each season.

Yes. That's has been noted extensively before. It's perverse and the topic for (or this being DL OF several other threads).

[quote]There is no Julie character in the reboot.

Then it is NOT A REBOOT. It is a remake.

r416 you forgot arguing with someone with your eyes closed.

[quote]I know this is off topic but I always wondered how Estelle Getty was able to nab the “and” credit before a single episode aired?

I often wondered about that too

I never ever understood the hate for Bonnie or the show. To the point where Barbara gets married, it was always realistic and pretty well written. Bonnie could be annoying at times, but it made sense. That was her character.

R419 she was a Tony award winning actress.

The new ODAAT has been called a "reimagining."

They didn't do a straight up remake. The characters have different names (except Schneider) and the setting is in an LA neighborhood, not Indy. But there are cute things (the apartment/set is the same).

You really have to see it to appreciate it. I thought it was the dumbest idea I ever heard in my life, and I watched season one.....episode one was OK, two was meh, three was OK....and then it just blossomed, and I fell in love with it. It's got a lot of heart. A few clunky 70s style Lear moments, but not too many. And Rita Moreno is a hoot.

r421 Estelle was never even nominated for a Tony.

[quote]Bonnie could be annoying at times, but it made sense. That was her character.

It was her character because of Bonnie's poor acting choices. I rather doubt that, back then, the lead in a sitcom was written to be annoying. Annoying is for supporting characters. That's why Cloris Leachman's Phyllis worked well as part of the MTM ensemble but ultimately failed as the star of her own show.

There's no evidence in the material that Ann was supposed to be annoying.

After watching Bonnie Franklin in Applause, I'm surprised she was ever cast in anything ever again.

R419 Nancy didn’t get that “and” until a couple seasons in and her agents had to negotiate the hell out of it. That’s exactly who I was thinking of actually ... Estelle got it right out of the gate with nothing.

Can't believe there's been multiple posts on unmerited 'and' credits, and Barrie Youngfellow hasn't been mentioned.

R426 In the comment section people are praising Bonnie. It must just be you.

If Miss Bonnie Franklin had supposedly set the world on fire with her singing in APPLAUSE, why didn't they have her sing her own sitcom's theme song?

Or did Linda Lavin shut [italic]that [/italic] down - -

We had a hilarious thread some time ago about the different interpretations Linda did of the Alice theme song, which she insisted on re-recording each season, as well as "scatting" the closing theme song.

Our BF and her BFFs

[quote]r431 We had a hilarious thread some time ago about the different interpretations Linda did of the Alice theme song, which she insisted on re-recording each season, as well as "scatting" the closing theme song.

Could it be the thread below??

That was actually my first exposure to DL. I was posting something on imdb about the ALICE theme song, and another person linked to that thread and said, "OMG...I just spent all night reading about that!"

r433, that thread contained the solid-gold observation (regarding the various versions of the theme song and credits):

"Vera and her exploding straws remain constant as the sands of time."

R434 haha that’s exactly why I come on here.

I could never decide what was worse, Linda Lavin's scat singing or Linda Lavin's regular singing.

Bonnie also appeared in 'Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

The former -- in which she went nude -- was even released on video according to IMDb.

God help us ... does it have a laugh track?

Dammit, George!

Dammit, Nick!

Dammit, Honey!

R435 I also loved her as Rachel on "Another World." Amazing she was able to do both at the same time!

I didn’t mind the early versions of the Alice theme which were subdued (even if they included Linda scat singing). It was when she went BROADWAY that it became an ice cream headache of a song.

Bonnie's stint hosting the 1978 Tonys has unfortunately been scrubbed from the Internet. She did a filmed intro recounting her days as a struggling actress in NY, playing herself. It had to be seen to be believed.

Bonnie never won a Tony or any other award

[quote]In the 1960s, she portrayed a teenage feature character in "You're the Judge," a short educational film about baking sponsored by Procter & Gamble and featuring the use of Crisco.

The use of Crisco explain how a Bonnie gets so many replies on a gay website.

....

Here's an updated version of the One Day at a Time opening that better reflects the overall tone of the show.

R443 I’ve seen it. I still don’t believe it.

That video made me laugh so hard thanks for posting it. The plant at the end. Priceless!!!

OMG - I watched that while eating lunch at work and almost spit my drink!

Why did the DL YouTuber, JJoe S feel the need to disable the comments. This is freaking brilliant! Bonnie Franklin and Pat Harrington Jr. are laughing in Heaven right now!

Sorry for the extra J.

Danny from the TV version of Fame is in the video at r446. See if you can find him.

Logically what character would have been a good one to have the ultimate honor of slapping slap happy Ann? Maybe the married man she slept with? Or the closeted gay one she sexually harassed? Ed's ex wife? Ed?

Dammit, Ann!

Francine? Nick?

I wish I knew how to create videos and mixes...I would put Annie and her slaps to a beat.

That was wonderful, R447. Thank you!

[quote]she was a Tony award winning actress.

No. She was a Tony Award LOSING actress. Her only nomination was for Applause, and she lost.

Can you imagine Bonnie sitting in the audience, expecting victory and then losing. Is that on YouTube?

Melba got slapped that night

Did Bonnie lock herself in the bathroom and deliver herself a monologue -- 'here's lookin' at you, Tony loser'?

She lost the Emmy too. I can't remember who won that year but I can't imagine her surviving slapping Isabel Sanford.

That 36th Bday monologue was just pure Emmy bait. I bet she was furious they ignored her.

The slap video was good but there simply wasn't enough slaps to make it funny. She only slapped Gayboi and Slut

Schneider and Ann also did some mud wrestling in an episode.

Funny how 36 was "old" back then. Today, 36 is when most people are just starting to have kids or even get married.

[quote] The slap video was good but there simply wasn't enough slaps to make it funny. She only slapped Gayboi and Slut

I hope there isn’t any footage of me slapping it to pictures of Boyd Gaines and Michael Lembeck!

Hmmm...

I don’t think it’s been mentioned upthread, but I had friends who were Catholic who were forbidden to watch the show. Apparently the Catholic Church couldn’t handle the idea of a show about someone who was divorced and they urged families to boycott it.

Or maybe the Catholic Church mistook Ann for the Antichrist.

Which is understandable.

The Anntichrist in this case.

The Antichrist in pantyhose!!!

My mom would not let me watch it. "Those girls are too sassy!"

Of course, I watched it anyway.

And did it make you sassy too?

SASSY!!!

Was this forbidden, as well??

Sassy!

[QUOTE] I don’t think it’s been mentioned upthread, but I had friends who were Catholic who were forbidden to watch the show. Apparently the Catholic Church couldn’t handle the idea of a show about someone who was divorced and they urged families to boycott it.

By the time the show hit its stride, only the more devout Catholics were concerned about divorce.

[quote] Funny how 36 was "old" back then. Today, 36 is when most people are just starting to have kids or even get married.

Ann wasn't upset about being old. She was upset about hitting middle-age.

The episode just seemed like a vehicle for Bonnie to act for an Emmy nom.

Claudia Lonow as Barbara would've been more believable as Mackenzie Phillips' sister.

Mackenzie got so emaciated and skeletal-looking from the drugs it was hard to look at her.

[quote] Mackenzie got so emaciated and skeletal-looking from the drugs it was hard to look at her.

And it was right at that time that the ODDAT writers wanted us to believe she was so hot that TWO men were begging her to marry them.

Max betrayed his best friend so he could win Julie's heart. So romantic! So disloyal!

HOT!

What man in his right mind could resist?

Their chemistry was off the charts.

2005 luncheon honoring Joseph Campanella (Ed Cooper Of Earth-One).

R488 I’m crazy nuts about this guy!!!

No man could resist Ann Romano.

Bonnie was a truly awkward looking woman.

Ron Rifkin is gay, no?

Rifkin is not gay, but he played one on TV

I thought the show kept changing directions and that's why Annie couldn't keep a man.

Now I realize that BF was such a heinous cunt that no actor could cope for very long.

Hessman must have had a few big mortgage payments to take care of.

R483/r484 there was another episode around that time (when Mac looked at her roughest) where some guy chooses Julie over Barbara. AS IF!! What alternate universe was that??!?

r494 your theory is correct. Mary Louise Wilson has said publicly that Bonnie Franklin was just too much to deal with, and she hated being on the show. Hesseman and several other actors must've felt the same way because they didn't stick around for long.

Greg Evigan wanted Julie because he had more common with her and she was an easy lay.

Julie would fuck for a dime bag so yeah she was an easy lay.

Ann Romano had a fetish for sleeping with men who had just slept with other women.

David, Nick and Sam come to mind.

"Greg Evigan wanted Julie because he had more common with her and she was an easy lay."

I remember that episode. It implied that the Greg Evigan character was interested in Julie because she was older and more experienced, whereas Barbara was just an inexperienced little girl. It was really ludicrous; although younger Barbara was much more attractive than the skinny, pale, popeyed Julie. As I recall, Julie became a singer in Evigan's band. That was pretty funny too, because Julie couldn't sing worth shit.

[QUOTE] HOT!

Agreed, R485, in the sense it was a pretty good picture of Howard Hesseman, who usually looked scraggly.

I always though she was hot.

One Gay At A Time.

Ann Romano is catnip for the DL. The fried egg tits, the ill fitting cowl necks, the constant slapping of daughters, foster gay sons, handymen, miscellaneous boyfriends....

Then add Bonnie’s tap dancing, MacKenzie’s father fucking, Valerie’s shitty TV movies....all gay gold.

R504 Well delineated!

Don't forget running to answer the door, arguing with closed eyes, the orange mushroom hairdo and saying "Dammit!" r504.

Who popularized that mushroom hairstyle?

I don't think it was ever *that* popular. Less popular that the Klute, the Cher straightness, the Florence Henderson helmet in that decade, I think.

They say Mr. Mushroom is a real downer but I think he is a real Fun Guy.

I always remembered her as dumpy of frame, but she actually did have a nice, slim petite body.

There's probably the only nice thing I've ever said about her.

Do the words "Glenn Scarpelli would like to meet Miss Buckley" open backstage doors in 2018?

He performed for Barb Bush. ODAAT was her favourite show. Make of that what you will.

Julie was lovely when she was preggo.

R507 Dorothy Hammil and Joyce Bulifant.

On another note, I had no idea until a few years ago that Bonnie wasn’t a natural red head. Why the f would someone WANT to make their hair that putrid Ronald McDonald color? And she kept it all her life, too.

Her carpet didn't match your drapes.

Damn it ,Autocorrect!

I can totally understand Bonnie going for a soft, warm auburn. But I don't get why she went for that (admittedly very natural looking, but that's not entirely a compliment) shade either.

Maybe she thought it made her look 'zany'.

[quote]Why the f would someone WANT to make their hair that putrid Ronald McDonald color?

Yeah she looked silly

I love my drapes, but hate my carpet!

Hilarious how most of the people Bonnie worked with couldn't fucking stand her.

On the show Ann complained that Sam tended to his former wife's woonch more than her woonch and then later on hit him for saying she needed her diaper changed and that she was on the rag. Or words to that effect.

r521

Everyone loved me

Bonnie could never drag the word 'sweet' into six syllables like you could, Linda.

Unless she was dying her hair as a child actress? less likely. Didn't she do Gidget after graduating college?

Why did they have Bonnie Franklin playing an Italian-American? She didn't look even remotely Italian.

Why was the Italian guy old enough to be her father be the non Italian one in the relationship?

Bonnie was a brunette when she was on Gidget

Why didn't Bonnie sing the theme tune? I'm surprised she didn't demand to.

HH was such an ungrateful whiner based on this article.

Bonnie hated the theme song.

[quote]r541 Bonnie wasn’t a natural red head. Why the f would someone WANT to make their hair that putrid Ronald McDonald color? And she kept it all her life, too.

I am guessing that having done some acting jobs as a brunette teen, she realized it helped to have something extra that made you stand out in ANY way.

There's such a glut of surplus performers out there all vying for the same two jobs, starlets do what they gotta do to get noticed. Even if it's Miss Clairol "Autumn Hayride No. 9"

Bonnie seems down to earth in that article.

And in the not many interviews of hers I managed to see too. But once she started to act... she became unbearably irritating.

It must be tough for a performer to be the STAR of the show to not having the phone ring for offers. She really hated when they focused the show on the younger actors. That is when she decided to wrap it up when she was sidelined. They could have gone for a couple more years.

I hated when they turned Julie into a deadbeat mother just to stick it to Mack and her issues. Julie may have been a nutter but she was a very good mom to Little Annie. That was just cruel of them to do that to her character..

R535 there was one TV interview linked on here where she seemed pretty unbearable. I agree she seems fine here - and I think she was once on Rosie and seemed ok there, too.

Bonnie never did jack shit after the show ended. In interviews, she said she wanted to get back to her "first love," which was the thee-ah-tah. And then zilch, she rarely acted again. Given how much her co-stars and directors on the show disliked her, perhaps Broadway couldn't fucking stand her either.

I can only imagine Bonnie mellowed slightly as ODAAT wore on. If she objected to Ann being increasingly less the focus of attention then I'm sure it would not have happened.

But really wasn't Valerie a big part of the show's success? I don't know if she would be considered a breakout star like the Fonz or Urkel, but she was very popular in the early '80s and I can't imagine the show surviving without her (as evidenced by the original pilot). Val didn't have much range, but the Julie character could be a bit off-putting because Mack just brought a darkness to the role and eventually was overtaken by her offscreen issues, and Bonnie was just grating.

[quote] Julie character could be a bit off-putting because Mack just brought a darkness to the role

'Darkness' -- I think that describes it better than anything. I think she was the best actress on the show. Her Julie felt... *real*. In a way that Ann and Barbara never did.

So walk on your feet (walk on your feet)

From where there's Muzak playing

Don't you worry nun, you just take life and you cum

One time at a day

I always thought the 'wop' on your feet was a reference to Ann's Italian heritage.

R541, I agree that Mack was (easily) the best actor on the show and while I think Val was limited her 'brightness' and beauty were needed for a sitcom, because Mack and Franklin was just a bit too grim for laughs.

Bonnie objected to the arc where she was some man's side piece but eventually relented. I don't know what she felt about her character pulling a Harvey Weinstein with an assistant though.

I wonder what they would have done with the characters in the tenth season if there was one.

Michael Lembeck can be seen in "The Boys From Company C", a Vietnam film. Check is out; he's very good in it. And it's a pretty good movie, too.

Even so, Julie was his personal Nam.

What did Bea Arthur think of Bonnie? I’d imagine she hated her

Bonnie would have made a good Carol.

[quote]r549 What did Bea Arthur think of Bonnie? I’d imagine she hated her

There would have been blood dripping from the walls if they were ever paired up - -

That's Barbara Hershey in the photo with Bonnie @R533.

Bonnie with Barbara, Sally Field and I forgot the other actress' name.

Why did Bonnie look old even when she was young?! Wasn't she supposed to be a student, yet looked like the girls teacher?

1.) She's the only one with tits. 2.) She has premature frauface.

Carol would've made a good Ann.

Can you imagine Schnauzer? Hello Ms Parmesan can I feel those massive mammaries?

Carol Channing?

Carol Channing as Ann Romano would be [italic]priceless....

“Damn it Julie - when did I eat corn??!?”

ODAAT and Maude were both CBS sitcoms, so Bonnie and Bea must've known each other from around the lot and various studio events. I imagine Bea couldn't stand her and could barely tolerate her.

Bonnie would've been great in a guest spot on Murder, She Wrote.

Maude was an upper tier show like All In The Family and Mary Tyler Moore.

ODAAT was lower like the Bob Newhart Show or Alice.

The top tier doesn't mix.

They still would've bumped into each other around CBS, though.

I think most critics would place Bob Newhart in top tier.

Does Glenn Scarpelli look like a turtle, lizard or toad in this clip?

I think the other girl in the Gidget photo is the ever popular Beverly Washburn.

r558 r561 Neither show was produced by, or at CBS. But both were from Norman Lear. Did they use the same studio?

[quote]Can you imagine Schnauzer?

Don't bring us into it.

Bonnie hated the theme song and the title of the show.

What would have been a better title?

Did she? I never heard that before.

I imagine she would've wanted a theme song she could sing a la Lavin.

And she probably wanted the show called something with her or Ann's name in the title.

Brainstorming:

'The Carpet Doesn't Match'

'Ms.'

'Laughing and Crying'

[quote]I think the other girl in the Gidget photo is the ever popular Beverly Washburn.

I think the girl on the right in the photo at R552 is Lynette Winter, who played Gidget's pal LaRue.

R570 you are correct it is Lynette.....thanks for the correction. She looked a bit too pretty to be Beverly Washburn, but I was lazy in my research.

I love LaRue. I think I watched them all on one of those oldie channels last winter.

R560 I’d swap Bob Newhart for The Jefferson’s.

R553 so so true.

I think she would have preferred BONNIE FRANKLIN STARRING IN THE BONNIE FRANKLIN PROGRAMME.

BONNIE FRANKLIN in JUST DAUGHTERS

[quote]r567 Bonnie hated the theme song and the title of the show. What would have been a better title?

Two Fried Eggs, Hold the Bra (?)

[quote]r571 You are correct it is Lynette.....thanks for the correction. She looked a bit too pretty to be Beverly Washburn, but I was lazy in my research.

DAMMIT, R571!

LaRue would have made a much more palatable Ann Romano...

Satan would have made a much more palatable Ann Romano.

I don't know. You guys think it's funny to say over and over again that this person who died of cancer 8 years ago was unattractive? I think it's fun to talk about her show, and even have fun with her character on it or her acting. But to keep posting pictures from the 70s with nasty comments goes beyond "pointless bitchery" or whatever they call it. It's just cruel and weird.

Frau alert at R580.

I remember the thread on Bonnie's death in which one frau wouldn't stop posting her outrage at the way people were treating her death. Someone posted something like 'this thread is for people who hope the mourners slow jog across the parking lot to the crematorium.'

It was hilarious.

She auditioned for the part of Marilyn Munster and Al Lewis had to be taken to Mt Sinai Hospital because he laughed so loud he had an attack of asthma.

Here's the thread.

R580, I would never bash her looks, it is isn't very nice to do that and I think she was attractive enough anyway.

The Bonnie Franklin Death Thread is classic:

[quote]This one exists for those of us who dearly hope Bonnie is laid to rest in a cable-knit sweater with an oversize turtleneck, with gauchos and knee boots and a mood ring on her finger. I hope the cosmetologist at the mortuary knows how to give a bubble cut.

[quote]Farewell and RIP to another piece of the 70s.

[quote]A television mom (one you were glad wasn't yours) has passed - back when people's apartments on TV looked like musty, broken down shit holes.

This thread is close to being closed, Damn it!

Should we start a new one?

Hold me, David! I'm scared!

Did Ann ever once address anyone with a 'uh!' / 'ah...' / 'c'mon' / 'dammit'

I meant WITHOUT

Not sure about that one but here she is harassing her closeted secretary.

Damn it! I'm horny, Craig!

(The actor was one of the head writers and producers of Murphy Brown and Suddenly Susan, BTW)

It was odd for Schneider to have such easy access to the apartment with Ann's teenage daughters in it even for '70s, because that show was soaked in '70s Feminism.

Too bad Bonnie died before #MeToo. I'm sure she woulda had a few stories (though obviously not at all credible).

Dammit, is anybody going to start a new thread?

OP here. I hope so, I love all of your hilarious responses. What other aspects of the show or its original pilot have been left unexplored?

Does anybody watch the show on Netflix? I hear it gets great reviews. I never thought it would be such a big hit without involving Valerie Bertinelli in some way but she is too busy with her cooking show to participate apparently..

Mack and Lembeck have embraced it and worked on it though.

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the real one day at a time song.

Sylvester J. Pussycat Sr., usually called Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat

is a malleable metal alloy. It is traditionally composed of 85–99% tin, mixed with copper, antimony, bismuth, and sometimes silver or lead, although the use of lead is less common today

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how come they never did an AIDS episode?