Cybill Sitcom

It wasn't as good as AbFab.

Because I rejected the advances of Les Moonves

It was on for four seasons. Enough for syndication.

In 1990, Cybill Shepherd and her Ex-Gay daughter, Clementine Ford, were Gap models!

Tom Wopat’s jeans weren’t tight enough.

MaryAnn Thorpe should be a DL mascot. Fabulous bitch!

It wasn't that good, at the end of the day. Four seasons was more than respectable for a show with flashes of genius (Christine Baranski) but not much else.

It was also a deeply dysfunctional set, thanks in no small part to network meddling and Cybill driving the entire creative team to madness.

She was no sun to my moon!

Hmmm...what rhymes with “CUNT”?

Cybil was apparently impossible to work with and hated that Christine Baranski's character was stealing the show.

I found the ex-husband Ira to be kind of sexy. Rumpled, great hair, gravelly voice, fairly witty.

I’m old enough to remember this show and Christine Baranski was the absolute highlight.

I’m sure that pissed Sheppard off which meant giving her more lines, which ... she isn’t a bad comedic actress (lots of good stuff in Moonlighting) but Baranski is better, and, to be fair to Cybil, and a more entertaining character written for her.

THEN, they pulled the “will they or won’t they” bullshit that Moonlighting did, and it was over from there.

Christine Baranski says this about working on "Cybill"

"It makes your life easier if you're on a happy set and everyone's working in a relaxed and professional way — but it doesn't always happen," she says, diplomatically. "And the bottom line is you're a professional. You show up. You do your job. I got through those years... and now it pays for my daughter's college tuition."

Cybill on her co-stars’ acting:

“Alan Rosenberg is a terrific actor, trained at the Yale School of Drama, but he often spoke his lines so fast that it was difficult to understand him, and he made a chewing motion with his jaw after nearly every punch line, like Charlie McCarthy.”

“Christine Baranski went to Julliard, and she breathed fire and magic into her characterization, but she had a couple of bad habits--gazing directly into the camera lens--in movie parlance, it’s known as “looking down the barrel.” (The camera operator is supposed to let the director know if an actor is doing it.) There’s also a bad habit known as “buying it back,” laughing at her own joke. Sometimes we had to cut away from her best take at such a moment. The biggest problem was she often refused to hold for laughs, especially when it was my joke. In other words, she would say her lines while the audience was still laughing. As a result, they wouldn’t hear the setup for the next joke and wouldn’t laugh.“

R14 proves what a cunt Cybill was.

Cybill has her limited range but she's always been convinced she's a brilliant comedienne. And she's not.

“...Christine was a Xerox machine--she would say a line exactly the same way no matter how many times she did it. I was the exact opposite. I did it differently every time and took pride in surprising myself and the audience. Jay [Daniel] would say that I didn’t even warm up until the fourth take, and he considered himself the master hand, putting together the bits that he liked from each scene. I would often see his choices and remember another, better, funnier take (this was true for all the actors, not just myself). He seldom liked my most outrageous moments and felt that slapstick was appropriate only in isolated incidents, ‘I will not use your biggest, Lucy-esque takes,’ he told me. ‘I will protect you from yourself.’

CBS is planning a revival. Cool.

Because she’s batshit insane and also a raging bitch.

Cybill's sitcom lasted for 80 episodes. It was regarded as "a modest success."

Christine Baranski is about as likely to work with Cybill again as she is to work with Julianna Margulies.

Word from THE GOOD FIGHT set is that Julianna has not been invited to guest star (on the spin-off of her own successful show).

I don't see Cybill doing a guest spot, either. Who is clamoring for a CYBILL reboot?

Most '90s sitcoms haven't aged well.

Juliana was invited to guest star on TGF but says she turned it down because CBS refused for pay up.

R23 Juliana who? and what's TGF?

Baranski was the only memorable thing about it, really. The episodes with Morgan Fairchild were brilliant.

R21 to be fair, the tension on the Good Wife set was not between her and Julianna Margulies. It's Margulies and Archie Panjabi, I think the most credible explanation is Panjabi's Kalinda stole the show, she got the emmy nomination/award first, that angered Margulies, she asked the producers to reduce Kalinda's stroylines and later refused to share the screen time with Panjabi.

Nah, professional jealousy may have fueled the fire but some shit had to have gone down between Marguiles and Panjabi to refuse to shoot scenes with her.

R27 the complete separation of Marguiles/ Panjabi scene or storyline only happened after season 3 or 4, it's not immediately after season 1 when Panjabi gained critical claim and emmy nod. The "shit" was built up over the years, and that's not a surprise, the frosty relationship between them eventually would cause one or both of them refuse to work with each other. The same was with Desperate Housewives, everyone knew Teri Hatcher was difficult on set but they still managed to work together for a few years, till in a later season when Hatcher's character Susan moved away from Wisteria lane to an apartment in downtown, far away from other housewives, so she can shoot her scenes alone, no need to interact with other actresses.

R28, what was Teri's problem? What was her gripe? What WAS the issue???

The first 2 seasons of Cybil were pretty funny and solid. The last two seasons are where you see shepherd taking more control over the show and the series cratering.

A similar problem occurred as Frasier went on: another case of a lead actor believing himself to be the comic genius everyone was tuning in to see.

Soooo not.

Yeah, R31, that's why I left Mom!

R31, that’s not really the same. Grammer is an infinitely better actor than Shepherd.

She looked more masculine than him.

Charlie McCarthy? The ventriloquist dummy??

Yes she compared Alan Rosenberg to a ventriloquist dummy.

Her biography is a fun and dishy read, but in the end she just comes across like someone completely lacking in self awareness. And it’s incredibly unwise to trash every one of your co-stars and expect the public to take your side (although if I recall, Tom Wopat might have come out unscathed).

R21 "Christine Baranski is about as likely to work with Cybill again as she is to work with Julianna Margulies."

They're actually good friends. They were spotted hanging out together at a NY Museum a year after the show had wrapped.

Cybill is a cunt.

Maybe it should have been the Christine Baranski show.

I like Cybill. Her charm is what sold the show to the studio. Her charm is what has given her a career.

Her beauty is part of her charm.

I am also pro-Cybill.

I want Cybil and Christine to play a lesbian couple!

The entire time I was reading this post I had Christine Baranski confused with Wendie Malick. R8 Didn't help. BTW Wendie Malick was hilarious on an episode of Cybill.

I bet Danny Masterson would be up for a 'Cybill' reboot. Oh, wait...

I prefer prison.

I've disliked Baranski and Margulies ever since I read an interview with Margulies where she recounted how Baranski coached her and how to "treat" fans. Basically, ignore and dismiss.

Cunts, the lot of them.

WON’T YOUUU TELLL MEE HOWWW??!?

Here's the story R45 referenced.

[quote]"She (Baranski) and I (Margulies) decided that we would go to the China exhibit at the Met, and of course neither of us thought what the consequences of that could be, the two of us together looking at spectacular clothes in a public place. And lo and behold, there was The Good Wife’s demographic, meandering around the museum and ogling us like chimps in a zoo.”

[quote]As Margulies recalled, the crowds began to close in, which produced two very different reactions. “I get very flustered in these situations,” she said. “I get red and I stutter, and I never know what to say when someone comes and asks for a picture because I want to hide, and then I don’t want them to feel bad, so I say, ‘Yes, let’s just, could you just be quick?’ hoping that no one else will see and I can go about my day. But not Christine. Let me show you how Dame Christine handles oglers at a zoo.” Margulies took a step back and put on her best yokel accent. “‘Oh my God, it’s Alicia, it’s Diane! Oh my God, can we have a picture? Can we do a selfie?’” Cue the spot-on Baranski impression: “‘Oh no, darling, don’t be silly.’ Then she walks away. Just like that, she just walked away, and they looked stupid for asking! And they felt bad! And I was in awe.”

[quote]Still, Margulies noted, not everyone can pull it off with quite as much panache as Baranski. “Let it be noted that when I tried to say that on my own one day,” she laughed, “I truly just sounded like an asshole.”

I love Cybill and her show. Whatever troubles there may have been on the show, it never was apparent. It was a funny show, good writing, well-written and well-acted.

Alan Ball on working on 'Cybill'. Starts 14 mins in. He does not hold back!

My father has an old VHS tape at home where I am a young teen cleaning up after my birthday party and I say 'I need to get this done because Cybill comes on in 20 minutes'. My family pull it out now and say 'how did we not know?' lol

This show was the closest sitcom to doing an American Version of AB FAB

Many networks tried to launch a series like that - CBS tried with High Society with Mary McDonnell and Jean Smart

While an actually pilot called AB FAB was shot with Kathryn Hahn (Edie) & Kristen Johnston (Patsy)

Both failed

American tv would never be as bold as AbFab. They'd have to soften it, like they did with The Office.

Wow, Alan Ball really spills the tea on Cybill and what a bitch she was.

Cybill was not an actress. She didn't know how to create a character or distance herself from the character.

She tried she to second guess everything the writers wrote for her.

She was jealous and threatened by Christine Baranski and the other actors on that show.

She was a hypocrite about pretending to be a radical feminist, while really cared mostly about making herself look good and better than any other woman involved.

And Alan went from Brett Butler to Cybill! He deserved the purple heart instead of the Oscar!

I did not care for American Beauty when I saw it in the theatre, and I expect my reaction would be the same today. However I might watch it again just to see if I can detect his depiction of Cybill in Annette Bening’s performance.

To be fair, Cybill is a better actor than Brett Butler. That woman's (thankfully brief) period of fame and success is still a complete mystery to me.

Watch The Last Picture Show. She had a quality audiences loved and that's why even poor movie choices didn't kill her career. Moonlighting was fun, I thought.

I love Alan Ball so much it hurts. I hope he’s got another one in him, though I would completely understand if he didn’t.

In that interview he addressed one of the things that really annoyed me about the show - the character of Cybill was infallible. If she got into a fight with another character, they were always in the wrong and they always ended in apologizing to her by the end of the episode.

I have a Cybill story. Won't bore everyone with a long story but quickly I'm from Scotland and moved to London in early 90s as a teenager due to having parents who were not gay friendly at all. Worked in a bar Cybill did a cabaret type act in between Moonlighting & Cybill and spoke to her a couple of times in afternoon after she rehearsed a bit. Told her my story and she was so gay friendly and gay rights etc. Told me her sister was a closeted lesbian but she knew her sister was gay and said it was so hard seeing her sister live closeted in her town where it was not very gay friendly. she said though that she understood why she stayed closeted as it was just to get by and have an easier life. Very nice to me. Hope her sister is/was happy .

Cybs was a good lay.

i only watched for Christine Baranski's character.

[Quote] Told me her sister was a closeted lesbian

I'm sure she'd be delighted you've popped that piece of information onto the internet.

R63 oh Cybill's already done that herself in a speech she gave when accepting a GLAAD award. I'm just telling my version of the story as it was in 92.

I've interacted with Cybill socially twice. (We have a mutual friend.)

I thought she was funny. She doesn't take herself too seriously.

[quote]To be fair, Cybill is a better actor than Brett Butler. That woman's (thankfully brief) period of fame and success is still a complete mystery to me.

Brett was a standup comedian. With the success of Robin Williams and Roseanne Barr, the 1980s and 1990s saw every stand up comic being given a sitcom. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Brett came out of the women's stream of conscious school. Her niche was unique in that she was female trailer trash and so her standup at the time was quite funny.

Christine is a second banana. There's a reason there's never been a "Mary Ann."

R52, exactly right. I said this recently on the Ab Fab thread, but you just know an American Ab Fab would have a moment at the end of every episode where Patsy or Eddy tell Saffy they're only mean to her because: "I guess I'm just jealous, you know?" while Saffy looks on sympathetically. The "moment of shit" as mentioned by Alan Ball.

[quote]Christine is a second banana. There's a reason there's never been a "Mary Ann."

Christine has never been a poll choice on a DataLounge poll.

Alan Ball talks about what a nightmare working on Cybill was.

Did Cybill say on the GLAAD awards that her sister had come out or did she out her?

Chuck Lorre has also spoken about his tenure on Cybill, which went swimmingly until Christine won the Emmy in September 1995. He was fired by Christmas

The episodes where Cybill sang made me yearn for Dixie Carter on Designing Women.

The 4th season was pretty lousy, especially the episode where Zoey’s Italian lover visits and falls in love with...Cybill.

Ok I may have asked this on another Cybill thread- what sway did Cybill hold that she got this show? And so much power over it? She wasn't, um, as beautiful by then and Bogdanovich's power had waned and she's near impossible to work with- how did she have so much power? Is she infinitely charming? Amazing sexual prowess? Blackmail?

Why did someone who'd had a successful comeback get another shot at a big comeback? Are you really asking that?

Oh, puh-leeze! Those quotes are rediculous. As if Cybill knows anything about comic timing! Baranski is a seasoned pro, with great comic timing.

I met a girl who guest starred on Cybill and she said Cybill Sheppard was an UNHOLY CUNT and Baranski was kind, friendly, and totally professional.

For all of her failings, Cybill has always been enormously, openly gay friendly. She spoke at the LGBT march on Washington 25-30 years ago.

[quote][R14] proves what a cunt Cybill was.

Well, the show wasn't called "Christine."

Jay Daniel was a producer on Moonlighting and I believe he got the ball rolling for Cybill’s second comeback. When he didn’t agree with Cybill’s opinion that she needed more Lucy Ball-esque moments to show off her skill at physical comedy she had him fired.

The actor who played the gay waiter had a membership at the WeHo tanning salon I worked at mid-late 90s. Much cuter in person.

I was in the audience during Audra Lindley's (Mrs. Roper) first episode and she died less than a year later.

There was actually a studio audience? I assumed it was 100% canned laughter.

[quote] They're actually good friends.

Uh, no.

[quote]what sway did Cybill hold that she got this show?

There was a HUGE push during that time to get a show to rival the popularity of Ab Fab. As posted above, there were some very lame attempts. Cybill had done good work on Moonlighting and with Murphy Brown running high in the ratings, they thought another blond ice queen would make a good show.

R15 Considering all the rumors about that show and Cybill's behavior, it's awesome she could articulate her issues with the other actors with specificity. You always hear about actors that didn't get along but its usually more personal, ego, and behavior driven. She's talking about technical habits that made filming difficult. Doesn't mean she isn't a cunt or impossible to deal with but I'm loving the clarity.

Someone should build a show like this around January Jones.

Cybill's claim that she changed her line reading every time, even surprising herself with her choices, suggests a more difficult acting experience than Baranski's rock solid approach. It also suggests that working relationships and shared character history didn't matter a jot to Cybill. There's something very Mermanish, with her looking at the audience and not her co-star(s), about that.

[quote]There's something very Mermanish, with her looking at the audience and not her co-star(s), about that.

Which is probably why Baranski started delivering her lines straight to the camera.

Witt and Krause were fucking, right? Were they together for the duration

[quote]There was a HUGE push during that time to get a show to rival the popularity of Ab Fab.

And there was no way in hell that an American network could have a show as wild as Ab Fab was. Anything they tried would've been a very watered-down version. I don't think you could even show sitcom characters smoking cigs, never mind doing hard drugs!

Today, an American Ab Fab would be done for cable or streaming with no censorship but of course that wasn't an option back then.

It lasted about 90 episodes too long.

It was good at the beginning. And Cybill was an effective straight man. It's a shame that in her forties she didn't realize that if you're first billed, it doesn't matter if your character is not the most colorful. She was no Angela Lansbury in that respect (or in other respects, yes, yes I know).

[quote]Today, an American Ab Fab would be done for cable or streaming with no censorship but of course that wasn't an option back then.

Ab Fab was shown on cable tv in its original run. I think it was on Comedy Central? I think each episode was broadcast just a few days after it showed in the UK.

Ab Flab

You little bitch troll from hell!

r92 sorry I meant HBO or other pay cable channels.

Playing devil's advocate here.

It was HER show and like Lucille Ball she had the last word for better or worse. Chuck Lorre should have known what he was getting into having survived Roseanne. Also, Shepherd had quite the prima donna reputation for decades before that. What was he expecting from her exactly? It was just Cybill being Cybill.

She wasn't seeing the forest for the trees though. MTM let everyone in the ensemble shine with no ego issues. She set the tone for the set. Cybill was thinking only of what would benefit her. If she had played her cards right she could have been Meemaw or OG Mary Cooper. She would still be a working actress.

Cybill was no Roseanne...thank God.

Cybill IS a working actress. If she'd been better behaved, I doubt her career would be all that better.

I've never seen "The Client List," on which she did 25 episodes. That's more than Shelley Long did on "Modern Family."

I like Cybs' 1989ish film "Chances Are".

I remember one episode of "Cybill" used footage from one of Shepherd's TV movies as an example of Cybill Sheridan's work. I didn't realize until I saw the movie years later.

Stormy Weathers

Alan Ball really seems to loathe Cybill Shepherd.

I can't blame him, imagine being as talented a writer as he is and having to work on that shit sitcom, being forced to put Cybill in a perfect, positive light constantly. Most people would've gone crazy. In fact, in that interview he mentioned most of the writers bailed after a short time.

I question the extent to which Cybill was explicitly modeled on AbFab, which first aired in the US on Comedy Central in July 1994. It may have made a splash in certain circles but it wasn't making money or winning awards, so why would a major network immediately order a copy? Cybill was already greenlit that summer and the first half season started filming in the fall. Cybill was nothing like Eddie in that she wanted to work and bent over backwards for her shrewish daughters, and unlike Patsy Maryann was actually rich and not a '60s/'70s scenester burnout.

You're naive if you don't think creatives don't keep an eye on new shows with buzz, whether they air in the UK or the US.

*if you don't think creatives keep an eye on new shows with buzz

It's not a question of naiveté, it's a question of logic--why invest time and money copying an unproven formula, particularly one fundamentally unsuited to US network television? And, furthermore, aside from the fact that Maryann liked to drink, there are more differences than similarities between both the general premise and specific characters on both shows,

Well, of course they didn't copy it wholesale. They didn't want a lawsuit. I expect plenty would think Ricky Gervais' David Brent wouldn't fly on American TV, hence they refit the character to Steve Carrell... Nevertheless, "The Office" crossed the pond. "Three's Company" wasn't quite as much of a tits and ass show in its UK incarnation. "Sanford & Son"... the list goes on. All were tweaked for US audiences.

Somebody likes her.

AbFab actually started in 1992. It didn't get broadcast on US television until '94. US TV executives were well aware of it when it started in Britain.

No remark about how great Ab Fab was would be complete with noting how ATROCIOUS the "Wheels on Fire" intro song was. Unbearable.

She seems pleasant enough here.

She loves her Mama.

R114 I was at Cybill's house the day of a later Golden Globes and she was trying on her dress.

I said, stupidly, "It looks a little tight."

She shot me a look and smiled and said, "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

The hairstylist who called out Lauren Bacall for being mean worked with Cybill and they got on well. I get the impression that Cybill had to fight for a lot of what she got post Bogdanovich and I guess she didn't always choose her battles wisely. But she had significant roles in three decades. Most actresses would kill for that significance.

r115

Any other stories?

DeeDee Pfeiffer was AWFUL (and old looking) on the show!!! She should have played Cybill's sister, not daughter! I'm watching the show for the first time (on Amazon Prime)...now on season 3.

Was the fourth season truncated? I don't remember the show running for four seasons.

I agree it was good at the beginning. It became a hit because of Christine Baranski and Alicia Witt as the deadpan daughter, who was kind of like a live-action Daria.

I stopped watching when it was clear they were cutting back on them and giving Cybill more "wacky stuff to do," which she couldn't handle.

Being the straight person was good enough for Mary Tyler Moore on her show. Cybill should have followed her lead.

Since Our Liza hasn't chimed in, I'll do the honours:

"Shybill Shitcom"

[quote]"The Office" crossed the pond. "Three's Company" wasn't quite as much of a tits and ass show in its UK incarnation. "Sanford & Son"... the list goes on. All were tweaked for US audiences.

In the early seasons, I think All in The Family is better than the UK show it was based on. But they didn't put a lid on it and AITF became too broad. Edith became too stupid, Archie became too belligerent, Mike became too obnoxious.

[quote]Being the straight person was good enough for Mary Tyler Moore on her show. Cybill should have followed her lead.

MTM was groundbreaking. Up to that point, female comedians were more gimmicky like Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. Even on Dick van Dyke, MTM had to do her "Oh, Rob" sob shtick. MTM created a normal woman who other women could relate to.

[quote]Cybill on her co-stars’ acting: ... There’s also a bad habit known as “buying it back,” laughing at her own joke. Sometimes we had to cut away from her best take at such a moment.

That's funny, because my memory of the show is that Cybill wouldn't stop grinning throughout every single damn scene like she was a teenager with no experience outside the Muncie High School senior play.

[quote]I question the extent to which Cybill was explicitly modeled on AbFab

Ab Fab allowed women to be raunchy. Roseanne flirted with that by being the fat girl who everyone expects to make rude remarks, but we rarely saw women falling down drunk or being bad mothers. I think in that timeframe, tv was looking for a show with two gal pals that could push the envelope like Ab Fab did. Christine Baranski calling her husband "Dr. Dick" was a step in that direction but nobody ever expected ice queen Cybil to go that far. The US wasn't ready for a show like Ab Fab as that horrendous Jean Smart sitcom demonstrated. Finally, when Sex & The City came along, women were shown talking about sex, even though S&TC really wasn't a sitcom.

[quote]even though S&TC really wasn't a sitcom.

I couldn't help but wonder . . . was it a pun-com?

Hey bitches, you will never ever ever believe what cast member of Cybill has a new job.

The one you were sure would never have a job again: Dedee Pfeiffer.

She's in the new "Big Sky" show on ABC. (Created by her brother in law David Kelley, but still, a job.)

[quote] The US wasn't ready for a show like Ab Fab as that horrendous Jean Smart sitcom demonstrated

That Jean Smart show was fabulous. Well, Jean and Mary were great.

They were stuck in a boring NYC in the 90's theme which boxed it in, because CBS was so fuddy duddy about it. But they were great.

Roseanne Barr actually bought the rights to Absolutely Fabulous and was trying to get a version off the ground for after her show ended. It didn't work, and the result was a series of episodes in the 9th season of Roseanne where Jackie and Roseanne infiltrate high society. They were terrible. The AbFab ladies guested in one of them.

"Do you know May Belline?"

I am suprised Cybill even approved of casting Baranski considering what a scene stealer she was. Bruce Willis also was a scene stealer now that I think of it.

Baranski wasn't pretty, that's why.

Entertainment Tonight did an on-set interview about the tabloid headlines regarding Cybill and Christine.

With Christine awkwardly standing two-feet back from the camera, Cybill said obnoxiously, "Nobody knew who Christine was before I discovered her in New York. There is no reason for me to be jealous!"

I remember that interview.

Cybill said she asked Christine to her house for dinner several times to no avail.

LOL.

The truth is almost always somewhere in the middle.

It seems that Cybill took out a lot of her issues from Moonlighting on this show. Mostly, not wanting to get upstaged by her costar. She got the lions share of the blame for the problems that occurred on Moonlighting as well, which was not true. As other people who have worked on the show could attest to, it was a boys club where Bruce Willis could do no wrong, while Cybill, who had her moments, was held to a different standard. This no doubt soured her outlook when it came to running her own show.

I'm sure Baranski dealt with some shit, but as that story that Julianna tells (who would even tell such a story to the public to begin with, does she thinks it makes either of them look endearing) she is far from a withering violet. Baranski's star rose when she was on Cybill, appearing in The Birdcage as well as other movies. She probably got to a point where she resented having to come back to the studio every week and play second banana to an actress whose glory years were behind her.

Let's be fair, that cast in general was a trainwreck waiting to happen. Baranski's the only one out of that bunch who hasn't' frequented "Most difficult" lists. Well, Deedee Pfeiffer, but she's rumored to be Brett Butler levels of crazy.

Another big fan of Cyb's.

Christine Baranski has had recurring series and film roles non-stop for decades, while Cybill occasionally gives a whacked-out interview on an Australian morning show or some ultra low-budget TV movie that comes and goes without notice.

Cybill also complained that when she generously sang and performed her cabaret act for the crew of her TV show, Christine stayed ONLY for a few hours...

"That's when I first knew SHE was jealous of MY talent!"

Baranski is a haughty character actress. Cybill was a glamourous leading lady. Even if Cybill was a walk in the park, you're not comparing like with like.

I'm not a fan of Cybill, but Bruce Willis's first taste of fame on "Moonlighting" went straight to his head, he turned into a prima donna. Then "Die Hard" became an enormous hit and his ego got even bigger. After "Die Hard" made him a movie star, he was insufferable.

Cybill was no prize, but Bruce Willis was the primary cause of stress on "Moonlighting."

r138

That man calls his own credibility into question by calling Nancy Travis a comedy goddess.

[Quote] Nancy, as always, was agreeable to anything. Ms. Shepherd insisted her team write it, it be filmed on her set, and aired on her show. Otherwise she would refuse to do it. Always the team player.

Is this surprising that Cybill wanted it the crossover to be written by her own team and take place on her own set? It was a sensible decision.

TV is where the money is, especially network TV, and Christine has made millions more than Cybill has the past two decades.

[Quote] Howard Gould has since written a hilarious play about a Cybill Shepherd-type character called DIVA. If it’s ever staged in your neighborhood see it. If you want to read it (and trust me, it’s brilliant) it’s available through Samuel French.

Has anyone here seen/read it?

[Quote] TV is where the money is, especially network TV, and Christine has made millions more than Cybill has the past two decades.

But how much did Cybill bank prior to Baranski becoming a success outside New York?

Mary Tyler Moore trashed Ken Levine in her book. He produced that dreadful attempt at a comeback she tried in the 80's.

[quote]We went along with it (all of Cybill Shepherd's demands for the cross-over scene), just relieved that she didn’t also insist on singing.

This is the essence of Cybill - she's fine as long as you do EVERYTHING she asks

I liked her in The Lady Vanishes. Only other thing I've seen her in was The L Word, and she seemed sort of stiff/glazed in that, to be honest.

,,,.

From a 2008 interview.

BE: Did you develop anything resembling a mother-daughter relationship with Alicia Witt and Dedee Pfeiffer? In other words, did you grow close over the years?

CS: Well, I was so thrilled that Alicia got this part that I chased after her on the CBS lot and called to have them stop her from driving off the lot and to come back, and I got to tell her she got the part. It was just wonderful; we both were crying.

BE: Have you kept in touch with her over the years as well?

CS: No, I haven’t.

BE: Have you maintained a relationship with any of the other co-stars?

CS: Not really.

BE: Fair enough.

Kudos for not bullshitting.

Meh, Cybill was no Stephanie Zimbalist.

HaHa.

The podcast "You Must Remember This" did a wonderful series "Polly Platt: The Invisible Woman", Peter Bogdanovich's wife and the co-producer of his most successful films, including "The Last Picture Show", which was Cybill Shepherd's first acting role and the role that made her a star.

Plenty has been written about how Cybill attached herself to Peter Bogdanovich and how their relationship ultimately caused the end of the Bogdanovich-Platt marriage.

Cybill has apologized for her role in breaking up that marriage, and Polly Platt had her own issues.

But there's one story from that period that's very telling:

"The Last Picture Show" was made on a tight budget. Polly acted as a uncredited co-producer and co-director, as well as doing the actor's make-up and most of the costuming. They filmed most of the movie in a small town in Texas (Archer City, I think) with only one motel that housed the entire cast and crew.

Long after it became obvious to everyone on the set that Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill were sleeping together, Polly Platt still had to spend hours helping Cybill with her hair, make-up, and wardrobe, making her look as good as she possibly good for the camera.

One night, Polly Platt drove to a steak restaurant in a nearby town, just to get away from all of the gossip about her husband and her failing marriage. As Polly sat in the restaurant alone, she saw Peter and Cybill coming in the door of the restaurant.

Polly knew if they all met there in the restaurant, there would be a confrontation that would not only be the end of her marriage but would halt the filming of the movie she and Peter had worked on for so many years. To avoid this, Polly slid to the floor under her table, waited for Peter and Cybill to pass her table, then she crawled to the kitchen and left through the kitchen.

Months or years later, Polly told Peter that this was one of the incidents that had hurt her the most during their breakup. Peter was stunned - he told Polly he had specifically asked Cybill to go in first to look over the restaurant that night to make sure that neither Polly nor any other member of the cast/crew was dining there - to avoid just such a scene as that. And that Cybill had come back to the car and assured him it was all clear.

Polly could only conclude that Cybill saw her in the small restaurant and intentionally led Peter in anyway, looking for a confrontation that would humiliate Polly and end Peter's marriage.

....

Is it surprising that Cybill might have wanted to bring the situation to a head? Polly's act in the restaurant was pathetic. And Bogdanovich is a creep (dating and marrying Dorothy Stratten's kid sister).

That was the basis for Irreconcilable Differences with Sharon Stone playing a quasi Cybill Shepherd.

From Cybill’s autobiography:

There was an entire building on the CBS Studio City lot in which every office was filled with people involved in the making of my show. Or so I thought. One day I went in the side door and was walking briskly down the hall, a little late for an editing meeting, when I heard my name called. It was an unpleasant voice from the past, but I didn’t identify it until I turned around. What the hell was Polly Platt doing there?

“Cybill,” she enthused, “guess what? I’m heading up the new feature film division for Carsey-Werner.”

Pause. “How wonderful,” I said, knowing that I was up shit’s creek without a paddle. Who’s the absolutely last person on God’s green earth I would want whispering in the ears of the people who sign my paychecks? It is unlikely that I’ll ever work in a Polly Platt production. The source of Peter’s rumor was apparent, and from then on I used a different entrance to the building, nowhere near her office. A short time later, Polly sent me a handwritten note on Carsey-Werner letterhead, with a little heart drawn next to my name, telling me that her elder daughter, Antonia, an aspiring actress, had submitted a reel of her work to Jay Daniel, who had promised to get her a small part on my show. “Could you help?” the note pleaded. “It would mean a great deal to her, and of course, to me.” The note was signed, “My very best to you Cybill.”

I passed the note on to Jay.

So R160, Polly dared to speak to Cybill and asked for a favor on behalf of her daughter all those years later?

OMG, that must have been horrendous for poor Cybill!

Was that her very own "moment of shit"?

[Quote] The source of Peter’s rumor was apparent

This needs context.

It was tedious?

R163 - it was referring to this. I think she was implying that Polly was trying to stir shit up with a fake rumor because she knew PB would go running to tell Cybill.

[quote] Peter Bogdanovich told me his daughters had heard a rumor that my show was too expensive and was about to be canceled.

She really did have a good run though, and once she made her Moonlighting comeback, continually worked (in movies, TV movies, series) for a long time, well into this century. I’ve heard all the horrible stories too so why did people keep hiring her? She wasn’t exactly the next Meryl Streep (or on this board, I guess Jessica Lange).

Because she has IT. She lacks technique so she's not always good. But she has star quality.

I personally never thought Cybill Shepard was a great beauty. She was lauded for how beautiful she was in her youth, but looking at photos I think she was certainly attractive and pretty, but not ravingly gorgeous.

Cybs' ex married Cindy Snow / Jamie Ewing!

When Cybill was interviewed by Chrissy Iley about twenty years ago, the writer remarked that Cybill became more beautiful the longer she spent with her. Iley was not prone to gushing. The interview took place in Cybill's kitchen, as I recall.

She was indeed ravishing.

We love Cybill (the person and sitcom)!

R167 but those people usually flame out, especially once they’ve lost much of their looks (and she did NOT age well). She worked well into middle age and beyond. That’s not at all typical for a “beautiful, difficult, temperamental Star” who doesn’t seem to have an ounce of humility. Candace Bergen wasn’t much of an actress either but everyone loved her and she was a “class act.” (I do think Cybill can act better than CB, for what it’s worth).

Cybill gives some insight into her bravado (from 2:20).

Cybill actually replaced Candace on Broadway several years ago.

Cybill must have been about 60 here. I don't agree that she aged poorly. She's 70 now and she likes to eat. It is what it is.

This looks like Cybill's "Serial Mom."

"I want to focus on my salad."

[quote]She was lauded for how beautiful she was in her youth, but looking at photos I think she was certainly attractive and pretty, but not ravingly gorgeous.

She has a bump on the end of her nose that keeps her out of the "stunning" category.

Dear God what was in the water in Studio City in the late 90s. The Carsey Werner lot had at least 3 divas on set: Cybill Shepherd, Roseanne Barr AND Brett Butler.

Brett Butler was a nightmare even by Hollywood standards. BATSHIT insane.

Brett Butler wasn't a diva. She would pull batshit crazy stunts but she wasn't on the same level as Roseanne. They would have cancelled her show in a heartbeat if something better came along.

Roseanne had that studio by the balls and everyone knew it. She had a bonafide hit show that spoke directly to the middle class. Her sitcom was normal in that the house was messy, they ate bad food, the parents got angry with the kids and they were allowed to fuck things up and fail. It's difficult to understand now, but the original Roseanne sitcom in the middle seasons was a reflection of a large population of the US at that time.

Brett Butler was batshit crazy r182.

One thing about Roseanne is that she put the nail in the coffin for all of the execrable family sitcoms that dominated the 80s that were horribly insipid and cloying.

Roseanne filmed her show at CBS but it aired on ABC. She didn't have any pull on the CBS studio lot and they could have booted her if she got out of hand.

[quote]She didn't have any pull on the CBS studio lot and they could have booted her if she got out of hand.

And she would have taken her hit show and the $$$ rental money to another location. It's not like she had some complicated set requirements that only CBS could fulfill. They could have shot that show in a warehouse.

R186 but she didn't

Roseanne has some legitimate reasons for being difficult. The writing staff on her show at the beginning were all upper-middle class Ivy Leaguers who had no familiarity with blue collar people. Roseanne clashed with them constantly because they didn't know who to write for blue collar characters. What they did write was condescending and insulting and Roseanne took them to task for it, which she had every right to do.

CBS Radford would not be hurting for money if Roseanne took her show elsewhere.

The last couple seasons of her show totally sucked, and the studio had Seinfeld, Will and Grace, 3rd Rock from the Sun,, Caroline in the City, Designing Women, Newhart, and Malcolm in the Middle bringing in or about to bring in millions for years.

Roseanne filmed her show on the stage where The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant were filmed. Not really the same as shooting the show in a warehouse. R186

Cybill often cited Roseanne as an example of a difficult and uncompromising sitcom star who got her way for the betterment of the show. She even managed to get her written into an episode. The women are on the veranda doing some kind of spiritual new age chant and you hear Roseanne’s voice (“Hey Sheridan - keep it down” or something like that). Carsey/Werner must have talked her into doing a vocal cameo.

Of course, in Cybill’s case her actions were pure ego. And it’s too bad she didn’t learn anything from Roseanne’s example of playing a flawed character.

Are we forgetting Roseanne's plastic surgery? She accepted some flaws but not others...

Oprah fawning over Cybill for being openly conceited is funny.

Brett Butler was an absolute terror on the set! You people have no idea.

Cybill was just repeating to Oprah what she said in her L'Oreal hair commercials:

"Some people say I'm attractive. I say I agree. After all, I had nothing to do with it. I owe that to my mother and father."

Cybill looked incredible in Taxi Driver and she performed well in that role. In spite of Cybill. Scorsese constantly yelled at her because she would do things on camera he wouldn't want. She very much seems like a Madonna-type, someone who gives direction but refuses to take it. In acting, that's important.

That's not unusual. Whoopi Goldberg and Bette Midler are the same.

R197, but those two are just better actresses. If someone wants to improve as an actor or actress, they need to be able to listen to others and absorb. Cybill doesn't have that quality.

Neither did Lauren Bacall. But she and Cybill both had long careers. They had star quality and big egos. It took them far.

Candice Bergen spells her name with an i.

Think of ICE as in icy blonde.

R124, I found that funny, too. I never noticed Christine winking at the camera or smiling on her punchlines, but Cybill did it on almost every single punchline. She'd puff up her chest and grin, all proud of herself for making people laugh. It was so out of character and bizarre and really did feel like the suburban soccer mom doing Neil Simon at the local community theatre playhouse.

r148 What was Mary Tyler Moore's beef with Ken Levine?

She could sing.

R202 - see r151.

Diva

One daughter is Bi, the other is gay.

R205 why get a “scary skinny” person to play Cybill? I mean hello??

As “beautiful “ as she was especially given the 70s standard of beauty, I refuse to believe that producers and agents didn’t pressure her about her weight at least some of the time. But she’s so full of herself and wants to always promote herself as the most beautiful actress of her time that she’ll never admit it.

Does she get along with Cindy Snow?

It's notable that there's no mention of Ariel's brother in that interminable marriage report. Didn't he get arrested for misbehaving on a plane?

Yes.

Cybill's younger daughter could be in Haim.

[quote] Does she get along with Cindy Snow?

There was a storyline on ‘Cybill’ in which the ex-husband was going to get remarried to a woman who was very controlling (played by the mom from Malcolm In The Middle). Everyone loved her but of course Cybill saw right through her from the beginning! I wonder if that character was based on Jennilee.

I remember the ep where Baranski and Sheperd go back to Baranski's high school reunion and Baranski is afraid, so Sherperd winds up singing a song because she's so fearless -- and the better singer.

You know that must have pissed Baranski off.

R213, it's so obnoxious how Cybill is always trying to shoehorn her singing into every possible space on that show. Constantly. We get it, you want to be a respected singer. It's not going to happen.

r213 that is just obnoxious and ego-driven insanity. Cybill's lucky Christine never kicked her in the cunt.

R207 she talked about how producers told her to lose weight in her book. Ryan O Neal called her a Beached Whale. It was Peter who said that she shouldn't lose a pound because she was perfect the way she was.

It’s fascinating how many fictional characters are based - at least in part - on Cybill. All incredibly unflattering portrayals but still quite an accomplishment of sorts.

Irreconcilable Differences - Sharon Stone

American Beauty - Annette Bening

Six Feet Under - Catherine O’Hara

Diva (play) - Annie Potts / Susan Blakely

CSI - Katie Segal

[quote]it's so obnoxious how Cybill is always trying to shoehorn her singing into every possible space on that show.

Same with Dixie Carter. She used to tell the showrunner that she would only do a liberal speech in exchange for a song.

What I thought was funny was that the show was too cheap to pay for Dixie to sing a new song badly, so she had to sing songs in the public domain -- like "Bill Baily Won't You Please Come Home?" & "Sweet Georgia Brown."

She was community theater cabaret at best.

What's wrong with singing on a sitcom? You gays love that.

I really loved 💘 when Nell Carter sang.

All these ladies had great voices and are legitimate singers. Cybill has released several albums and performed in nightclubs for years.

Linda Lavin is a criminally underrated jazz singer.

Cybill is a horrific singer!!! Her bizarre tone deaf sound is like nails on a chalkboard!!!!

I don't hear any off key parts. (I get the Linda Lavin criticism, though.)

I did like her singing on that one B&W episode of Moonlighting. Hated her singing on the sitcom though. What that poor cast and crew must have had to endure take after take.

I also wanted to sing on *my* Chuck Lorre sitcom!

Bruce Willis released an album.

She's lipsyncing. And the recording is on key.

This starts off okay (in a cheesy Las Vegas-y way)...but awful closing.

She should have asked Baranski to sing in a duet. It would have been a nice olive branch.

She paid Stan Getz a buttload of cash in the 70s to produce a jazz album. She said in her bio that he was very handsy.

Stan was hot AF!

[quote]What I thought was funny was that the show was too cheap to pay for Dixie to sing a new song badly, so she had to sing songs in the public domain

That is funny. The writers were like "Okay Dixie, we'll give you a song if you'll shut up. But we're not paying for anything so pick one that's free. Now get out of the fucking room so we can get back to work."

And as soon as Dixie left the room: "What a cunt."

Dixie was a good singer. Not enough to make it into The MET maybe but good enough to sing The Public Domain songbook on a cheesy sitcom with an annoying laugh track.

Cybill, Dixie, and the rest of these ladies never brought down the house in a Broadway musical, did they?

No. Didn't think so.

It's quite odd that Lavin's vocals fades out on that track. One wonders if she cut off the note awkwardly and they had to fix it with a fade.

MTM had her own variety show where she sang about dead skunks in the middle of the road. I am not making this up.

r37...that was a prearranged meeting so Christine could get one of her Emmys back from Cybill who had taken it years earlier in a fit of jealous rage. It had to be in a public place to avoid a confrontation.

R37 was actually referring to Julianna Marguiles, not Cybill.

And I was attempting a joke.

"Attempting" is doing some heavy lifting there.

Dave Thomas, an actor on Grace Under Fire, was on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast last year and he talked about Brett being totally batshit beyond the usual Hollywood booze and drugs crazy.

I did find her stand up funny though. I also liked Roseanne. I grew up in the U.K. and had never really heard any white working class voices from the US at that point so those ladies were a treat because of how relatable they were. It felt like they were talking about life in a northern housing estate (my life). We had a channel called “Paramount Comedy” that showed US sitcoms, stand up specials and movies that were not on BBC. I pretty much spent my teens watching that channel!

Back to Cybill, they reduced the Jeff character after season 1 significantly. They let go of Ira’s crazy girlfriend too soon. They should have kept Dick unseen and unheard like Stanley in W&G. Richard the vet was a bore. Paula Poundstone as the crazy fan was fantastic. They had something in the first season with the original cast but I suspect the high turnover of staff was a big problem.

Brett Butler really was a funny stand-up. She had a camp sensibility to her and a lot of her act was about being a Southern woman in NYC and trying to navigate her way through it.

The premise of her sitcom was totally ill-suited for her, they apparently wanted another Roseanne so they made her a blue-collar factor worker with young children which bore no resemblance to who she really was. If they'd fashioned a sitcom that was actually based on her life it could've been quite good.

R10, my hat's off (no pun intended) to the late, great Mary Tyler Moore; she had no idea how much Valerie Harper was gong to take off, but she brought onto MTM both Betty White and Cloris Leachman. She surrounded herself with funny women.

I read a story in TV Guide that on the set of Cybill, during rehearsal, Cybill says: I miss the ozone layer. Mary Ann: That's the price you pay for hairspray.

Shepherd says in rehearsal, switch the lines (so she gets the punchline); well, on tape night, Baranski's Maryann says: "I miss the ozone layer"

And her delivery alone gets the laugh, rendering Cybill's line meaningless.

Baranski's funny.

But not a star.

But not a has been!

You can't be a has been if you never were...

I didn't realize 'Cybill' was Baranski's first foray into series TV, besides unknown stints on 'Another World' and 'All My Children'. Having won two Tonys before 'Cybill' explains why Broadway actors are so eager to get a TV series...to become a household name and then hopefully foray into movies. (Kristin Chenoweth comes to mind.) The urban myth that Baranski was in an ep of 'The Brady Bunch' is just that...a myth.

On a tangent, I wonder when it became mainstream for actors to use their real last names. For instance, Baranski was born in 1952 and began acting in 1977 and kept her Polish last name. Rita Wilson (who actually did appear on 'The Brady Bunch' in 1972) was born in 1957 and changed her name from Margarita Ibrahimoff to Rita Wilson. Was it in the mid-70s that this became more "acceptable" by Hollywood standards for actors not to have to change their ethnic-sounding names?

The young actress who looked like Baranski on that BB episode is on Facebook as Chris Charney-Marks.

She has Jokerface.

Anybody see The Morning Show on Apple TV? I was shocked when I noticed who was playing Reese Witherspoon's mom: Brett Butler! Small billing, no fanfare. I didn't even see anything on DL about it.

She was pretty good.

R250, I was surprised to see Brett Butler as Reese's mum as well. They had a few people on whom I'd forgotten about...Shari Belafonte comes to mind as well.

I wonder if anyone has written a book on Carsey-Werner Productions. (I Googled and didn't see any books.) Several shows had behind the scenes issues: 'Cybill', 'Grace Under Fire', 'Roseanne', 'The Cosby Show', & 'That 70s Show'. 'Third Rock From the Sun' and 'A Different World' seemed relatively free of problems, besides Cosby not wanted Lisa Bonet to be pregnant (which is more a 'Cosby Show' issue than 'A Different World' one, IMO).

I love how 90s this is on rewatch. Cybill’s kitchen is not state of the art, the ladies always chowing down on the bread basket ....

Marcia was doodling George Washington. It was Baranski who wrote the funny caption Why didn't she throw her out of the slumber party? Baranski is always the one who gets the breaks.

R252 The house always seemed way out of the price range of a DList actress but the decor was more believable and looked like a normal person's house and in keeping with the character Cybill's budget and personality. These days they probably would go all out and give her the sleek chrome kitchen and hotel lobby looking living room.

Cybill wasn't an awful singer. She's usually somewhat in key, but her voice doesn't have any power. Sometimes, I really think the more power you have, the better a singer you're regarded as. She was no Judy Garland or Barbra Streisand. If you stuck Cybill on a theatre stage, most of the audience probably couldn't hear her sing unless she was wearing a mic. It's not about being loud per se, but it is about having power and heft behind one's voice.

I'd say Dixie Carter and Linda Lavin both had more heft behind their voices, so their musical moments didn't bother me as much. Lavin especially has been capable of really belting it out when she wants to, but she usually sabotages herself by trying to get al jazzy with the notes and not sing what's written.

[Quote] If you stuck Cybill on a theatre stage, most of the audience probably couldn't hear her sing unless she was wearing a mic.

They use mics in theatre, hon.

You all can judge for yourself....This album was released in 1976

I don't mind her voice.

I liked Cybs' 1983-84 TV series The Yellow Rose. Discuss! Chuck Connors (gay) and Sam Elliott were also on the show.

I wonder how she treated Robin Wright.

Did she treat Wright wrong?

I didn’t ask for the ANAL probe!

What the Hell was that?

“You’re shadowing my light, darling.”

What you do matters.

I remember an episode where they went to Japan to shoot a commercial. The corporate wife became obsessed with Cybill and even donned a blonde wig and lavished compliments about Cybill's looks, her figure, her appeal to men, her wonderful free life before Cybill, MaryAnn and the Japanese wife dance about with paper fans to Girls Just Wanna Have Fan which thankfully Cybill did not sing. If Alan Ball was around for that episode I know he was going home and furiously typing pages of American Beauty in response to that ass licking dialogue!

Cybill is a tall blonde woman. It's hardly a reach that she would go down well with the Japanese.

[quote]Cybill is a tall blonde woman. It's hardly a reach that she would go down well with the Japanese.

You mean ON, on the Japenese.

Cybill's daughters are into cooch, not Cyb.

I think I read somewhere that it was that episode in Japan that caused one of the producers (Jay Daniel?) to tell her she needed to stop trying to be Lucille Ball. That of course did not go over well.

Tom Wopat was a hunk of man. He made me moist down there.

Jay Daniel had a short run with the few shows he did after CYBILL.

Carsey/Werner did an interview with the Emmy Foundation like the one Alan Ball did. They act totally surprised and deny all suggestions of drama on the sets of Cybill, Roseanne and Grace. Lol. They are worth something like 500 million each. Crazy.

Chuck Lorre on 'Cybill' and Roseanne and Grace earlier in the video.

Was Cybill ever late to the set? Did she miss tapings or hold out for more money?

[quote]Was Cybill ever late to the set? Did she miss tapings or hold out for more money?

No, was Ted Bundy ever late for any of his rapes or murders?

R264 she looks a lot better there than she did a few years ago

[Quote] No, was Ted Bundy ever late for any of his rapes or murders?

How is that comparable? An actor showing up late or not showing up at all costs the production money.

Chuck Lorre must be richer than God by now.

I'm ashamed to say I bought Cybill Does It to Cole Porter. She had a poster inside that I had in my kitchen.

I liked her in the Tom Jones clip, but why was she wearing a curtain?

She was probably pregnant with Clementine.

Was it all toxic? They didn't have any moments of joy here and there on that set?

....

Sally Kellerman auditioned for the role of Maryann.

That Alan Ball interview is great. He seems like a cool guy and very honest about why things didn't go well with certain projects he was attached to.

"Roseanne" at its height was leagues ahead of "Two and a Half Men", "Scrubs" or "Grace Under Fire." It's makes ya wonder.

[quote]Was it all toxic? They didn't have any moments of joy here and there on that set?

Chuck Lorre said it was great for the first 13 episodes - "Cybill" was a mid-season replacement show for which no one had high-expectations at the network.

They were immediately popular and the show grew beyond their wildest imagination.

Then Christine won the Emmy - and it all changed.

Cybill suddenly didn't like the scripts - she became convinced that Chuck Lorre and others were conspiring to make Baranski look better at her expense.

A few episodes into the second season Cybill had him fired.

The actors that are concerned about a co-star outshining them are some of the saddest people on this earth. Deep down, they know they're not good enough to keep up. When your name is the title of the show, it's especially weird. It's not like they're suddenly going to bump you out and replace you with the better supporting character. Cybill was a decent straight woman at times, but she could never settle for just being the calmer, more rational one. She wanted to be as colorful and funny as Christine even if it didn't make sense for the show or the character.

In a way, it makes sense. The inspiration was AbFab and Eddie is not the straight character, the daugther is.

Plus, Cybill Sheridan is an actress. She's not Mary Richards.

For those who don't understand r262...

An American AbFab with Christine Baranski and Megan Mullally would have been the best casting choices

The closing credits could have been them sticking pins in Cybill and Deb Messing dolls.

That actress reminds me of Goldie Hawn, r292.

Not Mulally. I could actually see Kathy Najimy as Eddie.

That interview with Alan Ball is both great and disturbing. The way he talks about Brett Butler and Cybill Shepherd is really fascinating and right on the money: clearly he used to hate them for their egotism and interference and mental illness, but now he talks about them as if he weer removed from them from a great distance and can talk about them dispassionately.

On the other hand, his ego is enormous, and I do not think deservedly so. He keeps talking about his "gift" of writing as if he were Sir Harold Pinter or Anton Chekhov, and he's not all that. He wrote an Academy Award-winning screenplay that people now rate much less highly than they did at the time, and he did create a few successful TV shows that quickly ran out of steam after their first two seasons.

You've hit upon something that's always occured to me in these discussion. People talk about the egos of Roseanne, Cybill etc. But there's scant attention given to the egos of these writer-producers.

Jay Daniel actually thought he could say to Cybill "I'm going to protect you from yourself."

*discussions

I'm an Alan Ball fan, particularly of 6FU and AMERICAN BEAUTY. But I never had the slightest interest in TRUE BLOOD, which seemed beneath him, frankly. It felt like Ryan Murphy territory.

Ball has never come close to the genius of 6FU since that show ended in 2005. I'm fairly certain he never has to work for a paycheck again--TRUE BLOOD ran for 7 seasons.

Were there any divas on TRUE BLOOD?

You mean besides Joe Manganiello, R301?

Ryan Murphy is more talented than Alan Ball.

If the goal was to make an American AbFab, then maybe they should have given Cybill something more to work with. I haven't seen the series in a while, but I do remember her pretty much being more of the Saffy character than the Eddie character. Baranski could do the Patsy thing in her sleep and she seemed to get laughs so effortlessly.

It seemed like Cybill didn't want people to think less of her, so she had them take any edge away from her character and then complained when they didn't write her anything interesting to do.

AbFab was a 1990s version of Laverne and Shirley. Discuss!

The year Baranski won for 'Cybill', Cybill herself cohosted the Emmys with Jason Alexander. Eek!

Inspired by this thread, I started rewatching the show. I loved it when it was on in the first run, and forgot how hilarious it was. Her crappy acting jobs, the great cameos, really wonderful cast. A scene from an episode I remember from years ago springs to mind when Zoey gets caught substitute teaching and in the principal’s office, Ira asks if she’s accrued anything in her pension fund. I still remember how my jaw dropped at how weird the line was and then could not stop laughing.

Not hugely into her singing. She has kind of a weak and thin voice.

Hey you played an unflattering version of me in a movie!

R308, please explain. Who played whom in what and why?

r159, you fat whore.

Sharon as Cybill in “At Long Last Daisy Miller”.

............

Katey Sagal as Cybill. To add insult to injury they had worked together before on that John Ritter show.

As bitchy and narcissistic as act ill Shepherd is, my GOD she was beautiful. I do not go for that blond blue eyed look in general, but she was stunning.

As CYBIL* Shepherd is.

I really don’t know what autocorrect was trying to do there.

R314

Teenage dream.

Ouch!

Not that ouch. They didn't draw her fat.

I'm underwhelmed by Glenn Gordon Caron at R312. What is it about some incredibly wealthy, powerful makers of television that they feel the constant need to convince us how down to earth, regular-Joe they are?

Yes, you discovered and fought for Bruce Willis--we get it. You're a fellow Jersey guy (or something). You also created an entertaining, hit show on one of 3 networks back in the 80s. And yet, you don't know who Howard Hawks was. What business are you in, exactly?

Cybill knows who Howard Hawks was.

He may just be feigning ignorance to flatter himself. "My creativity come springs forth solely from me, ya hear!"

*springs (not come springs)

WHET to Bruce Willis?

Don't ask.

There was a recent profile on Alan Ball asking him to name his cinematic inspirations. He listed Taxi Driver as #1 and the film that early on made him want to act before deciding he’d be more successful as a writer.

He wouldn't have fit in any of my costumes.

With your linebacker shoulders and big ass? They’d have to been taken down a size!

She has a new show in the works with Vanessa Bayer.

Hasn’t Vanessa suffered enough?

Another actor stepping on your laughs is unprofessional, and annoying, but some of them do it - and just because Baranski is good doesn't mean she wasn't an upstager. I don't think Cybill said anything particularly bitchy there.

But wasn't the pilot written to make Christine/Mary Ann the upstager. Cybill was written as the glue that held the family together. She had to be stable and sensible enough for us to understand why the ex husbands were still in her life, the adult daughter and her husband were still living with her and that stability also grounded Mary Ann because the audience knows that if Cybill keeps Mary Ann around then there's obviously a heart behind all the front. Cybill's career can provide laughs but ultimately she was supposed to be the straight man setting up the surly daughter, the neurotic ex and the rich alcoholic friend for their moment.

It seems that she didn't understand that even though the leads in long running sitcoms pulled everyone up with them rather than pulling down their co-stars. Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, Bea Arthur would never have been successful if they tried to take the lines away from the loony neighbors and the sassy friends.

Baranski is naturally funny, r329. She could be funny reading a phone book. Her line delivery is funny and her face is funny. I don't think she was trying to upstage simple, she just did.

R313's clip is everything.

Has Tom Wopat ever commented on life on the set?

Can't Tom Wopat not keep his dick in his pants? He has more in common with Brett Butler.

[Quote] Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, Bea Arthur

The difference is that Cybill, like Bacall, started at the top after a brief model career. She never had experience as a support act. She was IT. That's rather warping.

And it is also prime circumstance for Imposter syndrome. Cybill alludes to it in the Oprah clip.

R331 I never thought Christine Baranski was all that funny. She's sort of campy or bitchy, passing for funny.

If Tom Wopat can't keep his dick in his pants, then how come I haven't seen it. (I'm dying to.)

Hi Cybill r337

[quote]She was IT.

No, I'm it!

I was a huge fan when she was on Moonlighting and thought her acting during the first three seasons before the writing went tits up was Emmy worthy. She was naturally funny in those episodes too and it didn’t seem forced like on the sitcom.

But her best work was in the episodes where Maddie had to react to something that David did or to something about his past which came to the surface that she didn’t know before. She actually brought very subtle shades to the character, IMO, when she had to react with compassion, disappointment, jealousy, etc. to his action and antics. In other words the perfect straight woman.

Self possessed.

Baranski is good at playing cold upper crust WASP types. But anything beyond that is a struggle. She had her own sitcom with Sara Gilbert a year or two after Cybill ended that did not get good reviews and was cancelled fairly quickly.

She is good in the Aadams Family sequel playing a camp counselor.

When Jennifer Saunders did Mamma Mia, she put in a dig at Baranski by having Patsy Stone play Baranski's role.

spoofed, I meant to say

I liked Mary-Ann's parents in Buffalo, Eileen Heckart played her mother. They called Mary Ann by her birth name - Teresa. I remember one line Eileen says to Mary-Ann 'Mary Teresa are we not good enough for you with your Hollywood friends and your smack cocaine' Another. the parents are going to a bowling tournament and when Cybill and Maryann turn their noses up at bowling, Eileen says 'let's see what you come up with when the sex is over'

I had no idea Christine was married to Rip Taylor.

^ show some fucking respect to Mr. Billy Clyde Tuggle!

Is Christine's daughter going to get that thing taken care of or not?

Beautiful young woman. It gives her character.

How much character does her face need?

Christine is incredibly talented, but seeing her as the lead in Mame made it apparently that she's not really leading lady material. As funny as she can be, she's better in the flashy supporting roles. She doesn't have the warmth required for a role like Mame where you have to believe this woman's heart has grown since meeting her nephew. She's a Vera.

Imagine if she hooked up with Cybill’s son!

Cybill's son is a high school teacher. I wonder if his students give him shit for getting arrested on (or off) a plane.

Clementine Ford and Liam O Neill were good friends at one point.

There should be a movie about the children of two dueling sitcom divas falling in love! Hallmark, are you reading this?

R353, I think that was a tutoring gig. His LinkedIn profile has him listed as CEO of “ Oppenheim Family Capital” since March.

I once had was a sub contractor for a certain search engine and my sole job was identify YMYL posts. That is Your Money-Your Life. Any site, blog or social profile that claimed tt help someone in those areas I would have to search for authoritative, trustworthiness and acceptable content. You would not believe the number of wealth management and capital firms that are just one rich kid with a website. I'd search him and find the lawyer dad, the grad pictures from the Ivy league school or the 50K per year high school and wonder why so many of these kids end up doing nothing with that headstart.

That little Nazi in a wheelchair that won the Congressional seat in NC also claimed to have a property investment firm which was him in his bedroom with 1 transaction.

Speaking of kids, what did you think of Zoe/Alicia Witt. Don't see much about her in the thread. Or that boyfriend she got, Sean.

Sean Penn?

I saw Christine as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd once. She was terrific.

I hated Alicia Witt on the show. She was pretty good on The Walking Dead a few years ago. Isn’t she a staple on The Hallmark Channel now?

She had Peter Krause in his physical prime, lucky gal.

How did Christine get a daughter that’s so pretty? It’s not like you can pass your nose job nose on to your spawn. Haha.

What do you all see wrong with her, her eyebrow? I love that look.

The actress daughter got more of the father in her looks. The attorney daughter looks more like Christine.

Baranski was interviewed by Terri Gross recently, and the only negative thing she had to say about this show was that it removed her for too long from her family. She didn't say anything about fights or the writing. The only thing she mentioned was that it took her away from her daughters. The daughters suffered from her being away so much, and they apparently resented her for being away. She justified taking the gig that it was good money that helped her getting the daughters through college.

They apparently patched up things just fine. During COVID she is now staying with one of her daughters and granddaughter (in Connecticut). And now that her kids have kids on their own, they better understand the economics of taking jobs that are available.

No word about her co-actress.

Baranki's husband, who is deceased, was an heir to wealth, was he not?

He was heir to The Locust Street Fund.

I don't see why Baranski would knock the writing team. They always gave her the best material.

Never heard of Baranski criticizing the writers. It was always Cybill who had a problem with what she perceived as the writers favoring Christine.

I'd imagine the writers probably loved Christine. She could say anything and make it into something hilarious. Writers love actors like that.

She could make herself hilarious in MAME.

*She couldn't

[quote]They apparently patched up things just fine. During COVID she is now staying with one of her daughters and granddaughter (in Connecticut). And now that her kids have kids on their own, they better understand the economics of taking jobs that are available.

This happens in so many families. The kids resent the parents for working so much, but then the kids grow up and reality hits them square in the face. They realize how hard it can be to make decent money and how much work it takes, and suddenly understand why their parents did what they did.

Alicia Witt (Zoey) did an AMA on Reddit several years ago. She is effusive about Baranski and Alan Rosenberg (Ira), less so about Cyb...

[Quote] i was raised on a very strict diet with no sugar, no additives, no candy, etc. so that's how i was told to trick or treat.

Maybe that's why Witt has aged so well.

The commenter deleted their comment/question but here is one of Alicia's responses

[Quote] THANK YOU!! loved working on the sopranos...

[Quote] well. she kinda said some pretty mean things about pretty much everyone she ever worked with, as i understand :) all i can say on that topic is, a lot of what was said about the all of the people she made mention of who were involved with 'cybill' was simply not true. it was sad (and hurtful to me, both on my behalf and on behalf of my amazing colleagues) to hear about it. but you know what, i have so many amazing memories of the experience in general, and that is what stays with you in the end :)

I worked with her. The woman is so immensely beautiful that everytime she smiled she had people telling her to warn them beforehand before she was about to do that, so they could look away. It was too much beauty for them to take.

She also has a great voice and has been compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Lee Wiley.

Hi Cyb, welcome to DL

Cybill Sheperd's years as a "great beauty" were well before my time, and personally I don't see it. Yes she was very pretty as a young woman, but she was hardly Marilyn Monroe.

Cybill was more naturally pretty than Monroe. She was not remotely like Monroe in presence.

274 posted a link to Chuck Lorre's full Academy interview, but here's the part where he talks about creating the show.

And here's where he talks about it going to hell.

"You know the old saying 'creative differences?' She thought she was creative and I thought differently."

And to Lorre's credit, he admits that the show was successful out of the gate. That wasn't because people tuned in for Chuck Lorre or Christine Baranski.

R377 standards of beauty today are different. Softer features were considered ideal then. Upturned noses were considered ideal, even if they were somewhat wide and fleshy (as most upturned noses are).

I personally think the standards then were preferable but that’s just me.

She still wasn't a raving beauty, though.

She was natural. You can't find a natural beauty today. Not one.

Simon Fuller has found some.

r382, No, it was because it was part of CBS's Monday night lineup, where all the sitcoms ranked in the top 25, and it followed #16 Murphy Brown. (The previous year Love & War--anyone remember that one?--aired in the timeslot and itself was #16 that season.) The timeslot was the winner. When they moved it to Sundays for season 2, it sank like a rock despite airing behind #9 60 Minutes, in the slot where Murder, She Wrote had reigned for years (until finally being dragged back to Monday).

It sank like a rock yet it managed to run for four years?

"it sank like a rock...(until finally being dragged back to Monday)."

Better, r388?

Monday - Ratings good! Sunday - Ratings bad! Back to Monday - Ratings good! (but not as good as they once were) Monday again - Ratings starting to slip, kicked off the night and over to Wednesday, ratings plunged, cancelled.

Season 1 - Monday - Ranked #22 for the season

Season 2 - Sunday - Ranked #50 for the season

Season 3 - Monday - Ranked #30 for the season

Season 4 - Monday, then Wednesday - Ranked #50 for the season

More Tom Wopat gossip!

Tom is handsy.

R392 is John Schneider.

Is it Tom or John that had the coke problem? (Could be both of them, but I think it was Tom.)

Edit: DL has taught me well. A simple Google search shows it was Tom.

They both had a bulge problem. Especially John. But Tom had better musculature.

[quote]Cybill Sheperd's years as a "great beauty" were well before my time, and personally I don't see it. Yes she was very pretty as a young woman, but she was hardly Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn was considered nothing more than a sexpot until she started getting popular. Then she was considered a sex symbol who was very pretty, she wasn't considered the great beauty of her time, at all.

Word is that Tom is much more gay-friendly. He's spent more time in musical theatre and cabaret world.

Schneider has said some ragingly homophobic things in the past. Don't know if he's improved.

Schneider posted some pro-Pride Month stuff a year or two ago on his Instagram and his redneck fans went berserk.

I'm actually delighted to hear that, R398. Good for him.

r396 regardless Cybill wasn't in Marilyn's league at all. I think she was on the average side of pretty.

[quote]I think she was on the average side of pretty.

No one cares, hun.

She was a model that got magazine covers.

Beauty is subjective. Cybill isn't my idea of a raving beauty either. She was a very, very pretty blonde girl with symmetrical features and an inoffensive blandness that could sell to middle America. She became a very good looking woman who looked fantastic well into her 60s but her 'look' and features wouldn't be my idea of ravishing beauty. Beautiful, great looking, pretty- yes. So breathtaking she stops me in my tracks - no.

R402 She was a very fresh-faced, beautiful girl, a new face at the time of The Last Picture Show, and she had a personality that came through even in still photos (though these Are screen shots). Her eyes were very cool, you could read a lot of sexy thoughts there.

Hot, All-American type chick

[quote]She was a very, very pretty blonde girl with symmetrical features and an inoffensive blandness that could sell to middle America

Actually her features were not that symmetrical, she had one eye shaped differently that the other, or different sizes. It was concealed pretty well.

I guess it's weird to see a blonde, blue-eyed woman as a 'great beauty' because that look has been out of fashion for quite a while in this diverse era.

Blonde Lives Matter Too.

If she had played her cards right she could have been a part of the Chuck Lorre dynasty.

[quote]I guess it's weird to see a blonde, blue-eyed woman as a 'great beauty' because that look has been out of fashion for quite a while in this diverse era.

I know, isn't it stupid? Beauty is beauty.

Beauty is political.

This show should have run longer.

Does anyone else Paula Poundstone as Cybill's crazed fan, Minnie, who gets so upset when Cybill calls her resume trash that she storms out of the restaurant and says something like 'I just hope Linda Evans will have me back' It made me howl thinking of this loony woman who spends her life learning every detail about C-List actresses and bothers them to the point they have break-ups. But they need to break-up because the actress actually has enough ego to entertain Minnie in the first place. I still chuckle at that episode.

*remember

It should have been "Linda Purl."