What Roles Could've Vivian Vance Played?

I consider this Vance woman to be totally uninteresting but she could have played all the Shirley Booth roles and Thelma Ritter roles.

The three are indistinguishable.

Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate

Mrs. Robinson.

Debbie in Debbie Does Dallas.

She could have played all the Brenda de Banzie roles.

Any middle-aged character woman.

"Dutch Oven: The Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine Love Story"

She could play Ethel or Ernest.

Edie Grant on MTM.

She would have been a fun interim housekeeper for the Brady's when Alice went to work at the diner because the kids were mean to her. Better than that sour puss Kay who didn't want to play basketball with the boys or stay and watch tv with the kids because she had her own tv at home.

Belle Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure

She was very good on Rhoda as the neighbor. I know she had mental health issues but even William Frawley had another long role on a sitcom. Still I can't think of any roles. I never saw her as a motherly types as when she was on "the Lucy Show," she had absolutely no chemistry with her TV son and didn't seem at all motherly toward the kid. Though all three child actors from "the Lucy Show" said very nice things about her.

She'd have been a better Mame than Lucy.

Agreed. But she could never play Lucy. Never.

Helen Lawson

One of Charlie's original Angels.

Vivian should have gotten more critical credit for her action hero roles.

True story- Andy Warhol courted her to star as the murderous matron in Andy Warhol’s Bad after serious consideration, La Vance decided it would upset her loyal fan base. Carroll Baker got the part.

She would have made a GREAT Cora Hoover Hooper and kept ANYONE CAN WHISTLE running all season long. Same thing with DEAR WORLD. Anything Lansbury could do, Vance could do better.

Always liked her… as much as Lucy. Didn’t think she was ugly by any means. She just appeared to always have an easy going personality

R9, my guess is that sour puss Kay wasn't really so dour. She poured it on with the kids and Carol so that they'd miss Alice all the more.

Especially that bitch Marcia.

The late Mary Treen made an impact with that role as we all remember Kay so well.

Treen amassed over 215 credits during her acting career; she died at the age of 82 in 1989.

Maude!

Did she ever do "Hello, Dolly!" She would have been great as Dolly Levi. The whole show is sort of one long Lucy show, anyway.

[quote]She'd have been a better Mame than Lucy.

I'd have been a better Mame than Lucy

r22

That's actually an interesting and believable suggestion.

Edith Bunker

Tootie

r26

No, but maybe Tootsie.

J.J. Evans

I don't know why you all go crazy over Vivian Vance, she's just people like you and me.

Mary Richards

Amanda Wingfield

Queen Margaret

Mama Rose

Alice Pearce was perfect but Vance would have been good as Gladys Kravitz. Bonus points if they cast William Frawley as Abner.

Viv would have made an intriguing Sue Ann Nivens.

“What roles could’ve”, OP?

You did that on purpose, right?

Kate Bradley on Petticoat Junction

Mrs. Roper on Three's Company

Had she lived, she would have been a great Golden Girl!

Judith Lowry would have been a better Mame, r12.

Vance didn't do ditzy, r33.

The mom in The Exorcist

Go, Viv!

Martha in "Virginia Woolf"

Aida.

The real one. Not the pop version.

There was an episode of I ❤️ Lucy where Vic dresses up as a VIXEN. DL people approved. Instead of Stockard Channing -Vivian Vance as RIZZO in GREASE!

VIV dresses up not Vic

Viv Tayback

Viv Morrow, the Headless Horsewoman.

[quote]I don't know why you all go crazy over Vivian Vance, she's just people like you and me.

She may be a girl but she's not like you.

The manly Brady Maid

A Golden Girls character. Perhaps a different take on Dorothy? Viv could do sarcastic.

A 2000 year old piece of petrified wood would have been a better Mame than Lucy!!

Vivian should have played Vera Charles when MAME was filmed. Getting Lucy and Vivian back together again could not have hurt the movie. And it might have made it a great deal better. Vivian was always great when she was angry or annoyed with Lucy. And their "Bosom Buddies" would have been one for the ages.

She could play any role Doris Roberts did.

Melanie Daniels in "The Birds"

Miss Jean Brodie

Bree in "Klute"

If there had only been a 60s movie musical where they had played your favorite and mine, "Shortnin' Bread"!

Maybe she could have played the Baroness in "The Sound of Music" and they could have worked it in.

I could see a reoccurring character carved out for her on Bewitched. Maybe Uncle Arthur's wife.

Could she been an occasional neighbor on The Jeffersons?

[quote] And their "Bosom Buddies" would have been one for the ages.

You can kind of see what their Bosom Buddies would have been like when they do Friendship on I Love Lucy.

I wish The Love Boat had written in a role for Viv. Maybe the head of the kitchen staff or the manageress of the gift shop.

[quote] Maybe Uncle Arthur's wife.

You know damn well Uncle Arthur never had a WIFE. Husband maybe but not wife.

It was TV, Uncle Arthur could have had a wife.

She was so disappointed in being passed over for Scarlett O' Hara in Gone With the Wind, she nearly ended her career. We are all grateful that she decided to stick it out.

I've think she'd have been brilliant as the more talented friend

who laughed her ass off

as Lucy croaked her way through the musical version of "Mame"

I will never understand why they chose Rita Hayworth over Vivian, for Miss Sadie Thompson.

Rosemary, the school teacher in "Picnic". It was played wonderfully well by Roz Russell. But I'd have liked to see what Vance would've done with it.

Roz hammed it up from start to finish. It's a bravura performance, but "bravura" has no place in the midwest in the 1950s. Vivian might have given it some real heart.

R64 Yeah, it's a bit over the top, but I can appreciate the performance nonetheless. Of course, the character was also drinking/drunk for some of those scenes. So, there's that. But I'd love to see Vance's version. She was equally good at drama as she was in comedy.

R66 was for R65, obviously. I shouldn't try to multi-task while typing.

Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank. Although with this film, as with Picnic, Lucille (screw)Ball probably wouldn't have given her the time off from ILL to film the movie.

Mrs. Babish on Laverne and Shirley.

RIZZO in Grease

The lady in the radiator

She would have been great as Martha Levinson, Shirley MacLaine's role in DOWNTON ABBEY.

Viv would have cut Maggie Smith down to size.

She could have played Rosemary Woodhouse and given birth to a fiery red headed she devil

Her physical decline is sad to view:

Agree with someone up-thread: had she lived, she'd have offered a brilliant take on Dorothy Z.

She would've been an interesting Maude.

The Betsy Palmer role on Friday the 13th.

Miss Daisy

Ethel (heh) in On Golden Pond -- either screen or stage

[quote]It was TV, Uncle Arthur could have had a wife.

no, not even Uncle Arthur could have had a wife

[quote]I will never understand why they chose Rita Hayworth over Vivian, for Miss Sadie Thompson.

Speaking of Sada Thompson, she would've been much better as Kate on "Family." Her cold "I've sufficient" would've taught that mooch Willie a thing or too.

M's roles. Only better.

Alex Forrest

Annie Wilkes

Nurse Ratched

Could she have done the Angela Lansbury role in Manchurian Candidate? She has such a warm, likable voice, it would be interesting to see it juxtaposed with cold, sociopathic language.

Belle Watling

[quote]Speaking of Sada Thompson, she would've been much better as Kate on "Family." Her cold "I've sufficient" would've taught that mooch Willie a thing or too.

And she would have told Miss Tovah Feldshuh where to get off right quick. No passive-aggressive Kate with our Viv!

She almost had her own show

Yes, [R42], I could see her as Martha. "I thought I'd bust a gut...." I can hear her saying it.

Oda Mae Brown in "Ghost"

She could've been Lucy's neighbor and friend, Mary Jane Lewis, on "The Lucy Show"

She could have been the landlady that throws Lucy out of her apartment in Stone Pillow.

Marry me, r88

Jessica Fletcher.

Jessica Fletcher? No way? Viv would NEVER indulge in all that mugging that Lansbury relies on to get by.

I think she'd have made a good Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba

Molly Brown

Madame Arcati. She'd be great.

The Animagic version of herself in any Rankin Bass holiday special.

Penny Sycamore, You Can't Take it With You.

She and Lucy would have been fun in Arsenic and Old Lace. Of course, it would scream I Love Lucy. But it would be fun.

Medusa.

Miss Hannigan in Annie. Vera Charles. Remember, her background was in musical theatre.

In that case, Margaret White in Carrie: The Musical r98

Aunt Eller!

I too, would have loved to see her as Lola in Come Back, Little Sheeba.

She had that Midwestern sensibility, r101

Both Viv and William Inge were from Independence, KS, coincidentally