Cybill: The Sitcom (1995-1998)

Chuck speaks

Everything would have been fine if I had won the Emmy when Christine won in 1995. Candice had already won 4 by that point, did she really need 5???

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

Cybill has a massive ego. She sounds insufferable. Both of her television shows ended partly due to her lack of humility and narcissistic personality.

Cybill had a big ego, but she had Star power.

Alan Ball cunts off about working on Cybill. He didn't like her at all.

Brilliant?

This didn't even come close to AbFab

Cybill should have won an Emmy for Moonlighting. If Bruce won, then she should have had one.

Both were the best they've ever been on that series, and neither have had chemistry with anyone else that was half as good.

Jesus. Cybill must have been a horror. Alan Ball looks like he's 90 with magic marker hair.

R8: The Ab Fab elements were there. Drunken best friend to a woman seeking career success and spiritual fullfilment outside of the mainstream with 2 ex husbands. Obviously, CBS in the mid-90s were not going to touch drugs or an AT BEST cold toxic relationship between mother and daughter, so give the lead 2 daughters and make her a grandmother, make her more "relatable" as she seeks roles while the drunk is the monied one, etc.

It was just like AbFab. Without the drunks, casual sex, drinking, loathsome characters that you loved, near zero laughs, and no Lulu. Other than that it was just like AbFab.

AbFab was lightning in a bottle, no one could come close to Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Also, network tv in the 90s had too much censorship about drugs etc. An AbFab clone was never going to work in the US.

Best episode is when Zoe went to the wedding and started dancing - punching the bride in the nose accidentally. And people think the 'Elaine dance' on 'Seinfeld' was funny ? They need to see this.

That show with Jean Smart was as close to AbFab as any network TV would have allowed at the time. Plus I like knowing how tight the AbFab cast was.

I watched the entire series when it was new but can't remember a thing about it.

I remember Tom Wopat. grrrrrrrr

Tom Wopat just oozed testosterone.

Very, very few men aged as well as Tom did. Tom during Cybill. Fucking incredible. Poor Cybill. She can't even be the center of attention in her own thread.

[quote]Tom Wopat just oozed testosterone.

Did he clean up after himself?

I read an interview with Alan Rosenberg where he said the Cybill job was the worst of his life, but he didn't elaborate.

Apparently they taped on Friday nights and Baranski took the redeye back to her family on the East Coast to spend weekends with her kids and husbands. Once when things were going overtime but Christine was done with her scenes she left for the airport to make her plane rather than wait for the final bows with the rest of the cast, and Cybill did NOT like that.

I remember reading a Cybil interview a few years ago in which she said something like "It wasn't that Christine and I didn't get along. We got along fine. I just ended up make the show chaotic for everyone..."

Cybill stated that she was chatting with a big actor/actress who had worked with Baranski on Broadway just before Cybill was about to hit the air, and said person warned Cybill to "watch her back". I always wondered if it might have been Glenn.

I love Cybill's autobiography, but it's clear she had an ax to grind regarding the recent cancellation of her show. She seems to have mellowed a lot in recent years. That being said, it's clear she was telling the truth in some spots, as the Les Moonves story was in there.

[quote]with her kids and husbands

?

r24 She was a polygamist at the time?

Her two ex-husbands

Can we stay focused on Tom Wopat's irresistable masculinity?

[quote] Once when things were going overtime but Christine was done with her scenes she left for the airport to make her plane rather than wait for the final bows with the rest of the cast, and Cybill did NOT like that.

I'm on Cybill's side on this one. They were a 'team' and you stick together to the very end and take your final bows with the rest of the cast. No one is more important than the costars - not even the star herself. To do otherwise is not only unprofessional, but insulting to the cast. She missed her red-eye that night ? Too bad. Take the first plane out Saturday morning.

Baranski seems like she could give off passive aggressive vibes. The fact that she was close to Uber cunt Julianna Marguiles (who was treating Archie Panjabi like shit) during the Good Wife says a lot.

Treat Williams implied that Christine was rude on that horrid Dolly Parton Christmas movie from a few years ago.

[quote]I'm on Cybill's side on this one. They were a 'team' and you stick together to the very end and take your final bows with the rest of the cast.

In general I agree with you. That said, if the long taping was due to Cybill's cunt antics and Christine was just over it and wanted to see her family, I think it's a more nuanced situation.

Someone (Chuck Lorre?) said that Christine would get a big laugh on a line at rehearsal, and in the next day's pages the joke inexplicably would have been given to Cybill, even though it made no sense for the Cybill character to say it.

It would have been awful w/o Baranski. I found AbFab tiresome after awhile--the mother and daughter started to make the show for me. Cybil took herself too seriously for the show to be as dark as AbFab.

The thing that made AbFab work was that Edina was an unapologetic selfish bitch and had no redeeming qualities. Cybil never would have let herself be seen in that way.

R23 I wonder if it was Glenn too. Glenn and Christine worked together on Broadway but don’t seem close these days like Christine is with Meryl.