Random Behind-The-Scenes Stories About '80s Sitcom Stars (18 items)

• 

  (#12) Emmanuel Lewis

  • 52

  NFL star Alex Karras turned to acting after his football career ended. He met Susan Clark when he portrayed her husband in the TV biopic Babe, and the two actors married soon after. In 1983, they decided to create a TV series based on their relationship, called Another Ballgame, and the pilot about a former NFL player who marries a socialite was picked up by ABC.

  In 1982, meanwhile, Emmanuel Lewis rose to fame, primarily through a series of commercials for Burger King. Although he was 11 years old, his small size made him appear younger. ABC quickly signed him to a production deal, but because this happened after the 1983 pilot season had ended, the network was left with two primary options - wait until the following season to give him his own show, or put him into one of their new shows.

  They chose the latter option and approached Karras and Clark about adding the child actor to Another Ballgame and changing the plotline to become one about a newlywed couple who adopts a young boy. The couple agreed to the idea, but problems soon popped up, as Karras and Clark - who were among the producers of the show - thought the show would be about both themselves and Lewis (and called Then Came You), while the other producers and ABC executives wanted to center the show around Lewis. Karras and Clark were upset when ABC informed them that the show would be called Webster and focus mainly on the child star. 

  This caused significant tension on set during the first season of the show, as an unhappy Lewis felt that all the fighting was all his fault. As the series progressed, the production company came to an agreement with Karras and Clark that made the show more balanced rather than having the storylines being so heavily slanted towards Lewis's character, which improved the relationship between Lewis and his adult co-stars and eliminated most of the arguments between the couple and the other producers. Webster ended up running for six seasons before being canceled.
• 

  (#7) Vicki Lawrence

  • 74

  Aside from Carol Burnett herself, Vicki Lawrence was the only cast member of The Carol Burnett Show who was part of the variety show for all 11 seasons (1967-1978). It was on this show that Lawrence first played the character of coldhearted Thelma Mae Harper - AKA "Mama" - in a series of comedy sketches entitled "The Family." 

  In an interview for the Television Academy Foundation, Lawrence revealed that the writers who came up with the idea for these sketches had problems with both the casting and the way "Mama" was portrayed:

  They [the writers] hated that she [Burnett] wanted to do it Southern, they said that "this is going to offend the entire southern half of the country," but Carol said, "No, this is where I feel it belongs." They hated that I was Mama and she [Carol] was [Mama's daughter] Eunice. They pretty much hated everything we did with it. They came to the first run-through... and when they saw the sketch, the way we had done it, they were so angry that they threw down their pads and pencils and stormed out of the rehearsal hall... In the production meeting afterwards, "You've ruined it. You can't do this. You can't... You're going to offend the South. You've ruined our beautiful sketch, our beautiful characters." But that's the way it went on the air because that's the way Carol wanted to do it.

  Instead of offending the viewers, "The Family" sketch was so popular that it quickly became a regular part of The Carol Burnett Show - and years later, the basis for the sitcom Mama's Family.
• 

  (#1) Katey Sagal

  • 69

  Katey Sagal played Peg Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children for 11 seasons. During an appearance on The Talk, the actor explained she had been working mainly as a musician prior to being cast, and she was worried that she would be fired from the show and be forced to return to playing gigs. She explained:

  So I sort of had this idea that I'll disguise myself so that nobody will recognize me when I take this [costume] off. So that was one of my motivations... because she was really in drag. I mean, that was her, she was really dolled up. And I didn't really look like that, so I could go about my normal life.

  She added:

  I went into the audition wearing very tight clothes, and I had my hair up. I sort of felt like when I read the script that they [Peg Bundy and her husband] spoke so horribly to each other that they had to have something really hot going on somewhere.
• 

  (#16) Mary-Kate Olsen

  • 37

  Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were just 9 months old when they became television stars by jointly playing the role of Michelle Tanner on Full House. Although most people probably assume they're identical twins because of their appearance, the Olsens have repeatedly clarified that they're actually fraternal twins - they just happen to look very similar. Ashley used to have a freckle over her upper lip, but that disappeared by the time she was a teenager. They're also about an inch apart in height, by their own calculation.

  If you're watching a Full House episode and you're wondering which twin you're seeing, there is one subtle way you can sometimes tell them apart: Mary-Kate is left-handed, while Ashley is right-handed.

  Now in their mid-30s, the sisters are currently focused on their fashion lines. They began their foray into fashion in 1999 when they partnered with Walmart to create a girls' fashion line. They co-founded their fashion brand the Row in 2008, followed by their Elizabeth & James line the following year. 

  Neither Mary-Kate nor Ashley has worked as an actor in more than a decade, although their younger sister Elizabeth has had her own breakthrough in the industry with appearances in films like Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene and the television series WandaVision.
• 

  (#8) Delta Burke

  • 67

  Delta Burke played superficial, selfish beauty queen-turned-interior designer Suzanne Sugarbaker on Designing Women for five seasons. During her run on the show, her struggles with her weight often made her a target of the tabloids and a punchline in other comedy shows. In 2000, Burke told the Los Angeles Times that it even affected the atmosphere on the set of Designing Women: 

  I remember being on the sound stage with people standing around me trying to decide what they were going to have me wear. They would talk about me like I wasn’t even there. "What are we going to do about those hips?"

  By the second season, Burke was suffering from depression and unsuccessfully asked to get out of her contract. Although she started therapy and went on medication to deal with the depression, she started having panic attacks. In 2000, her husband Gerald McRaney told the LA Times:

  The depression had gotten to her so much she could barely function, and it was all wrapped around that image and the legitimate fear that she was going to be fired and that her career was going to be over.

  Things continued to get worse for the actor. By the middle of the fourth season, the actor's weight had ballooned to 200 pounds, and she was suffering from panic attacks. But one day, Designing Women co-star Jean Smart told the LA Times, Burke got a note from another star actress who had dealt with being the target of ridicule because of her weight:

  It was this wonderful personal note from Liz Taylor saying, "I know what you’re going through... Hang in there... I think you’re gorgeous."

  Burke added:

  [Taylor] was just "it" to me. It was like getting a letter from the great goddess. I would let people look at it, but they couldn’t touch it.

  A turning point for Burke came when she asked the producers to incorporate her weight issues into the show's plotlines. Still, issues between the actor and the show's producers led to Burke being fired from the show following the fifth season.
• 

  (#14) Craig T. Nelson

  • 79

  Craig T. Nelson played Hayden Fox on the ABC sitcom Coach for nine seasons. In 1992, he won the Emmy Award for best lead actor in a comedy series for his performance as the college (later NFL) football coach.

  But in an interview with the Cleveland sports radio channel 92.3 The Fan, Nelson said he was turned down for the role when he first auditioned for it:

  ...Then they called me back and said, "We want to see you again." So I went in. See, I didn't have a reputation as a comedian then. Although I'd grown up as a writer doing the Tim Conway Show... and I'd done stand-up. So, I did have a background in it, but I hadn't been doing it [as an actor] ... Anyway, I didn't get the part, and then I got it. And then we started doing it, and it was a lot of work in the beginning because there was not really a center to that character in the beginning.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking