Careers

TLDR: Rue McClanahan and Bea Arthur played best friends on television twice, a decade apart, on two completely different shows. By the time The Golden … Read more

TLDR: Estelle Getty spent decades as a working character actress before Broadway finally noticed her in her late fifties. She then spent seven years playing … Read more

TLDR: Demond Wilson beat out Richard Pryor for the role of Lamont Sanford and made it look easy for six seasons. He’d already made a … Read more

TLDR: Mackenzie Phillips played a rebellious teenager on television while living through something far harder off screen. Her own father, Mamas & the Papas founder … Read more

TLDR: Valerie Bertinelli was only 15 when One Day at a Time made her a star. She spent the next two decades married to one … Read more

TLDR: Bonnie Franklin insisted Ann Romano be written as a real, complicated woman rather than sitcom fluff. She spent the rest of her life applying … Read more

TLDR: Redd Foxx spent six seasons clutching his chest and pretending to die on cue as Fred Sanford. In 1991, the joke stopped being a … Read more

TLDR: LaWanda Page spent decades building a reputation as one of the raunchiest stand-up comics in Black nightclubs, under a nickname involving actual fire. Redd … Read more

TLDR: Betty White almost played the wrong Golden Girl entirely, cast against a decade of typecasting rather than into it. She spent her last days … Read more

TLDR: Bern Nadette Stanis turned her own mother’s decline into a genuine cause. Years later, she watched her own daughter become the doctor her sitcom … Read more

TLDR: Ja’net DuBois spent eight years playing everyone’s favorite nosy neighbor on Good Times. The whole time, she was also quietly responsible for the theme … Read more

TLDR: Janet Jackson joined Good Times in 1977 at age 11, playing a child rescued from an abusive home. The storyline made television history for … Read more

TLDR: Esther Rolle is proof a lead actress could actually win a fight with a hit network show. She walked off the number one comedy … Read more

TLDR: John Amos got fired for refusing to let Good Times flatten his family into a punchline. Fifty years later, his own family couldn’t manage … Read more

TLDR: Daniel Roebuck played investigator Cliff Lewis on Matlock before building one of the most prolific character-actor careers in Hollywood, with roles spanning The Fugitive, … Read more

TLDR: Kari Lizer played Cassie Phillips, one of Ben Matlock’s assistants, but her real legacy came decades later behind the camera. She went on to … Read more