Sally Struthers disliked Norman Lear & Betty White, not Bea

[samhexum]

Sally Struthers wanted to quit “All in the Family” — and blames its creator, the late Norman Lear.

The actress, 77, said on the Monday episode of the “Let’s Talk About That! With Larry Saperstein and Jacob Bellotti” podcast that she finally felt comfortable opening up about him because “he’s gone.”

Struthers also shared a conversation she had with Lear during the series’ first season.

“He was on the sound stage watching us rehearse, and we were on a break,” she told the hosts. “I said, ‘I can’t believe that we’re doing this and we’re about to hit No. 1 on the air.’”

After noting how Lear “saw so many young ladies” for her role of Gloria, including Reiner’s then-wife Penny Marshall, Struthers asked Lear, “’Was I really the funniest one?'” to which he replied, “No.” 

Lear admitted that when casting the show, the team thought it made sense to have Gloria be a daddy’s girl because O’Connor’s Archie Bunker “was a lot to swallow for American audiences with his bigotry and his social sluts.”

The way to “soften him up” was to give him a “soft spot in his heart for his daughter.”

“So we hired you because just like Carroll O’Connor, you have blue eyes and a fat face,” Struthers recalled Lear telling her. The comedic star said she didn’t know how to respond so she walked away.

Despite winning two Emmys for the series, Struthers described herself as the “fourth banana” after the other three leads. According to her, the show’s “older, brilliant Jewish faith writers” knew how to write for the other characters, but not for “a young lady.”

“I usually had about three lines per show that said, ‘I’ll help you set the table, Ma,’ ‘Michael, where are you going?’ and ‘Oh, Daddy, stop it.’ And then the next week I’d have the three same lines in a different order. And if they literally didn’t know what to do with me in a scene, they’d have me go upstairs to take a bath or wash my hair,” she stated. “It was very frustrating.”

The “Still Standing” alum ultimately tried to break her contract after five seasons on the show. After hiring a lawyer and spending $40,000 on legal fees during arbitration, she lost.

“I went back and had three more seasons, but they were by far the most fun for me. Because finally, they had Mike and Gloria have a baby, they had us move next door into the house that [the] Jeffersons lived in,” she said. 

Struthers appeared in 182 episodes of “All in the Family” and even received her own spinoff “Gloria” that aired for one season in 1982. Decades later, the Hollywood vet became a fan favorite for her role as Babette on “Gilmore Girls.”

Despite the ups and downs on the series, Struthers noted that part of her longevity as an actress is because she was “lucky enough to be on a groundbreaking national television series.” 

Struthers recently starred in the hit Netflix show “A Man on the Inside” alongside Ted Danson and continues to do theater.

She said audiences are still “curious” to come see her in person at 77, joking, “Maybe because they love you or like you, but just as much because ‘Wait a minute, is she still alive? Let’s go see what she looks like now.’”

In early 2024, she reunited with Reiner for a tribute to Lear at the delayed 2023 Emmy Awards.

Struthers also had a bad experience with Betty White.

The actress said that White once “fat-shamed” her.

Struthers brought up White after telling the hosts how she used to live four houses away from the exterior of the “Golden Girls” home in Los Angeles.

“I have to say now that she’s gone, I wanna talk about Betty White for just a moment,” she said.

“I know everybody loves her. They loved her so much. They signed petitions to get her to guest host ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I know all that,” Struthers continued. “I didn’t have such a great experience with her.”

The “Gilmore Girls” star called White a “very passive-aggressive woman.”

She recalled the alleged fat-shaming occurred at White’s “beautiful” LA home when the pair met up to work on a pilot for a new game show.

Struthers said that White told her housekeeper to bring the group something to eat.

“The plate was set in the middle and it was cookies, I think,” she recalled. “So I reached for a cookie and she said in front of everyone, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you dear, you don’t need a cookie.’”

Saperstein and Bellotti gasped in response to Struthers’ story.

“Totally fat-shamed me in front of the rest of the people in the room,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s not nice.’”

“Well I’m sorry you had that experience with her,” Bellotti told Struthers.

Despite the incident with White, Struthers noted that she has good memories about another “Golden Girls” star, Bea Arthur, who guest starred on “All in the Family.”

“I would run into her at the supermarket and she would trash everyone we ever knew,” she said about the star, who died in 2009 at 86.

“We would stand in the aisle and say, ‘What do you think about so and so?’ [And she’d say,] ‘She’s a f–king a—hole.’ People in the store were like, ‘What’s going on in aisle five?’ I loved how filthy she was.”

“She was a big deal,” Struthers added about Arthur. “I loved her.

When asked about some of her favorite Hollywood memories on the podcast, Struthers recalled how she dated Elvis Presley “for a while.”

“That was fun,” she said. “He was probably the nicest man I ever met. He was so polite and so kind and soft-hearted.”

[Ali Gator]

Surprised she didn't trash-talk Rita Moreno, as the two loathe each other from their 'Odd Couple' days. Maybe because Moreno is still with us ? 

 

Struthers looks great - she lost a lot of weight, it seems. 

[+ nycman]

What a trashy thing to do. Talking smack about dead people is pretty low. As a child I had a strange hate for her in All in the Family that I really never understood. I guess little me was onto something. 

[+ jeezopete]

1 hour ago, nycman said:

Talking smack about dead people is pretty low.

I was thinking the same thing. I believe Betty lived to 99 and Norman lived to 101 so there was plenty of time to tell these stories when they were alive. Sally's stories may be true, but she made sure there was no way to hear the other sides. Or to hear their opinions of her. 

[ShortCutie7]

Easy to forget that celebrities are just people, and the same petty interpersonal drama that happens in an office can happen on a soundstage.  Not every interaction is tabloid-worthy.

[samhexum]

31 minutes ago, ShortCutie7 said:

Easy to forget that celebrities are just people, and the same petty interpersonal drama that happens in an office can happen on a soundstage.  Not every interaction is tabloid-worthy.

SPOILER ALERT!

[TakeOneForTheTeam]

So she was upset for being faction but then turns around in a supermarket with a pal and make fun of people. Wtf?

[TonyDown]

I have the DVD of Cold Turkey, a movie written and directed by Norman Lear, filmed in Iowa back in the 1960s. 

The ending credits include kudos to the people of Iowa for their part in making the movie.  If you are familiar with the movie you might appreciate their role.

Anyway, Lear went out of his way to show appreciation for these creative allies, the diligent extras from central  Iowa that volunteered to help make the film.  

Sounds like Lear did not appreciate Struthers in that way, during All in the Family.   If she insulted his talent rather than acquiescing to his vision, it's not surprising she received no dinner invitations from Lear.

 

This photo is from my favorite scene from Cold Turkey, with M. Emmett Walsh (RIP) and Vicente Gardenia.

 

 

Edited January 19 by TonyDown