Bette Midler Talks Canceled CBS Show and Working With Lindsay Lohan in New Interview

In a new episode of the Fall Better podcast with David Duchovny, the Tony-award-winning actress talked about her 2000 CBS sitcom that was canceled during its first season.

“I did a television show, Bette. Does it get any more generic than that? A big, big, big mistake. I think for several reasons. It was the wrong motivation. It was a part of the media I simply did not understand. I watched it. I appreciated it. I enjoyed it, But I didn’t know what it meant to make it.”

She explains "I had made theatrical live events. I had made films. I had made variety television shows. I had been on talk shows. But I had never done a situation comedy. I didn’t realize what the pace was. And I didn’t understand what the hierarchy was. And no one bothered to tell me.”

Midler went on to highlight the difficult learning curve: "I didn’t understand what my options were, what choices I could have made to improve my situation. I didn’t know that I could have taken charge.”

Also in the interview, she discussed the departure of Lindsey Lohan, who played her daughter early in the series.

“After the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn’t want to do it, or she had other fish to fry,” Midler said. “So Lindsay Lohan left the building and I said, well, now what do you do? And the studio didn’t help me. It was extremely chaotic . . . and if I had been in my right mind, or if I had known that my part of my duties were to stand up and say, ‘This absolutely will not do, I’m going to sue,’ then I would have done that. But I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldn’t get to the writer’s room. I couldn’t speak to the showrunner. I couldn’t make myself clear.”

Bette was a sitcom centering on a fictional version of Bette Midler, who starred alongside Kevin Dunn, James Dreyfus, and Tony-Award Winner Johanna Gleason. The series was canceled during its first season. 

Listen to the full interview HERE.

About Bette Midler

Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her starring role in Hello, Dolly!, Bette Midler made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof. Her remarkable career started while singing in New York bathhouses, where she was given the name, "The Divine Miss M."

Her debut record, "The Divine Miss M," earned her a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 1979, Bette made her film debut in portraying a doomed and self destructive rock & roll singer in The Rose, for which she earned the Golden Globe for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination, and Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal performance.

In 1988 Bette starred in Beaches, and received her third Grammy Award, Record of the Year, for the film's title song, "Wind Beneath My Wings." Midler recently returned to her role in Hocus Pocus for a new sequel, which had the biggest streaming premiere in Disney+ history. She will soon be starring in The Fabulous Four, which hits theaters in July.

Photo credit: Bruce Gilkas

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