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By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it Many have been victims, but others have been victimizers. The characters portrayed — and por trayed often, when made-for-TV movies were more plentiful — by some of the home screen’s top actresses have been var ied, and if they didn’t exist, Lifetime would have a much tougher time filling its weeknight and weekend film slots. The ca ble network salutes those performers and movies in the new special “TV Movie Su perstars: Women You Love” Monday, July 19. Executive-produced (somewhat sur prisingly) by journalist Linda Ellerbee, the hour includes comments by Meredith Bax ter, Delta Burke, Cheryl Ladd, Judith Light, Kellie Martin, Donna Mills, Markie Post, Annie Potts, Stefanie Powers, Connie Sellecca, Jane Seymour and Jaclyn Smith about roles they've played. Also on hand are several actors some of them have co- starred with: Barry Bostwick, Stephen Collins, Michael Nouri, Jack Scalia and Jack Wagner. Baxter has been particularly successful in breaking out of the typical mold for TV- movie actresses, earning an Emmy nomi nation for playing convicted killer Betty Broderick, and also addressing issues like bulimia (in “Kate's Secret”) and mastectomies (“My Breast”). “That was the biggest goal for me,” Baxter confirms, “to always do something that was a departure. My biggest fear was that I would always be Elyse Keaton (Bax ter’s character on the sitcom ‘Family Ties’). There are worse things to be, but I knew from when I did ‘Bridget Loves Bernie’ that some people would think, ‘Oh, she does comedy.’ When I came out of ‘Family,’ they thought, ‘Oh, she’s a dra matic actress.’ This way, I kept the game Even then, scripts submitted to Baxter haven't always been to her liking. She deems the part of Broderick “kind of an anomaly. There were also things like ‘Darkness Before Dawn,’ about drug abuse most roles that have come to me are softer, more benign characters, which aren't nearly as interesting to play.” While she appreciates Lifetime giving continuing exposure to her to much of her past work, Baxter adds, “You know what I would like to have happen? That they would say, ‘There is a real audience out here for these kinds of characters, these kinds of women. Let's make them part of our regular programming. Barry Bostwick and Donna Mills and Jack Wagner and I were sitting around talking about that recently. All of us feel so outside of what television is today. Donna is hopeful that the TV movie will come back, but I don't have any such hopes. It's an entirely different financial market now.”
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Fri, Jul 16, 2004
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
George N.
