- Bette Midler opens up on her failures
- She spoke about the sitcom 'Bette'
- THIS is what she had to say
With an eye-opening episode of David Duchovny’s podcast 'Fail Better with David Duchovny,' Bette Midler spills the tea on her tumultuous experience with the 2000 CBS sitcom, 'Bette.'
Calling it a "big, big mistake," Midler reveals the behind-the-scenes chaos, including her initial co-star Lindsay Lohan's abrupt exit and her own eventual firing. Discover what went wrong in this Hollywood misadventure!
Better is always enchanting
Bette Midler, the Divine Miss M herself, has had a rollercoaster career with plenty of highs. But it's her dive into the world of sitcoms that she calls her "big, big mistake." On David Duchovny's podcast, Midler opened up about the failed 2000 CBS sitcom, 'Bette,' a project that promised laughs but ended in tears.
Imagine casting a teen Lindsay Lohan as your on-screen daughter, only for her to bail after the pilot! Midler was left asking, "Now what do you do?" This was just the beginning of the chaos.
Despite the shock, Midler was unprepared for the cutthroat nature of TV contracts and the fast-paced world of sitcoms.
She called the show "mistake" and admitted that "it was the wrong motivation."
"It was a part of the media I simply did not understand,” she told Duchovny of television. "I watched it, I appreciated it, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t know what it meant to make it."
Not only was she not prepared for the pacing and hierarchy, but the show changed from its initial pilot, which had included a then teen Lindsay Lohan.
"I didn’t know those things could happen. For instance, Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter in the pilot," Middler said. "Well, after the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn’t want to do it. Or she had other fish to fry. So Lindsay Lohan left the building. and I said, well, now what do you do?"
What followed was extremely chaotic, Middler recalled. Duchovny pointed out that there’s such a thing as contracts and "you’re not supposed to be able to leave a show."
"I know and if I had been in my right mind or if I had known that part of my duties was to stand up and say, ‘This absolutely will not do, I’m gonna sue,’ then I would have done that,” she said.
Middler added that she found the speed of making the show to be "taxing."
Midler's journey with 'Bette' was nothing short of a rollercoaster. From re-casts to the relentless pace of filming, it was a challenge she wasn’t ready for. She even shared a candid moment on David Letterman's show, saying filming was "the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life." Ouch! Talk about honesty!
Just when things couldn't get more dramatic, Midler got the boot. With just four episodes left to film, her lawyer delivered the news:
"Of course the next day I was fired," she said. "My lawyer called me, like nine o’clock in the morning and said, ‘You’re fired.’ I said, ‘Oh isn’t that fantastic!’ I mean, we were on the 18th episode out of 22 and I was so thrilled to not have to continue."
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Bette Midler's foray into sitcoms might not have gone as planned, but it's a testament to her resilience and willingness to take risks. Even in failure, there's a lesson to be learned, and Midler's candid recount of her experience is a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of TV production.
