Cybill Shepherd

Alicia Witt was the real cunt on that set.

Cybill Shepherd is one of the most beautiful and successful models of her generation, and has been in at least 3 majorly classic films. She also had two hits TV shows.

She doesn’t need you.

R2 Cybill has been in at least three majorly classic films thanks to fucking directors.

Christine Barianski is the ugliest Polock I've ever seen. Hated her character on the Good Wife.

Moonlighting to me was a great breakthrough in 1980s popular culture as it broke down the stereotype that all heterosexuals are unhappy and sick in the mind.

Bars ski is just a different kind of Star than Shepherd. She has to work hard.

Shepherd has never had to work hard in her life...and that is part of her allure.

R5 She fucked Elaine May?

Cybill was never a top model. She told a story once of a top model scout telling her that her modeling career would always be limited because of her “potato Irish nose”.

R11 Christine could get a job as a dog food model.

Christine is rather homely. I doubt she could sell dogfood. The dogs would turn it away.

R11 She was on multiple magazine covers (like, seven Glamour covers in one year, or something). She also did a TON of ads, in addition to fashion.

If you do not know Cybill Shepherd was a top model, you do not know that era.

R11 She must've been humblebragging.

Does her pussy stink?

R11 had better back the FUCK away from this RIDICULOUS contention that Shepherd wasn’t a top model, and I mean right the FUCK now!

She was so pretty, I named my daughter after her Moonlighting character

I will say Shepherd has not been stellar in every single thing she’s done....like an Emma Thompson or Vanessa Redgrave or Jane Fonda would be.

But she was a goddess. Movies need them. And with the right director, Shepherd was very good.

As Pauline Karl said, “This is no deadbeat actress.”

She can even sing

They are both different types of actresses in different genres. Cut the hate. But, if its depth in drama, Christine hands down.

I was a teen in the 1970’s. I remember Gia Carangi, Cheryl Tiegs (THE model of that decade), Rene Russo, Beverly Johnson, Margaux Hemingway, Dayle Haddon, Rosie Vela, Iman, and Christie Brinkley.

You are looking for her modeling work in the wrong era, dumbsss. She was cast in her first film in 1970, having become bored with modeling.

Her era as a model was the late 1960s. She hit it big immediately, never stopped working, and was discovered on a magazine cover after just a few VERY lucrative years.

The cover that caught Peter Bagdonavich’s attention for THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, while he was in a checkout line.

Well r25, unlike you, I’m not older than dirt.

From what I've read about Baranski over the years (especially the way she instructed Juliana Margulies to treat fans), my esteem for her has gone way down.

I like Cybill. She's always refreshingly honest.

Cybill is the one who had the reputation for being a twatsmack from her days on Moonlighting. Christine seems like she set out to upstage Cybill almost from the beginning. It's a pity since the on-screen chemistry between all of the actors on that show was superb. They were better together then, than either of them has been alone, since the show ended.

R29 Christine really is a cunt for that. She has always been a one note wonder as an actress.

R30 Even Dede?

Cybill Shepherd is painful to listen to as a singer. She's a serviceable actress and was indisputably a top model in her time.

It sounds like she AND Willis were badly behaved on the Moonlighting set. Actually it sounds like that whole production was a big chaotic mess.

Her beauty was stellar. I was a teen in the late 60s, and she was everywhere on magazine covers. She was a good actress. But even before she got the reputation for being arrogant on 'Moonlighting' and her own show, she and Bogdanovich were so insufferably arrogant in Hollywood that her reputation there was poisoned. She admits that in her book.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Moonlighting should have been on cable. It would have thrived under today's production model.

[quote]R28 Well [R25], unlike you, I’m not older than dirt.

So, you’re saying you never read a book, or watched an interview?

Everything in your life is based only on what happened before your very eyes?

She doesn't have much range, but is usually fun to watch. She hasn't chosen a good script in decades though.

I like both actresses. It is a shame they were unable to get along.

Shepherd has usually seemed a little grating to me off screen, as she’s one of those people who seems to think they’re smarter than they are. But you know, there are worse traits one can have.

In this clip she talks about her early decision to carry herself with (perhaps uncalled for) confidence. It’s sort of a “fake it till you make it” armor.

[quote]Shepherd has never had to work hard in her life

Disagree. Her career was in the shitter in the early 80's. She was reduced to doing dinner theater shows with Joey Bishop. When she called Sue Mengers for advice, Sue basically told her to forget coming back to Hollywood because she had been out of the A list for so long. That being said, she went back and and got a job on a TV show with Sam Shepherd for a thousand dollars an episode, which was as low a salary as you could get. But she persisted and several years later got cast on Moonlighting, which gave her a huge comeback.

R41 Oprah has said that Cybill was the only celebrity she has interviewed whom she felt told the truth about what it means to be a beauty in Hollywood.

R14/R19, Glamour and the ads you are referring to do not a top model make.

For some reason, I've always liked her. She seems blunt, but she's honestly not a very good comedienne. She always does that annoying Jimmy Fallon thing where she lands the punchline and then starts smiling, laughing at the fact that the audience laughed. She worked best on Cybill as the straight man to Baranski's Patsy Stone ripoff.

She's not a great singer and never will be. She has the lightest, airiest little voice imaginable lie she's trying to be a soprano, but doesn't have the range or vocal power to pull it off. Maybe she's better suited to lower keys and songs. I remember she was going to do a production of Hello, Dolly in North Carolina about a decade ago and dropped out a few weeks before. I can't even imagine her in that role, but I always wished she would have gone through with it just to see how it would be.

She's no Martha Stewart.

Cybill is from Memphis.

I have been to Memphis.

Kathy Bates is from Memphis too.

Have you been to Memphis?

Elvis Presley lived in Memphis but he was not from there.

[quote]R43 Glamour and the ads you are referring to do not a top model make. —Learn the difference between high fashion and commercial

High fashion editorial is actually at the lower paying end of a model’s assignments. Models do fashion for prestige or because they have a relationship with a specific photographer, but ads are what pay the bills.

Shepherd was never thin-thin; she had boobs and hips and shoulders. Some sample sized clothing didn’t fit her, so fashion wasn’t her main focus (though she did it.) But when editors needed a beautiful face for a cover or beauty spot, or gorgeous hair, they flipped for her.

Basically, she looked how every American woman wanted to look. And she made a fortune modeling.

She was undeniably beautiful and I only knew her in her later 80's stage as a sex symbol. For most of us on DL, her modeling days were over well before we were born - but as a child born right at the decade change from the 70's to 80's, Cybill was one of the first huge TV stars that I remember (along with Dallas, Knots Landing, etc. stars). My parents were obsessed with Moonlighting and while I was a little young to "get it" - I enjoyed watching the show with them (even as a little guy they never cared when I went to bed). My father told me what a huge sex symbol Cybill was when he was kid and by the mid 80's she was HUGE yet again. Bruce's career just blew up after that show and looking back, I somewhat feel bad for Cybill. It must have been hard being the star that was left behind. That said, she had a great run for decades - modeling and acting.

Not a great singer, but I do get a kick out of her version of this song.

I've been to her house. And she is very funny and great to be around.

From what I was told by friends who worked on Moonlighting, Bruce Willis was the pain in the ass (I have stories), not Cybill.

She’s stunnongly beautiful and was an okay actress. She’s seems like she’d be completely crazy but a lot of fun when she’s not being too nuts.

[bold][italic]Be sure...sure as Kotex napkins with Soft-Impressions.

The crew speaks.

I think that interview says a lot. I've often wondered if Cybill got a bad deal. Then I see that clip at the Oscar where she names her then-lover's films instead of the actual nominees and I want to kick her right in the cunt. What a dumb idea.

Am I missing something? Bulbous nose, unshapely lips, and otherwise plain features. Her eyes have a Manson girl-like stare.

^^^Low cheekbones. Commercial model. Every woman. Not a great beauty by any decade's standards.

[quote]The cover that caught Peter Bagdonavich’s attention for THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, while he was in a checkout line

It's even worse than that -- it caught the attention of Peter Bogdonavich's wife, Polly Platt, and SHE brought the magazine to his attention. Platt's movie Irreconcilable Differences tells the story of the Polly/Peter/Cybill triangle, and how Cybill pretended to be so grateful and loving to Polly after being taken under her wing. Polly had no clue what was going on until Peter smacked her in the face with the news that he'd fallen in love with Cybill and wanted a divorce.

Didn't she fuck Elvis ?

R58 Cybil on Elvis:

[quote]r57 It's even worse than that -- it caught the attention of Peter Bogdonavich's wife, Polly Platt, and SHE brought the magazine to his attention

Polly got back at Cybill at the end of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. The starlet wanted to keep the heart shaped locket she wore in the film as a souvenir, and Polly, who was the production designer, said, “Soooooorrrrryyyyyy....NO!”

Cybil was a willing slut.

Was Cybill considered for Sibyl?

Baranksi can slay with a one liner like nobody except Maggie Smith. She was getting all the laughs on Cybill, so Cybill had to instruct the writers to give her the zingers. And then she couldn't deliver. One of the reasons Cybill didn't last as long as it could have.

I like that Henry James film she did with Bogdonavich but she is very odd in it.

Cybill also did one of the Law & Orders playing a racist parody of Paula Deen who "accidentally" kills a young black man and she was really quite good.

One of the reviews of "At Long Last Love" said "She dances with bovine splendor."

[quote]R55 Am I missing something?

Why, yes. Yes, you are.

In your defense, if you’re gay....her looks are particularly appealing to straight American men. She’s blonde, healthy, built...beautiful, yet in a sweet-sour way that’s both approachable and a little bossy.

Even DeNiro wanted her, and he almost exclusively dates black women.

[bold]PUSSY!!!!![/bold]

[quote]R63 One of the reviews of "At Long Last Love" said "She dances with bovine splendor."

That and DAISY MILLER really made the press turn on her and Bogdanovich.

She’s not really specifically bad in either of them, though. It seems to me the films are just weak and poorly conceived.

I met her at a book signing several years ago — was really struck just how much more beautiful in person she is than in photographs. All the queens in line were buzzing about how photos didn’t do her justice. I told her how cool it was that she worked with the legendary Elaine May, and that seemed to please her.

She’s publicly been on the right side of gay rights, as well (in addition to advocating for feminist issues)...and that’s important.

She’s a drunk and an idiot. Interviewed her for DVD.

She looks incredibly lovely in this clip (after the Carol Burnett part).

She’s also seems very sexy. You just know she’s one of those people who’ll do anything in bed : )

[quote]R69 She’s a drunk and an idiot. Interviewed her for DVD.

Well that’s informative (not).

What happened, specifically?

Yes, R69 — details, please!

Another bump for Cybill tea.

She gives you all her dirt for free!

She must be pissed and bitter that both of her TV series made huge stars out of other people.

Well, probably. Glenn Gordon Caron said she had a tendency toward sadness...at least when they worked together.

[quote] Christine Barianski is the ugliest Polock I've ever seen

You have neither eyes nor taste.

About the funniest piece of tabloid gossip I ever read (it MUST have been fake) is that on the CYBILL set, Baranski would imperiously clap her hands between takes (or whenever) and a wardrobe assistant would scurry over and reach under her skirt and hike up her pantyhose.

This would supposedly happen over and over throughout the day.

She has learned how to forgive.

Annette Benning’s character in American Beauty is based on her.

Interesting.

Alan Ball was a huge cunt about her in his EmmyTV Legends piece

I think some of the men she’s worked with are down on her because she’s ballsy and outspoken.

That still doesn’t endear actresses to male execs/writers/etc.

Bruce Willis was a drunk and an ego maniac, but he was “one of the boys,” so it was all fine.

The first season of Moonlighting was great. The rest of it sucked. A high school classmate (a year behind me) was her assistant for awhile. She was a holy terror.

Didn’t Sally Field do her BIOPIC?

I forgot to sign.

I miss the ozone layer

Dinner theater with Joey Bishop. I'm still laughing at that. He must have been cadaverous by then. Did dosmeone do stunt casting with them--like Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf in the round.

Perhaps some brilliant writer can draft the pilot episode of a sitcom starring Shepherd and Brendad Ickson.

R88 Much worse - The Seven Year Itch at the Windmill Dinner Theater in Houston. (Saturday late show at 11.)

Cybill Shepherd can’t act and can’t sing, though she has tried to do both professionally.

Her reputation as a cunt goes back way before her TV show, even before Moonlighting.

She's a talentless cunt, who got lucky.

Why was the ex-husband on her sitcom so ugly? Not at all realistic

Aging is a bitch. I don't remember being all that impressed back in her day, she had such a commercial catalog look, but her photos in this thread are very pretty. She had a fresh, girl-next-door look. It doesn't seem she was very lucky in love.

R94 Funny. Alan Ball goes on about how vain she was yet... Does she not have the money for fillers and surgery?

Maybe she doesn’t want to have work done, r95. Not everyone does.

Ever since I heard that Annette Bening's character was based on Cybill in American Beauty, that character has made more sense to me. Women like that are big in the south.

[quote]R63 I like that Henry James film she did with Bogdonavich but she is very odd in it.

Barry Brown, the male star of that, killed himself at age 27.

I don’t know why. Or how.

R95 she's 68 years old. Looks pretty normal and healthy for someone of that age who hasn't turned themselves into a freak of nature via dozens of plastic surgeries.

I agree she still looks good for her age. Very natural, it is refreshing.

She had spoiled girl obnoxious personality disorder, but I kind of dig her. She is ballsy and honest and no wallflower. I think her lack of cosmetic surgery speaks to her character. She enjoyed looking good, was a bit conceited but not particularly vain. She did speak honestly about the gift of her good looks. (and her struggles with co stars) Michelle Pfeiffer has done the same and she comes off much worse. Like being beautiful is such a burden. Michelle's spectacular beauty no doubt hurt her career, Cybil's small town beauty pageant good looks gave her one.

She's pretty, but I never got her appeal. She's a cypher onscreen. But I'm not a straight man, so.., please more stories of her cuntiness.

None of the stories I've heard from "Cybill" seem particularly bad tbh. As the lead, of course, she is going to have a say in character and script development. Christine is not leading lady material.

Where is this small town she's from, r102?

Someone posted on DL a while ago about approaching Baranski in Tower Records (where they worked, so they were used to dealing with celebs making in-store appearances there) and telling her how much he admired her work. She replied in a sing-song voice, “That’s my job!” That story and Julianna Margulies’s Baranski story reveal her to be a cunt of the highest order.

r93 Yes, good-looking women only date and marry good-looking men.

Cybil loves to tell the story how Elvis would eat everything EXCEPT her pusssy!

Cybill in At Long Last Love..........

She’s fairly perfect looking, for her type.

You can’t please everyone.

r73=Moron

"Cybill Shepherd Does It ... to Cole Porter"

The New Yorker favorably reappraised AT LONG LAST LOVE this year:

[quote]Which is to say that “At Long Last Love” is a lavish feast of performance; for that matter, like many great movies, it defines a mode of performance. Shepherd, one of the great (and grossly underrated) comedic performers of the era, seemingly defines the notion of movie charisma in terms of a wink, a glance, a move, a step, an inflection that seems like the total and personal reinvention of the utterly familiar. Kahn, a true trouper, plays one with a hearty and lived-in flair—and so does the singer-songwriter Del Prete, who takes the unctuousness out of the stereotype of the slick Continental, and Brennan, who takes the vulgarity out of the archetype of the fast-talking, hard-nosed maid (and replaces it with modern erotic frankness). There’s also the reminiscent performance by Mildred Natwick, as Mike’s mother, Mabel; in John Ford’s “The Quiet Man,” she memorably played a sharp-witted eminence, and does so here as well. And Reynolds—he’s gleefully game. His singing is approximate, often closer to patter, and his dancing is a half-beat from the elephantine, and he’s well aware throughout that his “A” is for effort—he seems to be watching himself keep up, and to do so with a sense of wonder that’s both in keeping with Mike’s jovial character and that bursts infectiously through the screen.

Baranski always seemed like a major bitch. Cybill seems like she would be more fun.

You call that singing, Cybill???

Wow, that “New Yorker” reassessment of “At Long Last Love” is really something, R113, thanks for sharing. I saw the film in the 90s on Cinemax and thought it richly deserved its wretched reputation. I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to try to revisit it.

And I’m Team Cybill over bloodless Team Baranski any day!

At Long Last Love is still pure shit, but I can't say the performers are truly to blame. It's just a dull story and the staging is equally dull. When Madeline Kahn can't wring any laughs out of your script, it's not worth making.

Bogdonovich reedited At Long Last Love for DVD release, and the new cut is supposedly better.

When Madeline and Eileen Brennan come off bad in a musical, something is VERY wrong.

In Irreconcilable Differences I love when Shelley/Polly tells Ryan/Peter that she knew what he was going for in his opus flop (see r109 ). Because you can see what he was going for in ALLL. So many things don't work. It should have been shot in black and white. That might have lessened the effect of his gimmick of filming the musical numbers period-style without a pre-recorded soundtrack. Wasn't it Cybill's idea after he gave her a Cole Porter coffee table book? There's NO way she could ever pull off a singing Carole Lombard role. She tries so hard to be a breezy '30s Hitchcock heroine in The Lady Vanishes....

I find this lady’s reviews [italic](Musical Theater Hell)[/italic] funny.

In this segment, she renames the movie AT LONG LAST OVER.

Did Cybill and Alicia Witt fight on the set as well?

I don’t know that they fought, but CS wrote that AW had an obnoxious personality. (It happened to work well for the role, so they hired her anyway.)

I know that Alicia is supposed to be a genius and does not suffer fools.

She’s never really done much of note, though...beyond that teen horror film she did long ago.

I mean she still works, but not in super great stuff.

Maybe it’s the roles she’s played, but Alicia Witt has always seemed dour and humorless to me.

Alicia Witt is the poor man's Lauren Ambrose.

Alicia Witt always has come across as annoyingly hipper-than-thou.

Both Lauren and Alicia front bands.

I thought it was well known that Glen Gordon Caron was the asshole on Moonlighting, and ultimately he and Willis ganged up on Shepherd. A Boys Club against the uppity beautiful woman. Now that I think about it they were so close, wonder if they were lovers (Caron and Willis).

Sharon Stone was so great in Irreconcilable Differences.

[quote]R130 Glen Gordon Caron was the asshole on Moonlighting, and ultimately he and Willis ganged up on Shepherd. A Boys Club against the uppity beautiful woman.

Caron immediately identified with Willis when he first came in to read for the part, and insisted he be cast.

They were two (sleazy) peas in a pod.

Barry Brown's sister Marilyn killed herself nearly 20 years after Barry committed suicide, R98. Sounds as though mental illness didn't just run in that family; it galloped.

r133 oh my

Did any of you DL folks see the TV movie “Memphis” from 1992? Shepherd, the late great JE Freeman and “Crimes of Passion” hottie John Laughlin play three lowlifes who kidnap the grandson of a wealthy black businessman in the late-1950s. The film is excellent, and Shepherd is terrific.

she was pretty of course, but by today's standards young Cybill would be maybe doing catalogue work: wide face, bad nose, dull as dishwater

Loved her in Moonlighting!

Now that Cybill has lost her beauty, she'll have to fall back on her talent.

Or maybe it's time for her to retire.

Shepherd was one of the very first folks I remember speaking out against Woody Allen, albeit in her typically irreverent way. When the Woody-Mia scandal first hit, Shepherd was asked about it, since she’d worked with them both in the excellent “Alice” a couple of years earlier. Shepherd said that if her partner and begun a relationship with her daughter, she’d have shot him in the balls!

All you have to do is read a chapter of [italic]Cybill Disobedience[/italic] to see what a resentful, scheming, narcissistic, and insufferable bitch Cybill Shepherd is.

She deserves every bit of her reputation.

Cybill's book had some fun trivia about casting. Paula Poundstone was Cybill's choice for Marianne. Carsey-Werner wanted Sally Kellerman (two blondes?). Baranski was first in line for Jane Curtin's role on 3rd Rock. And John Lithgow was among those who turned down appearing as Dr. Dick (he also was classy enough to send an apology note, insisting he wouldn't turn around and appear on Friends).

I could never understand how Shepherd saw Paula Poundstone for Mary Ann.

Cybill is an icon. Love her.

Cybill Shepherd seems like the ungrateful one. They bring on a recognized comic actress to bolster her show and then she treated her like crap for getting the laughs she was hired to get.

I did, r135, and she wasn’t.

R136 I liked the homogenous standards of beauty then much better. It’s ridiculous some of the celebrities that pass as “beautiful” today.

I agree that the young Cybil was good looking, but not memorable enough to be a beauty.

She was generically good-looking.

Cybill falls in that same category as Kirsten Dunst -- attractive because she's a blonde?

R148 really disagree on both - I think Kaley Cuoco epitomizes that category - and Suzanne Somers back in the day.

Kaley's definitely the poster child for that trend. Regarding Paula Poundstone as Mary Ann, I think it was the idea of having someone less conventionally attractive by her side that appealed to Cybill.

She and Ellen Burstyn were wonderful as the mother and daughter in LAST PICTURE SHOW. I've known those women and they portray them beautifully and truthfully.

I think Cybill saying she wanted Paula Poundstone for the role is pure bull and purely intended as shade towards Christine. Dustin Hoffman pulled the same thing when he went around telling interviewers he had wanted Susan Sarandon for M’s role in Kramer vs Kramer.

I liked “Memphis”, and thought the whole cast was very good!

Cybill has been pretty good in some stuff and pretty awful in other stuff. In comedy, she works best as the straight man, which is actually very rare to find and very hard to do. They never get the props for what they do, because it's not as showy as slipping on banana peels and flying into furniture. Think of Jason Bateman or Johnny Galecki. They're both brilliant at the dry, straight man thing and they let everyone else around them act foolish. Cybill should have embraced this skill and the writers would have made her look good.

She couldn't handle the fact that Baranski's kooky drunk character was walking away with the show and she had the writers give her more schtick to do, which she was awful at and she always looked like someone's aunt in a community theatre play when she tried. It was embarrassing.

Look at Will and Grace - you don't see Eric McCormack and Debra Messing complaining that Sean Hayes and Megan Mulally walked away with the show. They were hired to the the straight men to the two clowns. If everyone was a clown, it would be shrill city. You have to have someone who grounds the comedy. Cybill just couldn't stand it.

LOL! It's so true about the community theatre aunt thing. Every time Cybill would be given a more comic scene, it was almost like she was winking to the audience and could barely contain her own laughter as if she was saying "man, aren't I a hoot?" Very unattractive. Comedy works best when you don't play the humor. It has to be dead serious. The winking, tongue in cheek stuff usually falls flat.

Excellent analyses, R154 and R155!

Chuck Loree (sp?) can't get along with pretty much anyone. Cybill, Roseanne- does he attractive the crazies?

R157 you forgot me!!!

To all my haters!

R147 - Cybill was more than just generically attractive. She had an unusual look and it worked for her.

I had been watching episodes of Cybill a few months ago and I echo everything everyone else has said. You can tell that Cybill felt threatened by Christine Baranski. And who wouldn't? The woman could get laughs just reading names from the phone book. Cybill's idea to try to out funny Baranski was embarrassing.

I know Christine Baranski is very talented but i just can't stand her face. It's one of those celebrities i detest without a real reason.

Cybill Shepherd was perfectly cast in Elaine May’s “The Heartbreak Kid” but she wrote in her book that May and Neil Simon originally cast a different, brunette actress the role of Kelly. It was important to them that her Minnesota WASP character to be blonde, so the actress’s hair was bleached — after which it fell out. May Saw Shepherd on “The Tonight Show” and she ended up inheriting the role. Have wondered who was originally cast.

Thanks for bumping this thread.

It just reminded me to add her to the “Celebrities who were inexplicably/ubiquitously popular, and not deserving of their fame” thread. 👍

I saw ALLL at Radio City when it opened. I saw it there a few weeks later and saw it had been cut during this run. Why I have no idea. The reviews were in and word of mouth was in. It didn't make the film better it made it worse.

It wasn't very good but it had it had its pleasures with its excellent supporting cast. It was also the most beautiful first run film I saw on the screen at Radio City in the 70s and that alone was a great pleasure especially the end which had a grace which reminded me of Lubitsch. In the frame of that curved proscenium with its scalloped gold curtain it made a very lovely image.

The most recent cut of the film was not done by Bogdanovich but by a film editor who liked the movie and thought he could edit a better film for TV showings. He didn't know Bogdanovitch and didn't ask permission. What he did was illegal as the director had the right to the final cut. Bogdanovich never knew or met the guy but said his version was better and that's how he had it released on bluray.

I’m really surprised “At Long Last Love” played a few weeks at Radio City, R165. The reviews and word of mouth were so scathing, I didn’t think it lasted long (no pun intended) in any theatres.

I'm currently watching "Cybill" on Amazon Prime and just came across this thread. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking it was so funny (something about a cell phone going off during a period-piece play making me laugh comes to memory). I actually like Shepherd a lot in the show. I personally find Baranski's character rather dull after being pummeled with Karen Walker, Lucile Bluth, Patsy Stone, etc.. The drunk rich woman side-kick is kinda played out. Although Baranski does have some funny lines. R106, I remember reading that post about Baranski too. I've always admired her and was thoroughly disappointed to read that, to the point of actually now porting something of a grudge against her (granted, I've never met her and likely wont). It's interesting how something so little can really adjust your thinking.

I've been watching it too, r167. Well, some of it. It really doesn't hold up AT ALL.

Have to agree, R168, I had fond memories of “Cybill” from its network airings, but revisiting it on Amazon, I don’t feel that it holds up well. Still some laughs, but it was a mistake to change Shepherd’s character (reportedly at her insistence) from a wry observer to more zany like Baranski.

I don’t think she was very attractive when young, thin lips, bulging eyes, peasant nose. I guess for some people, blonde equals attractive, no matter what.

Peasant nose? What does that mean exactly?

I always thought her looks were overrated. Flat voice too.

Who???????

She really doesn't have a very expressive voice. And that goes for her singing, too. It's always bordering on monotone. I'm genuinely surprised she's still working after all these years. Gotta give the ol' gal props for surviving this long with so little talent.

Never could see what the deal was with her, looks-wise or any-wise. I guess like Ali MacGraw, she could't help coming off as shallow and snooty....but she did.