Why did they push Ann Romano as sexy??

Years ago, someone on DL said that she looked as if she smelled like dirty pantyhose.

She is unsexy

Aw, come on, OP. You know Ann's a knockout.

Some casting director got her confused with Nancy Dussault.

That floppy titted mushroom head was supposed to be sexy? I also question why they wrote her as being some feisty Italian. She looked Irish to me.

Maybe I was too young to pick up on it, but I don't recall them marketing her as sexy.

Maybe I was too young to pick up on it, but I don't recall them marketing her as sexy.

I assumed Ann Romano was just some frau who married an Italian that she drove to an early grave.

Nope, R8, her *maiden* name was Romano. Even weirder, her ex-husband, played by Joseph Campanella (obviously Italian-American) was named Ed Cooper and was *not* supposed to be Italian.

How many Italians live in Logansport, Indiana (Ann and the girls' hometown), anyway? I'm guessing zero.

She was never pushed as sexy. She was just one of those multi-talented broads like Linda Lavin that they foisted off on the public in sitcoms in the 70s/80s. Then they would use those shows to find any excuse to showcase their versatility as singers and dancers.

I really don't understand the antipathy towards Bonnie Franklin in here. She was a staunch ally of the gay community and performed at fundraisers for AIDS and I remember seeing her at the AIDS Memorial Quilt display on the Mall in Washington, DC. So belittle her as you may but she should be remembered as a good woman who fought with us.

It's DL R11. We love/hate her. She's undoubtedly a very nice woman by all accounts.

Dancer's body. Big dick sucking mouth. Looks like she's be an angry lay.

OP?

SLAP!

SLAP!

SLAP!

HOW DARE YOU?

Sexy? We apparently watched a different series.

I can’t believe I bothered to look this up, R9, but apparently Logansport was once home to automobile engine manufacturers. Specifically, one moved from Chicago to Logansport. Any place in the Midwest that had factories attracted immigrant workers.

So, I’m fantasizing that the Romanos moved from Chicago to Logansport to work. My Ohio hometown has multiple Italian families who moved from Chicago in the 20s and 30s.

Dancer's body? She always looked chunky to me.

What's wrong with you people? She was ONE HOT MAMA!!!!!

Are there any picture of her in a leotard? Did she have nice legs?

You rang?

She’s seems very frau-ish—was she a frau 70s icon?

there is probably a ginger fetish in the straight world as well

Until today, I didn't know shed died. R.I.P

Ann Romano need Prozac among other pharmaceuticals.

It was annoying AF when she would say "Oh my Gaawwwwd"

My childhood memories are of her sinking into that horrible mustard-colored chair

Of course she is sexy. OP are you blind?

Same reason they pushed the hags on GG as voluptuous, older sexy bitches: because it's all fantasy.

The women on Golden Girls were very sexy. Not every man is into bleached siliconed strippers.

Everybody knew I was gay when she paraded around on the set in just a bra and panties. I vomited at the sight.

R24 That was a unattractive cast in general. Even Val B. didn't even look that good early on.

The 70s were an unattractive decade.

She was supposedly a hot divorcee

Perhaps they made her Italian for the same reason they made Sophia and Dorothy Italian. Jewish actors magically often turn Italian in Hollywood.

Perhaps they made her Italian for the same reason they made Sophia and Dorothy Italian. Jewish actors magically often turn Italian in Hollywood.

You remember that, R1? I am SO proud.

She wasn't written as "sexy". But she was written as sexual. In that life isn't over if you're a 35+ woman. And it you have kids, you can still have a life of your own. You can fall in love and pursue relationships. You didn't see many divorcee characters, especially women on TV in those days.

This was after the Farrah Fawcett red bathing suit / nipples poster came out. Women felt more free to display nipples (under clothing).

I can't find a photo, but I do remember Ann Romano being braless, nipples apparent. I do think she was supposed to be a sexy divorced woman.

I like having nice tits.

I like having tits in a nice green polyester sweater.

They tried to strike a balance. If she were too sexy, she wouldn't be relatable to the viewers they were targeting. Did you expect them to hire Fawcett or Susanne Somers?

Why did they push Ann Romano as sexy? A better question to ask might be why did they push Julie Cooper as sex? She was played by the funny looking Mackenzie Phillips; even at her healthiest she was weird looking but they were having hot guys coming after her even when she looked like a rotting corpse due to her cocaine addiction. It was so insane.

Her character had an affair with a married man in a 4 episode arc. They had a lot of arcs on that show especially in the beginning.

An often noted observation on DL is that both ODAAT and Alice would have greatly benefitted by switching lead actresses. Lavin's hangdog wistfulness would have been perfect for Ann. She even looks like an Ann Romano. And Franklin would have been more believable as a perky but desperate waitress with one son.

----

If those tights at R20 went any higher, Bonnie would have needed TWO hairdos.

[quote] She was played by the funny looking Mackenzie Phillips; even at her healthiest she was weird looking but they were having hot guys coming after her even when she looked like a rotting corpse due to her cocaine addiction.

Oh come now. She's always been hot as a pistol, even from an early age!

This is still one of my favorite scenes.

From the obviously choreographed smash/slap combo to Ann managing to act like an even bigger brat than Alex.

She was probably the single most unappealing lead actress on a series, ever. Although Linda Lavin came in a very close second.

R10 I think the more appropriate term is "multi-untalented."

....

[quote] [R10] I think the more appropriate term is "multi-untalented."

"Triple non-threat"?

I imagine she was considered sexy for Indianapolis then and unfortunately, most likely now.

R16: Outside of South Bend and the Gary-Hammond, the xenophobia of Indiana kept out the ethnics. Indianapolis expressly wanted car factories but not immigrants.

Meh.

She’s no Ray Romano.

R32 very true.

Paint me like one of your French girls, David.

That flat chest and no make up! Ugh!

Her boobs always looked droopy and flat in those oversized tops.

She was one of the singularly most unappealing "comedic" actresses ever. How did she ever get the lead in a sitcom? Especially when you think of how much talent there was in the 70s.

Why is there so much dislike for this woman? She was on a sitcom...not cranking out oscar-bait movies.

How did Linda Lavin get so many shows. Right after she got to Hollywood, she was on Barney Miller, Rhoda, Phyllis, etc. And she was ridiculously cast as a femme fatale on both Rhoda and Phyllis.

LOL at Adam in next weeks preview. He's losing it.

R60, was that meant for the Survivor thread?

Bonnie Franklins’ been dead and decomposed for many years now. Just a rotted corpse with some dna left in a casket in the dirt. Y’all flogging a dead fish you can’t seem to get over.

R61 Yes. Had both threads open at once and wasn't paying attention.

Why did she show off that one boob on the magazine cover? It just looked odd. Did she have photo approval of that cover?

[quote]Why did she show off that one boob on the magazine cover?

Because she thought that she was a hot, sexy bitch who gave all the guys instant hard-ons. I bet Bonnie thought that men all over America where beating their meat to that cover.

ALL of the females on ODAAT were depicted on the show as being hot, desirable babes: Bonnie Franklin, MacKenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli. But none of them were particularly great looking Bertinelli was semi-cute, with her little round face and button nose. But Franklin and Phillips were nothing much to look at at all.

MacKenzie Phillips looked like a crack whore.

Oh wait, she basically was a crack whore.

I love our recurrent ODAAT threads! Can we talk some more about the birthday episode?! Pleeeaaase?

It was the '70s -- when US and the world were at their most sexually liberal -- and the show's premise was all about a woman who got married a little too early finally start a new life for herself.

Though she wasn't a sexbomb, she was decent looking for '70s Indianapolis and it was believable that she was open experimentation. She and David Masur were about in each other's league.

I was just thinking about how hideous her apartment was, OP.

The '70s were really a ugly decade. The '50s (Lucy's later Connecticut house, Donna Reed's house) and the '60s (Bewitched, Dick Van Dyke) were all much more appealing.

Dammit, OP, I'm a single mother doing her damn best!

The real question is why they set a sitcom in Indianapolis.

[quote] The real question is why they set a sitcom in Indianapolis.

It was a Norman Lear kitchen-sink sitcom. She was supposed to be reflecting the tide of feminism that was sweeping all of America. And she was an everywoman, kinda implied to be giving up the security of her previous life for better or worse.

In retrospect, it wasn't realistic for a wife not to get the house... and probably not for someone to move from NYC to Indianapolis without any job already set up there.

[quote]I love our recurrent ODAAT threads! Can we talk some more about the birthday episode?! Pleeeaaase?

That was from season two and she turned thirty-six.

So... she must've given birth and gotten married quite young.

The monologue was shameless Emmy-bait, but she never won despite her desperate attempts year after year.

You see, Bonnie rule the roost on ODAAT and was constantly demanding they write in monologues and dramatic meat for Ann.

But Emmy voters NEVER went for it.

36 was ancient then?

Not ancient... but firmly middle-aged. Note how she describes in that episode how being "Over 35" is how she'll appear in a dating personal ad.

Our conceptions of age have changed a lot since, not even too recently.

Consider less than a decade later when a fifty-year Joan Collins was posing for Playboy.

She could not begin a sentence without prefacing it with a "Damnit..." or "Aw..."

What is the birthday episode monologue?

[quote]That floppy titted mushroom head was supposed to be sexy?

FUCK YOU, WITH THE SHARP END OF THE BLADE

When I looked at Bonny I saw a real firecracker. She was a dynamo and a hot red tamale.

[quote]I really don't understand the antipathy towards Bonnie Franklin in here.

Don't you understand that she was 'icky.'

[quote]The 70s were an unattractive decade.

FUCK YOU

She wasn't a likable character and the show was never funny. Yet it somehow managed to run for nine seasons.

It seems totally forgotten now.

People still kinda remember MTM and Maude though they run as long.

[quote]Even Val B. didn't even look that good early on.

Bullshit, she was a-DOOR-a-BUL from the first scene

Also, in the '70s broadcasting restrictions were eased.

Which is what allowed her to say damn, damn, damn every single episode.

[quote]A better question to ask might be why did they push Julie Cooper as sex?

Julie was never portrayed as pretty, she was portrayed as "easy." There were references to her as "Super Cooper."

Boys like easy girls. Julie even had lines saying she was resentful of cute, perky Barbara.

But Julie was probably the first "bad" sitcom kid. Prior to her, every time a sitcom child did something bad, they were led into it by another, like Eddie Haskell. But Julie did the leading into bad things.

Barbara) I'm not on 'the pill,' I just want boys to think I am

Ann) If boys think you're on 'the pill,' then you better be.

Julie and Mack were great. You'd never see someone like that on TV these days. She was a great actress.

Unfortunately for some children, a face slapping just doesn't do the job

Dammit, JonBenet!

Dammit, Burke, I thought I told you to write that ransom note weeks ago!

Because Milwaukee was already spoken for, R72.

Alex grew up, moved to South Bend and was an early bf of Mayor Pete.

I like to imagine.

Interesting that Franklin only had one Emmy nomination and two golden globe nominations for the show. And that was during the back half of the series in the early 80s. Usually a popular sitcom gets more Emmy noms. Even Valerie was able to pull off two golden globe wins for it. Franklin must’ve been really disliked. Like above poster pointed out the acting community saw through her ploys to get an Emmy.

My favorite One Day at a Time opening.

What the hell was Mary Louise Wilson doing on the show and at what point did she show up?? Playing a neighbor??

This got her a Tony Award nomination .

R96 She played Ginny Wroblicki, a divorced cocktail waitress who lived in the same building. She was a character in the second season, I think, and was in the opening credits as a regular.

Rumor was that Bonnie was competitive and jealous and did everything she could to push Wilson out. If that's the case, it worked. Ginny was a one season wonder.

I bet Bonnie's head exploded when she won a Tony decades later.

Mary Louise Wilson was a real talent and a great actress, Bonnie no doubt felt threatened by her.

Val worked her whole life in the entertainment industry and never had a "real" job. I wonder how that affected her personality and outlook. In her early interviews she comes off as very entitled. Like Mack she was a severe drug addict by her own admission.

She is almost sixty now.

Never got her and Eddie Van Halen together. Do they have a fairly amicable relationship now?

[quote] She was one of the singularly most unappealing "comedic" actresses ever. How did she ever get the lead in a sitcom? Especially when you think of how much talent there was in the 70s.

One Day at a Time, like Good Times and All in the Family, was more of a dramedy than a sitcom (they just didn't have a term for it then). The whole point of the show was that the mother and the daughters constantly had friction and fought all the time, and that their lives were made tougher by the fact the father wasn't around.

The series premise undoubtedly appealed to Norman Lear because at the time he was married toa very crazy lady, Fracnes, who fought constantly with their teenage daughter.

Ann Romano was almost never funny and nor was her daughter Julie; Schneider and Barbara (and then later Ginny and Julie's husband Max) delivered what few jokes there were. Bonnie Franklin and Mackenzie Phillips seem to have been cast more for their intensity to deliver the drama than their comic abilities.

Ann had a perfectly good husband who she walked away from to "find herself"

She uprooted their daughters from the home they loved out of pure self interest to drag them to a rundown apt with a janitor who came into their house without knocking. Even handling their mail.

Very bizarre premise that ran nine seasons.

What was up with husband? I didn’t watch enough to know. Was she the stereotypical unsatisfied spouse?

Mary Louise Wilson, Tony Award Winner.

She had the last laugh....good for her!

Wilson had just performed as Tessie Tura in the Lansbury Gypsy which started its US tour in LA. They were obviously impressed but although Wilson was very good on ODAAT, she didn't gel at all with Franklin, onscreen or offscreen. It was not believable that Ginny was Ann's friend.

70s sitcoms were cheaply made. They hired the actors who would work the cheapest. So "hotties" became Gil Gerard, John Ritter and Joyce Dewitt.

70s tv actors who are still alive must be so jealous of what tv actors make today. The salaries back then were peanuts compared to now. Even the supporting actors on network shows make enough bank to be set for life.

R105

Ann felt that Ed was too controlling or something like that.

She wanted to spread her wings.

I like to imagine Ann as sexually ravenous, unsatisfied by the marital activity her beef curtains receive. So off she goes, with her two proxy vulvas in tow, searching for more satisfying adventures.

Mackenzie Phillips was a good actress. She was very believable as teenager Julie: loud and feisty, with a chip on her shoulder.

Two years before ODAAT premiered, Mackenzie was in the movie "American Graffiti" (1973). She was very memorable in that role.

She also had a distinctive look which you'd never see on TV today.

I mentioned before that they could've hired Knots Landing's Claudio Lonow to play Barbara if they wanted a resemblance.

But the balance between the pretty daughter and the interesting one was a nice touch. Realistic.

The early seasons were must see in my house of three teenagers. I grew-up with these laugh/cry sitcoms that were like 24-minute plays, with actors who had stage experience and writers who could bring it.

I can't stand modern sitcoms where everyone stands around trying to look cool and say hilarious things like, "Um, nooo...".

[quote]loud and feisty, with a chip on her shoulder.

Why would she have a chip on her shoulder?

I think they once paired up Greg Evigan with Julie. As a young gayling, he was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen, but couldn't believe he'd be interested in her.

Julie was “easy”

A clip of Mackenzie Phillips in "American Graffiti".

The reboot was on POP last night. Ann's counterpart was jacking off in front of her son. I am not making this up.

^But it wasn't shown, you just saw the before and after. It was presented in quite a humorous way and then led to a discussion about privacy and personal rights.

Especially when Schnieder was the sexy character.

I hated Schneider unsexy

Why was Ann Romano so slap happy? Oh well, I'm sure all those cunts deserved it.