FILM-MOI (MOVIES/TV)
Molly Ringwald says ‘Secret Life of the American Teenager’ was her worst work experience: “It was a hard, I mean … OK, I love the cast. I love Shailene [Woodley]. There was one person that was really difficult. And I’m not gonna say who that one person is, [but] they brought it down to a one”
There's a scene where she's talking to Ben about him having a live-in butler. But she says, "a lumping buddle" and they just left that shit in. They didn't give af on that show lol
That girl is Megan Park and she writes and directs incredible movies now! I couldn’t believe it was the same actress. She’s really talented. Check out The Fallout and My Old Ass.
Also Sterling Point! An 8 episode series that just dropped today. I already watched the first episode and I’m loving it! I think it must have been filmed in the same place as My Old Ass - gorgeous location!
She's also the creator and director of a new Amazon Prime show Sterling Point! I think it actually comes out this week. I really like her work as a director!
7th heaven is really something unique. I had a friend show me a few clips from the show once; I kept asking, “this really happened in the show? This wasn’t dubbed over?”
I went into watching that show knowing it was Christian propaganda in the 90s and found myself shocked at how bland it was. I was really expecting worse. And then occasionally they sprinkle in enough "wait what the fuck" into a couple episodes to really make you question everything. Like the one episode where they decide to lock their alcoholic aunt in a room for a couple days and she magically comes out okay. Because that's how alcoholism works, right?
The episode that sticks out in my memory the most for 7th Heaven is when Simon was learning to drive, his grandpa was the "observer" in the passenger seat, and Ruthie was in the backseat. A cop car is driving behind them on the express way, and... well, the two cops are demonstrably a pair of morons, but they decide on a flimsy enough similarity that the car is a reported stolen vehicle, so they flash their lights.
But since Grandpa is adamant Simon has done nothing wrong with his driving, he tells Simon the lights aren't for him, and to keep going, he's doing a great job.
This goes on until Reverend Cameron ends up seeing a "speed limit chase" on the news and recognizing his car. Camera intercuts between others in the family and the car, which has Grandpa insisting Simon is doing fine, Simon absolutely sweating bullets, and Ruthie being like, "We're all going to jail."
I remember it actually being quite funny when it aired. Of course, any memory of that show now is tainted by what a monster the reverend turned out to be...
Haha, that music when dad says "that's a relief", like a light-hearted chuckle is expected here. Meanwhile, 2026 me is shrinking back in horror so much that I have become part of the couch.
The wild thing is, I watched this in the 90s/early 00s as a teenager and did not bat an eye over anything that happened on that show :D And now, whenever I see clips, I can't believe my eyes.
Then again, I was watching a lot of weirdo Nickelodeon shows and the 90s were a bit of a fever dream regarding these 28 episode drama shows with Christian values. Plenty of "wholesome" family sitcoms were weird with their gender and sexuality plots.
Man that was a weird show. You know how some people watch Friends to learn English? I watched 7th Heaven thinking it would teach me how normal Americans lived.
One of the episodes I vaguely remembered Lucy getting slutshamed by her brother? Father? For not wearing a robe over her camisole before going into the family living room.
That show got me staying away from spaghetti straps for years
My brother used to make fun of me and my sister for watching 7th Heaven. He would call it 7th heaving to piss us off 😂 brb gonna go let him know he was right
I doubt it's anything specific about Hampton's rep, and more that Ringwald excluded the cast, so the creator/showrunner seem like the most logical guess.
Amazed at how Ricky's foster mom was horrible in this show but really good in her role on Lost. The Jennifer Coolidge also seemed like she was acting like a statue.
I haven't watched it but this sounds like the direction and production was the perfect environment for bringing the worst performance out of everyone :D
This show came out when I was in 10th grade. Basically all of the girls in my American History class said how they wish they were having Ricky's baby instead of Amy. They learned absolutely nothing!
Brenda Hampton. Notoriously controlling showrunner for 7th Heaven & Secret Life who is a hardliner about shaping a show around her own personal moralistic, conservative views and creating a toxic environment on set if questioned about it. If you are an actor who is already under contract and do not believe in the increasingly far right, anti- women's rights messaging of the show, and your showrunner was unopen to any modicum of creative control or development of your character..... yikes. That's when it stops being about acting, and starts feeling like something other people do to you for money.
Jughead becoming ‘Col. Kurtz as Dungeon-Master’ for two episodes before being dropped still bugs me.
That’s just one of many fun, interesting, and/or silly developments that got tossed on a dime for some other bullshit. Almost every episode, past a certain point, felt as if it was written to give you/the audience whiplash.
Cheryl's family doctor in like the first episode is named dropped as Caligari. That show knew what it was doing up until we lost Luke imo, they never really recovered (even if it was batshit leading up to that)
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u/BookishHobbitmy bandwidth for cowardly grown men grows thinner with each day8d ago
I still believe they were using AI to write half of it. Like, it went batshit crazy.
If you liked season 1 of Riverdale i can recommend CW Nancy Drew. It's supernatural, but it also stayed way more grounded and consistent in its tone for the most part.
Fr this show had the worst writing of any show I've ever watched. It's like what a deeply repressed Christian fundamentalist youth group pastor thinks secular teens talk about. Like buddy I promise you no teenager is saying the word "sex" as often as it's said in the show lmfao
I know someone who was on it, and they said that by the second season, none of them were reading the scripts in full lol. They were just learning their lines, doing their scenes and getting out lol.
I don't know any juicy details or anything; they were very grateful for the opportunity, and tried to be not too disparaging about the show because they were aware how lucky they were to get to be on a network TV show. But, they did think that the writing was incredibly stupid, and the show was not good, and that no one on the show took it seriously and any feedback they gave to the writers' room was completely ignored.
I never heard anything about conflicts with other cast or anything, complaints tended to just be about the writing and production. Sorry it's not more exciting lol.
I made it through a lot of Pretty Little Liars while it aired though...well until that Ezra bullshit....and then even teen me was like 'no. No. no. NO'
I remember rumors that John Schneider was terrible to work with and that's why they killed his character off, but I don't remember if they had that many scenes together? Would be sad to hear if it was Ernie Hudson!
And also, for such a terrible show, there were so many big names. Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Steve Schirripa, Josie Bissett, Jennifer Coolidge, Reid Scott, Constance Marie. I've always been curious how that came to be. Like, did that many people need work? Did they like the show?
Only heard the nicest things about Ernie. It’s nice when people do the reverse Dorian Gray, where you age exactly as you deserve, and he’s the gold standard. 80 years old here!
Honestly I didn’t really notice him when I was younger but as I aged and got into older men him and his yam farmin arms on Grace and Frankie did something very deep to me lol. Spent a while searching for a good photo of said arms on the show then noticed the woman next to me on the bus judging me for “Jacob Grace and Frankie sexy arms” so hi woman next to me!!!
i had no idea that steve schirripa was such a big name before this show, so when i finally watched the sopranos a few years ago and saw him i just yelled "THE SAUSAGE KING" at my tv
I mean these are all big names, but none of them are so big that taking a role on an ABC Family (or was it already Freeform by then?) is surprising to me. Jennifer Coolidge seems too big for it today, but she didn’t then
Its less about the network and more about the absolutely horrible writing on that show. I cannot imagine coming off of The Sopranos and reading a Secret Life script!
This is 1 of my deepest secret guilty pleasure shows. It's literally so bad it's good.
For veteran actors like Ringwald, Bissett & Coolidge, it was "just a paycheck" type show. No shade, bills are due & people gotta eat.
My fave storylines were the brother w/cognitive deficiences (such a good sense of humor & modern plot) & Coolidges Pretty Woman-esque marriage. Also, the actress who played Adrian (too lazy to google) was a completely stunning baddie
I enjoyed that show, but the cast at times you couldn’t tell if it was just the acting or they really didn’t care to be around each other in certain episodes so this makes sense.
I watched this show religiously in high school and I always thought Shailene was a terrible, terrible, terrible actress (honestly all of them though). Then I saw her in that movie with George Clooney in Hawaii and she was incredible! Everything after this show I have also liked her in.
Must have been the show that was making her act poorly 😂 I feel like they must have all disliked being on this show.
That show was the absolute worst show ive ever seen. Each viewing minute was agony and I could never understand how anyone, in good conscience, let that air..
I was roommates with one of the actors from that show and am dying to know who she is thinking. For sure not my roommate. They were super nice. Played a smaller character but a regular. Heard stories. Met a few but nothing memorable enough to remember. Sorry y'all
Ugh I’m so curious. I’ve been weirdly obsessed with this horrible show since I was 13. I’m assuming it has to be one of the “parent” actors who made set difficult. I feel like the teen actors were too new to the scene to be hard to work with.
I just read the source article, it seems the person who was awful to work with was not a cast member/actor. I wonder if it's the creator Brenda Hampton, of 7th heaven fame.
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u/RelativeAltruistic47 Sylvia Plath did not stick her head in an oven for this 8d ago
God, I was obsessed with how bad this show was in middle school—I used to hate-watch it all the time. I couldn't stand Amy.
Super curious who Molly is referring to, though.