1976 interview with Mackenzie Phillips & Valerie Bertinelli!! [Archive] - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

catlover79

03-20-2011, 06:59 PM

One Day at a Time came on CBS during the 1975-76 TV season. It came out without much fanfare. Suddenly, it just seemed to be there. And before I knew it, I was getting all kinds of mail about the two girls in it. Who were they? What had they done before? The series about a divorced woman and her two teenage daughters had caught the fancy of viewers I realized I had been missing out on something! I began to watch the show. Then I headed for Los Angeles to meet the two girls. Come along - you'll like them!

Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips was sitting calmly at a table drinking coffee when the CBS publicist and I arrived in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel dining room. My first reaction was one of surprise. Mackenzie is much prettier than she appears to be in the role of Julie Cooper. She laughed when I mentioned it. "I just curled my hair," she exclaimed. Her hair was short and curly and looked great.

Mackenzie has several claims to fame. At the age of 17 (she was born November 10, 1959), she is one of the stars of a TV comedy hit. Her father is singer/composer John Phillips, a member of the once-popular singing group The Mamas & The Papas. Way back in her family there is even a skeleton in the closet - or at least a relative with quite a reputation: a notorious gangster of the 1930s named Pretty Boy Floyd.

Mackenzie lives with her aunt and cousin Nancy. Her family is scattered in all directions. "My mother lives in the San Fernando Valley and my brother Jeffrey lives with her," Mackenzie explained. "My father is in London with my stepmother and little brother. My grandmother is here in Los Angeles. My former stepmother Michelle is here. She's about to leave for London to do a film."*

Mackenzie laughed. She wasn't having any trouble keeping track of her family. "We try to keep in touch," she said. "I spoke to my father last week. He doesn't always live in London. He's there now to score a David Bowie film.** He usually lives in Malibu."

"I love my parents dearly," Mackenzie said. "My aunt Rosie is also like a mother to me. She disciplines me when I need it. She is very understanding and very loving."

Mackenzie is in 11th grade at the Hollywood Professional School. She didn't really set out to be an actress. "A group of us at school got together and formed a band," she said. "We started writing songs and rehearsing every day. I was singing lead for the band one night during amateur night at the Troubadour cafe. There was a casting director in the audience. He cast me for a part in the movie American Graffiti. I said, 'OK, I'll do it.' I guess it was after that movie that I realized I wanted to be an actress.

"I've never taken an acting lesson," Mackenzie admitted. "I just have never felt the need to. I'm sure a demanding role will come along, though, that I'll need to be coached for."

So far her most demanding role, Mackenzie said, "was playing Eleanor Roosevelt as a young woman in Eleanor and Franklin on ABC. I played her until she was about 16. Then Jane Alexander played her as an adult. My grandmother told me a lot about Eleanor Roosevelt," Mackenzie added. "I hadn't known much about her except that she was a famous woman."

One Day at a Time was created by Norman Lear.*** Lear and his associates have been responsible for many of TV's biggest hits, ranging from All in the Family and Maude to Good Times, The Jeffersons and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

"When they were casting One Day at a Time, they called my manager," Mackenzie said. "I went in. I didn't read for the part. Norman and I just talked. He asked me what I wanted to do, what my problems were, what I thought about kids of divorced parents, and so on." Nothing was definite, but by the end of that meeting, it was clear that Mackenzie had a good chance of getting the part.

"When I walked out, I was so happy and excited," she exclaimed. "I walked out of Norman's office and down the hall. A water fountain in the hall had been leaking. I slipped and fell FLAT. I got wet and I was very embarrassed, but I didn't care. Norman didn't see it, but I told him about it later.

"Norman is a wonderful man. He's like a father protector. You can go to him with any problem. At first I was frightened of him. He's so important! But the minute I went in, it was like talking to my best friend!"

"Do you find it hard to be in a TV series?" I asked Mackenzie.

"The hardest thing is the schedule," she replied. "One minute you're in school studying art and history, the next you're in the studio working on the show. At first my back hurt and my arms hurt, but now it's easy. It flows. We've become a unit. Learning lines isn't difficult for me."

Mackenzie looked thoughtful. "I've grown with the show," she said. "I've learned a lot about comedy, about people, about the technical side of the business. I've grown within myself. When the show is out of production, I really miss the whole group."

When she's not working, Mackenzie attends her regular high school. "After school, I take my dog to the park," she said. "I also listen to a lot of music during the day. And I run errands for my aunt. I love to drive. I have a 1976 Pontiac Firebird. Its name is Jean Pierre Firebird." She laughed. Her family, she added, also includes "seven crazy cats."

When the show is in production, Mackenzie and Valerie Bertinelli, her young co-star, have a tutor on the set and are required to put in three hours of schooling every day. "We go to school for an hour in the morning," Mackenzie explained. "Then we work until lunchtime. After lunch, we have two more hours of school and then work until 6 PM. Then I go home and collapse - and watch a lot of TV. I like Welcome Back, Kotter and I love Rich Man, Poor Man. I watch TV until quite late at night. I like to go to sleep late."

Mackenzie giggled. "I have two bad habits," she said. "They are smoking and cracking my neck." With that, she showed us how she can crack her neck. "I have two boyfriends," she continued. "Both of them are out of town, so I'm bored."

"What else do you enjoy doing?" I asked her.

"We go to movies. We go out to dinner, or we go dancing or bowling. I love bowling!" she exclaimed. "One time I made 5 strikes in a row!"

Mackenzie likes all kinds of food. "I eat everything!" she said. "I like artichokes. I make real good artichokes. I like fettucini, bread, potatoes...I gain weight sometimes, but I just lost 5 lbs. I'm 5'7" and I weigh 110. But I've grown!" She looked horrified and then smiled. "I put on a pair of jeans and they were too short. I'm still growing! My dad is 6'6" - I'm afraid I'm heading up there! Some of my friends used to call me baboon because my arms are so long!"

Mackenzie grinned. "When I'm working it's like a free-for-all in our house," she said. "We come home and cook what we want. One of my favorites is tomato soup. I LOVE it. I go through stages. During one stage as a kid I loved Spaghetti-O's. I can cook steak. And I make good linguini, chicken curry, and ambrosia. My grandmother has been making a little book since she was a child. She collected the recipes from her mother and grandmother and so on. Now she's passed the book on to me."

Mackenzie enjoys watching sports. "I'm not really athletic," she said, "but I like watching games. I like basketball, then baseball and football. My favorite basketball teams are the Lakers and the Knicks. I go to a lot of Lakers games."

She also likes going to parties. "Not school parties," she explained. "Hollywood parties!" She laughed.

Mackenzie's father is very well known in many circles. I asked Mackenzie how that has affected her life.

"It hasn't really affected my public life," she replied. "In my private life, he's affected me. He got me started singing. For awhile I felt weird when people would say, 'Mackenzie Phillips, daughter of so-and-so...' Then I decided, 'What's wrong with that? He's my father!' People do it less now, but it doesn't bother me when they do."

Mackenzie often gets stopped on the street these days. "Kids stop me a lot and say, 'Aren't you the girl on One Day at a Time?' I think we're really getting to kids. They say we are touching on things they have gone through. Sometimes Valerie and I change our lines a little. The writers don't always know the lingo of kids. We try to make the scripts as realistic as possible."

It was time for our interview to end. Mackenzie excused herself politely and jumped up. She was going to go looking for a house - for herself, her aunt, her cousin, one dog, and "seven crazy cats."

* The movie Michelle was working on was Valentino, which was filmed in England and Spain.

** The David Bowie John scored was The Man Who Fell to Earth.

*** Technically, Whitney Blake and Allan Manings were the creators of One Day at a Time.

Valerie Bertinelli

Valerie Bertinelli plays Barbara Cooper, Julie's younger sister, on One Day at a Time. In real life, Valerie was born April 23, 1960 - making her only five months younger than Mackenzie Phillips.

"When the show started, I was supposed to be 14," Valerie said. "but after we'd been on the air 13 weeks they made me 15 1/2! My sister (played by Mackenzie Phillips) is supposed to be 17."

Valerie and I met for lunch in a flower-filled French restaurant in the San Fernando Valley. Valerie took the surroundings in stride. She listened intently as the waiter rattled off a long list of French specialties. She asked about one of the chicken dishes, and then ordered that.

Valerie lives in Northridge, CA, but she was born in Wilmington, DE. "We left Delaware when I was 8," she told me. "My father is an executive for General Motors. I'm not really sure what he does, but he does something - and it's a good way for me to get my cars!" Valerie smiled.

"It's kind of scary to move when you're 8. All my friends were in Delaware. You have to make a new beginning somewhere else. We moved to Michigan. Once we got there I liked it. We lived a half-mile from a ski resort. My dad taught me to ski when I was 8."

Valerie has an older brother and two younger brothers. "We moved as my dad got higher jobs," she explained. "We moved to Los Angeles, then to Oklahoma, and finally back here to California."

Valerie never considered becoming an actress until the family moved to LA. Even then it came about because she was terribly shy.

"We saw an ad in the newspaper for an acting school," Valerie said. "My father wanted me to try it to get over my shyness. So I started taking once-a-week classes when I was 11. I was scared to death. Whenever I did a report in class I was scared! We had just moved to California and I didn't know anybody. The lady who was my teacher then is my manager now. She thought I had talent and wanted to sign me up."

Valerie agreed to give it a try. "My first audition was for a deodorant commercial," she recalled with a laugh. "My mother took me to the audition. I was so scared! All the girls who were there looked about 3 years older than me. I wondered why they'd want me. I was 12 then. I was crushed after the first interview. I cried all the way home. Several days they called me back. I didn't get the commercial, but being called back helped me from feeling like a complete failure."

She kept going out on auditions, though, and finally landed several commercials. "I got them 3 years ago," Valerie said. "Then I didn't get them anymore. But then we moved to Oklahoma for 3 months - and that did a lot for me. I was getting tired of going out on calls and not getting anything. Going to Oklahoma gave me a rest. We came back early in 1975 - and everything's happened since then. I've gotten five commercials, I did an Apple's Way segment, and so on.

"You have to keep trying. You may go on 100 interviews and not get anything. I always tell myself, 'Well, better luck next time.' I always figure next time I'll do better and get lucky. A lot of it is luck. There are so many talented people around."

Valerie is very close to her family. "My mom kept me going," she admitted. "So did my father. They were not pushing me. It was just, if I wanted to do it, I should do it. My mom drove me to interviews and gave me confidence. I think I'm very lucky to have the family I do. They are really perfect. We get along well. We fight sometimes - we're typical in that way! But my parents are perfect. I really love them."

Her TV family is much different, Valerie acknowledged. "I can't really relate to them because I've not been through a divorce. It's hard for me to imagine, but I do the best I can. The show must be doing a good job, though. The letters we receive all say how real the show is, and how real the family is. I know Norman Lear likes that."

Valerie is a junior at Granada Hills High School. "I like math and English very much," she said. "And I love to play football! I play touch, tackle, flag - everything. I play it in PE, and sometimes people from the studio and I go out on Saturdays and play. My brothers always played, so I joined them! They taught me everything I know. I'm pretty good! I also like to play backgammon. I have a portable set in the car. My best friend taught me. She beats me, but I play it constantly. I like to swim, and I used to play tennis, but I haven't played recently."

Valerie's face lit up. "I'm also an Elton John freak," she confided. "I'm in love with Elton John! I like everything about him! I have albums, T-shirts...the last time I counted I had about 40 posters, 50 T-shirts...I've seen him perform a number of times but I've never met him." Valerie paused. She wanted to make sure I understood. "He's not my idol," she explained. "He's something good to me. He's good," she emphasized.

Valerie wasn't allowed to date until she was 16. "I have a boyfriend," she said. "We haven't been on many dates, but he comes over every night. He feels proud when fans recognize me. And I LOVE being recognized!" She laughed. "It's such an ego trip. It's hard to explain. I love it. I need a lot of attention. I'm such a ham!"

Valerie and her co-star Mackenzie Phillips are good friends. "I just spent the weekend at her house," Valerie said. "We went to the movies. She's fun to be around. I like her very much. While the show was out of production, I also went to New York to see Bonnie Franklin, who plays our mother on the show. She has an act in which she sings and dances. She is so good! Wow, is she talented! I went to see her act 4 times," Valerie raved.

"At one time I thought I wanted to be Miss America or Miss California," Valerie added, "so that I could say to my children, 'See, I was something!'" Valerie smiled. Now I hope I'll stay in acting. But if no one wanted me as an actress, I'd like to be a stewardess."

At the moment, it doesn't look like she'll be offering "coffee, tea or milk?" to airborne travelers. She's settled in a TV comedy hit - and she has the support and encouragement of many people.

"My father handles my business affairs," Valerie noted. "Money is taken out of what I make to pay my taxes, my agent, and my manager. The rest comes to me or is put in a trust fund. I pay for my car and my car insurance, my telephone bill, my clothes, and so on. The rest I splurge with." Valerie laughed. "When I go in a record store I have trouble not coming out with about five albums!"

Valerie has found a good system for answering her fan mail, she said. "The mail comes in to CBS or to Tandem, the production company," she explained. "I pick it up and bring it home. I picked up 200 letters recently. Then I sign my pictures, my father writes out the envelopes, my girlfriend puts in an information card about me, and my mother stamps and seals the envelopes. We get 50-70 done at a time!"

It's a big job to keep up with all the responsibilities of going to school and being in a TV series. Would either Valerie or Mackenzie Phillips like to change anything about their lives at this point? "Absolutely not!" both teenagers assured me.