Rue McClanahan discusses her role of Aunt Fran - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

'80sSitcoms · 01-28-2016, 11:44 AM

Go to the 23:35 mark here to see Rue discuss her role as Mama's sister Aunt Fran.

It is unfortunate there were such disappointing circumstances surrounding her character. What's amazing is that as unhappy as she was, she was brilliant in portraying our dear Frannie.

Vicki Lawrence praised Rue's performance and skills on the Shop NBC channel when she was promoting the Time Life/StarVista DVD series of Mama's Family, and she again praised her at the Mama's Family round table "family reunion" on the DVD set's bonus features. Even though Rue has no love lost for Fran and the show, I really wish Time Life/StarVista had been able to take the excerpt from this interview where she discusses her role of Fran and include it as a bonus feature on the Mama's Family box set and one of the individual set releases.

But, regardless of Rue's feelings, it is so nice to have her actually discussing Frannie and her Mama's Family experience in an interview in some depth (she had previously touched on this in her Lifetime Intimate Portrait episode, but only very briefly). Aunt Fran is my absolute favorite character Rue ever played, hands down.

For Rue's full 2 1/2-hour interview on the Emmy TV Legends web site, you can click here.

Will Dockery · 02-09-2016, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Go to the 23:35 mark here to see Rue discuss her role as Mama's sister Aunt Fran.

It is unfortunate there were such disappointing circumstances surrounding her character. What's amazing is that as unhappy as she was, she was brilliant in portraying our dear Frannie.

Vicki Lawrence praised Rue's performance and skills on the Shop NBC channel when she was promoting the Time Life/StarVista DVD series of Mama's Family, and she again praised her at the Mama's Family round table "family reunion" on the DVD set's bonus features. Even though Rue has no love lost for Fran and the show, I really wish Time Life/StarVista had been able to take the excerpt from this interview where she discusses her role of Fran and include it as a bonus feature on the Mama's Family box set and one of the individual set releases.

But, regardless of Rue's feelings, it is so nice to have her actually discussing Frannie and her Mama's Family experience in an interview in some depth (she had previously touched on this in her Lifetime Intimate Portrait episode, but only very briefly). Aunt Fran is my absolute favorite character Rue ever played, hands down.

For Rue's full 2 1/2-hour interview on the Emmy TV Legends web site, you can click here.

Am I the only regular here who thought Rue was hot, most especially on Maude?

MichaelKeith · 02-09-2016, 10:45 AM

Rue was hot in her younger years. I've seen pics of her from the 1960s and she was smokin'. Even in the 1970's she kind of played a flirt on Maude and that was a very sexy quality.

Will Dockery · 02-10-2016, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelKeith

Rue was hot in her younger years. I've seen pics of her from the 1960s and she was smokin'. Even in the 1970's she kind of played a flirt on Maude and that was a very sexy quality.

My thinking exactly, here.

schmave · 01-16-2018, 01:56 PM

Interesting interview to watch, although she did get some of the circumstances backward. As we know, it was the cancellation that allowed her to be in Golden Girls in the first place, and her character did not die until just before the syndicated episodes started. The chicken bone-toothpick mixup, I don't blame her for given that it was such a minor detail as far as she was concerned.
I wonder who let her know what had happened to Aunt Fran? Maybe Betty White? Betty was clearly still in contact with Mama's Family somewhat given that she appeared in the third syndicated episode.
I always thought it was neat when Rue, Betty and Ken Berry were in the same Golden Girls episode during that final season when Ken played an old boyfriend of Rose Nylund. There is one scene with the three of them on the "lanai" ... Aunt Fran, Ellen and Vint together one more time.

warp9p65 · 04-09-2019, 10:32 PM

I was sort of surprised when I watched the interview that Rue said Vickie was distant or stand-offish on the set. Wasn't expecting that. Also I think Rue might have been mistaken when she stated that Betty White only appeared in 2 episodes per season on the network run. Seemed like Ellen was around somewhat more often than that.

'80sSitcoms · 04-10-2019, 10:03 AM

Yeah, it looks like Betty was in at least 6 episodes of season 1, and 9 of season 2. She details this in her book "Here We Go Again! My Life in Television". She said she wanted to do other things as well, and that anything beyond a certain number of episodes, you were considered a regular, and exclusive.

01-28-2016, 11:44 AM	#1
'80sSitcoms Member Forum Star Join Date: Jan 30, 2013 Posts: 12,474	Rue McClanahan discusses her role of Aunt Fran Go to the 23:35 mark here to see Rue discuss her role as Mama's sister Aunt Fran. It is unfortunate there were such disappointing circumstances surrounding her character. What's amazing is that as unhappy as she was, she was brilliant in portraying our dear Frannie. Vicki Lawrence praised Rue's performance and skills on the Shop NBC channel when she was promoting the Time Life/StarVista DVD series of Mama's Family, and she again praised her at the Mama's Family round table "family reunion" on the DVD set's bonus features. Even though Rue has no love lost for Fran and the show, I really wish Time Life/StarVista had been able to take the excerpt from this interview where she discusses her role of Fran and include it as a bonus feature on the Mama's Family box set and one of the individual set releases. But, regardless of Rue's feelings, it is so nice to have her actually discussing Frannie and her Mama's Family experience in an interview in some depth (she had previously touched on this in her Lifetime Intimate Portrait episode, but only very briefly). Aunt Fran is my absolute favorite character Rue ever played, hands down. For Rue's full 2 1/2-hour interview on the Emmy TV Legends web site, you can click here.

02-09-2016, 10:45 AM	#3
MichaelKeith Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2007 Posts: 1,139	Rue was hot in her younger years. I've seen pics of her from the 1960s and she was smokin'. Even in the 1970's she kind of played a flirt on Maude and that was a very sexy quality.

01-16-2018, 01:56 PM	#5
schmave Member Forum Regular Join Date: Mar 23, 2013 Location: Reynoldsburg, Ohio Posts: 654	Interesting interview to watch, although she did get some of the circumstances backward. As we know, it was the cancellation that allowed her to be in Golden Girls in the first place, and her character did not die until just before the syndicated episodes started. The chicken bone-toothpick mixup, I don't blame her for given that it was such a minor detail as far as she was concerned. I wonder who let her know what had happened to Aunt Fran? Maybe Betty White? Betty was clearly still in contact with Mama's Family somewhat given that she appeared in the third syndicated episode. I always thought it was neat when Rue, Betty and Ken Berry were in the same Golden Girls episode during that final season when Ken played an old boyfriend of Rose Nylund. There is one scene with the three of them on the "lanai" ... Aunt Fran, Ellen and Vint together one more time.

04-09-2019, 10:32 PM	#6
warp9p65 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 15, 2019 Location: AR Posts: 49	I was sort of surprised when I watched the interview that Rue said Vickie was distant or stand-offish on the set. Wasn't expecting that. Also I think Rue might have been mistaken when she stated that Betty White only appeared in 2 episodes per season on the network run. Seemed like Ellen was around somewhat more often than that.

04-10-2019, 10:03 AM	#7
'80sSitcoms Member Forum Star Join Date: Jan 30, 2013 Posts: 12,474	Yeah, it looks like Betty was in at least 6 episodes of season 1, and 9 of season 2. She details this in her book "Here We Go Again! My Life in Television". She said she wanted to do other things as well, and that anything beyond a certain number of episodes, you were considered a regular, and exclusive.