25 Years After Her ‘#MeToo Moment,’ Vicki Lawrence Finally Reclaims TV Stardom

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http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/vicki...cool-kids.html

Vicki Lawrence, whose new Fox comedy The Cool Kids debuted last week to huge ratings, is a 50-year TV veteran who has somehow managed to star in just a handful of shows. Her relatively brief résumé as a series regular is perhaps the result of her early Hollywood success. At the age of 18, she was handpicked by Carol Burnett to join the cast of Burnett’s eponymous CBS sketch comedy, in part because of how much alike the two looked. “I started in the Emerald City,” Lawrence laughs. “You hear actors all the time talk about all the **** you have to go through to become a star. My whole young experience was just so special.” Her star just kept rising: The 11-year run on The Carol Burnett Show, a brief flirtation with pop-music success, eight more years starring in the Burnett-inspired spinoff sitcom Mama’s Family, and in 1992, her own daytime talk/variety show, Vicki!.

But the second half of Lawrence’s career was different. Despite good ratings, Vicki! lasted just two years, in no small part because of a “very abusive” battle with a male executive that led to her firing, and which she now realizes was a #MeToo experience of her own. “I don’t really have any direct proof, but I think that may have been why I didn’t work much for a good number of years,” she says. Thankfully, she’s made dozens of guest-star appearances in the time since, including recurring roles on Hannah Montana, Yes, Dear, and Great News, and she’s also toured the country with a stage show in which she reprises the Mama character.

Still, Lawrence’s new gig on the Charlie Day–produced Cool Kids — she, David Alan Grier, Martin Mull, and Leslie Jordan play four very rowdy retirees — represents her first series-starring sitcom role since Mama signed off in 1990. And once again, audiences seem ready to embrace her. Boosted by a strong lead-in from the revived Last Man Standing, the premiere of Cool Kids drew over 9 million viewers, making it the most-watched new series launch on Fox since New Girl debuted in 2011. A few days before the Cool Kids debut, Vulture spoke with Lawrence about working alongside a new generation of “young and adorable” TV writers, the highs and lows of her illustrious career, and that #MeToo moment.

This is the first regular series role you’ve had in some time. How did it come together?
I haven’t done this on a regular basis since the ’80s.

Since Mama’s Family went off the air, really.
I know. And the traffic has gotten so much worse in L.A., it may kill me. [Laughs.] So how did this happen? Well, they were casting this right when we were doing the 50th anniversary of the Burnett reunion. I didn’t want to go, because I just wanted to go over to CBS and see Carol, hang out, see all my old friends, and visit with all the cool guest stars she was gonna have on there. I could not be bothered. My agent kept calling me saying, “But this is perfect for you!” And I went, “It’s cute, but really, I’m so tired of going to auditions.”

Why isn’t there talk about a Mama’s Family reboot? You’re busy now, but if someone were to suggest it, would you be down? Reboots are all the rage and I think there’d be an audience for it.
Yeah, maybe there would be. It would have to change gears a tiny bit. And the rights to Mama are so convoluted, it would not be fun figuring it all out. I actually have to pay to use her on the road. She’s not mine.