I was playing the title role in a really fun TV series called Fay. Fay was a smart show, a series, written by a comedy writer, Susan Harris. Tony Thomas, Danny Thomas’s son, and Paul Junger Witt produced. (A few years later, they would produce a great series that Dinah would star in, Empty Nest.) The character, Fay, was a newly divorced woman with a grown daughter who enters the workplace for the first time in her forties.
Pretty ahead of its time.
Gloria Steinem was then the editor of Ms. magazine, and because of Fay she wanted me for the cover. Wow! Big-time. Gloria came to the Red House to interview me, along with a photographer to take the cover photo.
The essence of Gloria’s inquiry was how much tougher the standards were for actresses than those for actors in the film business. I disagreed. “They’re tough for everyone,” I said. “Okay,” she said, “you write it. Say whatever you want.”
The last sentence of my article for Ms. said, “I’ve been married to a Communist and a Fascist, and neither one of them ever took out the garbage.” Gloria used that line at the end of interviews for years and years. “As my friend Lee Grant put it . . .”
Unfortunately the show was scheduled in what was called “the family hour,” a time reserved for families with children. So, even though the numbers were high, after we’d taped about nine episodes, NBC canceled the show. But neglected to tell me.
I showed up at the NBC studios for rehearsal, and Fay’s furniture was out in the street. Like I hadn’t paid the rent, like I’d been evicted! I called Paul Witt, the executive producer. “What happened?” I asked.
“We were canceled.”
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was on the NBC lot also. I’d been scheduled to appear on his show to publicize Fay that same day. I drove across the lot to their studio, and Johnny came out.
“We were canceled,” I said. “I have nothing to talk about.”
I was sad. Johnny took pity. “C’mon,” he said. “Talk about getting canceled.”
He was dear, and what an outlet for me. To rail against the family hour and the man who canceled us. I gave him the finger, which they blacked out on-screen. So thanks to Johnny, I had a very public triumph, instead of driving home and pulling over to the side of the Pacific Coast Highway to cry. After we were canceled, I was nominated for an Emmy, Outstanding Lead in a Comedy Series.