Where are they now?: March 2008 Archives

Just like there were two Darrins on "Bewitched," there were also two Trixie Nortons on "The Honeymooners."

Jane Kean stepped into the role originated by Joyce Randolph when the adventures of Ralph Kramden and company were revived on "The Jackie Gleason Show" with Art Carney (Ed Norton) and Audrey Meadows (Alice Kramden) also on board.

"They were going to add songs and dances and I was considered better qualified," Jane told me this week from her L.A.-area home. "I started in color in 1966 then we did about 3-4 years of the show then Jackie decided he was going to do some films. Then CBS convinced him to redo 'The Honeymooners' and we did them again and we did specials."

Jane, who turns 85 next month, said there were no hard feelings from Randolph.

"She came over to me in Sardis one night after I started playing Trixie and congratulated me on the good job I was doing," she said. "I went back with Jackie a long time. That whole facade that he has about being 'The Great One' and all, he wasn't really like that. He was quite insecure and more humble."
"I would have been Trixie in the very very beginning but (sister and professional partner) Betty and I were starting to really move and I didn't want to break up the act."

Betty Kean, eight years older, would call her kid sister on to do a few numbers in the beginning. Years later, their managers suggested the siblings from Hartford, Conn. put a comedy act together and be something of a female Martin and Lewis.

"We got together for ('The Ed Sullivan Show') and we had so many good offers from good clubs from the London Palladium to the Copacabana that we were together for eight years."

Kean still performs in various venues including large cruise ships where she does her one-woman show complete with films clips. She also penned her autobiography "A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Honeymooners...I Had a Life" a few years ago.

"Everybody in the world thinks the only credit I have is Trixie on 'The Honeymooners,'" she said. "I was just anxious for people to know more about my background in nightclubs and on Broadway."

She's still quite social with showbiz pals through a group called Showbuddies which also includes Betty Garrett, Nanette Fabray and Anne Jeffreys, among others.

Says Jane: "It gets a litte raunchy sometimes!"
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Younger readers might not know who Christopher Atkins is but I know plenty of you do! TMZ.com posted these ten-and-now pics today and it brought back all the memories of Christopher in "The Blue Lagoon" opposite Brooke Shields. He also starred in "The Pirate Movie" opposite another 70s-80s teen star, Kristy McNichol.
But liked him best when he lost the perm and was on "Dallas" and had a steamy affair with Sue Ellen Ewing (Linda Gray). Then there was THE defining role of a male stripper in "A Night of Heaven" opposite Lesley Anne Warren.

Mindy Cohn long ago faced this fact of life: some people will always think of her as Natalie Green.

But since "The Facts of Life" ended its nine year run back in 1988, the 41-year-old Cohn has continued to make a living as a working actress and still dreams of bigger and better roles. She's been the voice of Velma on the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons for nearly a decade and has a part in the upcoming feature film "Sex & Death 101" starring hunky Simon Baker and recovering shoplifter Winona Ryder.

But many casting directors haven't been able to see past her indelible portrayal of the quick-witted Natalie who lived with Blair, Jo, Tootie and Mrs. Garrett at that boarding school during most of the 80s.

"Ultimately, I want people to be able to see me that I'm an actor," Mindy told me this week. "Sometimes people see me with whatever label and I've not yet been able to show what I can do. That's the exciting part. I still have the tenacity and the hunger and my patience is going to pay off. My motto in life is 'The best is yet to come.'"

Mindy, a native of Los Angeles, got the role in "Sex" the old fashioned way: she auditioned. She plays Trixie, the confidante and best friend of Baker's character.

"She's the only character in the movie that Simon doesn't have sex with!" she said. "She goes on this adventure and remains the voice of reason. It was a really easy card to play once you meet Simon Baker."
Despite her fame, Mindy considers herself to be just like any other working actress in L.A. - always looking for the next good role.

"I still love it," she said of her acting career. "On camera stuff, it's very spotty but I've definitely been able to to do 2-3 things a year to keep me viable. As an actor, my voiceover career had never made me feel unemployed for the past seven years.

She could just cash in on her "Facts" background but Mindy wants new challenges: "That's why I turn down those VHI shows like 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,' 'Celebrity Fit Club' and 'The Surreal Life.' The compliment of that is people still remember me 25 years later and actually like what they see. It's an amazing amount of money to to do these shows...The issue is longevity and holding out for things I'm proud of and excited about. I don't want to play Mindy Cohn on television."

But she did join former co-stars Charlotte Rae, Lisa Welchel and Kim Fields for a 2001 reunion movie. (Nancy McKeon was shooting her Lifetime series "The Division" at the time and could not participate).

"We all never got paid, and still don't get paid for DVDs and reruns," Cohn said. "So the consensus was that this was going to be a very big pay-day for us and we had earned it. So if the script was halfway decent, we could have a kick in the pants, have an adventure together and get a big pay day. It really was that we felt we were owed."

During the show's nine seasons, many guest stars and co-stars came and went. Molly Ringwald was on the show's first season before the focus was pared down to just the four main girls and Mrs. Garrett. Then Charlotte Rae left the series in the seventh season and Cloris Leachman was brought in to replace her for the final two years.

But no cast member has had more success than George Clooney who spent an entire year as a member of the cast playing a handyman who worked at Edna's Edibles, the eatery the girls helped Mrs. Garrett run: "I feel the same way about George as Helen Hunt and so many of the actors I was blessed to meet in the beginning of their careers."

Even though Clooney is a superstar, Mindy remembers him as someone who was more concerned with having a career than being a star.
"Overnight success my eye," she said of Clooney. "It's about patience and preservance."

Here are some other bits from our chat:

Favorite episode of "Facts": "It's been so long that I don't know. It's all like one good memory."

Her life off-screen: "I do my life quietly. There's lots of things I've been doing, I'm a real person to me. I do everything that everyone else does: family, education, relationships. I don't think anyone's that interested. I'm a very private person but there are no deep, dirty secrets there."

On being discovered as a child while at school one day: "I tend to be a spiritual person and I believe there were no accidents. I was meant to be there that day when Norman Lear and Charlotte Rae came to visit. But that really was not the track I was on.... A lot of the success of me has to do with the producers and writers of the show that took this novice and helped by developing certain kind of stories and relationships. You kind of vamp until you feel it."

On sticking with acting post-Facts of Life: "I didn't know whether it was my 15 minutes (of fame) or something I really wanted to do. I went to school (graduating with a degree in Anthropology, took acting classes and did some theater in New York to decide it this was the career I wanted."

C'mon, you know you were!

I just loved Joanie's spunky best friend on "Happy Days" and it sure was fun to interview the actress who played her, Cathy Silvers, recently for my weekly "Whatever Happened to...": column that runs in the Daily News and other papers. Here is the story:

Cathy Silvers grew up as the daughter of television comedy star Phil Silvers ("Sgt. Bilko") then became a star in her own right as Jenny Piccalo on "Happy Days."

As the best friend of Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran), Jenny provided crack comedic timing during the show's final three seasons.

"It's the most fun I ever had in my life, absolutely, bar none," Silvers said in a recent interview.

"Driving to Paramount Studios every day for three years, sitting on a set with Henry Winkler and Tom Bosley and Marion Ross and Erin Moran and Ted McGinley and Crystal Bernard - it was just like, you gotta be kidding me. And Anson (Williams) and Donny (Most).

"It was too good to be true."

Silvers continued acting after the show left the air, doing guest spots on such comedies as "Wings," "Punky Brewster" and "1st and Ten." She also had a role in the 1996 movie version of "Bilko" starring Steve Martin.

Silvers, now 46, has parlayed her television stardom into a business career.

"I think (TV fame) was a leg-up," she said. "But I went to college. I actually did take four years off and went to American University and got a degree in marketing. I have a pretty big company now,; it's a successful company, and we have a lot of businesses."

She operates a delivery service that provides order organic produce from farmers' markets to customers throughout Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles resident is also a vegan chef with a private practice, teaching people how to transition from unhealthy to healthy eating habits.

Silvers just wrote a book called "Happy Days Healthy Living," released in October, and is currentlyon a tour promoting it for Random House. She also hosts "The Healthy Living Show" on the Web-based Healthy Living Network (TheHealthy LivingShow.com).

"I'm speaking pretty much all over the country now about being healthy, about a green planet and drinking green smoothies so you can have a greener, healthier life and body."

Most of the "Happy Days" cast contributed segments to the first half of her book, which is dedicated to "Happy Days." Series star Ron Howard wrote the forward and creator Garry Marshall wrote the introduction.

Many of the former castmates remain close.

"I hang out with Henry Winkler a lot, and Erin Moran and I don't live far from each other, and I was just at Marion Ross' house a couple of months ago," she said. "We're all friends."