The 'Hocus Pocus' star revisits her one-season autobiographical sitcom, which she calls a 'big mistake.'
Bette Midler is looking back on her autobiographical sitcom, Bette, and unpacking her regrets about the 2000 series.
The 78-year-old actress revisited the short-lived sitcom while appearing on the latest episode of David Duchovny's Fail Better podcast. Calling the experience a "big mistake," the veteran actress theorized that one of the show's biggest failures was the exit of Lindsay Lohan, who dropped out of the show after the pilot episode.
"I did a television show, Bette. Does it get any more generic than that? A big, big, big mistake," Midler recalled with Duchovny. "I think for several reasons. It was the wrong motivation. It was a part of the media I simply did not understand. I watched it. I appreciated it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't know what it meant to make it."
Midler played a version of herself on the one-season sitcom, which followed her grounded personal life at home with her college professor husband, Roy (Kevin Dunn, then Robert Hays in later episodes), and teenage daughter Rose (Lohan).
Created by Jeffrey Lane, Bette aired on CBS from October 2000 through March 2001. The show filmed 18 episodes, two of which went unaired.
"I had made theatrical live events. I had made films. I had made variety television shows. I had been on talk shows. But I had never done a situation comedy," she continued. "I didn't realize what the pace was. And I didn't understand what the hierarchy was. And no one bothered to tell me."
Duchovny said, "Well, the hierarchy should have been, since Bette is the name of the show, you should have been number one on the hierarchy."
Midler, who was an EP on the show, responded that she had been "kicked to the curb immediately" with no one guiding her through the process of the television world, adding, "But because I was so green, I didn't understand what my options were, what choices I could have made to improve my situation. I didn't know that I could have taken charge."
The Hocus Pocus star admitted that she felt Lohan's departure after the pilot episode contributed to the show being canceled after one season.
"After the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn't want to do it, or she had other fish to fry," Midler said. "So Lindsay Lohan left the building and I said, well, now what do you do?"
But the actress admitted that she was to blame for its flop as well. "It was extremely chaotic . . . and if I had been in my right mind, or if I had known that my part of my duties were to stand up and say, 'This absolutely will not do, I'm going to sue,' then I would have done that," she shared. "But I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldn't get to the writers' room. I couldn't speak to the showrunner. I couldn't make myself clear."
Midler said that her time on the sitcom ultimately became too "taxing," and she was "thrilled" once it came to an end. "The mad scramble to keep up was just too intense," she added.
Despite Midler's recollection, Lohan seems to have fond memories from the show. On May 2, the Freaky Friday star shared a photo of her and Midler from the series' pilot episode. She captioned the throwback, "Had such a blast filming with the incredible @bettemidler 💕 #tbt."
Nowadays, Midler is looking to make her pivot to reality TV. Back in March, the Emmy winner made a post on X (formerly Twitter) about joining the cast of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The latest season of RHOBH featured Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne, Garcelle Beauvais, Dorit Kemsley, Crystal Kung Minkoff, Annemarie Wiley and Sutton Stracke.
"Is it too late for me to become a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills? I've never watched it, but I am in the mood to talk some s**t," she wrote. "And to get paid for it? A dream! #RHOBH."
Soon after, Bravo producer and host, Andy Cohen, addressed Midler's interest in joining the hit Bravo reality show on a live episode of SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live.
When asked about Midler's tweet, Cohen expressed enthusiasm about the legendary entertainer joining the cast. "She would be the grand dame of Beverly Hills in a second," Cohen exclaimed. However, he also raised concerns about Midler's possible discomfort with the show's filming process.
Cohen reminisced about a past encounter with Midler during his time at 48 Hours and recalled her aversion to the documentary-style filming approach. "She did not care for this process of ours at all," Cohen explained. "My only concern as I was really thinking this through is I don't know that she would love us just showing up with cameras running, gunning her."
Despite his concerns, Cohen expressed excitement about Midler's prospect of joining the cast, but wondered over how much she’d cost, adding, "I will be very excited for Bette Midler to join The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Just want to say that. Also, I mean, Bette Midler is a superstar. How much would that cost because she said she wants to make a lot of money to sh*t talk."
He also discussed the possibility of Midler making guest appearances on the show, suggesting she could start as a friend of one of the Housewives.
"Bette FaceTimes Kyle. 'What are you wearing? Is this white enough for the white party? What are you wearing to Garcelle's barbecue?'" Cohen joked.
Since Wiley recently revealed her departure from the show after just one season, there could be a spot open for Midler after all!
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