Random Behind-The-Scenes Stories About '80s Sitcom Stars (18 items)

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  (#17) Harry Anderson

  • Dec. at 65 (1952-2018)

  After appearing on a few episodes of Cheers as the charming con artist "Harry the Hat," Harry Anderson received the offer to play Judge Harry T. Stone on the NBC sitcom Night Court. Anderson ended up getting four writing and two directing credits on the show. He told the podcast Just My Show that his least favorite episode of the sitcom was one he both wrote and directed:

  It sounded so good on paper. Harry and [court clerk] Mac (Charles Robinson) were going to go into business creating "Mac snacks." [Mac's] wife made these little rice snacks, and we decided we were going to go into business and market them. And then Harry got out of control and decided that Mac had to be the logo of the company and had to wear tights and a cape. And we ended up poisoning people with the snacks. And it sounded like a romp when I wrote it, and boy, by the end of that week, Charlie [Robinson] was gonna wrap that cape around my neck... I don't think the cast really ever forgave me for putting them through all that. Plus, I think I directed it, and I'm just the world's slowest director... I think they would have given their salaries back if they hadn't had to do it.
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  (#6) Dave Coulier

  • 64

  Candace Cameron (now Candace Cameron Bure), who played oldest daughter D.J. on Full House, can credit her co-star Dave Coulier with introducing her to her husband, former NHL player Valeri Bure. As she explained to HuffPost Live, the future couple met during the final season of the television show:

  [Coulier] was playing in a charity hockey game, and so he said, "Hey, there are these two really good Russian hockey players." It was Val and his brother Pavel.

  Coulier invited his co-stars to attend the charity game. Cameron accepted the invitation:

   We sat there and were looking at these two really cute boys - two cute men, I guess - on the ice, and I was like, "I want to meet that one, the blonde one," which was Val. And that was it.

  For his part, the NHL player was a fan of Full House, which he watched to help him learn English. The two went on a date the day after being introduced by Coulier. They have been married since 1996 and have three children. The couple made sure to thank the Full House actor for his role in bringing them together:

  Dave Coulier still has a hockey stick that my husband signed for him that says, "Thanks for Candace."
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  (#4) Kim Fields Was So Short That During The First Season Of 'The Facts of Life,' Producers Had Her Wear Roller Skates To Avoid Awkward Camera Angles

  When Kim Fields was cast as Tootie Ramsey on The Facts of Life, she was meant to be playing a 12-year-old character. But as the actor admitted to Page Six, in reality, she was several years younger than her character and too short to convincingly appear as a preteen. So the producers came up with an unusual idea to try and make Fields appear older - they put her on roller skates. Another benefit of putting the actor on the skates was that it allowed the show to avoid the awkward camera angles caused by the difference in Fields's and the other actors' heights. For her part, Fields didn't mind having to skate through her scenes:

  I was very grateful because it gave me an opportunity to have a job, that for all intents and purposes, I may not have had because I was nine years old and I was playing 12. So that’s what it took me to have the job. I was on skates till I grew.

  Ironically, Fields's height had earlier cost her the opportunity to be cast on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes since she was thought to be too tall to play the part of Gary Coleman's girlfriend.
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  (#3) Michael J. Fox

  • 62

  Michael J. Fox was not the first choice to play the young conservative Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties - Matthew Broderick actually was originally cast in the role. But after Broderick dropped out of the project, series creator Gary David Goldberg was talked into taking another look at one of the other actors who had auditioned for the part - Fox. This time, Goldberg agreed that the actor would be right for the role.

  But Brandon Tartikoff, NBC's head of programming, was not convinced, as he believed Fox was too short to convincingly play the son of Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter Birney. As Fox recalled in his memoir Lucky Man, the NBC executive told Goldberg:

  It always annoyed me as a kid watching Father Knows Best that Bud Anderson was so much shorter than his parents.

  But Tartikoff agreed to let Fox play the role in the pilot. When he saw it, the NBC executive agreed that Fox was very good in the role, but still was hesitant about the casting choice, especially in terms of the marketing for the show. He told Goldberg:

  This [Fox] is not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunchbox.

  Goldberg retorted:

  Look, all I know is this: I send the kid out with two jokes and he brings me back five laughs.

  In the end, Tartikoff agreed not to have Fox replaced, and the actor went on to win the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series three times for his performance as Alex P. Keaton.
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  (#13) Ted Danson

  • 75

  Ted Danson was cast as Sam Malone, the alcoholic former baseball player turned bar owner in Cheers. But as he explained during a 2016 tribute to James Burrows, the show's co-creator and director, the actor had little in common with the character he played:

  I didn't know baseball, I didn't know jock, I hadn't gotten too arrogant yet, I didn't know any of that stuff. So he [Burrows] told me that I needed to, that perhaps if I reached down and rearranged myself periodically it'd get me into that jock feel. And I used to. I used to get some of the best close-ups because I'd do this at the most inappropriate times.

  The director's instructions must have worked, as not only did the series become a huge hit, but Danson received 11 Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Sam Malone, winning twice.
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  (#2) Christina Applegate

  • 51

  Christina Applegate became a television star as a teenager by playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children.

  As she admitted during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Applegate was just 15 and more interested in being a dramatic actress when she was originally approached about being in the Married... with Children pilot:

  I did not want to do the show. At that time, I was on a drama series and I thought it [the Married... with Children script] was disgusting. I wouldn't even audition for it. And then they went ahead and shot a pilot with two other kids. And, for whatever reason, the chemistry just didn't work and they came back to me and said, "Would you please come in?" and I was like, "Nooo." And they sent me the pilot. My mom and I did not want to like it, and we turned it on and we were stifling laughing. So I thought I'd go in. But I'd never done comedy before... I know my mom said to him [Ed O'Neil] on day one, "Look, Christina is not very good at comedy. Will you help her?" And I guess it worked out. Eventually, I figured it out.

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