Interview: Loni Anderson on Her Career at ‘The Hollywood Show’

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

CHICAGO – To answer the musical question, “Baby, if you ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me?” there is the sublime Loni Anderson, who portrayed Jennifer Marlowe on the popular 1970s sitcom, “WKRP in Cincinnati.” Anderson was an attendee of “The Hollywood Show,” which comes to Chicago again on September 7th and 8th, 2013.

Loni Anderson is much like her character on WKRP – luminous, intelligent and with a unique perspective. She climbed the show business ladder herself, after having a first marriage and a child in her teens. After that marriage ended before her 21st birthday, she finished college at the University of Minnesota and started an acting career, taking roles on stage and in local and national commercials. After moving to Los Angeles in 1975, she dyed her jet black hair to blonde, and began a series of high profile appearances on familiar dramas and comedies of the era, including “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Police Woman.”

Loni Anderson at ‘The Hollywood Show’ Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Her big break came in 1978, when she was cast as Jennifer Marlowe on TV’s “WKRP in Cincinnati,” playing against the typical “blonde receptionist” persona (story below). She went on to memorable appearances in TV movies as Jayne Mansfield and 1930s actress Thelma Todd, and after WKRP starred in TV series (“Partners in Crime”) and movies (“Stroker Ace”). On the “Stroker Ace” set, she met Burt Reynolds, who she married in 1988, and divorced six years later. Anderson wrote a memoir in 1997, aptly entitled, “My Life in High Heels.”

HollywoodChicago.com spoke to Loni Anderson at “The Hollywood Show,” which is a two day gathering of favorite TV and movie stars to meet fans and sign autographs. The next show in Chicagoland will be at the Hilton Rosemont on September 7th and 8th, 2013 (details below the article). The Show will have over 30 celebrities in attendance, including Barbara Eden and Bill Daily (“I Dream of Jeannie”); Tippi Hedren “The Birds”); Barry Livingston, Stanley Livingston and Tina Cole (“My Three Sons”); plus the cast members of the film classic “Jesus Christ Superstar” (Ted Neeley, Barry Dennen, Yvonne Elliman and Josh Mostel).

HollywoodChicago.com: In your early acting career, what skills did you develop on stage that you necessarily couldn’t practice once you got into television and films?

Loni Anderson: Mostly what’s different is that on stage you have to project to the back row, and on film it’s an up-close-and-personal medium. It’s about being loud and soft – many stage actors cannot adapt to film and some film actors drop off after the first row when they try to do stage. When you’re use to a camera in your eye there is a tendency to say something with just a blink.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is better to do first, in your opinion?

Anderson: I think stage, because you get all the training, you learn how to hit your mark and how to project – it’s much easier to dial it back. Everything is bigger on stage.

HollywoodChicago.com: What did you want to clear up about the public’s conceptions or misconceptions about you when you wrote the book, ‘My Life in High Heels’?

Anderson: It wasn’t about clearing up, it was about stating who I was, because the tabloids always have a misconception of me. My daughter used to say, ‘why don’t they want to know about us sitting in front of the television eating popcorn.’ I’d tell her it’s not interesting to them. My mother loves the tabloids, and was so disappointed when I would tell her it wasn’t true. She had been reading them so long, and loved celebrities, that she thought all of it was real.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you first started on WKRP, how was the Jennifer character pitched to you and how was it able to evolve to pretty much make the character the smartest person in the room?

Anderson: The character was pitched to me as the ‘girl in the lobby who was pretty,’ and I turned it down. I said no, I told my agent I didn’t even want to read for it. So weeks go by, and they’re testing people, and I’m off doing ‘Three’s Company’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ for TV. My agent called me and told me that they still wanted me to come in.

It was a time for me to take a stand, but my agent pointed out that it was going to be produced by MTM [Mary Tyler Moore] productions, and they might get me another show, so I might as well go in and be seen. I decided to go in and give them my speech, because I had been a serious actress and I wasn’t going to be taken lightly as a fluff thing. I did it, expecting them to say thanks-but-no-thanks.

HollywoodChicago.com: Who was auditioning you?

Anderson: Grant Tinker [head of MTM] and Hugh Wilson, the creator of the show. Hugh asked me how I would do it. Even though I was on the spot, I just said it was time that we saw an attractive woman as being really smart. A little acerbic, like Eve Arden’s movie characters, that’s what I told him I was thinking. He asked me to read it like that, even though he didn’t write it like that.

I read it, Grant and Hugh were just silent. I thought I’d never be asked back to MTM, I thought I’d blew it. I actually cried on the drive home, ready to tell my agent that I thought I’d failed. When I got home, my husband told me I had a call from my agent. I called him, and he said, ‘You start on Monday.’ [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: You still had to evolve the character, right?

Loni Anderson on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ Photo credit: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Anderson: Yes, in the first pilot Jennifer is not the same. It was more assertive, not as appealing. By the time we got to the pilot stage, part two, it was more of the Jennifer that was familiar eventually – becoming more of a smart Mom for the Mr. Carlson character, and intelligent overall.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the challenge of playing real people – like you did with Jayne Mansfied and Thelma Todd – versus playing fictional characters?

Anderson: Well, you get to research them, and get all the information. But you also have the problem of disappointing people who remember them. It’s a double edged sword. I did love playing Jayne Mansfield, because so many of the people who loved and knew her were still alive. I remember when Mariska [Hargitay, Mansfield’s daughter and now actress] came to the set, she was a young girl. Mickey Hargitay [Manfield’s second husband] approved the script, it was really his story. That worked out great.

Thelma Todd was one person’s version of maybe how she died, because it was a mystery. That was fun to do, even though there wasn’t that many people around to do the research for her.

HollywoodChicago.com: When doing the role of Jayne Mansfield, what part of your life made you understand her life more?

Anderson: What was funny is that we both started out as brunettes, both married young and we were both eventually young single mothers. I admired her intelligence, and she was a master of publicity. Where I think we veered off is that Jayne created this blonde bombshell, and then she lived it, instead of just creating her and playing her as an actress. That was part of her problematic life.

HollywoodChicago.com: I interviewed Burt Reynolds recently, and he has a movie star presence that is very rare…

Anderson: I think him and Clint Eastwood are the last of the great stars.

HollywoodChicago.com: In your relationship with Burt Reynolds, how did it feel when the movie star admiration that you first had for him started to separate from the real person?

Anderson: We were together for 12 years, the real person was there from the beginning. We never grew apart, it was more like a sudden drop-off from a cliff. I have no idea why it happened, I even wrote that in my book. It’s just that when you are a superstar, you’re protected by a lot of people. I was the person closest to him, and I wasn’t in the know. That’s what happens with that kind of fame.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you came Los Angeles and pounded the pavement looking for work, what advice would you give to women actors doing the same thing now, as to what to watch out for?

Anderson: It’s very different now, there are so many more things that women can do. One piece of advice I have – get your union cards in smaller markets. I got my SAG here in Chicago and my Equity card in Minneapolis. I was ready, I had reels, I had done my first national commercial. I did some New York City time, in commercials and on stage. Get your experience in other markets, that’s my advice. Because if you just go out there without any experience, that’s what everyone is doing.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]