Doris Roberts Stars in TV Drama
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
November 20, 2003, 2:22 PM EST
NEW YORK -- Doris Roberts is so good on "Everybody Loves Raymond," and the sitcom is so good at mining laughs from the quarrelsome Barones (whose queen bee, of course, is played by Roberts) that viewers might forget she can play anyone else.
"A Time To Remember" is a vivid reminder.
Airing 8 p.m. EST Sunday on the Hallmark Channel, this dramatic film finds Roberts as a different kind of matriarch from comic meddler Marie Barone. Here, playing Maggie Calhoun, she is cool and imperious -- and at an early stage of Alzheimer's.
However frightening for Maggie, as well as for her daughter Valetta (Megan Gallagher) and her longtime caretaker (Louis Fletcher), the onset of this disease is just their latest family problem to avoid dealing with.
Then Britt (Dana Delany), the headstrong daughter who had moved far away, makes a reluctant return home for Thanksgiving and discovers the truth. There's no avoiding their problems anymore.
"This not a disease-of-the-week film," Roberts says. "It's all about family, and how we hold onto silly and stupid resentments and anger and all that nonsense."
Especially Maggie.
"She's not necessarily a very nice woman," says Roberts. "She's very uptight, very WASPy, and I played it that way. People won't necessarily like my character, but I think they'll be moved by her."
To prepare for this role, Roberts says she studied up on the disease. And she allows that, despite her being vigorous and razor-sharp at 73, it's a threat she doesn't take lightly.
"I have a friend whose husband is in the late stages now, but early on, I remember sitting with him at dinner and he'd have this troubled stare and he'd say, `I'm not here.' It would break your heart."
The role gives Roberts some stirring moments, such as a scene when Maggie, in her bathroom, is struck clueless: She doesn't know what her toothpaste and toothbrush are for.
"No one thinks I can do dramatic work anymore," says Roberts with a rueful chuckle. "I did 20 years on Broadway before I ever went out to California! I won an Emmy for playing a bag lady on `St. Elsewhere'! But once you get into a comedy bag, they pigeonhole you. So when this kind of opportunity comes along, I grab it."
Not that Roberts -- with a half-century's worth of credits in theater, films and television (including her four-season run on "Remington Steele") -- draws much of a distinction between going for laughs and going for tears.
"You don't use different muscles playing comedy and playing drama," she explains. "You just make different choices.
"When I play Marie, I don't use this voice," she says, displaying her naturally deep timbre. Instead, she endows Marie with a hopped-up, nasally lilt: "I say things like, `Ah yuh hungry, dee-uh?' I talk way up hee-uh. Because if I used my own voice for Marie, you wouldn't laugh at her. You'd find her quite unpleasant."
Thanks to Roberts' choices, Marie Barone isn't unpleasant. Just impossible. And, like "Raymond" (airing Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBS), still hugely popular with viewers in this, Season 8.
"I pride myself that the choices that I make for Marie are really based on love," says Roberts, who has scored a pair of Emmys in the role. "It comes out differently, but that's what it's based on."
As Marie, she adheres to another guiding principle: Parents are never satisfied. At least, not by approval-seeking offspring.
"I don't think my mother ever wore anything I ever bought for her," Roberts recalls. "She'd just put it in the drawer with the tissue paper it came wrapped in."
On the other hand, this mother can't say enough about her son, Michael Cannata, a former TV producer who has been her manager for three years.
"You never know how smart your kids are!" Roberts beams. "I took care of him for so many years, and now he takes care of me. And he's tough. He is TOUGH!"
Like mother, like son.
"There's nothing about me that feels old, acts old, thinks old -- I've fought them all," crows Roberts, who has plenty to say against ageism (and said it last year, testifying before the Senate Special Committee on Aging).
"I have the same passion for my work today that I did when I was 18 years old," she declares, adding that she's sure not ready to see "Raymond" fold its tent.
"Ray and Phil say, `No, this is our last year,'" she reports, speaking of the show's star, Ray Romano, and executive producer Philip Rosenthal. "But I can't imagine that CBS can allow this to be the last year."
Coming from Roberts, that isn't a prediction, it's a word to the wise: Keep "Raymond" going. After all, Mother knows best.
Doris Gets Dramatic in 'Remember'
September 29, 2003
DORIS ROBERTS fans are used to seeing the Emmy-winning actress in comedies such as the hit series "Everybody Loves Raymond," or at least playing comedic roles like Mildred Krebs in "Remington Steele."
But hold onto your hat! Her latest project, "A Time To Remember", airing on the Hallmark Channel Thanksgiving night and co-starring DANA DELANY, is a dramatic tour de force. In it, Roberts plays a character 180 degrees opposite of Marie Barone. This woman, Maggie Calhoun, is a matriarch, a rich diva in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
"She has a wonderful speech about time and memory being so fleeting that you should savor every moment," Doris tells ET. "Because it may slip away without you ever knowing it. It's true. Because it's Thanksgiving, she wants this to be a special time. She wants to celebrate. She's a strong woman, who's quite heroic in her own way."
As the teleplay unfolds, her character can't remember on which side of the knife the spoon goes, what to do with a toothbrush or toothpaste, and in one scene, she wanders around outside looking for her hairbrush in a downpour.
"I did a lot of research, and it was quite shocking to learn there are moments when Alzheimer's patients are very docile and moments when they are quite angry," she says. "They are out of control. Women like Maggie, who are in control all the time, would be terribly frustrated when she loses it because the mind stops thinking and goes back in time."
So who is Doris most like -- Marie Barone or Maggie Calhoun?
"Doris is a chameleon," she laughs. "She's quite different than this one, and she's quite different than Marie."
Another difference between Doris and Maggie is the relationship each has with their family. Maggie is estranged from her daughter Britt (Delany), but Doris is close to her kin.
"I am a lucky lady," she admits. "I have a wonderful family that I have fun with. They make me young. I worry about my health for them. I want to be around to see everything."
by Patricia Sheridan
Monday, November 17, 2003
Everybody might love Raymond, but Emmy award winning actress Doris Roberts, who plays Raymond's mother on "Everybody Loves Raymond," is loving life. She recently won her fourth Emmy and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her book, "Are You Hungry Dear," was on the New York Times best-seller list. The actress has also been made a cultural ambassador for the United States and will star in a made-for-television movie dealing with Alzheimer's disease, "A Time To Remember," airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on the Hallmark Channel.
Q Is it refreshing to do a drama like "A Time To Remember" after all the comedy?
A With all my heart, yes. You know I'm an actress, not just a funny lady.
Q Is Alzheimer's getting enough attention?
A Younger people are getting Alzheimer's -- when you think about Rita Hayworth getting it at such a young age. I hope this film, "A Time To Remember," educates people on several levels. One, that anyone can get it. And two, that there is not enough money being set aside for research.
Q "A Time To Remember" also tackles family dynamics.
A A wonderful lesson in the film is about family. We get one family, and we spend so much time arguing over petty little stupid things. Resentments, anger, revenge, all those horrible things that fill our body with poison. When all it takes is to understand somebody else's point of view. Not necessarily agree with it, but at least understand it and accept it from their point of view. And try logically, with humor, with intelligence, but most of all with love. Simple love. OK, there were things that I had with my daughter-in-law in the beginning that were ridiculous. I was judgmental. Who the hell am I to be judgmental? It's not my house; it's her house. I love her for who she is, a smart, brilliant, loving, wonderful mother; a wonderful wife to my son. If you let go of all the garbage, what's left is love and intelligence and caring and a warm happy glow in your body, your soul and your mind. An enjoyment of what you have. Love them for who they are, and what they are they are; they are not you. Good stuff isn't it? You have to live 73 years to get to that.
Q You are so adept at portraying maternal figures. Did you pick that up from your own mother or create the kind of mother you always wanted?
A I just think my mother did the best she could. She was a working mother, and she knew nothing else but to work, because there was no husband around. I did better than she did, and my son does better than I do. (laughing).
Q You once said in an interview that you really didn't live until you were 40.
A That's true. I didn't fulfill my dreams until I was 40, because I got married terribly young, when I was 18. I was in charge of the family and I didn't have the opportunity. On top of that, I think women are taught to ask permission about everything. We don't realize that we are entitled and we do have a say in our lives.
Q What took you from the Bronx to the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
A When I was in kindergarten, I had one line in a little play. I said, "I am Patrick Potato and this is my cousin, Mrs. Tomato," and I heard laughter in the room -- I loved that feeling. Being paid attention to with all their eyes on me. I wanted to be an actress from that moment on. I was raised in the Bronx as a very young child, then moved to Manhattan with an aunt. Then I lived with my mother finally. But Broadway was my home for 21 years before I came out to California.
Q What did writing your book, "Are You Hungry, Dear," do for you?
A It was sometimes painful. It was sometimes deliciously humorous. I lived a full life and I'm still living a full life. My goodness, it's just extraordinary what has happened to me in just this last year alone. And it's all done by the way you perceive things. How about this, Patricia: I even have a new beau!
SM Place Light Up for Holidays
Winter will arrive in Santa Monica on Friday, November 28, at precisely 5:15 p.m. when Emmy-winning actress Doris Roberts and Mark L. Walberg, host of "Temptation Island" and "House Rules," throw the switch, lighting downtown Santa Monica for the holidays.
The ceremony will follow a day of music and entertainment on the Third Street Promenade and at Santa Monica Place.
Surfin' Santa Claus and his elves will arrive at 9 a.m. Friday on the Promenade, set up shop and preside at a breakfast for 150 children who will inaugurate the 2003 wish list. At 2 p.m., the Santa Monica High School Orchestra will kick off a program on the Main Stage. Future Hasbeens will emcee the opening segment, before turning the stage over to Mark and Kim from KOST Radio.
In addition, actors from Santa Monica Playhouse will perform a portion of "Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party," and Gwendolyn and the Goodtime Gang will appear. At 4 p.m., snow will fall at Santa Monica Place.
Following the lighting ceremony, Roberts, who is featured in "Everyone Loves Raymond" on CBS, will decamp to Barnes and Noble to sign copies of her autobiography, Are You Hungry, Dear? at 6 p.m.
Children can have their photos taken with Santa Claus for $2 during the holidays, with the proceeds going to the Westside Food Bank, an area nonprofit organization.
The Winterlit display will illuminate Downtown Santa Monica every evening from sundown to 3 a.m. through the first week of January. It features three 22-foot trees, icebergs around the Promenade's famous dinosaur sculptures, and a new cascade of lights. Santa Monica Place will erect a 30-foot tree in the central court, ice, snowflakes, sprite fairies, and a multi-colored light show that creates a shimmering snow effect.
Upcoming holiday events include regular appearancs by Santa, strolling carolers and Scrooges, screenings of short holiday films every Tuesday in December on the upper deck at Santa Monica Place, and the lighting of a menorah at the beginning of Hanukkah, Saturday, December 20.
The holiday celebration is being produced by The Bayside District Corporation, which manages the downtown business district, and the Macerich Company, owners of Santa Monica Place.
Main Street Throws Annual Holiday Party
At 6 p.m., Friday, November 28, the merchants on Main Street will begin their three-day celebration with a tree-lighting ceremony and holiday music at the California Heritage Museum, 2612 Main Street, just south of Ocean Park Boulevard.
Main Street's now-famous starfish holiday lights will also be lit for the season.
The ceremonies will be followed by a window decorations contest, during which residents and visitors may cast ballots for their favorite Main Street displays. Many stores are also planning holiday parties and sidewalk sales.
Santa Claus will arrive on Main Street on Saturday morning, in time for a pancake breakfast at 8 a.m. at the Victorian, 2640 Main Street, after which he will appear on Main Street. He will return every Sunday until Christmas, and, on Sunday, December 21, he will be joined at the Farmers' Market by a Klezmer band.
The Main Street holiday events are being produced by the Main Street Merchants Association.
"What makes this job hard is when people don't talk to each other," Roberts says in the upcoming (June 30) issue of TV Guide when asked about "Steele," which co-starred Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist. "Envy, narcissism and all those egos can poison a show quicker than anything else."
Roberts also slams Hollywood for its reluctance to cast older actors in roles.
"We're the only country in the world that doesn't honor its elders," she says. "If you're over 40, you're obsolete."