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On an evening in mid-January, there were bouquets piled outside of Linda Lavin’s trailer on the Disney lot in Burbank, Calif. Nearby, on a soundstage, a black ribbon was wrapped around her caricature. Lavin had died on Dec. 29, at age 87. Now the creators and cast of “Mid-Century Modern,” a Hulu sitcom that shoots in front of a live studio audience, had returned to work to honor her. That night, they would film a half-hour episode designed to pay tribute to her character, Sibyl Schneiderman, while also eulogizing an actress with an outstanding seven-decade career. That was hard enough. Even harder: They had to make it funny.
James Burrows, the multicamera-sitcom legend who directed the episode, “You have to remember it’s a comedy, and you’ve got to make the audience laugh.” I had reached out to the sitcom’s creators back in the fall. A new sitcom set among gay men in later life — think “Golden Girls” for the marriage equality set — it sounded like a hoot. It also offered a chance to explore how depictions of queer relationships have changed since the 1990s.
But when Lavin died unexpectedly after most of the season had been shot, an irreverent sitcom with an impressive zingers-per-minute rate suddenly had to pivot. So the reporting assignment pivoted, too. (All 10 episodes arrived on Friday.)
Last summer, Hulu agreed to fund a new pilot from the creators of “Will & Grace,” David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. Set in Palm Springs, Calif., it centered on three roommates, to be played by Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham. As in “The Golden Girls,” Kohan and Mutchnick knew they wanted a mother character, Sibyl, to join the roommates. They considered several actresses for the Sibyl role, including Lavin, a Tony winner for “Broadway Bound” and a star of the seminal 1970s sitcom “Alice.”
The creators invited her to a video call last year to discuss the role. Lavin joined them from Berlin, where she was vacationing. “She was such a cool, spunky chick,” Mutchnick said. Lavin told them she would play Sibyl if certain conditions were met. The character, the mother of Lane’s Bunny, was conceived of as an Iris Apfel-type with short white hair. Lavin objected.
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(The text continues in this format, covering more details about the sitcom, its creators, and Linda Lavin’s character and death.)
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