4-time Podcast Awards Winner! Webby nominated for Best Indie Podcast. 80s TV Ladies is dedicated to the beloved female-driven shows of the 1980s! Do you love 80s pop culture, television and fabulous women? On our show, you’ll hear a breakdown of how these shows got made, how they were influenced by the times and, in turn, how they influenced pop-culture trends to follow. We love discussing the “two-steps forward, one-step-back” lens of media-driven feminism.
Join hosts Susan Lambert Hatem and Sharon Johnson as they talk about the fabulous ladies of television: Cagney & Lacey, Designing Women, A Different World, The Golden Girls and more.
With special guests, TV creators and stars! Do these shows we hold so dear hold up? Let's find out.
Season 1: We examine three “detective duo shows” this season, with multiple episodes and awesome guests for each TV show we cover. Scarecrow and Mrs. King Remington Steele Cagney & Lacey
Season 2: Multiple episodes per TV show exploring representation and behind-the-scenes insight in science fiction, drama and sitcoms! Queer representation in 70s and 80s 9 to 5 television show It's a Living Designing Women Ladies of the 80s: A Divas Christmas Star Trek Ladies Moonlighting
Special guests: Eugenie Ross-Leming, Martha Smith, Robin Bernheim, Stephanie Zimbalist, Evan Ball, Debbie Evans, Barney Rosenzweig, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Karen Arthur, Cynthis Beemis Abrams, Matt Baume, Jane Epsensen, Drew Greenberg, Paul Kreppel, Bryan Edward Hill, Maggie Friedman, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Stan Zimmerman, Mary Lou Belli, Nana Visitor, Glenn Gordon Caron, Shery Main and more!
We publish every other Wednesday. Tell us: Who should we interview and what's your favorite 80s Ladies television show? https://www.80stvladies.com
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4-time Podcast Awards Winner! Webby nominated for Best Indie Podcast. 80s TV Ladies is dedicated to the beloved female-driven shows of the 1980s! Do you love 80s pop culture, television and fabulous women? On our show, you’ll hear a breakdown of how these shows got made, how they were influenced by the times and, in turn, how they influenced pop-culture trends to follow. We love discussing the “two-steps forward, one-step-back” lens of media-driven feminism.
Join hosts Susan Lambert Hatem and Sharon Johnson as they talk about the fabulous ladies of television: Cagney & Lacey, Designing Women, A Different World, The Golden Girls and more.
With special guests, TV creators and stars! Do these shows we hold so dear hold up? Let's find out.
Season 1: We examine three “detective duo shows” this season, with multiple episodes and awesome guests for each TV show we cover. Scarecrow and Mrs. King Remington Steele Cagney & Lacey
Season 2: Multiple episodes per TV show exploring representation and behind-the-scenes insight in science fiction, drama and sitcoms! Queer representation in 70s and 80s 9 to 5 television show It's a Living Designing Women Ladies of the 80s: A Divas Christmas Star Trek Ladies Moonlighting
Special guests: Eugenie Ross-Leming, Martha Smith, Robin Bernheim, Stephanie Zimbalist, Evan Ball, Debbie Evans, Barney Rosenzweig, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Karen Arthur, Cynthis Beemis Abrams, Matt Baume, Jane Epsensen, Drew Greenberg, Paul Kreppel, Bryan Edward Hill, Maggie Friedman, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Stan Zimmerman, Mary Lou Belli, Nana Visitor, Glenn Gordon Caron, Shery Main and more!
We publish every other Wednesday. Tell us: Who should we interview and what's your favorite 80s Ladies television show? https://www.80stvladies.com
Directing The Facts of Life and Who’s The Boss | Asaad Kelada, Part 2
80s TV Ladies
51 minutes
6 months ago
Directing The Facts of Life and Who’s The Boss | Asaad Kelada, Part 2
"It is equally treacherous when you are very successful as when you are trying to get your foot in the door in terms of keeping the sense of who you are.” -- Asaad Kelada, producer/director, The Facts of Life
In Part 2 of their conversation with Asaad Kelada, Susan and Sharon talk with the director about the gifts and pitfalls of success; his reputation as a director who brings harmony to the most disharmonious sets in Hollywood; and the challenge of breaking into the “Hollywood TV Club” for an Egyptian with “a name with all of these vowels!”.
In a career spanning four decades, Asaad Kelada has directed over 340 episodes of television, including Rhoda, Phyllis, The Tony Randall Show, Benson, WKRP in Cincinnati, One Day at a Time, Night Court, Valerie, Who’s the Boss, Family Ties and The Office -- as well as four seasons of The Facts of Life and over five seasons of Who's The Boss?.
THE CONVERSATION
How directing his first episode of network television - "Rhonda Questions Her Life and Flies to Paris" - felt like coming home.
THE “TIES” THAT BIND: An old friend, Gary David Goldberg, asked Asaad personally to direct the pilot of Family Ties.
Michael J. Fox ad-libbed the “P” in “Alex P. Keaton” when picking up a call from his girlfriend -- and it got the biggest laugh of the night. That’s when Asaad knew the show was going to be a hit.
Michael J. Fox was actually the SECOND choice to play Alex Keaton. Matthew Broderick was first.
ON PERSISTENCE:Observing and learning for five years to direct his first episode of television. “People would wave at me and say hello, but were they looking at an insane man, or were they looking at someone who was just determined? How am I being perceived by persisting and persisting? Was I somebody who was really deluded? When doesn’t he take no for an answer? I think I just outlasted them.”
Directing “Les on a Ledge” for WKRP in Cincinnati.
DIRECTING WHO’S THE BOSS?: Tony Danza had a photographic memory and hated rehearsal. Katherine Helmond and Judith Light loved to rehearse. Plus, the kids? Everyone had to be directed differently, but it all had to come together.
The “Requiem” episode of Who’s The Boss? is where Tony Danza and Asaad really connected. After that, he was invited to stay -- for four years.
WHO REALLY WAS THE BOSS? “No question -- it was Tony Danza. Tony was volatile. He made everybody feel good -- until he didn’t.”
GETTING TO KNOW BENSON: Asaad only directed two episodes of Benson -- but he and Robert Guillaume became lifelong friends.
“LOOKOUT FOR CLORIS LEACHMAN!” -- “I was told ‘She may try to take over, she is always changing things -- and she is a flirt. Maybe you can use that to tame her’.”
WELCOME TO THE “TV CLUB”: “Even when you get accepted into the TV club, it is a temporary membership. And it can be revoked at any time.”
So join Susan and Sharon -- and Asaad -- as they talk Danny Pintauro, Alyssa Milano, Jan Hooks, The Last Resort, Julie Kavner, Todd Bridges, Designing Women, Justine Bateman, Chuck Lorre -- and getting stuck in the bathroom with Benson!
AUDIO-OGRAPHY Find out more about Asaad Kelada at IMDB. STILL IN FLUX: Watch Season 2 and 3 of The Facts of Life for free on Tubi. Season 1 and 3 are available for sale on Amazon Prime. Buy the complete season on DVD at
80s TV Ladies
4-time Podcast Awards Winner! Webby nominated for Best Indie Podcast. 80s TV Ladies is dedicated to the beloved female-driven shows of the 1980s! Do you love 80s pop culture, television and fabulous women? On our show, you’ll hear a breakdown of how these shows got made, how they were influenced by the times and, in turn, how they influenced pop-culture trends to follow. We love discussing the “two-steps forward, one-step-back” lens of media-driven feminism.
Join hosts Susan Lambert Hatem and Sharon Johnson as they talk about the fabulous ladies of television: Cagney & Lacey, Designing Women, A Different World, The Golden Girls and more.
With special guests, TV creators and stars! Do these shows we hold so dear hold up? Let's find out.
Season 1: We examine three “detective duo shows” this season, with multiple episodes and awesome guests for each TV show we cover. Scarecrow and Mrs. King Remington Steele Cagney & Lacey
Season 2: Multiple episodes per TV show exploring representation and behind-the-scenes insight in science fiction, drama and sitcoms! Queer representation in 70s and 80s 9 to 5 television show It's a Living Designing Women Ladies of the 80s: A Divas Christmas Star Trek Ladies Moonlighting
Special guests: Eugenie Ross-Leming, Martha Smith, Robin Bernheim, Stephanie Zimbalist, Evan Ball, Debbie Evans, Barney Rosenzweig, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Karen Arthur, Cynthis Beemis Abrams, Matt Baume, Jane Epsensen, Drew Greenberg, Paul Kreppel, Bryan Edward Hill, Maggie Friedman, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Stan Zimmerman, Mary Lou Belli, Nana Visitor, Glenn Gordon Caron, Shery Main and more!
We publish every other Wednesday. Tell us: Who should we interview and what's your favorite 80s Ladies television show? https://www.80stvladies.com
