Yes, it’s been almost 40 years since “thirtysomething” debuted on ABC to accolades and many, many Emmy Award wins and nominations include Best Drama, 1988.
Believe it or not, three of the female stars continued the friendships we saw in TV.
This week, Emmy winner Melanie Mayron — who played Melissa — was feted by friends and family at The Cutting Room at a gala for The Rehearsal Club, a 113 year old legacy institution that “provides affordable housing and mentorship to young women embarking on performing arts careers in New York City.”
Mayron lived there in her salad days. Who knew?
Receiving an engraved crystal plaque from Tiffany’s, the writer, actor, and director associated with legendary work such as the indie film “Girlfriends” (1978), Mayron laughed, “This is like my Bat Mitzvah!”
Indeed, the event had a menschy feel to it, if you will. Recounting key points in her career, starting with her acceptance for housing at The Rehearsal Club, Mayron called out the co-stars and artistic collaborators who attended to honor her including 93 year old Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn. She was so impressed with Mayron’s debut in the 1974 hit film, “Harry and Tonto,” she paid for her classes at Lee Strasberg’s famed acting school. Not bad!
Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal weighed in: she and Mayron had collaborated on “Tribeca,” at an early point in the actress’s career as writer/director. Claudia Weill, still directing, cast Mayron in 1978’s “Girlfriends,” an iconic forerunner of Lena Dunham’s “Girls.” (Having its own moment, “Girlfriends,’ written by Vicki Polon, is so esteemed it will be celebrated in Milan next month, Weill being hosted by Prada.)
Here’s the backstory on the still beloved “thirtysomething”: Back in 1987, Mayron — who’d gotten her start acting at age 17 — flew to LA to audition for “thirtysomething” with Polly Draper. When she was originally cast as the group’s striving city exec friend Ellen, Draper convinced the showrunners to cast Mayron as Melissa, the photographer who sported asymmetrical earrings and suspenders backwards.
Much was said at the time about Mayron’s style: an original trendsetter, she was so particular she would return gifts. For that, Draper called her “birthday bitch,” even as she praised Mayron’s generous friendship, flying back to New York when Draper’s husband Michael Wolff became severely ill with cancer years ago. Luckily, he survived, and was present for this event. He even played the “thirtysomething” theme music on piano in honor of Mayron.
Big note: Draper and Wolff’s actor Nat, is dating one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Billie Eilish. Draper told me, the two time Oscar winner is “a savant and grounded.”
Draper is still working all the time. She most recently played Richard Kind’s wife in the comedy, “Not Dead Yet.” She was also in five episodes of the hit “Hacks” this past season as a hilarious clairvoyant.
The “thirtysomething” contingent also included Mel Harris, who played Hope Steadman in the series. (Harris, who also sports a long list of credits, subsequently got a comedy series of her own in 1997.) She told me a pilot for a spinoff series to be called “thirtysomething else” was being planned six years ago, when COVID hit. She said, “They had a script and sometime between the reading and finalizing, COVID happened.”
A more recent friend, Tony winner Danny Burstein, said he bonded with Mayron when they worked together in the HBO series, “Julia,” which she directed. Never missing a day of work, even when her father died, they bonded. Also on hand, actress Brooke Adams, most famous for starring in Terence Malick’s classic, “Days of Heaven,” and being Mrs. Tony Shalhoub.
Oh yes, what about The Rehearsal Club? It’s been here in Manhattan since 1913, and even inspired the famous movie, “Stage Door.” Decades of young aspiring actresses have lived there in peace and quiet over the years. Some of the graduates include Kim Cattrall, Sandy Duncan, Diane Keaton, Blythe Danner and Carol Burnett. In keeping with the Club’s history, the program also featured performances by the current crop of Rehearsal Club inhabitants who are living in the space now. They would have been very impressed.
