Women are landing many of the meaty lead roles in TV drama and comedy these days. John Byrne salutes the cream of the current crop.
Female lead roles used to be quite rare in TV drama and comedy. Of course, there have always been the occasional successes, from Lucille Ball in the 1950s, Angie Dickinson’s Police woman in the ’60s, to Mary Tyler Moore and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ in the 1970s. Roseanne kept the feminist flag flying in more recent times, but now, women are getting strong roles in greater numbers than ever before.
From ‘Brothers & Sisters’ – with the towering trio of Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart – to Glenn Close tearing up the scenery in ‘Damages’, it’s obvious that there are plenty of quality roles out there. Age is no longer a barrier – even 89-year-old former ‘Golden Girls’ star Betty White is letting it rip in ‘Hot in Cleveland’. Now is definitely the most exciting time to be a female actress on TV.
Juilianna Margulies ('The Good Wife')
What a comeback it’s been for Julianna Margulies. Once upon a time she was Nurse Carol Hathaway in ‘ER’, a great supporting role that earned her an Emmy. After departing from that show in 2000, she was involved in a variety of projects until she landed the lead in ‘The Good Wife’. She plays Alicia Florrick, an attorney who returns to legal practice after her husband (former ‘Sex and the city’ star Chris Noth) resigns as Chicago State's Attorney in the wake of a sex and corruption scandal.
Despite being out of the business for a long time while she concentrated on being a mother, and although she has to put up with jibes about her errant other half, Florrick has a determination, not just to succeed against all the odds, but also do the right things for her family.
While Margulies has deservedly picked up several awards for her outstanding performances as Florrick, ‘The Good Wife’ isn’t a one-woman show. It’s got an excellent ensemble cast, and British actress Archie Penjabi is particularly impressive as Kalinda Sharma, the chief investigator at the law firm, and another strong female role model. Tough as nails, that one. But Margulies is irresistible as the inspirational Alicia Florrick.
Jane Lynch (‘Glee’)
‘Glee’ may have already jumped the shark (it’s been going steadily downhill since the midpoint of its debut season), but there’s no denying that Jane Lynch has made a huge impression in the role of Sue Sylvester. The William McKinley High School cheerleaders’ coach is the sworn enemy of the glee club and its leader, Will Schuester, and she boasts an incredible array of Adidas tracksuits. The role is pure pantomime, but it’s generated an Emmy for Lynch, whose CV includes several Christopher Guest movies (‘Best in Show’, ‘A Mighty Wind’ and ‘For Your Consideration’).
Kyra Sedgwick (‘The Closer’)
Acting in TV or movies since the age of 16 – she got her break in the long-running soap ‘Another World’ – Sedgwick took on the role of her career in 2005 when she began playing Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in ‘The Closer’. Johnson works in a very male environment, solving serious crimes including murder, and had to overcome prejudice to earn respect from her peers. She’s one tough cookie, and isn’t afraid to bend the rules a little to get a confession and close cases. That’s why she called ‘The Closer’.
Sedgwick has won many awards for her impeccable performances in the show, but despite her success (and being paid a handsome $300,000 an episode), she has decided to bring the curtain down on Brenda Leigh Johnson after completing the next, seventh season.
Courtney Cox (‘Cougar Town’)
While it’s been pretty much downhill for the lads who were one half of ‘Friends’ in terms of success/star vehicles, the girls have fared a lot better, with Jennifer Aniston carving out a credible movie career, but pride of place must surely go to Courtney Cox.
After the success of the ironic ‘Scream’ trilogy, she landed the lead role of a scuzzy magazine editor in ‘Dirt’. Despite being quite good, it got dropped after just one season, but Cox picked herself up and bounced back with ‘Cougar Town’. Initially a not-very-funny (or successful) comedy about a 40-something single lady on the prowl, ‘Cougar Town’ has really found its groove as a sitcom about friendship (sound familiar?). Cox plays Jules, a 40-something divorced mother of one, who runs a real estate business in Florida. Her best pals are neighbour Ellie Torres (Christa Miller) and employee (Busy Phillips) who, between the three of them, rule over the – mostly dumb, it must be said – men in their lives.
Dana Delany (‘Body of Proof’)
It takes cast iron cojones to quit a show as successful as ‘Desperate Housewives’, but that’s exactly what Dana Delany did when offered the lead role in ‘Body of Proof’.
In this new procedural drama (due soon to RTÉ) she stars as a neurosurgeon who, after a motor accident, loses dexterity in her hands and becomes a medical examiner, using her medical know-how to solve murders.
The show boasts a fine cast, and keen telly-watchers will recognise Jeri Ryan (Borg Seven of Nine in ‘Star Trek: Voyager’) and Sonja Sohn (who played Kima Griggs in ‘The Wire’).
A big plus for Delany is that she was able to leave ‘Desperate Housewives’ on a positive note, as the show’s creator, Marc Cherry, paved the way for her departure – something that doesn’t happen too often in Telly Land.
Anna Paquin (‘True Blood’)
OK, she’s got the most noticeable front-toothed gap on TV and may earn a living serving beer and burgers, but no one dares cross Sookie Stackhouse.
The second-youngest Oscar winner (she was 11 when she landed the Award for Best Supporting Actress award in 1993 for her role in ‘The Piano’), Anna Paquin moved from movies to TV when she landed the part of the telepathic waitress in Alan Ball’s vampire drama based on the Southern Vampire Mystery novels by Charlaine Harris.
Sookie’s telepathy is one thing, but when she saves the life of a vampire, Bill Compton, she steps into the often complex vampire world. Season three is due to TG4 later in the year and currently airs on satellite channel FX, and revolves around Sookie’s attempts to find Bill after he was abducted at the end of season two.
Laura Linney (‘The Big C’)
The latest movie actor to make the switch to the small screen – where all the good roles are these days – Laura Linney is a multi award-winner on both Broadway and in Hollywood. She has tended to play strong characters, and ‘The Big C’, produced by edgy US cable channel Showtime, is no exception.
Linney stars as Cathy Jamison, a suburban wife and mother who, while experiencing the emotional ups and downs of suffering cancer, tries to enjoy life a little more. A winner at the recent Golden Globe awards for her role in ‘The Big C’, Linney has had the show greenlit for a second season and will be shown soon on RTÉ. It currently airs on Channel 4 and More4.
Edie Falco (‘Nurse Jackie’)
Where do you go after ‘The Sopranos’? Well, that’s not been a major problem for Edie Falco. An award-winner for her portrayal as mob boss wife Carmela Soprano, Falco was one of the stand-outs in what’s widely agreed is one of TV’s greatest shows, but she’s possibly gone up another gear playing ‘Nurse Jackie’ (Saturdays, BBC Two).
A hugely complex character, Jackie Peyton is an overworked, overstressed and underpaid nurse at a New York hospital. Although happily married to a devoted husband, she got herself involved with the (now former) hospital pharmacist, and has a serious pill habit to get her through the stresses of her day and alleviate her back pain. She’ll also do what she can, legal or otherwise, to help patients. And while Jackie may be morally ambiguous, she’s clearly a good person. She just does what she feels she has to in order to keep going.
The Grey’s girls
Once upon a time, medical dramas were all about the men: from Richard Chamberlain in ‘Dr Kildare’ to George Clooney in ‘ER’ and the women were lucky if they landed a role as a plucky, supportive nurse.
In ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ the cast is pretty evenly spread between male and female, with characters such as Chandra Wilson’s Miranda Bailey, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), and Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres. All girls, all doctors. All strong women.
Wilson won a 2007 Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) Award for her portrayal of Bailey, a strong character who’s called ‘the Nazi’ by many staff members at Seattle Grace, particularly the interns. But she’s not just a tough cookie – she can also show compassion when required.
Playing Cristina Yang enabled Sandra Oh to win a Golden Globe and a SAG Award in 2006. Yang has a typically logical approach to things, but sometimes her emotions win out. Recently married to Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), she’s still coming to terms with the shoot-out that closed season seven.
As for Sara Ramirez, she gets to play the bisexual Callie Torres, whose storyline is really hotting up on #Grey’s Anatomy’.
The ladies from Desperate Housewives
The title says it all: this show is all about the ladies. As Nathan Fillion – star of ‘Castle’, who played Katherine’s husband, Adam Mayfair during season four – once told the RTÉ Guide: “The women do all the heavy lifting.”
Originally, the show featured five female leads, played by Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan. Each character they played reflected a different type of modern woman, from the girl-next-door Susan Mayer (Hatcher) and sexpot Edie Britt (Sheridan) to conservative Bree Van De Kamp (Cross), former model Gabrielle Solis (Longoria), and everymom Lynette Scavo (Huffman).
A hit from the start, ‘Desperate Housewives’ was by 2007 the most watched TV show on the planet, with a global audience estimated to be over 120 million.
Sheridan may be gone, as is season four arrival Dana Delaney, but the tongue-in-cheek drama remains a big hit in its seventh season, and creator Marc Cherry is currently working on keeping ‘Desperate Housewives’ on the go for at least another two years.
Oh, and it’s back on RTÉ Two on Tuesday, March 1.
The Hot in Cleveland crew
Starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White, ‘Hot in Cleveland’ started last Tuesday on Sky Living (it’s on after ‘Cougar Town’). Created by Suzanne Martin (Frasier, Ellen), the sitcom centres on three past-their-prime entertainment industry ‘veterans’ from Los Angeles – played by Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli and Wendie Malick – whose lives are changed when their Paris-bound plane lands in Cleveland, Ohio. There they find a welcoming local community that’s much less shallow, youth-obsessed and weight-conscious than LA (not difficult to imagine, that). One of them leases a home with an elderly Polish caretaker, played by former Golden Girls’ star Betty White. Betty has become a huge star once again on the back of the show, and is currently the, eh, hottest chat show guest in the USA.
The Irish angle
They may not currently be on TV, but these six Irish actresses are flying the flag both at home and abroad.
Orla Brady, Fionnula Flanagan, Dervla Kirwan, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Charlene McKenna, Victoria Smurfit
For good measure, here’s a dozen more fem-tastic stars . . .
Tina Fey ('30 Rock')
Alex Kingston ('Marchlands')
Sofía Vergara ('Modern Family')
Anna Torv ('Fringe')
Paget Brewster ('Criminal Minds')
Blake Lively ('Gossip Girl')
Emily Deschanel ('Bones')
Stana Katic ('Castle')
Lauren Graham ('Parenthood')
Kate Walsh ('Private Practice')
Katy Segal ('Sons of Anarchy')
Patricia Heaton ('The Middle')
John Byrne
