Last month, daytime viewers said goodbye to long-time The Young & the Restless star Jeanne Cooper who died at 84 years of age. After appearing on the soap drama for 39 years, so great was the hole she left that Y&R producers dedicated an entire hour remembering and eulogizing the actress with her fellow castmates.
Shortly after it aired, another grand dame of television passed away: Jean Stapleton, otherwise known to many as Edith Bunker. And I suddenly realized we are nearing the last of a dying breed.
In our ever-present search for youth and beauty, few female stars grow old on television. Some, like Elizabeth Taylor, manage to span youth to grandmother in the film industry. But television is different.
We live with TV characters on a weekly basis for a limited number of years. So imprinted is their image, it becomes part of our language and personal memories. But it doesn’t age.
So how did Stapleton and Cooper continue to endear us over the years? We aren’t very forgiving with today’s female stars. We watch them explode on the scene at their prettiest, firmest and smoothest. Then as things start to sag or shift, the show ends and we move on to the next pretty thing. After all, who wants to be reminded of his or her own sagging parts?
Even Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay, who plays fan favourite Olivia Benson, has been the target of comments about her more rounded figure. Apparently after 14 years in the role and a couple of kids off-camera, she’s not supposed to age.
But Stapleton became a household name in her late forties, accepted as an already mature woman with a soft belly and a few wrinkles. Not exactly a femme fatale.
And Jeanne Cooper entered our purview at 44 and grew older, day by day, with her viewers. So entrenched was she in our daily lives that she even had a face-lift on camera. And just as you wouldn’t turn your back on your favourite aunt or grandmother, you accepted the aging actress.
Few female stars continue to find favour into their golden years. Charlie’s Angels Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd are two rarities who in their 60s garner as much admiration today as they did in the ’70s. But where are their shows? Maggie Smith is an icon. But we didn’t clue in until recently.
And at 91, Betty White has made a television comeback with a vengeance. But where were her fans between Sue Ann Nivens (1973) and Rose Nylund (1985)? And how many thought her dead already when reporters started doing the Golden Girls countdown as each one kicked the bucket between 2008 and 2010?
Like Stapleton and Cooper, these are the ladies who made shows memorable. While I love Big Bang Theory, I probably won’t remember Kaley Cuoco in 20 years. But I will never forget, that “Those were the daaaaaays!”
