Back to #2564 - Chuck Lorre, with Chuck Lorre.
What Did Fame Do to Brett Butler on Grace Under Fire?
Chuck Lorre said Grace Under Fire was in 1993, when there were only four channels and cable was not where people watched sitcoms. He put the number of famous people then at maybe a hundred. Brett Butler, on a show that was number two, became one of the most recognizable people in the world. The show was huge, and she was on every magazine. He said that pressure can be devastating for a person who is already struggling to keep it together. He thinks she fell apart after the show. He had heard she was homeless at one point, and he does not think she still is. He said he does not know whether the stories are true.
He said people wanted to love her and were rooting for her while the show was on. She was a spokeswoman for millions of women, and men loved her too, because she suffered no fools. On Grace Under Fire she worked in an oil refinery.