E10 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022
TELEVISIONRON TOM/NBC/GETTY IMAGES 20TH CENTURY FOX/EVERETT COLLECTIONThere’s just some s--- I don’t want
to relive.”Adlon started acting at 9. Her
father, Don Segall, grew up
in Boston and worked in
both New York and Los Angeles as
a kind of entertainment business
journeyman, writing comic
books, producing a morning TV
show and penning episodes for
“The Love Boat” and “Chico and
the Man.” While in the Army, he
met his future wife, British-born
Marina Leece, at a USO event in
Paris. Their 30-year marriage pro-
duced two children: Pamela and
Gregory.
At Beverly Hills High School,
Pam Segall stood out in a student
body that included musician Len-
ny Kravitz, future Guns N’ Roses
guitarist Slash and actor Nicolas
Cage.
“She was very much like she is
today,” says Kravitz, who was a
guest star on Season 1 of “Better
Things.” “Quick wit, smart and
didn’t give a s--- about fitting in. I
had a big crush on her.”
Her movie debut came as pink
lady wannabe Dolores Rebchuck
in 1982’s “Grease 2,” and she spent
a season playing bad girl Kelly
Affinado on the NBC sitcom “The
Facts of Life” (for reasons un-
known to her, she wasn’t asked
back). Somewhere in there, Adlon
got a camera and, with a friend,
made a documentary about the
homeless called “Street Sweep.”
There was a stint at Sarah Law-
rence College and then a succes-
sion of bit parts, from Lloyd’s
turtlenecked friend in 1989’s “Say
Anything” to Sgt. Raquel Barbella
in Steve Martin’s 1996 movie “Sgt.
Bilko.”
Also in 1996, she married Felix
Adlon, a German film screenwrit-
er whom she would divorce in- Eventually, it was Adlon’s
expressive voice, which can range
from husky and thick to twangy
and almost childlike, that got her
a steady gig: In 1997, she began
her run on “King of the Hill.”
“She was always one of the
funniest people in person that
I’ve ever met and the most foul-
mouthed people I’ve ever met,”
says Judge, who co-created the
show with Greg Daniels. “And
yeah, I thought, why isn’t she just
a huge comedy star? I mean, she
always worked, but I thought
what she was getting wasn’t quite
in the pocket for how talented she
is.”
But the industry Adlon grew up
in did not embrace ambitious
women. This was well before
Lena Dunham created “Girls” or
Issa Rae launched “Insecure.”
(Dunham and Rae are 20 and
18 years younger than Adlon, re-
spectively.) In that sexist uni-
verse, when casting directors
SEE ADLON ON E11
The oof is the coping reflex of
survival and it is there to buffer
viewers as we “walk the hairy
edge,” as Adlon describes it, of her
creation. “Better Things” is about
yelling so hard you begin to laugh
and then everybody’s somehow
laughing and you forget what you
were yelling about. That is how
you make the most honest family
sitcom on television.
“Sometimes, I look at my show,
look at the script, stand on the set
and I’m like, ‘Wait a second; we’re
not doing that,’ ” she says. “This is
not a f---ing Nickelodeon show.
This is ‘Better Things.’ We talk
about uncomfortable s---, we say
things that are like, shocking or
whatever, because we need to
figure it out.”
Sharon Stone, a fan of “Better
Things” who ended up doing a
guest spot during Season 3, says
that “every mother has to see that
show.”
“We’re all battling to keep our
head above water,” she says, “and
I think her show makes us feel
like someone understands what
it’s like.”
If Adlon’s show is not her life,
it’s at least close enough to sniff
the origins. Adlon and Sam are
both unpleasantly divorced sin-
gle parents to three girls. They
have British mothers who live
next door and lost their fathers,
men who scuffled through ca-
reers in the business, when they
were young. Adlon found success
as a voice actor, doing Bobby for
13 seasons alongside Mike Judge’s
Hank on the animated sitcom
“King of the Hill.” Sam also de-
pends on her voice. In one epi-
sode, she is called to reprise her
role on an animated show called
“Ching of the Mill.” Judge does a
cameo as the show’s producer.
“I’d say the reason the show
feels so authentic is that it is,” says
actor Kevin Pollak, who plays
Fox’s brother, Marion.
This blurring of reality and
fiction can be a point of conten-
tion with Adlon’s real daughters,
Gideon, 24; Odessa, 21; and
Rocky, 18. They have watched as
their lives, whether an awkward
graduation or a friend whose
mother allowed them to smoke
pot, are adapted for TV by on-
camera daughters Max (Mikey
Madison), Frankie (Hannah Riley,
formerly Hannah Alligood) and
Duke (Olivia Edward).
“As an artist, I get that and
that’s why I’m not angry,” says
Gideon, who is an actress. “And
that’s why I’m happy that this
show exists, because it’s such an
honest portrayal of a family. But
within that, of course, we’ve all
been a little bit hurt. I think I’m
the only one of my sisters that
hasn’t watched fully every season.
ADLON FROM E1
Adlon’s ‘Better Things’ magic i s in the oof momentSUZANNE TENNER/FXSUSIE BALABANFrom top left: Pamela Adlon as Kelly Affinado in NBC’s ’80s show “The Facts of Life,” with M indy Cohn as Natalie
Green and Kim Fields as Dorothy “Tootie” Ramsey. On “King of the Hill,” Adlon voiced Bobby Hill, right, for 13
years; Mike Judge, the show’s co-creator, played Hank Hill. Olivia Edward as Duke, Adlon as Sam Fox and Hannah
Riley as Frankie in “Better Things.” Adlon with her daughters, from left, Odessa, Gideon and baby Rocky, in 2003.