One Day at a Time

Valerie audioned for and Norman cast her the role of Barbara Cooper, the younger daughter of divorced mother Ms. (you must emphasize the Ms.!) Ann Romano, played by Bonnie Franklin, and older sister Julie, played by MacKenzie Phillips, who got her first break in the film "American Graffitti" that launched a dozen other actors' careers such a Cindy Williams and Suzanne Somers, but that's another story.

I wonder how popular One Day would have been if someone else was Barbara? Just think. Norman Lear continues to explain that Valerie was everything he was looking for in Barbara Cooper, this was a young woman whatever her tender young age who walked in and knew who she was, so when she said to Norman that she knows she can do this and she wants to do it, you had a great sense that she knew what she was talking about.

The TV show also starred Pat Harrington Jr. as the building super Dwayne Schneider, who wore his tool belt like a holster, and fancied himself an experienced man of the world. Julie was headstrong and rebellious while Valerie was well-behaved and popular.

"One Day at a Time" was the springboard for Valerie's success. A top-20 show for most of its 10 seasons, the series proved to be one of the most successful television shows of all time, with Valerie, who won two Golden Globes for the role as the shining star. Her popularity soared, but this was only the beginning.

The show not only made Valerie a star, it also made everyone in her family thrilled. Nancy says all of a sudden now with all the rejections of the times of the rejections and talking to her and trying to make her feel better for being turned down, that all had been worth it and just to see her family name on the TV screen made the family feel good.

Valerie remembers the rush being standing there at the door in the apartment waiting to go on for her very first line with "Mom, mom, I made the team", and she remembers sitting there and seeing that stage manager ready to cue Val in and her heart and she can see the audience out there because there was no thing over in the hallway so she can see the audience watching the show going on, and she opened the door and she does it and she remembers being so nervous and yet when she looks at the footage she thinks "that's not too bad."

Her brother Andrew Jr. moved out right about the time (1975) and he was up in Northern Michigan doing construction, and he called home to see what was going on and they told him about this that Valerie had gotten the part on the show. They said he gotta tune in to this show like such and such day at this time, so Andy didn't have a TV where he was living, so he went down to the local bar and he and a couple of other guys on the group were hanging out there drinking the beer and the show came on and they said "Wow! That's my sister on TV!" It actually got him a free round.

On May 7, 1978, Valerie guested on "The Hardy Boys" half of the "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" as Wendy/Gwen, who was I guess a schitzo or something. It was in the episode "The Campus Terror." I don't rememeber, I just remember the Wendy/Gwen name.