Ms. Brennan had a superlative career. I'll remember her best for two things: The role of "Mother" in the movie FM, which as you might guess is about radio. Her character was based on Raechel Donohue, whom I had the pleasure of working with in the early 90s.
She was also peripherally involved in something that caused a hornet's nest of a disturbance back in 1979.
Eileen Brennan was the star of a short-lived sitcom on ABC called "A New Kind of Family", which was about two single mothers renting a house with their individual off spring.
Shortly after the show's debut, a story about the show was featured in the L.A. Times' Sunday Calender magazine.
The show's co-creators and executive producers, Jane Eisner and Margie Gordon, were quoted as saying how hard it was for women to get accepted in Hollywood and television, and how hard it was for us two women to get started, and so on about "doing this for women".
Well, the article went on to mention, casually and practically in passing that the two women producers also happened to be wives of Paramount executives, including one Michael Eisner, and the nasty letters poured into the next week's letters section.
One woman wrote that she also had ideas for new show and had spent years unsuccessfully trying to get into anybody's office to pitch them. Other letters were angry and resentful of the nepotism.
A New Kind of Family jumped the shark quickly with some cast changes, and was gone soon after.
None of this was Ms. Brennan's fault. She just happened to be there.
