Sara Gilbert admits she misses “The Talk,” the show she created in 2010 and co-hosted for nine years before leaving in August.
She’s fine no longer broadcasting her opinions and views to millions of people each day, but on Thursday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket” she said, “I loved seeing those women every day and connecting with them, and the producers and the crew and staff. It was just such a great environment, such a friendly place to go every day. So I do miss that.”
Not that she hasn’t busy since leaving the program. The 45-year-old multi-hyphenate stars in and is producer of “The Conners,” the rebooted series formally known as “Roseanne” before Roseanne Barr was fired from the show in the wake of a racist tweet she posted about former Barack Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.
“I’m so grateful to the fans and the writers and the cast and producers and everybody for hanging in there, and like I said, the fans for continuing to watch because it was a big change,” Gilbert said. “We feel like the stories are important, telling the stories of the middle class is something that not a lot of people do, or not a lot of people do always accurately. Like, showing the true struggles, showing the power really being shut off or the possibility of losing your house. And so I think luckily people want to see the Conners kind of deal with those day to day struggles.”
And Gilbert is hoping to land Lisa Kudrow for a guest spot on the show, which was picked up for a third season in May. “She knows,” Gilbert said. “I’ve told her, so I’m making it my mission. She’s actually a big fan of the show, which means the world to me. I just think she’s such a comedic genius.”
Gilbert also recalled her first job starring in a Kool-Aid commercial when she was about five years old. “I had this hat, like this little navy hat with a feather in it. And I remember that as like my big statement piece,” she said. “And then the producers fell in love with the hat and I basically got the starring role of the commercial, but I had to sign a waiver thing saying that I wouldn’t wear the hat in anything else, like it was part of the contract.”
She added, “Thank God I wore that hat. Maybe I would have had no career at all.”
Hear the full interview with Gilbert above. You can also listen to “The Big Ticket” at iHeartRadio or wherever you download you favorite podcasts.
