The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 151

TV Graphic Cover Giini UteiiDD's TO eitrFDcages rJHoue Fromm FdcOdodh Fcacfl By Barbara Holsopple Press TV-Radio Editor FRAN BRILL has a quick answer for those skeptics who put down soap operas. "Most people's real lives often are more horrible and messed up," contends the woman who had a relatively calm life on "How to Survive a Marriage" until widowhood (and more recently, cancellation) struck. Almost as if to prove her point about real lives. Miss Brill stars as Rachel Jackson in "First Ladies' Diaries" Friday at 1:30 p.m. on Channels 6, 7 and 11.

The NBC drama about the wife of the seventh president of the United States co-stars Gerald Gor don of "The Doctors" as Andrew Jackson. It is the first in a series of biographical histories about America's first ladies. The premiere drama focuses on the controversy of Rachel Jackson's stormy first marriage and the label of adulteress she bore throughout her second marriage. "At the time of her marriage to Andrew, she was unaware that her first marriage had not been legally dissolved," Miss Brill explains. "The reputation of adultery followed her for the rest of her life." In the early 1800s, divorce alone was rather disgraceful.

According to Fran Brill's research, the public had been married for 1 7 years, and had two kids." The "marriage" was an enjoyable part of her role, until actor Allan Miller elected to leave the show last June. "We were cast in heaven, we played so well together. And we were funny, which is nice, because on daytime TV everything is so heavy. "When Allan decided to leave the show, because of family duties, it was decided to make me a widow rather than recast the role. "For two weeks I played beautifully written death scenes," the actress recalls.

"For a while it looked like we would be doing some new things in daytime TV looking at a woman who has no professional identity to fall back on, who can't cope with bank balances, Social Security, insurance a woman who knew only about things inside the home and nothing about what happens outside the home." In the last few months, however, the series story line changed "and image she was forced to bear drastically changed the personality of Rachel Robards Jackson. "As a young woman, she was beautiful, vivacious, bright. She was one of 1 1 children in a Southern family. "But her upbringing was unusual in that her father educated all his children, so she could read and write uncommon skills for women in those days," Miss Brill notes. Married at 18 to Capt.

Louis Robards, Rachel was thrown out of her own home and later accused of having an affair with Andrew Jackson. "When she was publicly called an adulteress, she became quiet, passive, almost a recluse," the actress says. "She was married to Jackson for 31 years, but she died of a heart attack shortly after he was elected president. She was buried in the dress she was to wear to the inauguration." In Friday's drama, Miss Brill goes from 22 to 61 years of age. That kind of on-stage aging is an actress' dream, and Fran Brill prepared carefully.

"To help me know how she thought, I read several books about her and about the era books like 'Women's Life in Colonial I visited museums to look at portraits of the time, for facial expressions." Miss Brill admits that "my favorite stuff to do in the whole world are historical restorations." A native of Swarthmore, Fran Brill is a graduate of Boston University's School of Fine Arts. Her extensive professional credits include over 80 stage and screen musicals, comedies, classical productions and satirical revues. She made her Broadway debut in 1969 in "Red, White and Maddox." Her movie credits include "The Owl and the Pussycat," a Barbra Streisand-George Segal film. She has played opposite Leonard Nimoy in "Fiddler on the Roof" in summer stock. "How to Survive a which has its final episode on NBC Thursday afternoon, was Miss Brill's first soap opera.

She enjoyed her role as Fran Bachman. "She was your basic, unliberated woman who was married young, I fat WT- I li fJ 'I 1 V. 'R ft J. I I Gerald Gordon, who plays Dr. Nick Bellini in "The Doctors," has been cast as Andrew Jackson.

nothing much happened" to the character of Fran Bachman. A time change last January helped speed the death of "How to Survive a Marriage." Miss Brill sees her role as Rachel Jackson as a preview of the variety to come. Meanwhile, she can be heard as the only female muppet on "Sesame Street." That work last year won her an Emmy for "outstanding individual achievement in children's programming." Fran Brill stars as Rachel Jackson, wife of the seventh U. S. president, in "First Ladies' Diaries" Friday from 1 :30 to 3 p.m.

on Channels 6, 7 and 1 1 4 TV THE PITTSBURGH PRESS, APRIl 13, 1975.