By Shaun Daily

Sharon Gless is best known for her portrayal of New York Police Detective Christine Cagney on the hit series Cagney & Lacey a role that garnered her two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and six Emmy nominations. Later, among many other roles, she played Hal Sparks overbearing mother, Debbie Novotney in Showtimes Queer As Folk.  Now Sharon has a role as the mother of Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) on USA’s hit Burn Notice. She recently stopped by TV Talk with ShaunOMac to discuss the show, and the complicated character she plays.

Shaun>  Hi Sharon, it’s an honor to talk to you!  I consider you the modern day Lucille Ball of Television!

Sharon>  Oh my God, that’s the nicest thing any body ever said to me.  I hope Lucy’s not rolling over in her grave to hear that one.

Shaun>  Really, every couple of years you show up on a TV show that I fall in love with.   When I mention Sharon Gless and ask people what’s the first thing that comes to mind, they usually say Cagney & Lacey or quality TV.  They say when she’s on something; you know it’s a good show.

Sharon>  Oh thank you.  What a nice reputation to have.

Shaun>  How do you feel about Burn Notice?  How does it compare to other things you’ve done?

Sharon>  Well, it’s very different.  For openers, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a show that got immediate numbers like this one did. It just attracted an audience.  It reaches from age 10 to age 80, and we were all just stunned even that first night.  And the numbers keep building  and building, and  now we knock out every cable show on every  network when were on.  It’s phenomenal.  I’m very proud to be on it.  It’s very different.  Do you know what a burn notice is?

Shaun>  Yes.

Sharon>  Where a spy gets fired?

Shaun>  Yes.  Now Madeline Westin, a lot of people think she’s crazy, or she’s crazy in love with her family.  How do you describe Madeline?

Sharon>  Well, I was going to say not crazy, maybe dumb as a fox.  She’s highly manipulative, and a chain smoker.  She loves her son and I don’t think there’s any doubt to that.  But it’s a very complicated character.  I think there were a lot of dark times with her and the boys and her husband, who doesn’t exist any more.  There may even have been abuse in the family.  That’s sort of the dark side.  But she’s a very strong woman, and very smart.  I think that’s where he got his moxie is from her.  But she’s manipulative.  She wants attention, and is somewhat of a hypochondriac.  But again, very bright and very funny.  My scenes with Jeffrey, we do have a good time.

Shaun>  Yeah, they are fantastic scenes.  You can tell towards the end that she either figured out what he was doing for a living, or knew all along.  She’s not stupid.  She’s crazy like a fox.

Sharon>  Yeah, dumb as a fox.  Right.  I wondered in the beginning.  I don’t think she knew specifically what he was doing, but she knew it was something that he couldn’t talk about.  I guess her first clue was she never heard from him.  He disappeared for 10 years and that’s how the show opened.  Then last season ended with them all having to be removed from town, the mother, and the brother.  The younger brother had to take me out of town because now they are threatening her life to get to Michael.  In the premiere though, you saw us all coming back and what happened.

Shaun>  Now a lot of people are asking, will there be a romance between Madeline and Sam?

Sharon>  Well, not yet.  But we do have a fun episode we shot.  Sometimes he has to baby sit my character, and just pretend like he’s coming over  for a few drinks, or in this particular case he was pretending that his heart was broken, and he didn’t want to be alone.  Madeline is sort of on to it, that she’s being babysat.  I don’t know if they’d do that.  I wanted to do a fun scene when he’s baby sitting me where she suggests they get ripped together. 

Shaun>  Now the humor on the show is amazing.  It doesn’t talk down to it’s audience.  It’s kind of an odd humor, do you agree?

Sharon>  Oh, absolutely.  I think I mentioned that the demographics of the show are age 10 to age 80.  It’s very, very smartly written.  The man that created it, Matt Nix, it’s his first time out.  And he hit pay dirt.  He’s a really smart guy.  It just seems to appeal to everybody.  I’m astounded by the phenomenon of this show, and it just kept building.  It’s not a one time flash in the pan thing. And now with 15 episodes, which USA has, is a really big number for cable.

Shaun>  Would you get along with Madeline if you met somewhere?

Sharon>  I think so.  I think Madeline is fun.  She’s probably a little lonely.  I know she’s got a poker game going now, because we do it on the show.  She has friends that come and play poker.  But her focus is on that son of hers, trying to get his attention and manipulate him for what he needs.  She’s not a Saint for sure. 

Shaun>  Especially in those early episodes where she tricked him into taking her to the hospital and did the whole sympathy act getting him to come over and take her somewhere. 

Sharon>  Right, “Just because they can’t find out what’s wrong with me doesn’t mean I’m not sick.”

Shaun>  And I’m glad they got rid of that wig.

Sharon>  I have to cop to that, that was my idea.  It didn’t work.  At the time, I thought it would be funny to have a woman who was obviously of a certain age, trying to look younger.  Not me, Sharon.  I wanted the character to look like she was trying to look younger by wearing a Barbie-doll wig.  The network was very nice, USA was terrific about it, and said, “Ok, let’s give it a shot.”  And then when it went to series they said, “Ok, I don’t think so, not so much.” 

Shaun>  Do you have any character that you’ve played previously that you’d like to come back to and take another shot at now?

Sharon>  Well, I hope we get to go back on Queer as Folk together, and just see where we are now.  They were just fascinating characters. 

Shaun>  If all the TV characters you’d played were in a room together, which one would walk out alive?

Sharon>  Well, if danger was involved, I suppose it would be Chris Cagney. 

Shaun>  But would they all get along? Is there a certain part of you in all of these characters?

Sharon>   No, I don’t think so.  I don’t think Chris Cagney would get along with Debbie Novotny.  I don’t think Cagney, I don’t mean she was politically intolerant; she just wasn’t very emotionally tolerant.  That’s what was fun about playing her was, she just was so flawed.  That’s a really good question.  For really good drama, it would be the person you lease expected, so I don’t know.  I don’t want any of them to go.  They stay alive in my heart. 

Shaun>  What do you think is the state of televison?

Sharon>  Well, I’m not into reality shows.  Are you a CBS station?

Shaun>  No, independent.

Sharon>  I don’t like reality shows, but I love what’s happening to cable.  I think cable’s doing a fantastic job, and there are lots and lots of shows that are featuring women which is fabulous.  With Cagney & Lacey, we thought this will really help, and it didn’t.  They never did try and duplicate Cagney & Lacey again, or anything like it.  They still haven’t tried to duplicate that format.  But I think television is doing some wonderful stuff now.  I don’t get the chance to watch it, but we get these screeners when you are a member of the academy.  So when I’m during hiatus, I save my screeners and pop them in and see what’s going on.

Shaun>  What’s one word you’d use to describe Madeline Westin?

Sharon>  Complicated.  Funny.  Yeah, sad, funny.