House Calls: Lynn Redgrave and Wayne Rogers - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

House Calls aired from December 1979 until September 1982 on CBS.

Dating someone with whom you work can create problems as Charley Michaels and Ann Anderson ( Wayne Rogers, Lynn Redgrave) learned. He was a surgeon at Kensington General Hospital in San Francisco, a good doctor but less than enthusiastic about conforming to hospital rules and regulations. She was the hospital's new administrative assistant , an English lady with a commitment to keeping the hospital running efficiently. They were romantically involved but often at odds when Charley's concern for his patients conflicted with Ann's concern for the business side of Kensington. Others in the cast were Norman Solomon ( Ray Buktenica), a neurotic young obstetrition; Amos Weatherby( David Wayne), the brilliant but absentminded ( some would say senile) chief of surgery; Ann's stuffy boss Conrad Peckler ( Mark L. Taylor); and Mrs Phipps ( Deedy Peters), a flighty hospital volunteer who provided patients with books, candy and other inexpensive odds and ends. Among the nurses was Head Nurse Bradley ( Aneta Corsaut), along with fellow nurses Sally Bowman ( Diane Lander), Nurse Nancy ( Beth Jacobs) and Shirley Brian ( Suzanne Hunt).

Lynn Redgrave appeared in the first 8 episodes of the 1981-1982 season during which Charley proposed to Ann ( all 8 programs were filmed before a 1981 writers strike). Redgrave then locked horns with House Calls producers. The principal dispute was about money, but a minor squabble eruped over Redgrave's desire to breast feed her baby on the set. In any event Redgrave was dropped from the show ( she showed up in another sitcom Teacher's Only later that season). In the series storyline Ann Anderson suddenly disappeared from Kensington General but sent the staff a letter indicating that she had returned to England and her former husband. Ann's replacement Jane Jeffries ( Sharon Gless) turned out to be one of Charley's former love interests. Conveniently , his relationship with Jane was not noticeably different than the one he had had with Ann.

Based on the motion picture starring Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson.

An Article from The New York Times

Notes on People; Lynn Redgrave Replaced in TV Series

By ALBIN KREBS AND ROBERT MCG. THOMAS
Published: September 18, 1981

A follow-up: In this season's most vocal dispute between a television show producer and a star of a hit series, Lynn Redgrave has been replaced by Sharon Gless in the CBS situation comedy ''House Calls.''

Miss Redgrave was dropped from the series in a dispute with Universal Television, which produces ''House Calls'' for the network.

The studio said it had released the actress from her contract at her request after Universal refused to help finance a production company Miss Redgrave was forming with her husband. Miss Redgrave maintained that the dispute centered on her right to breast-feed her infant daughter during working hours.

Her replacement, Miss Gless, has appeared in the mini-series ''The Last Convertible'' and in many other television roles.

Here is David Wayne's Obituary from The New York Times

David Wayne, Sprightly and Versatile Actor, Is Dead at 81

By THOMAS J. LUECK
Published: February 13, 1995

David Wayne, an actor who played widely divergent roles on Broadway, in television and in films for almost 50 years and who was the first recipient of a Tony Award for acting, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 81.

The cause was lung cancer, said his daughter Melinda.

Mr. Wayne navigated his sprightly 5-foot-7-inch frame through a half-century of turbulent changes in American acting. He portrayed, and won acclaim for, performances ranging from the precocious ensign in the 1948 stage version of "Mr. Roberts" to the Mad Hatter in the 1960's "Batman" series on television.

One of his most memorable performances was as a leprechaun in the 1947 stage version of "Finian's Rainbow," for which he was given the nation's first Tony Award for acting.

It was not his only Tony. Seven years later, he received another for his role as Sakini, a man from Okinawa trying to meld cultures, in "The Teahouse of the August Moon."

"David Wayne is an actor of more than one dimension," wrote Brooks Atkinson in a 1956 New York Times review of Mr. Wayne's performance as a character 20 years older than he was at the time, in "The Ponder Heart." "He can depart from realism into imaginative characterizations," Mr. Atkinson said.

Mr. Wayne, whose original name was Wayne McKeekan, was born on Jan. 30, 1914, in Traverse City, Mich. His father was an insurance executive. His mother died when he was 4 years old, and he was raised by close family friends.

After two years at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, he moved to Cleveland, taking work as a statistician. In 1936, he joined that city's Shakespearean repertory company, a troupe that also gave such actors as Arthur Kennedy and Sam Wanamaker their theatrical starts.

He moved to New York City in 1938, won a minor role the next year in "The American Way," and in 1941 married Jane Gordon, an actress. When World War II began he was rejected by the Army, but volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in North Africa with the American Field Service.

Mr. Wayne resumed his stage career soon after the war ended and quickly won critical praise. His Broadway performances included major roles in such plays as Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy" and Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions." He starred in the Broadway productions of "Say Darling" and "Send Me No Flowers" and received his third Tony nomination for "The Happy Time."

He lived in Manhattan during the 1950's and in Westport, Conn., in the 1960's. Despite his belief that the stage was where an actor truly exercised his craft, his growing interest in film and television lured him and his family to Los Angeles in 1977.

His movie credits include roles in "Portrait of Jennie" and "Adam's Rib" (1949), "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1952), "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953), "The Tender Trap" (1955), "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957), "The Last Angry Man" (1959), "The Front Page" (1974), "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (1975), "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) and "The Survivalist" (1987).

His work on television included the starring role in the 1955 series "Norby," a leading role in "The Good Life" (1971-72), the role of Inspector Richard Queen in "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" (1975-76), the part of Willard (Digger) Barnes in "Dallas" in 1978 and the role of Dr. Amos Weatherby in "House Calls" (1980-82). He was nominated for Emmy Awards for guest appearances in "Suspicion" and "Gunsmoke."

Mr. Wayne's wife died in 1993. He is survived by his twin daughters, Susan Kearney and Melinda, both of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and two grandchildren.

For more on House Calls go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Calls_(TV_series)

For The Real Story behind Lynn Redgrave's firing from House Calls go to http://www.johnclarkprose.com/cat-house-calls.html

For Lynn Redgrave's Official Home Page go to http://www.redgrave.com/