OM DENNE EPISODE
*This week's show contains topics regarding eating disorders. Please be advised.* Our movie of the week for this episode is Kate's Secret, orignally released in 1986. Joining Sam in studio today is Margee Magee. She has been a TV writer since 2010, working in all formats (multi-cam, single cam, animation, hybrid,… even muppets!) on all platforms (network, cable, and streaming). She has been staffed on numerous series, and has also sold, developed, and produced original projects, as well as series adapted from I.P. Prior to her TV writing career, Margee received her BFA in Musical Theater from The University of Michigan and went on to brief stints as a Radio City Rockette, an End-of-Life Doula, and proprietor of a bakery called hello cupcake! Continuing along that super linear career path, Margee became a member of The Groundlings, where she still teaches and performs.
Kate's Secret (1986) is a made-for-TV drama that tackled eating disorders long before they were widely discussed. Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, produced by Stephanie Austin and Robert A. Papazian, written by Susan Seeger and Denise DeGarmo, with music by J. Peter Robinson, the film stars Meredith Baxter, Ben Masters, Edward Asner, Tracy Nelson, Shari Belafonte, Georgann Johnson, Leslie Bevis, and Mackenzie Phillips.
Kate appears to have the perfect suburban life, but she's secretly struggling with bulimia. As hiding her illness becomes harder, the cracks in her carefully crafted image begin to show, forcing her family to face a problem they've never seen coming. The film focuses on the emotional toll of the disorder and Kate's difficult journey toward recovery.
Filmed in Southern California, the movie used its suburban locations to reinforce the illusion of a picture-perfect family. Meredith Baxter's performance was widely praised, and the film was considered unusually honest for network television in the 1980s, helping bring attention to eating disorders years before they became common subjects in film and TV.
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Margee Magee's Instagram Margee Magee's dog's TikTok This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.
