Her parents, Bill and Lee Bell, created the landmark soaps
The Young and the Restless and
The Bold and the Beautiful – now Lauralee Bell is doing some creating of her own. The actress, a fan favorite who grew up playing
Y&R’s Cricket, has written and directed “Family Dinner,’ a comedy Web series premiering June 8 at
funnyordie.com and
familydinneronline.com. (A preview of the show is now available on the latter site).
Set entirely around a suburban dinner table, the series unfolds in three-minute installments and features Bell as a manic, attention-starved mom who’s desperate to be on Oprah. Show biz icon Phyllis Diller plays her senile mother-in-law. Aaron Lustig, an Emmy nominee as
Y&R shrink Tim Reid, is seen as Bell’s nebbishy husband and actor/former MTV host Dan Cortese appears as a reality-show producer who’s considering putting the family on TV. Add a sulky teen who won’t speak and a couple of mouthy grade-schoolers with attitude and you have a project Bell describes as “a little bit
Roseanne and
Arrested Development, only the writing is lamer.”
Bell says she’s aiming the Web series at younger viewers, though there are double entendres galore. “There are so many kids out there who never sit down for a family dinner – or, if they do, they think only
their family is dysfunctional,” she says. “Maybe they’ll watch this and see that
every family is a little nuts.”
Bell, who is producing the project with her husband Scott Martin, says landing Diller is “the dream of a lifetime. Phyllis and my mom have known each other for years, so my mom gave her the script. Suddenly, out of the blue, I get a call from this comedy legend and she says ‘I
have to play this grandma! Now, do you want me to wear the light-gray crazy wig or the dark-gray crazy one?’ It was so unbelievable, I thought I was being punk’d!”
Don’t assume Bell was raised in a household that valued closeness at dinner time. “Oh, hell no,” she says with a laugh. “Every night we ate on TV trays and watched
Wheel of Fortune.”